One August afternoon, Photo&Moto had the unique opportunity to visit Aki Ajo’s private motorcycle museum. The experience left us wide-eyed and speechless: a long row of thoroughbred road racing bikes from over the years. The impact was truly stunning.
Exploring the collection began in the back left corner of the hall, where the 125cc Honda from the Ajo Motorsport team’s first full season (2002), ridden by Mika Kallio, is located. In fact, Kallio had already ridden a few GP races as a wildcard for the team in 2001, but Ajo Motorsport’s actual full GP season started in 2002 – and the journey continues to this day.
From Kallio’s bike, the row continues to the machines of one great champion after another, about which our host for the afternoon, Matti Kiiveri, tells incredible and interesting stories with rock-solid professionalism. Kiiveri knows what he is talking about, as he is closely involved in the operations of Ajo Motorsport.
Already in the team’s second GP season (2003), the first GP victory in the 125cc class was achieved. It was ridden by Italian Andrea Ballerini. The first individual world championship for Ajo Motorsport was won by Frenchman Mike Di Meglio in the 125cc class in 2008. Since then, championships have been coming in at a steady pace, and there are already 11 in total – in the 125cc, Moto3, and Moto2 classes.
In addition to Di Meglio, championships have been won by Marc Márquez, Sandro Cortese, Johann Zarco, Brad Binder, Remy Gardner, Pedro Acosta, Augusto Fernández, and José Antonio Rueda.
Some of them have won multiple times, with Acosta even winning in two different classes. These are familiar names to anyone who has followed GP racing even a little bit. Remy Gardner is, by the way, an interesting case in that he is the son of the 1987 500cc world champion, Wayne Gardner.
We were a group of seven men visiting Aki Ajo’s museum, which also included the former road racing star Martti Pesonen. Among other things, Pesonen finished fifth in the 1970 350cc World Championship standings. He still follows GP races closely, and his knowledge is top-notch.
Aki Ajo himself currently leads the KTM factory team in the MotoGP class. His son, Niklas Ajo, in turn, manages the Moto2 and Moto3 teams.