KTM pulls out of Dakar Rally

In a major bombshell, KTM has announced its immediate withdrawal from the Dakar Rally, following the imposition of a new 450cc capacity limit from 2010.

The new rule was announced by the French organiser on Wednesday, along with news that the rally will return to South America for a second successive year, to again be co-hosted by Chile and Argentina.

But there won't be an official presence from KTM, which hasn't been defeated in the Dakar Rally since 2001 with machines such as the 690 Rally, LC4 660 and LC8 950.

Spain's Marc Coma won the 2009 Dakar Rally on a 690 Rally.

KTM will still remain in the rally scene, but will now concentrate its efforts on the world championship and other big stand alone events.

"Every sport regulation needs changes and adjustments to new developments to retain an interest in it, but this also require the appropriate lead times," said KTM Motorsport Advisor Heinz Kinigadner. "We have the entire material for the 690 Rally motorcycles for our factory team as well as that for 50 customers' motorcycles in our storage facility ready to be constructed in June.

"Riders' contracts have been finalised and all the team members have been engaged. The financial consequences that results from this decision are enormous. Quite apart from this, we are shocked by the organiser's lack of loyalty, above all because of the huge efforts we made following the cancellation of the Dakar in 2008 by contributing to the new edition - even during a period of extreme economic crisis."

The 2010 Dakar, which will be the 32nd instalment of the famous rally, will run from January 2-16, with about 5200km of special tests in the 8600km anti-clockwise journey.

It will again start and finish in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, but there will be more stages in Chile, based around the Atacama Desert.

For more information on the grueling event, click here.