Former Husqvarna riders Alessandro Lupino and Michael Leib will be teamed up again at the CLS Kawasaki team for 2013, the same team that signed Kiwi Ben Townley a season ago.

It is good news for both riders.

First for Lupino because the young Italian has shown some promise this year on the Husky TC250 and even better news for American rider Leib, who had a brief stint this year as a fill-in rider for Zach Osborne at the Bike-It Yamaha team.

Why is CLS Kawasaki hiring Lupino and Leib?

Because their current riders, Tommy Searle and Joel Roelants, are being thrown out of the 250 GP class for 2013 … because they have both turned 23 years old.

Under the age-limited FIM rule, three of the top four riders in the 250 class (Searle, Roelants and Jeremy Van Horebeek) have to move to the 450 class next year.

After five seasons racing in the United States of America, former World MX2 champion and US Lites supercross champion Townley had signed a one-year contract with Pro Circuit and Kawasaki Team CLS, to compete in the 2011 world series, but a subsequent injury forced him to the sidelines in June of that season.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com