JACKASS GETS THE LAST LAUGH IN MOTOGP
Larrikin Aussie MotoGP ace Jack 'Jackass' Miller could have the last laugh after being unceremoniously shown the exit door from the factory Red Bull KTM team at the end of last year.
The four-times MotoGP winner endured a tough, character building season and finished a lowly 14th in the '24 championship and was informed by KTM to put his pen back in his pocket as there was no new contract to sign.
But, right about now, the 29-year-old veteran of 176 grands prix probably has every reason to smile and thank the fates for a lifeline that will see him racing for the Pramac Yamaha team in 2025 while his old employer, KTM, is in more trouble than the early settlers.
Signing with the privateer Yamaha team probably saw Miller take a significant cut in his $4.75 million yearly earn at KTM, possibly by half, but some money in the bank is better than what he’d get by applying for Jobseeker benefits at Centrelink back home in Townsville.
And he says he is not ready to quit.
"I've got unfinished business in MotoGP," says the man also known as 'Thriller'.
Miller has been welcomed into the Yamaha family, which is working hard to rebuild its competitiveness and results in MotoGP.
“With 10 years of experience in the MotoGP class, with three different manufacturers, Jack will be a valuable asset for Yamaha," says Yamaha MotoGP boss Lin Jarvis.
“Yamaha will be supporting him in every way they can. His speed, knowledge, work ethic, and team spirit will be invaluable to our project as we plan to improve the performance of the M1 in 2025 and beyond."
While Miller will line up on the grid for the opening race of the ‘25 season in Thailand (Feb 28-Mar 2) on his brand spanking new Pramac Yamaha M1m, the guys that cut him loose from KTM may be nowhere to be seen.
Bit of delicious irony there don’t you think?
The reason? The legendary motorcycle manufacturer recently declared bankruptcy with debts totally an eye-watering $4.8 billion and a backlog of unsold bikes across the globe.
How many unsold bikes you ask? How about 265,000 two wheelers that the punters are ignoring. That’s a year’s worth of sales for KTM.
Not, surprisingly this has KTM on the verge of going belly-up and there’s currently a flurry of creditor court hearings and ambitious plans for restructuring and new investors coming in to save the day.
The creditors are now putting on the pressure for the company to withdraw from MotoGP (and Moto2 and Motor3 for good measure) because the program sees big dollars going out and not much coming back in.
After a recent meeting between KTM and its creditors, the latter issued a statement saying that a withdawal from MotoGP is “planned to save costs”.
Well that makes sense, you’d think. When you’ve lost billions of dollars, have a year’s worth of stock sitting around and losing value by the hour, and are laying off employees by the hundreds, it makes common sense to ditch a hugely expensive world motor racing program.
But what? Wait just a damn minute, said KTM in a competing media release.
“Today marks an important day for KTM with the confirmation of our restructuring proceedings. This milestone secures our plan moving forward, and we are proud to confirm that motorsport remains an integral part of this restructuring plan,” said KTM.
“KTM stands firmly committed to motorsport. We repeat our statement for 2025: we will continue to race in MotoGP!”
So you have to wonder how KTM’s factory riders for the upcoming season, the phenomenally-talented youngster Pedro Acosta and the solid-as-a-rock Brad Binder, are sleeping these days.
At least one, reportedly Acosta, has sent his management team to quietly chat with other teams including Ducati.
Despite KTM’s bullish announcement that its MotoGP future is secure and separate from the financial woes of head office, the word is that development work on the 2025 racer, the RC16, has been halted although testing continues.
The race team says it has a budget in place for the upcoming year but that likely means what it has now may be all that it has for the full season.
Plus there’s the fact that KTM has a contract with MotoGP promoter Dorna to have bikes on the grid or possibly face a hefty financial penalty for not showing up.
Still, when you’re so far down the financial hole, does digging an extra metre or so add much more pain to the torture that KTM is already facing.
