THE FIM MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BEGINS WITH THE FIRST OF TWENTY ROUNDS ORGANISED AT MATTERLEY BASIN IN THE UK.
FEBRUARY 28, 2020:
For the first time since 2015 the opening round of the world series will take place in Europe; Matterley Basin, which will host this first GP of the season, is one of the most popular tracks on the schedule and everyone will be excited to be behind the starting gate again.
The factory Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team has achieved good results in each of the pre-season races which they entered and both Belgium’s Clément Desalle and France’s Romain Febvre aim to bring back a host of trophies to the workshop this season; it has been several years since KRT lined up two established MXGP winners and both riders showed with podium results at Lacapelle Marival in France two weeks ago that they are fully recovered from their 2019 injuries.
Alongside the factory squad Kawasaki Motors Europe will also support three teams involved in the MX2, WMX and EMX250 classes. The Dutch-based team F&H will focus exclusively on the MX2 World Championship with a trio of young talented riders from all over Europe with current EMX250 champion Roan van de Moosdijk from the Netherlands, his predecessor Mathys Boisrame from France and Danish teenager Mikkel Haarup, each of whom enjoyed podium celebrations last season.
Reigning Women’s World Champion Courtney Duncan from New Zealand continues her successful relationship with the Dixon Racing Team which will also be involved in the MX2 class this year with Wilson Todd; the Australian champion will make his racing debut in Europe this weekend.
American Mitchell Harrison, who successfully absolved this baptism last year, will defend the colours of BUD Racing. The French team will be involved in three different classes this summer with Mitchell in MX2, young Frenchman Pierre Goupillon in EMX250 and French champion Amandine Verstappen in WMX; the Belgian girl, who recorded her maiden world victory at last year’s season-opener, will have a teammate this weekend as BUD will also support American Jordan Jarvis.
After this opening round in the UK the World Championship will visit sixteen further countries including Argentina, Indonesia and China throughout the summer. The MXGP and MX2 classes will compete at all twenty rounds of the series while the WMX will have six rounds and the EMX250 nine rounds on their programme.
Steve Guttridge – Kawasaki Racing Manager: “Once again we start the season full of optimism knowing that we have some of the finest motocross racers in the world competing at the MXGP series across several categories. Each Kawasaki team brings a wealth of experience and aims to provide the best platform possible for the riders to put their KX machinery on the podium regularly and very realistically aim for the championship titles in their respective categories too!”
Credit: Words and photo by Kawasaki Europe
