A busy but invigorating period of transition has marked the autumn and winter phases of 2015 for Team Suzuki World MXGP but its riders – New Zealand’s Ben Townley and Belgium’s Kevin Strijbos – are now ready to go.

With former 10-time world motocross champion Stefan Everts now lending his influence and control over the Lommel-based works team along with Sylvain Geboers, the crew is ready to press ahead with an intense schedule of groundwork.

Late December the factory unit confirmed that the 2016 Hawkstone Park International in the United Kingdom will represent the first competitive outing of the new year, with Everts guiding the progress and preparation of Strijbos and Townley (Team Suzuki World MXGP with the RM-Z450), plus Swiss rider Jeremy Seewer (Team Suzuki World MX2), through tests and up to the moment when the gate drops in the dark Shropshire sand.

This race meeting on February 7 will be a memorable one in several ways.

For Everts it marks the initial major ‘adrenaline rush’ in yellow and since coming back to the brand as owner and general manager where he gained the first of his 10 world motocross titles in 1991.

For Strijbos it will be the opening chapter in a campaign where he will be keen to erase a frustrating and injury-plagued 2015 and where he will also be hoping to repeat his overall victory from 12 months previously against an expected field of MXGP peers looking to blow off the winter ‘cobwebs’.

For Townley it will be a useful competitive debut outing on the RM-Z450 and since making a surprise comeback from retirement in 2013. The 30-year-old New Zealander will be able to gauge his off-season work only three weeks before the opening Grand Prix of 18 in the 2016 MXGP trail at Losail in Qatar.

Brian Hsu has been counted out of action due to a left wrist injury but Bas Vaessen – Suzuki’s EMX250 European Championship hopeful – will line-up on the RM-Z250 alongside Seewer.

First both squads will attempt to fulfil further testing schedules during January with Everts, Strijbos, Seewer and Vaessen set for Spain in the opening week of the year for a fortnight of riding and work followed by further sessions in Belgium and possibly France. Townley is scheduled to land in Europe in mid-January and will immediately join the group.

Aside from the Hawkstone appointment Team Suzuki World MXGP is also planning to bolster the entry list of the Valence International in central France one week after the trip to the UK.

The MXGP season-opening Grand Prix of Qatar at Losail will take place on February 27.

Ben Townley’s career so far:

2015: 3rd MXoN in the MX1 class in France (with his NZ team finishing eighth overall); Tarawera 100 cross-country race winner.

2014: No international racing; Tarawera 100 cross-country race winner.

2013: No international racing; Woodville MX winner, Whakatane Summercross winner and Tarawera 100 cross-country race winner.

2012: No international racing; NZ MX1 Champion, Woodville MX winner and Whakatane Summercross winner

2011: 2nd Moto 1 Monster Energy Supercross Las Vegas; Whakatane Summercross winner.

2010: 1st race one (open class/MX2) at the Motocross of Nations in the USA (with his NZ team finishing eighth overall)/ 2nd Lakewood National / 3rd Red Bud National / 4th AMA Motocross Championship

2009: Injured

2008: Injured

2007: 1st AMA SX Lites East Coast Championship / 2nd AMA MX Lites Champion

2006: 3rd Glen Helen AMA Motocross Lites / 2nd overall Motocross of Nations in the MX2 class in the UK (with his NZ team finishing third overall)

2005: 3rd FIM World Championship MX1

2004: 1st FIM World Championship MX2 / 1st Dutch MX Championship

2003: 11th FIM World Championship 125cc

2002: 6th FIM World Championship 125cc

2001: 33rd FIM World Championship 125cc

2000: 2nd New Zealand Motocross Championship 125cc (behind Luke Burkhart)

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