Ex-Grand Prix winner and HRC factory rider Evgeny Bobryshev hasn’t given up hope of being part of the MXGP gate in 2018 despite being unable to find a team for the twenty-round calendar next year.
The recently-turned 30 year old has finished 3rd, 5th and 11th in the last three years in the class with nine podiums in that time and was surprisingly dropped from the Honda structure – that he has represented since 2011 – late this summer after the Japanese crew reorganised their racing efforts.
The Russian has since been associated with saddles at Yamaha and more recently with the BOS KTM team fielding Jordi Tixier but many places with works teams and top satellite efforts were already full. Suzuki will not enter a factory squad for the first time in three decades and the 24 MX Honda team also closed after an official press release was issued this week.
Bobryshev has spoken with set-ups in Australia and also the UK but has made the decision to prepare fully throughout the winter and be primed for racing as the motocross starts up again in the first weeks and months of 2018 with International meetings and domestic championships. With the Russian Grand Prix set to take place at Orlyonok again this summer #777 would be an important draw for MXGP and the event. “I haven’t been able to find the right deal but I will not lose my focus and goal of racing in Grand Prix and at the highest level because I feel I have a lot to offer still,” he said. “Of course it is not a situation I would like to be in but I will be training and riding as if I will be in the gate in Argentina. This is the only way that I know and I won’t give up now.”
Photo by Ray Archer
