The Kawasaki GPKR team is pleased to announce that Kevin Strijbos has joined Sébastien Pourcel and will contest the 2008 FIM MX1 World Championship aboard a factory KX450F. Miss Livia Lancelot is the third member of the squad and will enter the Women’s World Championship on a KX250F.
Since the announcement of 2006 MX2 world champion Christophe Pourcel’s departure to the USA last year, Team Managers Patrick Geladé and Roger Pourcel were looking for a top rider as a replacement. Following the wishes of Kawasaki to concentrate their efforts in the MX1 class next season, Patrick and Roger moved to sign a two year deal with 2006 and 2007 MX1 world championship runner-up Kevin Strijbos who tested his new bike last week in Japan.
“Since we created this team with Roger Pourcel our goal has always been the same; to win races,” explained Patrick Geladé.
“When Kawasaki asked us to move into the MX1 class next season our first choice as a team-mate of Sébastien’s was Kevin Strijbos. They are two of the fastest riders in this class and between them won six GP’s and nine heats in 2007. Kevin is the rider that all the teams wanted to sign and we were proud when he made the choice to come to us. He will bring great experience and we have seen already in Japan during our testing sessions that he is a hard worker; he gave a lot of information to the Japanese engineers during the three days, and we’ll have a strong team for our third season of GP racing.”
Formerly the youngest ever MX1 factory rider, 22 year old Kevin Strijbos boasts great experience after spending several seasons alongside famous riders such as Mickael Pichon and Joel Smets. Runner-up for the last two years Strijbos has found new motivation with his switch to Kawasaki.
“I had some informal contact with GPKR earlier this season and I had a good feeling with them,” he said. “I was not so happy in my previous team where I spent five years, and when I told Patrick that I was looking for another deal they did what was necessary to convince me to join. I know that this team is young but sometimes I think that is better; you are more open and have different mentality. I’m sure that we’ll have a good partnership with Sébastien, we are friends and we will help each other to be stronger.” Sébastien Pourcel has been practicing in the USA to prepare for the Paris Bercy Supercross and is pleased with the team’s new acquisition.
“It’s important for me to have a strong team-mate, and with Kevin we have already a really good connection,” he commented. “I’m sure that we’ll be stronger after practicing together, and we will do what we can to give the best results to the team.”
For Kawasaki Europe Racing Co-ordinator Steve Guttridge the signature of Kevin Strijbos is another important step for the manufacturer: “I am so happy that the GPKR team made every effort to sign Kevin to Kawasaki for the next 2 years. His results and potential in MX1 are obvious but he is also a great guy off the bike which will inspire the team and everyone at Kawasaki to work hard for him to win races. I know we can seriously compete for a World title with Kevin but also have a lot of fun along the way!"
