Max Vohland's Red Bull KTM Contract Is Through 2023
Red Bull KTM introduced new signee Max Vohland last week during its 2021 KTM team intro at the North American headquarters in California. As expected, Cooper Webb and Marvin Musquin returned to the team in the 450 Class and Vohland was introduced as the solo 250 rider.
The son of former pro racer Tallon Vohland, Max has been making a gradual progression through the amateur ranks. Now, after competing on a 125cc bike for about a year (including several rounds of Supercross Futures, some time in Europe, and two 125cc titles at the 2020 AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn's Ranch), Max has signed to make his pro debut in a few months. At the 2021 KTM team intro, Vohland said he has only been on the 250 SX-F for about a month-and-a-half. He is currently making his 250F debut at the 2020 Mini O's (which you can watch live on RacerTV.com). His pro deal and coming supercross debut seemed to come as a shock to some in the industry—not because of his skills but because of the gradual process that has appeared to have escalated quickly. The California native will make his pro debut in 2021, when he competes aboard a Red Bull KTM 250 SX-F in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship and the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship.
In an interview with our Jason Weigandt, Vohland admitted to signing with the team through 2023—which was not announced to the public when the team stated Vohland would join the team. Vohland said the following to Weigandt:
“The plan was to turn pro outdoors in 2021. But with GasGas coming in and a couple of things switching up, KTM didn’t have a 250 guy, and Roger [De Coster] and Ian [Harrison] said I was their first pick. They gave us an option and said if we weren’t comfortable doing supercross the first year—because a lot of rookies come in and get hurt doing supercross—to just let them know and they would find another guy for supercross. But we weren’t going to give up an offer like that. We ended up getting an extension of one extra year, through 2023, so it’s not such a risk this first year. No pressure. Got lucky with all of it, but I’m excited about it.”
Tallon, who joined into the interview, also commented on the extra year on Max’s deal:
“Well, we would have liked it [more time], but with the changes with GasGas coming in this opportunity came up. You know how I’ve been—and I’ve seen people already saying, ‘Hey you guys said you were taking the slow road and now you’re racing supercross.’ We intended to take the slow road. We were thinking of maybe just starting with outdoors, but with this opportunity, you have to do supercross. So we ended up asking for an extra year on our deal. We know the risk is high going into something like this, but now he has three years, so I think we’ll be okay.”
Read the full interview with Max and Tallon.
Ian Harrison, team manager for the Red Bull KTM team, said the following when Vohland was introduced to the team:
“Max has had a long and successful journey as an amateur with KTM and we are happy to be involved in the start of his young career. I met him years ago and have seen his progress through the amateur ranks – he is young but has a lot of potential. Time will tell how he manages the ups and downs of professional racing and we will be here to help support him in every way we can. Our goal is to have Max and KTM up front.”
You can check out the video below to see Vohland spinning laps at the KTM test track during the 2021 team intro:
