← Motorcycle info
← Back to the world calendar | HEWC vs HEWR | 日本語

Riders & teams

How team names work, and who to watch — starting with hard enduro

A results sheet full of names like “Red Bull KTM Factory Racing” looks like alphabet soup at first. But there are only three parts, always in the same order: [title sponsor] + [manufacturer] + Factory Racing. This page decodes the naming and the rider tiers first, then introduces the riders themselves.

Decoding a team name — three parts

Team nameTitle sponsorManufacturerWorks marker
Red Bull KTM Factory RacingRed Bull (drinks)KTMFactory Racing
FMF KTM Factory RacingFMF (exhausts)KTMFactory Racing
Husqvarna Factory Racing(none)HusqvarnaFactory Racing

The manufacturer's name is there because the team belongs to the manufacturer — a factory (works) team. The bike maker runs the team itself to prove its machines can win the toughest races on earth, covering salaries, mechanics, travel and special-spec bikes. Racing is the shop window. The title sponsor pays for the front of the name, and “Factory Racing” is the badge that says “this is the works outfit.”

This composition is an industry convention rather than a rule — some team names don't follow it.

Three tiers of rider

TierWhat it means2026 examples
Factory rider Direct manufacturer contract: salary, bikes, mechanics, all expenses covered Lettenbichler (Red Bull KTM), Bolt (Husqvarna)
Satellite
(factory-supported)		 Independent team with manufacturer backing — bikes and parts support; named after its own sponsor plus the brand X-Grip Racing (the Brightmore brothers, on GasGas)
Privateer Self-funded: buys the bike, pays the entries, relies on personal sponsors Many — and they regularly finish well

A hard enduro quirk worth knowing: a near-stock 300cc two-stroke is already competitive here, so the machinery gap is small and privateers beat factory bikes all the time. This is not motocross, where a works bike is half the battle.

There is an in-between case too. In 2026 Mario Roman left Sherco after nine factory years and founded his own team, MR74 Racing, riding a Husqvarna — a rider who is also the team owner.

The confusing part — KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas are one company

The three brands belong to one Austrian group (formerly Pierer Mobility; after a financial restructuring it became Bajaj Mobility AG in January 2026, majority-owned by India's Bajaj). The technology under the plastics is largely shared, but each brand runs its own separately named race team as a marketing vehicle — so “the KTM team,” “the Husqvarna team” and “the GASGAS team” look like rivals while sharing a parent.

And Red Bull shows up on both sides of the sport: in team names (Red Bull KTM) and in event names (Red Bull Erzbergrodeo). In a niche sport with little TV money, energy-drink sponsorship is the biggest outside funding source, and Red Bull's strategy covers the athletes, the event naming rights and the broadcast (Red Bull TV) in one loop.

Why everyone rides a 300cc two-stroke

The standard weapon is a ~300cc two-stroke enduro bike — KTM 300 EXC, Husqvarna TE 300, Sherco 300 SE, Rieju MR 300. Light (around 106 kg), with the low-rev torque to crawl up rock faces, and mechanically simple. KTM even sells a dedicated production model called the 300 EXC HARDENDURO.

Change is coming, though: electric bikes (Stark among them) cracked the Erzbergrodeo top ten in 2026 — the first dent in two-stroke dominance.

The three names to learn first

More riders worth knowing

Ages as of August 2026. Standings are as of HEWC round 3 (Silver Kings) and move with every round. Where a birth date or team could not be verified, we say so.

Sources

What you find here are the facts about each rider and team, organised by us. We do not reproduce article text. Follow the sources above for the full reporting.

This page covers hard enduro. Riders and teams from enduro (EnduroGP) and rally raid (the W2RC) will be added here in due course.