Source: Kawasaki Racing.

American Ryan Villopoto has arrived in Europe to spend the MXGP pre-season testing with the Kawasaki Racing Team alongside teammate Tyla Rattray in preparation for Qatar’s season-opening round on 28 February.

Villopoto completed a number of European tests at the end of last year before spending much of the European winter in California, but has now relocated to Belgium with KRT.

“We did most of the testing last year and now we are working to finalise their preparation and also to do some fine tuning,” said Kawasaki team manager François Lemariey. “We worked closely with Japan and KMC in the US to give the best material to both riders and the main technical change is that we work this season with Showa.

“The team will soon move in Southern Italy to find some good weather, so Ryan and Tyla will be able to train daily as it’s snowing in Belgium. We have no race yet in our program before the first GP in Qatar, we’ll see how our preparation goes and how will be the weather in France and Italy, home of some pre-season races.”

Villopoto’s inclusion marks the first time ever that the reigning AMA Supercross champion will take on the FIM MXGP World Championship – only six Americans claiming a world motocross title in history.