Image: Foremost Media.

Switching to a 250-only program for the 2023 season, Empire Kawasaki has outlined a clear focus ahead of the upcoming 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship.

Last year the outfit fielded Western Australian Jayden Rykers in the MX1 class riding the KX450 alongside MX2 pairing Haruki Yokoyama and Jai Constantinou.

For this year, the Victorian-based team will be notably absent from the MX1 class altogether, choosing to emphasise its focus on the quarter-litre categories as Yokoyama and Constantinou – who sustained a broken femur this past week – are due to continue with the team in MX2.

“We made the choice to go 250 only,” explained Empire Kawasaki team manager Tyson Cherry. “We just believe it’s a better fit for us and it’ll help us progress and make our team a little bit better moving forward. Obviously, when you run a 450 program, you need a bigger budget and the riders are a lot more expensive, so that’s why we’re going in this direction.”

Expanding its focus across the 250 categories in ProMX, the team sees the addition of championship hopefuls Cambell Williams in MX3 and Taylah McCutcheon in MXW, both making the switch from Honda Racing to compete onboard the KX250.

“I think it’s good for us to support MXW, the way the world is going now in other sports like AFL and obviously motorsport too, it’s just a good avenue for us to go down,” Cherry added. “We’re stoked to have someone like Taylah representing us, we know she’s going to be competitive in the class and battle for moto wins and overall podiums, so it should be a fun year.”

The 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship commences in just over two weeks’ time, with gates dropping at the Wonthaggi circuit in Victoria on 5 March.