With their orange RC8 Superbike running in the Superstock class for the first time in Spain, KTM bosses were in Valencia to oversee their radically styled machine in action.

Philipp Habsburg, Head of R&D, explained in an informal press conference what the big attraction of Superstock racing is for the innovative and ambitious Austrian company.

"This is our first time in the Superstock class this weekend and for us our target in the first year is to learn a lot about what is going on here in Superbike and Superstock road racing", said Habsburg. "Because we wanted to learn we located the whole team in the R&D area of the company, unlike our 125 and 250GP programme, which is run from the sports area. We want to learn for the future products of KTM. There is a close link to production in the RC8. Wolfgang Felber is here, because he is the head of the RC8 team in KTM, but he is head of production, as well as the team in the Superstock paddock. We want to link our race support programme to our production programme".

The KTM bosses also confirmed the company's interest in eventually joining the Superbike World Championship, but this would most probably not be before 2010.

"We have our plans in the long term also but we like the idea to start with a small team and be a little bit patient and orientate where we are" he added. "We want to be here for sure in 2008 and 2009 with the Superstock. We will see how competitive our bike is in the future and after that it's probably the better moment to do such a big decision and go Superbike racing. Until now from our management there is no decision yet but we are thinking for sure for 2010, that's what we can say and no more".