Bivši šampion 125 i 250 klase Manuel Poggiali će da malo učini stvari interesantnijim u klasi 250 time što će da vozi KTM u 2006-oj.
Poggiali bi trebao imati svoju prvu testnu vožnjicu na narandžastoj mašineriji za par sedmica zajedno sa svojim timom Hiroshi Aoyama koji će da razvije 250cc KTM-a pod budnim okom Harald Bartol, koji je najzaslužniji za prvu titulu u 125cc clasi, pod Gilera bojama u 2001....

pa kaže:

“I haven't had the chance to ride the new bike yet, but I should test in Spain, at the Almeria circuit, in early December,” said Poggiali. “Of course, it's still early to talk about this new project with KTM, but I already know most of the team as I previously worked with them, so I'm quite confident anyway.”

“I never worked with Hiroshi Aoyama, but I hope we can do a great job working on the development of the bike. That will be the main thing, we'll have to focus on the development of the machine to make it competitive as soon as possible.”

“Of course my previous experience in the 250cc will be some kind of reference point, but I don't think too much about that. Working on this new bike, it's like starting from a blank sheet.”

“I feel pretty fit and the fact of moving back to the 250cc shouldn't be a problem in terms of fitness,” he continued. “I enjoyed a brief holiday right after the last race in Valencia and after we do some testing in December, I'll stay at home to get ready for January. That's when the pre-season will begin to be serious for us - in fact, that's when the season starts for us: from then, there will be no or little break until November!”