Grand Prix Kawasaki Racing
Sebastien Pourcel wins MX3 world championship round in France

Sébastien Pourcel had a great weekend in Castelnau de Lévis where he won both heats and collected the third GP win of his career at the French round of the world MX3 motocross championships.

As the perfect training session for the Grand Prix Kawasaki Racing Team just one week prior to the MX1 GP of Spain, Sébastien Pourcel and Alexandre Rouis decided to enter the MX3 world series in Castelnau de Levis – one of the most famous tracks in France.

Conditions were wet on Saturday for the practice sessions but became dry for the races as the weather was sunny during the weekend. Fastest rider in the free practice sessions, Sébastien clocked the fastest lap in the timed practice period some three seconds faster than all the other riders.

On Sunday he got a good start in each race and promptly passed Jeremy Tarroux in moto one and Thomas Allier in moto two to lead both races. Much faster than all his rivals Sebastien claimed two strong wins far ahead of former MX3 champion Sven Breugelmans. His team-mate Alexandre Rouis placed in 13th in heat one and 18th in the second encounter.

Sébastien Pourcel: “It was a good event for me. In both races I had a good start and then pushed hard to post some fast laps and make a gap ahead of my rivals. I made some mistakes in the first race but I won both races easily. The goal with this race was to test the suspension and engine and it worked pretty well with two starts in the top five.

“On Saturday evening I asked the team to make some changes with the settings of the engine and we worked in the right direction. For the race the bike was perfect and I hope that I will have the same feeling next week in Spain. It was a good decision to come here, especially after the Dutch Grand Prix as it’s always better to do two races of thirty five minutes than to practice alone.”

Alexandre Rouis: “On Saturday I had a good feeling with the track, we had great grip and I had a lot of fun. It was worse for the race – twice I missed out on a good start and the track was so hard that I got arm pump. For sure I’m disappointed, I need to find at first a solution for the start as it’s always very difficult to get some decent results when you start so far back from the leaders.”

Roger Pourcel: “Seb had a good weekend here, he is faster than the MX3 riders and on Saturday he dominated the pack in all the training sessions. We did several adjustments on the bike all weekend long and that was positive with the suspension as well as the engine. Seb did two serious races, he was fast and even when he was leading he took a good rhythm to prepare the following MX1 GPs.

“Alex never found a good rhythm, his results are not what we expect and he has to find a solution in order to qualify for the next GP. I also want to say some words about Maxime Emery - the French champion who helps us when we race in France. He damaged a rib last week during the MX3 GP of Spain but qualified here and score some points despite the pain.”

HUSQVARNA BACK TO VICTORY IN MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
April 6th 2008, a date that enters in Husqvarna history with the conquest of the first MX3 World Championship GP held in Talavera de La Reina, Spain. The young riders of SIMA Husqvarna Team brought the Italian brand back to the podium after six years from the very last victory in the Motocross World Championship performed by Alex Puzar who, in 2002, won the Bulgarian GP in the 125 class.

On his TC 450, Thomas Allier surprised his rivals, proving that being young does not always mean being inexperienced. At his very first race in the MX3 World Championship, Allier got the third place in race 1, after falling three laps from the end while leading the heat.

Allier just wanted more and in heat 2 left no hope for his rivals and led the race until the very end. The French rider celebrated the victory with SIMA team and special guests Walter Scaltritti from Husqvarna Racing Dept. and Martino Bianchi PR and Racing Activities Co-ordinator, as well as with team-mate Christophe Martin, fourth overall.

Thomas declared at the end of the race, "This is all new to me, the team, the bike, but I feel supported both by SIMA and Husqvarna and this just makes me want to give all I can. This is just the beginning, the best is yet to come."