Red Bull KTM Factory Racing continue their schedule and programme for the 2022 MXGP FIM Motocross World Championship as MX2 title contender, Tom Vialle, makes his first competitive appearance of the year this weekend in France. Full 2022 images are now online.
The 21-year-old Frenchman will race in front of expectant native fans at the scenic, compact and hard-packed circuit located in the centre of the LaCapelle Marival town. The annual International pre-season meeting – ‘Masters of Motocross’ is back on the agenda for the first time since 2020 and around the course that hosted the 2021 Grand Prix of France.
Vialle will compete with his brand new KTM 250 SX-F as the team maintain their testing and development work ahead of the opening round of the FIM world championship in the UK on February 20th. Lacapelle will not only be the 2020 world champion’s first race of the year but also the first in his 2022 livery and with the innovative KTM 250 SX-F. He will face a number of MX2 Grand Prix peers.
The team will then travel to Great Britain to contest the Hawkstone Park International the following weekend. Vialle triumphed at the last edition of the sandy fixture in 2020 when he went 4-1 in two damp motos to walk the top of the overall podium.
Tom Vialle: “It hasn’t been such a long off-season since the final Grand Prix of 2021 but I actually took quite a long break because my foot fracture. I worked a lot physically but it’s been just over a month since I started riding. So, perhaps less bike time than usual but I feel better every training every session. I’m happy to go to Lacapelle because it’s a nice track and a decent place to try the new bike in race conditions and to know where we are for set-up. It’s good to have some gatedrops there and in England before the first GP because we like mix racing on hard-pack and in the sand to know our feeling.”
Photo Credit – Ray Archer
