KTM’s recent financial woes force Hard Enduro World Championship series promoters WESS Promotion GmbH into liquidation.

The ripple effect of KTM AG going into a period of self-administration has reached the organisation behind the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship, WESS Promotion GmbH, with the Austrian company announcing they have gone into liquidation. This might not be the last ripple effect we see out of this in enduro.

WESS Promotion GmbH, headed up by Winfried Kerschhaggl, created the original WESS championship back in 2018 which subsequently transitioned into the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship.

WESS relied on financial backing from different sources with Red Bull and KTM being major players – just as they are with individual events like Erzbergrodeo.

With Red Bull scaling back their support for the 2024 HEWC season, the last thing WESS needed was KTM to pull out and it seems that has been the last straw.

All events, series’ and teams who previously have relied heavily on KTM’s backing must already be thinking the road ahead may look different in 2025.

It’s not the end of the HEWC

In a message sent out to Hard Enduro World Championship riders, WESS lays the facts bare: “KTM’s recent decision to withdraw its support for the Hard Enduro World Championship has had a significant impact on our organization and the championship as a whole.”

“Next season under a different framework?”

The result is stark with WESS Promotion GmbH now forced to undergo liquidation but they are clear in wanting to assure riders “this does not mark the end of the Hard Enduro World Championship”.

The message continues: The current team, under the leadership of Winfried Kerschhaggl and Ricardo Mitterer, is fully committed to ensuring the continuation of the series and is actively working to organise the promotion of the championship for the next season under a different framework.

Over the past weeks, we have held constructive discussions with event organisers and the FIM regarding this matter. These conversations have been extremely positive, and from today’s perspective, the 2025 season should be able to take place as planned. If changes are necessary, they will primarily affect the overseas races.

What does this mean?

For many the easiest of step has always been to make for the series inside Europe. We think to get more riders competing the full championship means cutting out the races outside Europe. Chiefly that’s because the big events thriving don’t need the world championship and many get stifled when the FIM arrives in town.

Making it international and heading to countries outside of Europe has serially failed in other enduro world championships too, largely due to cost but often rider numbers. It made no sense that the HEWC thought it could overcome that barrier and be the only one.

The bare facts are the biggest hard enduro events like Erzberg and Romaniacs are as international as any sport on planet earth and will be so whether they are involved in the world championship, KTM, Red Bull or anything else.

Strong opinions

We know there are strong opinions around this from our readers, we heard them right from the start of WESS: KTM’s heavy involvement all along, the majority of riders not able to compete the full season, breakaway series’ being formed, differing race formats across the series making for confusion outside the sport and more.

Maybe now is the time for the FIM to take over, steer HEWC onto the track it should have been on all along?

Mario Roman has some strong opinions on that here: “We need a championship where all races are the same format” – Mario Roman

Further details and potential changes to the HEWC calendar are expected in January 2025.

 

Photo Credit: Future7Media