This year, KTM Sarholz Racing Team came up trumps. After senior rider Dennis Ullrich secured the ADAC MX Masters title at Gaildorf and became a four-time champion in the racing series, another of their riders, Tom Koch, was making waves in the ADAC MX Youngster Cup. Just like 'Ulle', 19-year-old Koch wrapped up the Class 2 title after six rounds of the campaign, with the Holzgerlingen weekend still to come.

Tom Koch from Thuringia has thus pulled off the first major coup of his motocross career. In fact, the 2017 season seems to have gone his way right from the start: "I signed the contract at Sarholz at the end of 2016 and launched into the new season full of enthusiasm and with my motivation high. This immediately paid dividends. I found myself making regular podium appearances in the ADAC MX Youngster Cup and also scoring points in the EMX250. That spurred me on to improve my performance even further, and I eventually took the title by a clear margin of 57 points. I'm absolutely delighted."

Tom Koch's involvement in motocross did not come about by chance. Both his grandfather and his father would spend most of their spare time on the motocross racetrack, and as his brother (five years his senior) also fell under the spell of the sport, it was inevitable that the youngest member of the family would follow in their footsteps too: "As a child, I always went along to my brother's races, so it wasn't long before I got on the bike for the first time." At the age of six, Tom finally got a 50cc machine of his own, but he initially declined to compete in races. Some years later, though, he was ready to enter the regional Thuringia championship. "This was quite a breakthrough for me, because I noticed right away that I could compete with the front-runners. One year later in 2011, I was standing on the top rung of the podium as winner of the Thuringia championship. That was a milestone in my career."

It was an achievement that brought the teenager to the attention of ADAC Team Hessen-Thuringia who signed him up for their junior squad. Since that time, Tom Koch and his trainer Collin Dugmore have been regularly attending courses, seminar weekends, fitness tests and even an annual training week in Spain. He has also been put on a strict nutrition plan and receives sports psychology mentoring. "Ultimately, it is ADAC Hessen-Thuringia and their talent promotion programme with all the comprehensive support that has got me where I am now," explains Koch. It is a life change that requires a lot of discipline, but the results speak for themselves. He initially continued to be a major force in the Thuringia championship, contested the 2014 Supercross in the Dortmund Westfalenhalle and made it onto the podium in Munich, finished sixth in the 2015 ADAC MX Youngster Cup (despite tearing his cruciate ligament) and won the ADAC Hessen-Thuringia Junior Sportsman of the Year Award in that same year.

After a few injury-related setbacks in 2016, which necessitated an operation on his torn ligament, Koch came 13th in the Youngster Cup, which was not bad considering he had very little preparation time. "I am incredibly ambitious and do not give up so quickly," says Tom proudly. And the proof of that resolute approach and of his steep performance curve is his recent sensational triumph in Class 2 of Europe's most popular motocross series. "The hard work has paid off," says the KTM Sarholz protégé. "Now I'm ready to line up with the seniors at the starting gate in 2018."