But his former squad, CAS Honda, has been given a big boost for 2008 with the news that it (and Martin Honda) will be provided with full HRC factory machinery.
CAS’ Mike Brown has been retained after a solid world championship comeback in 2007 and will team up with Scotland’s Billy Mackenzie, a grand prix winner last year for Kawasaki.
Martin Honda will field Julien Bill and former factory Yamaha rider Marc de Reuver, with the latter incredibly motivated for this forthcoming championship as he showed in several wins during the off season.
GP winner David Philippaerts has taken de Reuver's place at the newly named Yamaha Monster Motocross’ line-up, while Max Nagl will be the sole
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team MX1 rider, although AXO KTM Silver Action’s Jonathan Barragan will also use a factory bike after he switched from the Austrian Factory Team to the Italian based squad.
Other threats for defending champion Ramon could come from Kawasaki Racing Europe riders Tanel Leok and Manuel Priem, while TM’s Alessio Chiodi and Aprilia’s Cedric Melotte and Fabien Izoird will be aiming to challenge the front-running manufacturers.
After an incredible 2007, in which he won his second MX2 World Championship and his first MX1 GP win at
Donington Park, it is hard to imagine that Yamaha Red Bull De Carli’s Antonio Cairoli can do better in 2008.
Nevertheless, the charismatic Italian is taking no chances during what could be his last MX2 season.
"It has not been a bad pre-season period for me and we have been working with both the 250 and the 450," he said. "I did not regain the championship in 2006 after winning in 2005 and I won’t be making the same mistakes that I did back then. I expect the competition to be harder this year and people like Tommy Searle and Nicolas Aubin will be quick. It will be interesting to see what the younger riders can do as well."
