Yamaha has confirmed that Valli Motorsports will field Christophe Pourcel in the 250 Class of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship for 2014.

Valli will be an official Yamaha team alongside JGR, Star Racing and Rock River, equipping former world champion Pourcel with the 2014 model Yamaha YZ250F in his return to fulltime competition.

“When I came to America I had one goal and that was to win the AMA 250 Motocross National title,” Pourcel said. “I came so close, but never realised my goal. That fire still burns, and the minute I had the opportunity to make another run at the title on a bike as good as the 2014 YZ250F, I jumped at it.”

Valli Motorsports has signed for Yamaha of Troy and factory Honda team manager Erik Kehoe to the program for the outdoors to work alongside the Frenchman in a managerial role.

“Some of my best years as a team manager were with Yamaha,” Kehoe said. “They gave me my first shot at being a team manager and I remember quite fondly Ernesto Fonseca winning that first championship in his rookie year and then following it up right after with the then revolutionary YZ250F. I think we can recapture that magic with Pourcel and the 2014 YZ250F.”

Pourcel’s previous best results in the championship was second in 2009 and third in 2010.