Late last year KTM announced that they’d signed 16-year-old Kiwi Josiah Natzke to a five-year deal to race for the factory team in Europe and work under the guidance of one of the all-time greats, Stefan Everts.

Natzke is quickly establishing himself as the next big thing to come out of the Land of the Long White Cloud and an heir to the throne occupied by Josh Coppins and Ben Townley.

After hopping on a PW50 at the age of four and subsequently dominating the junior ranks with seven national titles, Natzke jumped up to seniors at the earliest possible opportunity when he turned 15 last year.

“Juniors was pretty good to me, but now that I’m senior those trophies don’t mean anything,” the Waikato teen reflects. “It was a big step up to the National 125 class as I was racing guys who were between 17 and 20 and had a bit more body development than me.”

Despite the age and experience gap, Natzke cleaned up the National class last year aboard a KTM 125SX (the NZ system has senior classes for 125cc, 250cc and 450cc capacities) and immediately set his sights on frying bigger fish in Europe.

“The nationals finished in March, so I had nine months to accomplish something,” the CMR Red Bull KTM racer explains. “I sat down with my manager Ben [Townley] and looked at our game plan and decided to race two rounds of the EMX125 class in Europe then the World Juniors.”

Image: Simon Makker (Makkreative.com).

It proved to be a masterstroke. After a horrible qualifying session at his first race at Loket, Czech Republic, that saw him gain 31st gate pick, Natzke rocketed off the start in both motos to a fourth and a third (including leading half the second race) to finish third overall.

The results caught the attention of KTM, and it wasn’t long before they came knocking with a contract that will see him set for the next five years. The next weekend at Lommel, Belgium, Natzke struggled big-time in the deep sand.

“Lommel was horrible. I’ve never ridden sand like that and I got walked on by everyone, and got lapped in one of the races,” he admits. “It was make-you-cry hard, but at least I’ll know what to expect and what I’ll be putting my body through this year when we race there again.”

The final event on his three-week trip was the World Juniors, where he struggled with the rock-infested track to finish seventh overall. Against the best in the world that’s a great feat, but it didn’t meet his own lofty expectations.

Still, with a five-year deal signed to race in the KTM Factory Juniors alongside young stars Conrad Mewse, Jorge Prado and Davy Pootjes, Natzke is headed for big things despite skipping the traditional stepping-stone of Australia.

“There were thoughts of going to Australia, but if you want to make it as a pro and race the likes of James Stewart and Jeffrey Herlings, you’ve gotta go through Europe, as that’s where a lot of the factory teams are based,” he says.

““It works out well with the national 125 class as I’ll be on the 125 this year and about the right age to be up the front and to be pushing for the lead. It was the logical choice.”

One of the things that Stefan Everts has told Natzke to work on is his toughness, and his manager BT has been putting the lad through the wringer to see what he’s made of. Part of that training was a week-long trip to Queenstown that included 32 hours of physical training.

“It was epic. The first day was the easiest and that included a two and a half-hour mountain bike ride,” Josiah recalls. “From there it just got harder and Ben didn’t tell me what we were doing each day. We’d wake up and he would say ‘okay, we’re climbing a mountain today’.”

Image: Simon Makker (Makkreative.com).

One of the toughest sessions was a 134km ride over the Crown Range from Queenstown to Wanaka and back, totaling 1800m of elevation climbing.

“After going through that, suddenly 30 minutes on the motocross track doesn’t seem too bad!” he laughs. “That was the whole point of it – to push through the pain barrier when things start hurting and digging deep into yourself.

“I’ve gotta be tough out there, especially at tracks like Lommel. I was wrecked at the end of the week but I’ve learnt a lot about myself and what my body’s capable of handling.”

As for his aims this year, he’s clear about what he wants to achieve: “I don’t want to go there to come second,” he states bluntly. “I don’t want to count my chickens or anything, but when I got third last year at Loket, the two guys who beat me were a year older and have moved up.

“In theory I should be next in line. Everyone will be going quick but I trust what I’m doing here will get me to where I want to be. The ultimate dream is definitely a world championship, which potentially could happen this year with the World Juniors.

“If I’m killing it this year I’ll move straight to MX2 next year and race the MXGPs, and from there I have big dreams of going to the US. With the relationship between Red Bull KTM in Europe and America, there’s a chance that could happen if I prove myself. Anything’s possible, really.”