Rally champ Kalle Rovanpera unveils new enduro team

Kalle Rovanpera, twice a World Rally Champion, has announced his new KR69 World Enduro Team which will begin competing in the EnduroGP World Championship from this season.

Rovanpera’s team will field a Husqvarna FE 250 for his Finnish compatriot Roni Kyttonen, who Rovanpera also supported in 2024.

Kyttonen was forced to withdraw from the latter half of the 2024 season in both EnduroGP and the Finnish Championship due to a hand injury he picked up at the EnduroGP of Wales in August.

The Finnish rider has three European Enduro Championship titles to his name as well as the 2020 EnduroGP Junior 1 world title.

For Rovanpera, the KR69 WET — named for his initials and driver number in the WRC — marks a new step in his racing career as he becomes a team owner for the first time.

The 24-year-old will be managing the outfit alongside his regular driving duties as he returns to full-time WRC action in 2025 for the factory Toyota team after contesting a part-season in 2024, in which he still picked up three rally wins — including a memorable success on Rally Poland where he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen were late call-ups to replace Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais were involved in a crash with a civilian car during the recce.

Rovanpera’s enduro team is not the first occurrence of a four-wheeled World Champion from Finland entering the world of dirt bike racing: 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen’s IceOne Racing motocross team having been present in the Motocross World Championship since 2014 as firstly the factory team for Husqvarna, and then for Kawasaki since 2022.