Hard Enduro Racing is Not Dead as New Partnership is Created
The Hard Enduro World Championship was recently cancelled, but a revival of sorts is coming soon
For those unaware of the recent off-road racing disaster, the Hard Enduro World Championship, which was primarily tied to KTM, was cancelled for 2025 at the beginning of March. However, signs of life through two individual races have provided some much-needed momentum for the off-road racing scene.
No, the series previously known as the Hard Enduro World Championship is not coming back just yet, but an agreement between Red Bull Romaniacs and Red Bull Erzbergrodeo means off-road racing fans will have something to support.
To sum it up, KTM’s recent financial issues caused the Hard Enduro World Championship to look for funding to run the championship, as the Austrian company was the main sponsor for the series. But with its own future in the balance, KTM subsequently decided to pull its funding which left the off-road championship in a race against time to find the funds it required to go racing in 2025, which it did not.
That leads us to the Romaniacs and Erzbergrodeo races, which are nothing new, but to those of you unfamiliar with them, they are hard enduro races held over a couple of days and across multiple stages.
The races are rallies that go through some of the toughest terrain such as tight single-track log crossings over rivers, deep mud puddles that look like the depths of hell, and steep uphill tracks with loose surfaces. It’s just about as hardcore as enduro riding gets - hence the name.
The two races are now teaming up to create one of the most daunting and hardest rally races ever and as such will have a new banner to compete under, which is the Extreme Enduro Rally and Extreme Enduro Championship.
Discussing the new venture, Red Bull Romaniacs race Director Martin Freinademetz added: “Now that the FIM championship series has been discontinued, we have teamed up with Red Bull Erzbergrodeo organiser Karl Katoch and industry leaders to fill this gap. We want to offer an alternative, independent award for the athletes that will allow the sport to continue to thrive and evolve with new awards for the Extreme Enduro Rally and the Extreme Enduro World Championship 2025.”
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After graduating with a sports journalism degree, Robert joined Crash.net to lead the WorldSBK coverage in 2021, while also providing MotoGP coverage. Fulfilling that role for over three years, Robert was able to put his knowledge about all things racing to the test.
