Kawasaki Bud Racing
Despite being one of the youngest teams involved in the Motocross World Championships, Bud Racing has rapidly become one of the most respected structures in the GP paddock. The team was one of the main players in the MX2 World Championship last season, recording GP wins and a strong third in the final standings with teenager Gautier Paulin, while veteran team partner David Vuillemin added to the laurels by taking the French national MX1 title.
To cap it all Paulin, racing a KX450F at world level for the first time, recorded a devastating moto victory in the world’s most important off-road race, the Motocross of Nations.
Created in 1995 Bud Racing built a strong reputation for engine and suspension tuning over the next decade, but by the end of the 2006 season co-owners Stephane and Sébastien Dasse decided it was time to make the next step and create their own racing team.
Although Bud has a history of tuning engines of all marques, it was significant that they should choose Kawasaki for their own team, entering the 2007 European Championship with two promising young French kids Marvin Musquin and Loic Rombaut. Musquin clinched the French supercross title and both riders ended the Euro series in the top five, their first venture onto the world scene also turning heads as Musquin finished 6th at the Italian GP of Faenza.
Encouraged to move full-time onto the world stage in 2008, the team was devastated by injury, promising young Australian Brenden Harrison, whom the team had flown from the other side of the globe, not even making it past the opening GP.
Not disillusioned by these experiences, Bud Racing then moved up a gear last season with the support of Kawasaki Europe, and the partnership continues in 2010 with two new riders and a famous coach.
Anticipation is high with the new rider duo of Nicolas Aubin in MX2 and Gregory Aranda in MX1. Aubin was the world bronze medalist in 2008, but failed to find that form on a regular basis last summer and enthusiastically accepted the opportunity to join Kawasaki to set his career back on track, while Aranda recorded regular top ten finishes in his MX1 rookie campaign and it was natural that the 20 year old, a youngster with green blood coarsing through his veins after riding Kawasaki his entire career, should transfer to Bud Racing when Kawasaki Europe asked Team CLS to concentrate their efforts solely in MX2.
Having coached Paulin last year, former world champion Jacky Vimond has been engaged by the team as physical trainer and technical advisor and the impulsive young Aranda in particular is expected to benefit greatly from the transfer of Vimond’s extensive knowledge of all aspects of the sport. The trio spent a month training in California at the turn of the year, Aranda using the trip to display his versatility and skills to an even wider audience by qualifying for a Main event in the highly-competitive world supercross series.
With such an exciting line-up Bud Racing is ready, with the support of Kawasaki Motors Europe and Kawasaki France, to reach even higher goals than last year in both classes.
