Team BUD Racing Kawasaki will again be behind the World Championship starting gate this season … with four riders in four different classes, continuing their traditional blend of experience and youth.
After a successful return to MX2 GP last year the team has renewed its confidence in Mitchell Harrison as the youthful American starts his second season in Europe. Last year he had to learn both new tracks and European motocross in general after his previous career in the USA and he will line up at Matterley Basin – first of the 20 GPs on March 1st – with more experience. At selected GPs he will be joined by Pierre Goupillon, back with the team after a first collaboration in 2018; the main goal of the young French rider will be the European EMX250 Championship. Both will of course contest the French Elite series and will be in Castelnau de Levis mid-March for the opening round.

Belgian Amandine Verstappen, the reigning French women’s champion. Is a newcomer to the team. Amandine will race her KX250 Kawasaki for the first time in Great Britain at the opening round of the WMX world series. Having recorded her maiden GP victory last year she will also defend the French Championship.

In the long tradition of Marvin Musquin, Dylan Ferrandis and Brian Moreau, who each started their careers with BUD, it’s now Quentin Prugnières that the team has signed on a long-term deal. The French Hopefuls champion last year, the youngster from the island of la Reunion will contest the French Junior and European 125 championships.

All this investment would not be possible without the team’s loyal partners, especially Kawasaki who has backed the team since 2007! Alongside their long-term sponsors BUD is proud to welcome new partners Champion lubricants, PROX and Boomerang.

2020 also saw the return of Thierry Van Den Bosch as trainer of all the riders; the multiple Supermoto world champion is back in motocross after a successful experience in road racing. “I’ve been working with Pierre Goupillon since November and everything is going well; we knew each other already as I had worked with him previously in the French national team and we have been working together intensely for two weeks each month. Mitchell arrived in Europe two weeks ago; he had to rest before coming back to Europe due to a minor injury but now we start our racing programme this weekend as he and Pierre will race at Ottobiano in Italy. We’ll stay in Italy to race Mantova one week later and Quentin will join us there too. Then we’ll have three more weeks to prepare for the first GP in Matterley Basin where our four musketeers will all be on track as the MX2, EMX125 and WMX championships each kick off there.”

After a long and unusual break so early in the season the World Championship is again on the road with three rounds in a row, and team Bud Racing Kawasaki moves from Lombardia to Agueda for the sixth round of the season.

For the first time since the GP season start people were smiling and happy Sunday evening under the Bud Racing awning, as both Mitchell Harrison and Brian Moreau delivered solid motos just a few days before the MXGP of France. Even if the nice layout was too much watered before the MX2 races, Mitchell and Brian bring back home their best results so far with a tenth overall for the American and a twelfth for the young Frenchie.

Second in the free practice and seventh in the timed practice session, Brian qualified seventh for the GP while Mitchell got a top twenty gate with an eighteenth position in the qualifying race. The track was slippery before the start of each race and Brian was one of the victim as he crashes during the opening lap of race one; he did a strong ride to comeback from twenty-one to eleventh, and with another good start in the second moto everything was possible…until the fifth corner when another rider hit him. Again on the ground Brian did another strong race, coming back from twenty fifth to fifteenth. Twelfth of the GP he got the best result of his young GP career, a great reward after his injury in Argentina.

The Portuguese GP saw Mitchell Harrison return to the top ten after a difficult GP in Italy. The American was inevitably pushed wide at turn one each time from gate eighteen, but put in two strong rides to advance from twenty-fourth to thirteenth in race one and from seventeenth to eleventh in race two to earn tenth overall.

Weather was perfect in Portugal, but not as good in Pernes les Fontaines for the French championship. The track was not too wet on Saturday for the hopeful class, and with an overall win Quentin Prugnières is back to the leadership of the series even if he missed one round. Rain and mud were part of the program on Sunday, and after a decent qualifying session with an eighth position Jimmy Clochet struggled in the first race as he crashed and could only finish seventeenth after a pit stop. He remains fifth in the MX1 Elite series, and will be back next weekend on his 250 for the EMX in St Jean d’Angely.

Brian Moreau: “It was a positive weekend, the speed was there and also the riding, the first good weekend of the season! I just did one mistake when I crashed on a slippery section in the first race, but I did a strong come back to finish eleven, close to the ninth position. I was sixth or seventh after a few corners in moto two when another rider hit me, and again I had to comeback from behind. It was a tough weekend but I never give up and fight all weekend long, that’s encouraging before the French GP where many fans will be there to support me.”

Mitchell Harrison: “This track was nice and it wasn’t a bad weekend, still terrible starts which keep me far behind the top ten; I came back from nineteenth or something like that to thirteenth in the first race, and again had to come back from mid pack in race two. I must continue to work hard on the start, and qualify better to have a better gate pick for the races.”