MX2

FUNCHAL (Portugal), 26 November 2015 – Do you think you have what it takes to become the new Romain Febvre? Here is your chance to prove it! In an effort to support young motocross talent, Youthstream and Yamaha are proud to present the opportunity of a lifetime with the new YZ125 Cup. The championship, initiated by Yamaha, will be run in Europe on a national level and the winner will be awarded with a contract for Yamaha’s 2017 Official EMX125 Team!

The YZ125 championship will be held in 13 countries and forms an easy entrance into the MX racing world for teenagers who aim to reach the top in the EMX125 class.

The best scoring riders in each national championship who signed up for the European YZ125 Cup will be allowed to participate in a Superfinale at the Veltins Arena, Germany on October 8^th 2016, where the best YZ125 riders will compete for the victory in front of a crowd of 50.000 motocross fans.

In total there will be forty-two YZ125 Cup candidates competing for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It varies per country how many YZ125 riders will be allocated to progress to this YZ125 championship final. For the national championships that won’t be closed before September 12^th 2016, the right to attend the Superfinale will be based on the national championship’s provisional championship standings on September 12^th.

The six top riders of the Superfinale, joined by two wildcards, will win a multiple day Master Class with MXGP rider and 2008 MX1 World Champion David Philippaerts.

During the Master Class the mentors will decide which of these riders will become an official Yamaha rider for the EMX125 2017 season and gets to follow in the footsteps of 2015 125cc Junior World Champion, Maxime Renaux.

Yamaha played their part in supporting Renaux during his breakthrough into the 125 motocross scene and hopes to do the same for many more riders through ‘BluCru’, Yamaha’s new youth talent development program that will support MX racing teenagers and provides a community environment in the Yamaha Racing world.

Signing up for BluCru’s first European effort to support talented youth, the YZ125 Cup, couldn’t be easier; if you’re born between 2000 and 2004 and are racing in one of the selected FIM approved national championships with a Yamaha YZ125, you're in! All you need to do to make the next step in your MX-career is sign up for the European YZ125 Cup by sending a completed registration form to yz125cup@yamaha-motor.nl. Registrations are opened till the January 31^st 2016. To download the registration form click www.yamaha-racing.com.

To welcome you to Yamaha’s BluCru, you will receive a free BluCru welcome pack following your registration. The pack contains a T-shirt, cap, sticker badge and a YZ sticker kit that all European YZ125 Cup contenders are obliged to use whilst racing in their national championships.

LINKS

Youthstream

FIM

FIM Europe

Yamaha Racing

FUNCHAL (Portugal), 26 November 2015 – In preparation for another successful season of world-class motocross, Youthstream hosted their annual organizers meeting in Jerez, Spain, where the expectations and goals for the 2016 FIM Motocross World Championship were revealed and openly discussed.

In 2016, Youthstream and the organizers will do everything within their power to make the FIM Motocross World Championship as safe as possible. Mr. Giuseppe Luongo opened the presentation, “First of all I would like to thank all of you who are here today. Without you, the organizers, it would be impossible to have a world championship,” he said. “However, this year we had many injuries, and this is something we want to reduce in the future,” Mr Luongo added.

In effort to reduce rider injuries Youthstream and the FIM have agreed that the tracks need to be ripped deeper so that the ground is softer, which will in turn become rougher and more technical. It is believed this will slow the riders down and offer more of a challenge. With that said, Youthstream Director Mr. Nikos Gounaris confirmed that this is the plan that the track crew will follow. “Watering is also extremely important,” Mr. Gounaris added, “and it is necessary we have the correct machinery to work in different areas of the track at the same time.”

Also on note of the tracks, it was requested that every track has tunnel access from the perimeter of the circuit to the infield so that the medics and emergency services can access an accident scene or injured rider without crossing the circuit or interfering with the race.

The presentation continued with MXGP’s Director of Communications and Marketing Services Marionna Leiva being the host in a room full of guests which included Youthstream representatives, President Mr. Giuseppe Luongo, Vice President Luigi Zompetti, Directors Nikos Gounaris and David Luongo and CEO’s Daniele Rizzi and Didier Henriod, as well as FIM representatives, FIM/CMS Director Tony Skillington and Race Director Ingo Partsch along with the MXGP round organizers of Thailand, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Mexico, Belgium and Maggiora. There were also the organizer of the MXGP of Spain as a guest and a few more Youthstream staff members present along with special guests from Platinum group, the official MXGP ticketing partner, and SEL, MXGP’s official carrier and travel agent.

Mrs. Marionna Leiva presented the 2016 calendar before elaborating on MXGP’s remarkable progress in Social Media and television coverage. MXGP had a massive increase in viewers and exposure in 2015 and the extensive television coverage is set to continue and increase in 2016. In terms of Social Media, Mrs. Leiva explained, “We have seen an increase across all of our social media platforms, we have 106% more viewers on our Youtube channel MXGPtv, 101% more on our own website www.mxgp-tv.com, which I can tell you will be even better in 2016 as we will be screening BOTH days, Saturday and Sunday, LIVE. This means you will be able to watch ALL of the European Championship races and the MXGP and MX2 Qualifying races live and OnDemand in 2016.” MXGP also had a massive 228% rise on Instagram, a 55% increase on Twitter and a 25% increase on Facebook.

Following on, Youthstream’s latest project the ‘Riders Cup’ was presented. The Riders Cup is a unique and exciting prospect which will be organized inside the Veltins Arena, one of the most famous stadiums in Germany. The race itself will be for the manufacturers, KTM, Husqvarna, Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and TM who will select 3 of their fastest riders, regardless of the riders’ nationality. The Riders Cup will be a team event where the riders will race for the success of their motorcycle brand.

With so much to look forward to in 2016 the organizers meeting concluded with a room full of enthusiastic organizers, promoters and partners, all re-motivated, re-energized and excited for yet another successful season of non-stop bar-to-bar motocross action.

LINKS

Youthstream

FIM

Christmas is such a jolly time of year; it’s almost as exciting as the start of a new motocross season!

To celebrate Christmas MXGP-TV want to OFFER you 25% OFF the 2016 FIM Motocross World Championship season package, which NEW for 2016 will include BOTH days, Saturday and Sunday, LIVE! This means you can watch the MXGP & MX2 Qualifying races LIVE & OnDemand as well as ALL races and rounds of the European Championships and Women’s Motocross World Championship on www.MXGP-TV.com.

Also INCLUDED in the Season Package is the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations which will be once again out of this world as it is set to take place on the home soil of the eight-time FIM Motocross World Champion Antonio Cairoli, in Maggiora, Italy.

But wait! There’s MORE, in 2016 Youthstream will be introducing a new event which will be a stadium style motocross race where each manufacturer will select the three fastest riders who will race for a massive prize. This is called the Riders’ Cup and will take place in the well-known Veltins Arena in Germany on the 8th October 2016. This is also INCLUDED in the package available to watch LIVE & OnDemand!

Give the best gift this Christmas! Give the thrill of MXGP & the 2016 FIM Motocross World Championship season and enjoy 19 epic rounds of MXGP LIVE & OnDemand!

Click here to buy the season package with a 25% DISCOUNT

The offer ends the 10^th January 2016.

One hundred and nineteenth issue of this bi-weekly motorcycle sport magazine, tackling the latest races and issues in MotoGP, the FIM Motocross World Championship, AMA Motocross/Supercross and World Superbike as well as general motorcycling and accessories with the best blogs and photographs. In OTOR 119: Marquez talks off-road; a morning spent with the Marquez brothers and co at Rufea to ask how and why getting away from the slick tyres helps for MotoGP and racing. Pourcel & Herlings chat; a catch-up with the 377 and 84 at the Lille Supecross with answers to some of the questions people are keen to know for 2016 and the forthcoming season. ’15 EICMA Greatest Hits; what bikes were shown off in Milan and what machinery to expect on the road next year. Roland casts his experienced eye over the offerings from the brands last week. Made in France: YCF is a surprise manufacturer from Normandy making serious strides with their comprehensive mini-bike line-up. We went for a visit to see how

Read OTOR 119

The FIM Gala is the event in which all of the champions from all motorcycle sport disciplines, Motocross, Enduro, Track Racing, Trials, Cross Country Rallies and Road racing gather for the official awarding of their FIM Championship Gold Medals.

This weekend the Gala took place in Jerez de la Fontera, Spain, the motorcycling capital of the world, where hundreds of people gathered inside the historic Teatro Villamartato to witness the special ceremony which saw our champions Romain Febvre, FIM MXGP World Champion, Tim Gajser, FIM MX2 World Champion, Maxime Renaux, FIM Junior Motocross 125cc World Champion and Raivo Dankers, FIM Junior Motocross 85cc World Champion join more than 30 other great champions and 7 motorcycling legends on stage to receive their gold medals.

While KTM might have trimmed down their factory effort in the MXGP class 2016, we will still see minimum 15 factory backed riders lining up on the start line of the MXGP class at the opening round of the MXGP series at Qatar in late February. If Jeffrey Herlings does decide to move up to the MXGP class next year, then it will be 16 and what a magnificent 16 it would be.

Already we will have five former or present world champions in the class. Starting with Italian legend Antonio Cairoli, defending MXGP champion Romain Febvre, 2004 MX2 champion Ben Townley, 2013 MX2 champion Jordi Tixier, and this year’s MX2 champion Tim Gajser. All these champions will race factory bikes and all in different teams. How brilliant is that?

Obviously leading the way is defending world MXGP champion Febvre who will race for the Monster Energy Yamaha team alongside Jeremy Van Horebeek, while Yamaha are still deciding what will happen to Valentin Guillod, who is assured a factory machine by Yamaha.

The Red Bull KTM Factory team who had three MXGP riders in 2015 will go with just two in 2016, and of course their main man Antonio Cairoli will lead the orange army into battle next year. It will be nice to see young Dutchman Glenn Coldenhoff move up. Winning a GP in the MXGP class this year showed he is ready for an even bigger season in 2016 and hopefully he can move into the season without injury, which wasn’t the case this year. Of course Shaun Simpson will race on a factory KTM machine, but will race for a privateer team on the bike.

The Kawasaki Factory team have the services of the one man who probably has deserved a world title, but has come up short, and that is Belgian hard-man Clement Desalle. His team-mate in 2016 is 2014 World MX2 champion Jordi Tixier. Tixier is known to love the 450cc bike and his results might surprise many.

The Factory Suzuki team brings New Zealander Ben Townley back to the FIM Motocross World Championships and this is a really special return for the 2004 MX2 champ. Townley who rode the wheels off his Honda at the 2015 Monster Energy Motocross of Nations will be teamed with another veteran in Kevin Strijbos. The effort by new team owner Stefan Everts in bringing out the best in these two riders will be crucial in their performances.

HRC are going in hard in 2016, with three riders on the all new 450cc Honda. While MX2 champion Tim Gajser won’t be inside the HRC tent, his Gariboldi Honda team are more than capable of making sure his bike is dialed in come Qatar. Also on the red rockets next year are world number one and world number two Gautier Paulin and Evgeny Bobryshev.

The only factory team without a former world champion is Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory team, although their riders are more than capable of producing some surprises, as Max Nagl showed this year. The German will be joined by Italian rider Christophe Charlier, a competitor who has the talent to move up the world rankings with the right backing.

PHOTO: Honda

Ten times World Motocross Champion Stefan Everts has joined Suzuki’s official 2016 Factory Motocross team as the new Team Principal and to celebrate the moment Suzuki has produced a new video filmed on location at Geboers Racing Promotion's Lommel HQ in Belgium. 

Everts (42) assumed duties from Sylvain Geboers last week and will guide the factory MXGP and MX2 teams in future world motocross championships. The new video, produced by leading cinematographer Mikey Neale, features interviews with Everts, Geboers and Everts’ father Harry, himself a former World Champion with Suzuki.

About Stefan Everts: 

• Stefan Everts is the most successful motocross rider in the world championships with an as-yet unsurpassed total of 10 world titles in all three classes - 125, 250 and 500cc/ MX1. 
• Started riding motorcycles at the age of four. 
• Was the second person, after Eric Geboers, to become “Mr 875cc” - winning titles in all three classes. 
• Stefan is the son of four-times World Motocross Champion Harry Everts. 
• In a grand prix career that spanned 15 years (he retired in 2006) he accumulated a total of 101 Grand Prix victories.
• Won his first world title – the 1991 World 125cc Championship – for Suzuki at the age of 18. 
• Is the only rider in history to win world titles for all four Japanese manufacturers. 

About Sylvain Geboers: 

• Sylvain Geboers was one of the leading and most prolific motocross riders in the late 1960s and early 70’s, winning a total of 14 GPs between 1968 and 1972. 
• He finished in the Top-three of the world championship in five consecutive years. 
• In 1971, Geboers also won the Trans-AMA Motocross Championship in America aboard his 500cc RM Suzuki. 
• In his successful racing career, he was twice runner up and silver medallist in the World Motocross Championship (in 1969 and 1970) and three time bronze medallist (third positions in 1968, 1971 and 1972). 
• During his professional racing career, he collected numerous victories for Belgium in the high-profile Motocross and Trophee des Nations events. 
• After his retirement Geboers became Suzuki’s driving force as the factory’s European Motocross Team Manager, helping groom many motocross stars such as his younger brother Eric Geboers, Greg Albertyn, the late Georges Jobe – and Suzuki’s new Team Manager Stefan Everts.

Watch the video below

KTM Marchetti Racing have welcomed Michael Ivanov to the team. The 18 year old Bulgarian, who made his MX2 debut this year, will complete the KTM Marchetti Racing’s line-up of Christopher Valente, Ivo Monticelli and Jose Butron.

Ivanov, Valente and Monticelli will all be racing the FIM Motocross World Championship on KTM 250SX-F’s in MX2 while Butron will be racing the premier class, MXGP.

 Team Manager Elio Marchetti – “Michael is a promising rider and with him the team is complete. The whole team is full of motivation and passion and we’re getting ready for the 2016 season.”

The last two years have been a roller-coaster ride to hell and back for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings. From breaking his femur on the brink of wrapping up his third consecutive MX2 world title in 2014 in a freak crash while racing an 85cc bike for fun, through to his accident riddled season in 2015 which eventually came to an abrupt end at round thirteen of the FIM Motocross World Championship in the Czech Republic, Jeffrey, as one of the fastest ever MX2 riders, has been forced to face the harsh reality of how brutal motocross at an elite level can be.

I bumped into Jeff recently, and as a journalist I naturally felt the urge to ask him a few questions about the complications he has been facing, both physically and mentally, as well as the popular questions such as moving up to MXGP and when we can expect to see him back on the bike.

Dude, how unlucky have you been these last couple of years!

“Yeah, tell me about it! I think in the last 16 months I have been only 5 months on the bike. After I broke my femur in 2014, I got an infection on the bone and I couldn’t ride again until February 2015, and then it was pretty much straight into Qatar.”

You could definitely see how much it meant for you to win in Qatar. 1 -1 for the overall, you were unfit and unprepared but you did it. Another double victory in Thailand, it almost looked as though this was going to be your year of redemption, but by round three it had already started to deteriorate.

"Yeah, I just didn’t have enough time on the bike. I couldn’t test because of my femur through the winter. I wasn’t ready, but I just wanted to race."

How many times did you crash this year? Some of them were so gnarly.

"Man, I had some big crashes this year! It has been crazy. I am so over it. Actually when I crashed in Loket, it was such a small crash, I just clipped the bank and kind of slid out and then when I was getting up Jordi (Tixier) literally took me in the ass” He laughed, “but seriously he hit me and it was all over.”

What went through your head at that point?

“Oh man, I was just over it. I was over everything. On the flight home from the Czech Republic I had pain everywhere, from my broken collarbone in Germany, my finger in Sweden and then my hip. I was seriously over it. I didn’t want to race anymore, I didn’t care about the money, or racing, or anything. Yes, those things are good and are important, but my health is the most important and I was really over it.”

Yeah, I did read some of your rants on Social Media. How are you feeling now?

“It has been hard, but I am good now. I am in a good place. I have learned to listen to the doctors and I will follow their advice. I now know my health is really important. I am also looking forward to being able to ride again. I miss racing. It’s what I want to do.”

So when can you get back on the bike?

"In maybe one month. First I have to see a few doctors and then hopefully I can ride."

Tim Gajser will be making the jump to MXGP, have you considered going up as well?

“I’ve thought about it but I honestly have no idea. I will test the bikes and see, but because I still have a bit of pain in my hip and I am not so strong yet, I will probably stay in MX2 because for me it is easier and with the injuries and everything.”

So if you chose to stay MX2, who do you think your biggest competition will be?

"Probably Dylan Ferrandis, other than that, I think that is it."

Photo: J.P Acevedo