KTM's Race Leader

The Pit Bull

Pit Beirer might be the Motorsport Director for KTM racing now and has to control the program of the KTM MotoGP effort and most of the off-road challenges, such as MXGP, MX2, Rally and so much more, but a long time ago, more than 20 years in fact, he was one of the toughest motocross riders in the World. When you talk old school, you are talking “The Pitbull”.

He competed in the Motocross World Championships from 1989 to 2003 and was one of the top competitors in the FIM 250cc World Championships riding for Honda and Kawasaki. He finished third in the 250-world championship in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2002.

He finished second to Frédéric Bolley in the 1999 250cc motocross world championship. Beirer signed with KTM in 2002, but in 2003, he crashed during the Bulgarian Grand Prix and suffered spinal injuries that left him paralyzed and ended his riding career.

It was a huge blow for the motocross paddock, as Beirer was a popular figure between the riders, teams and media. Entering this weeks German Grand Prix, we thought it might be nice to have a small feature on one of the best German riders in the sports history. He spoke to MotoGP in a cool interview and below is what he told them.

“There was one moment when I won in 1991, I won as an up-and-coming kid, the German MX GP. To win a motocross Grand Prix in your own country and hear that national anthem at the end of the day - the emotions there you cannot describe. You want to laugh, cry, hug the whole world. Winning a GP, especially a home GP, that’s something outstanding which will always follow you forever. I had a couple of GP wins, another big one in Germany a few years later - these wins in your home country are so special. But also, I think two or three races where I dominated the Motocross of Nations, the only time of year you can meet all the guys from the USA, together with the Europeans.”

“There I had a clear 1-1 in 1997 in Belgium, so you see these dates come still and the name of the venue still, but you forget many of the others. But of course, there are some special races and since I wasn’t a multi-time champion and winner, the home GP wins are very special. I mean, I had German championships, I even had a Swiss championship, I was always moving around to teams which I thought were best to win championships. I was always ready to leave home and be somewhere alone in the country, where I thought I had the best possibilities. But all these things were nothing compared to winning a GP. That’s still something very special. I always still feel so emotional on the Sunday afternoon when you see the guys on the podium. They achieve something special, and this is something quite nice.”

Reprint fro MXLarge.com