All change at Hitachi KTM - now Husky and Jake Nicholls
The British championship-winning Hitachi KTM team have switched to KTM, retaining Ben Watson as MX2 rider and swopping Shaun Simpson for Jake Nicolls from the Wilvo KTM team. The Hitachi Construction Husky team has still not yet been officially announced - that's believed to be happening on January 1. But GP organisers Youthstream have today unveiled their officially registered teams and riders for 2016 where the swop to Husky has been confirmed.
Nicholls still doesn't have a Husky to test yet despite the first GP being two months away. Following his wedding last week, he's keen to get riding again after an injury-hit 2015 season for KTM. There are only four British riders in MXGP this year. Alongside Nicholls are Shaun Simpson (KTM), Tommy Searle (Kawasaki) and GP newcomer Alex Snow on Yamaha. In the MX2 class we have Max Anstie and Ben Watson on Husky, Adam Sterry on KTM and Yamaha's Alfie Smith. Anstie is the only genuine British factory rider as Simpson is to get factory support in the Wilvo KTM team.
Other surprises on the list include Filip Bengtsson being confirmed as a Suzuki MXGP rider for Castol Power Suzuki after losing his 24MX Honda ride to Latvian Matiss Karro. 24MX is Swedish and Bengtsson is Sweden's No1 rider while Karro is Latvian.
Japanese rider Kei Yamamoto moves up to MXGP on the Italian-based Honda Redmoto squad alongside Alessandro Lupino. The full confirmed entry list is:
o 24MX Honda Racing Honda Ken de Dycker and Matiss Karro MXGP
o DP19 Racing Yamaha David Philippaerts MXGP
o Hitachi Construction Husqvarna Jake Nicholls MXGP, Ben Watson MX2
o HONDA JTECH Damon Graulus and Henry Jacobi MX2
o HONDA GARIBOLDI Tim Gajser MXGP, Jorge Zaragoza MX2
o HSF Logistics KTM Brian Bogers, Calvin Vlaanderen and Roberts Justs MX2
o I Fly JK Racing Yamaha Alfie Smith MX2, Alex Snow MXGP
o KEMEA Yamaha Yamalube Valentin Guillod MXGP, Benoit Paturel and Brent Van Doninck MX2
o KTM Sarholz Dennis Ullrich, Angus Heidecke, Valtteri Malin and Harri Kullas MXGP
o KTM Silver Action Jens Getteman MX2
o MARCHETTI RACING TEAM KTM Jose Butron MXGP, Ivo Monticelli, Christopher Valente and Michael Grisha Ivanov MX2
o Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki Tommy Searle MXGP, Vsevolod Brylyakov MX2
o Monster Energy Kawasaki Clement Desalle and Jordi Tixier MXGP, Dylan Ferrandis and Petar Petrov MX2
o Monster Energy Yamaha Jeremy Van Horebeek and Romain Febvre MXGP
o New Holland 8biano Massignani Husqvarna Rui Goncalves MXGP, Davide De Bortoli and Giuseppe Tropepe MX2
o RED BULL KTM Jeffrey Herlings, Pauls Jonass and Davy Pootjes MX2, Tony Cairoli and Glenn Coldenhoff MXGP
o Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Max Anstie and Thomas Covington MX2, Max Nagl and Christophe Charlier MXGP
o SDM CORSE Husqvarna Davide Bonini MX2
o Team Suzuki World Jeremy Seewer and Brian Hsu MX2, Ben Townley and Kevin Strijbos MXGP
o TEAM CASTROL POWER 1 SUZUKI MOTO-BASE Filip Bengtsson MXGP
o Team Gebben v Venrooy Kawasaki Toms Macuks MXGP
o TEAM HONDA REDMOTO ASSOMOTOR Alessandro Lupino and Kei Yamamoto MXGP
o Team HRC HONDA Evgeny Bobryshev and Gautier Paulin MXGP
o Team Jimmy Joe Husqvarna Jaap Corneth MX2
o Tip Top MP32 Racing Team Yamaha Milko Potisek MXGP
o TM RACING FACTORY TEAM Samuele Bernardini MX2
o TM Racing Satellite Team Eddie Hjortmarker MX2
o Wilvo Standing Construct Yamaha Yamaha Aleksandr Tonkov and Julien Lieber MX2
o Wilvo Virus Performance KTM Shaun Simpson MXGP and Adam Sterry MX2
