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KTM Racing Team and Crawford to immediately part ways
National MX1 number two out following single round of 2026 season.
Image: Foremost Media.
KTM Racing Team and Nathan Crawford have made the shock decision to part ways, effective immediately, just one round into the 2026 Penrite ProMX Championship.
Crawford, 28, performed well below par at Wonthaggi earlier this month in recording 9-18 results for 13th overall – voicing his discomfort with the 450 SX-F over the course of the opener.
It’s a puzzling situation in many respects after the Queenslander finished second in the MX1 standings last season on a largely similar motorcycle after taking the title down to the wire, and he was third in his first season of 450 competition as part of the KTM Racing Team the year prior.
Crawford first joined KTM in 2022 and, despite spending much of that season on the sidelines with a leg injury, returned during the closing stages of ProMX and claimed consecutive victories at the final two rounds. He then went onto take P2 in points during 2023, before stepping up to MX1 with success in 2024.
A statement from KTM Australia announced the decision:
KTM Racing Team and Nathan Crawford have mutually agreed to part ways effective immediately following the opening round of the 2026 Australian ProMX Championship.
Crawford first joined the KTM Racing Team in 2022 as part of its MX2 effort, before graduating with success to MX1 in 2024. He finished runner-up in the standings last year and has finished inside the top-three in class outdoors for the past three seasons.
Following Crawford’s departure, KTM Racing Team will firmly focus its attention on emerging MX1 talent Zac Watson – new to the official KTM program for this season – and its exciting MX2 lineup of Byron Dennis and Dylan Walsh.
Watson was impressive on debut with the team at Wonthaggi’s opening round earlier this month and recorded fifth in Moto 2, while in MX2 both Dennis and Walsh achieved outstanding podium results in P2 and P3, respectively.
It doesn’t appear that KTM Racing Team is intending on recruiting a replacement for when ProMX continues in Canberra on April 19, and it’s unclear where Crawford will surface – already linked to multiple seats since becoming apparent that he would be exiting KTM.
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