The 60th anniversary FIM Motocross World Championship will start this weekend in Qatar and once again Kawasaki will be one of the main protagonists in the MX2, Women and MXGP classes.
It will be the longest ever Motocross season with eighteen rounds, the Motocross of Nations and the new ‘Riders and Manufacturers’ Cup to end the season in October. The now traditional start to the series under the spotlights of Losail on the outskirt of Doha will be followed one week later by round two in Thailand. Most of the teams and riders have already contested a couple of international events in Europe before flying to Asia, but no one has yet stood out as obvious favourites for the titles going into this weekend.
Three teams are again officially supported by Kawasaki this season in the MXGP and MX2 classes; Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team with Clement Desalle and Jordi Tixier in the MXGP class, Monster Energy Kawasaki MX2 Racing Team with Dylan Ferrandis and Petar Petrov in the MX2 class, and Monster Energy Dixon Racing Team, which will have one rider in each class with Tommy Searle in MXGP and Vsevolod Brylyakov in MX2. Livia Lancelot, the French woman will also enjoy official support through her own Team 114.
As Jordi Tixier is still recovering from a wrist injury, Clement Desalle and Tommy Searle will line up in the MXGP class with different goals for this first rounds; Clement will do his best to score important points after a recent arm injury, while Tommy, back in Green this season, will endeavour to show his real potential after fighting through two injury-hit seasons. Dylan Ferrandis has a similar goal; after a successful start last season, including a GP win in Argentina, the French prospect had to end his season due to a knee injury. Coming back strongly, he is one of the main contenders for the world title in the MX2 class, while teammate Petar Petrov enters his second season with Kawasaki and is a podium contender. Newcomer in the green family, Vsevolod Brylyakov aims to confirm his progress and become a regular top ten contender.
The series will take teams and riders all over the world with rounds in Qatar and Thailand, South (Argentina and Mexico) and North (two rounds in the US) America, and twelve rounds in Europe. The season will end with the Motocross of Nations at Maggiora (Italy) and the new Riders’ and Manufacturers’ Cup in the Veltins Arena (Germany).
