The second season of the KTM Cup recently wrapped up at Coimbatore’s Kari Motor Speedway, with Rahil Pillari Shetty, Ann Jennifer and Adam Feroz Backer taking the top honours. This year, the series expanded to three categories – Pro, Women and Amateur – and saw participation from over 900 KTM owners across the country.
As winners of this season, Shetty, Jennifer and Backer will participate in the KTM Academy of Speed track day in Austria later this year. They’ll also get to train with KTM Pro instructors as well as former MotoGP race winners at the event.
- 2024 KTM Cup expanded to three categories – Pro, Women and Amateur
- Winners will get to participate in KTM Academy of Speed track day
KTM Cup format
The KTM Cup was divided into three stages this year and all participants competed on the stock KTM RC 390 GP. Initially, selection rounds were held in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Coimbatore. Over 860 racers participated in these selection rounds, and around 200 of them were women.
The top 66 participants progressed to the qualifier stage, where they were joined by 36 pro riders. The pro category was open to anyone who finished in the top 20 at the end of last year’s KTM Cup or those who competed in the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (INMRC) or any other FMSCI-accredited one-make championship in the past three years.
Seven-time Indian National Motorcycle Racing champion Emmanuel Jebaraj and KTM Cup Race director (and ex-MotoGP racer) Jeremy McWilliams were present at the selection and qualifier rounds to train all participants. From these, the 15 top riders from each category qualified for the finale at the Kari Motor Speedway.
2024 KTM Cup winners
Rahil Pillari Shetty won in the Pro category, ahead of Abhishek Vasudev and Kayan Zubin Patel. Ann Jennifer topped the Women category, with Lani Jena Fernandez finishing second and Tanisha Sanjay Arora finishing third.
And finally, the Amateur category was won by Adam Feroz Backer. Mohd Yosuf took second place, followed by Shashanka Sharma.
"Every nation across the world should have such a grassroot level program for racing like the KTM Cup India. It is good to see India introducing the women category to the KTM Cup; I have seen such efforts from the USA and other European countries," said KTM Cup Race director Jeremy McWilliams.
"The feedback from the riders and their progression has been truly outstanding and at international standards. Jeba ( Emmanuel Jebaraj) and his team have worked hard to up the standards and got a good base setting for the riders now. The KTM Cup is delivering exactly what it set out to do for two consecutive seasons now and I am already looking forward to Season 3."
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Feature: KTM RC Cup Media Race – Orange Alert