Current leader of the 250 European motocross championship, Mathis Valin will join the Kawasaki Racing Team next season to compete in the FIM MX2 World Championship. The French youngster, who is enjoying an impressive first season on a KX250 with Bud Racing Kawasaki, will lead the factory effort in this class.
After a successful career in the 125 class, in which he won the Junior World Championship and collected a silver medal in the European Championship last year, Mathis, who celebrated his eighteenth birthday recently, started his rookie season in the 250cc class with Bud Racing Kawasaki by racing to victory in the Junior category of the famous Enduropale du Touquet; since then he has added the French Elite title and is leading the European EMX250 Championship after seven rounds.
For his official entry to the MX2 World Championship next season with factory KX250 machinery, the Kawasaki Racing Team has reached an agreement with Team Bud Racing to allow the young prospect to enter his new challenge in the best conditions. Mathis will move to Belgium at the end of the season to start working with the KRT staff and to prepare his first attempt in the highly-competitive MX2 GP class.
“It’s a dream came true! If anyone had told me earlier this year that I would be joining the Kawasaki Racing Team at the end of the season I wouldn’t have believed them. I’m happy and proud to join the team; I think that my results helped me to earn this position and now the goal will be to carry on working hard to continue getting good results. It’s a big change for me but already this season I have left my parental home so moving to Belgium, in a team where there are already some French guys, will be OK. When I was offered this opportunity to join KRT there was no hesitation; initially the plan was for me to stay two years with Bud in the European Championship, but, as I’m currently leading the series, it’s already time to move up to the MX2 World Championship next year and I will do my best to end this current season with some more successes.”
Kawasaki KRT had no MX2 structure since Dylan Ferrandis and Petar Petrov joined the team in 2016. In fact, Ferrandis remains to this day the last Kawasaki rider to win an MX2 Grand Prix, in Loket (Czech Republic) 2016.
