After three years of riding a KTM 450 for Nomade Racing Assistance, Mathieu Dovèze has joined up with the top KTM programme for Rally2 riders as he announced Friday that he will race for BAS World KTM Racing Team. Besides testing, he intends to run the 2023 Rallye du Maroc before entering the 2024 Dakar Rally.
In an interview with Moto Verte, Dovèze revealed the opportunity arose after meeting team manager Bart Van der Valden while training. While the team will provide him with KTM factory backing and more basic needs that are to be expected out of a more sophisticated outfit, the burden is still on him to find more backing to cover as many expenses as possible.
“I will no longer have to sleep in a tent; I will be in a truck on the Dakar,” Dovèze stated. “The team benefits from factory support from KTM, so we will have good suspensions and a good bike. We will also have good information from KTM on the competition. I haven’t tried the bike yet but I have 100% confidence in the team. We have seen what they were capable of doing in the past.
“I’m continuing to find partners while working with the current ones to finance my Dakar. Unlike in previous years, I started at the end of this year’s Dakar to get ready for training and all the preparation as much as possible. It’s a monstrous job with the partners and I wanted everything to be completed as soon as possible to devote myself to myself. I hope I now have all the tools and the right people to get there.”
Hailing from an enduro background, Dovèze made his Dakar début in 2021 for Nomade. His third attempt in January saw his best overall finish as he finished seventh with a runner-up in Stage #6.
Besides Morocco and Dakar, he also plans to run a to-be-announced round of the FIM Bajas World Cup and the Aveyronnaise Classic in August.
“After three years with Nomade Racing, with whom things went very well, I needed additional motivation,” he concluded. “It’s a real revival with a new team, new people. I like meeting new people and discovering new things. I need to learn from the people around me. This is therefore a new motivation for the future. I try to put everything on the right side to achieve something.”
BAS World fields a bike in the top-level RallyGP category for Mason Klein, while Doveze’s new team-mates in Rally2 include Bradley Cox and current World Rally-Raid Championship class points leader Paolo Lucci.
