Rumours abound that we could very quickly see the No.377 of Christophe Pourcel back on a supercross track in the United States.

It could perhaps even be as soon as in Los Angeles this weekend, venue for round three of the AMA Supercross Championships.

Speaking in Phoenix last weekend, Team Kawasaki US manager Mike Fisher, did not hide the fact that he was looking at a rider in Europe and that he was in particular having talks with the agent of the French rider.

Fisher was keen to have a rider capable of riding the KX250F left vacant by the injured Jake Weimer, wounded while undergoing training a few days before Anaheim 1.

Weimer’s injury could well re-open the doors for Pourcel to return full-time in the US.

Pourcel was surprisingly left off the roster at the end of 2010, despite winning the East Coast Lites Supercross crown for Kawasaki and coming within a whisker of winning the AMA 250cc outdoors title as well.

He finished third in a Kawasaki 1-2-3-4 sweep in the East-West Lites Supercross shoot-out in Las Vegas last May – behind Weimer and Josh Hansen and ahead of Dean Wilson— the event that capped off the 2010 supercross season.

It turned out to be a season blighted by bad luck for Pourcel in 2010.

Coming into the season finale of the outdoors (motocross) series in Pala, California, Pourcel led Honda’s Trey Canard by seven points. As the duo battled in the first moto, both riders experienced trouble in separate crashes, but Pourcel’s resulted in a separated shoulder and when he failed to return to compete in the second moto, his championship hopes were over.

Canard ended up claiming the 250cc motocross title in America last season, while in this championship also Pourcel had to settle for third overall.

Canard is now riding, with quite some success, in the Open (MX1) class.

Watch for 2006 MX2 world champion Pourcel to rekindle his career in the US any time soon.

Watch this space!

© Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

Photo by Joe Bonnello