Words: Adam Wheeler

Kawasaki has spoken publicly for the first time on the closure of their official entry for the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship.

The manufacturer will not back another team after the dissolution of the squad formerly known as CLS and who were grand prix winners with Dylan Ferrandis.

Jean Jacques Luisetti’s unit terminated contracts with riders Adam Sterry and Petar Petrov earlier this season, now officially confirming Kawasaki’s factory involvement in the class will conclude.

“We’ve had a difficult season with most of our riders being out or injured; it has had an impact on our results and from an economic point of view we have had to take a step back and assess what we are doing and where we are spending our budget,” commented Kawasaki Motor Europe racing manager Steve Guttridge, who also confirmed that sponsor Monster Energy will only back the works KRT team in MXGP in 2018.

“Unfortunately Monster have stopped with the project which has had a big impact as well. If we want to do something then we want to do it 100 percent. The concept and project with CLS was as an official team and very good support in all areas. From Kawasaki’s point of view we have to say we are stopping an official project in MX2 for 2018 and see what the future holds once we have realigned our budgets.”

Kawasaki will continue to be represented with the KX250F thanks to Steve Dixon’s DRT team and also the Dutch F&H squad, who have been linked with Sterry: “We have teams and riders that will run in MX2 so we will have presence, just no official, factory-supported entry,” Guttridge added.

Luisetti will remain in the MXGP paddock and will act as a rider agent. The experienced Frenchman is already talking with former riders like Britain’s Tommy Searle and Petrov as the Bulgarian is rumoured to be making his MXGP bow with Honda Motor Europe backing in 2018.