them the board before the final lap, from pitwall. The lost five points turned out to be incredibly valuable to Kallio, as he only finished 5th in Australia, had to retire in Turkey, and went into the final round in Valencia, with a 23 point deficit compared to Lüthi, meaning he needed a win, with the swiss rider scoring no more than 2 points. Kallio won the final race in Valencia, Lüthi coming home in 9th, meaning Kallio lost the world title by just five points, the exact difference between first place and second place championship points. Both riders had four wins during the season, but Kallio would have had five if not for Qatar, thus winning the title with equal points, but more race wins. Talmácsi was fired after the season finale at Valencia. In 2006, Kallio was again a challenger for the 125cc title, and although he produced his career's best season, the young Finn was outshone by Álvaro Bautista, who won the title by 76 points. Kallio was forced to settle for the runner-up spot in the championship again, although he did finish a full 65 points ahead of Héctor Faubel in third position. Kallio scored three victories, in Shanghai, Assen and Motegi, had four pole positions, and finished on the podium 11 times (three victories, seven 2nd places, and a 3rd place) during the 2006 campaign. At the end of the year, viewers of the Finnish motorsport television series Ruutulippu voted Kallio the Finnish Motorsportsman of the Year for the second year running. He collected 33.1% of all votes and finished in front of enduro world champion Samuli Aro, WRC runner-up Marcus Grönholm and F1 star Kimi Räikkönen. 250cc World Championship (2007–2008) For the 2007 season, Kallio moved up to KTM's squad in the 250cc category, riding alongside Hiroshi Aoyama. After a difficult start to the season with mechanical woes at Qatar and Spain, Kallio would consistently be fighting around the top six positions, finishing 6th in Turkey, 5th in China, 7th in France, 6th in Catalonia, 6th in Great Britain, and 8th in the Netherlands. The turning point of the season would be at Germany, where Kallio took his debut pole position and podium finish in the class, coming home in 2nd, behind teammate Aoyama, to cap a fine 1–2 for KTM. A 3rd place followed at the Czech Republic, but a nasty highside at