MXGP Insider No.21: RV Rumours

Welcome to our weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto‘s MXGP Insider. Penned each week by Vurbmoto’s David Bulmer, the MXGP Insider will present the story-behind-the-stories of the European motocross scene.

So this Ryan Villopoto rumour is the rumour that just keeps on giving, as more and more things just seem to fit into this possibly extraordinary story. The latest piece to fall into place, it seems, is the imminent signing of Gautier Paulin to HRC Honda for what is thought to be a significant chunk of change. Word has it that he’ll be signing for over €2million for Team Red in what is a definite statement of intent that Honda want to win a World Championship. At the beginning of this year, press releases came out about how they were changing things up, with the Japanese now taking a much bigger interest in the racing part of the motocross business and after signing Tim Gajser (someone I believe can take over from Jeffrey Herlings as MX2 World Champ… eventually), they are now looking to add a title contender to the MXGP class. And while this does sound like a lot of money (and it is), when you consider the fact that Paulin has to give up his personal sponsors like Monster, Thor etc, he won’t actually be on that much more than what KRT Kawasaki were offering. However, what that does do is free some money for the Ryan Villopoto war-chest, something that has always been my main point of realism when this rumour first started. It is still going to take a considerable sum of money to get RV to race here, and there is no getting away from that fact – whether that is Kawasaki, Monster, Thor, or Giuseppe Luongo himself, it still needs to come from somewhere.

Other things are also adding fuel to this fire though, with Villopoto reported to have sold his house/track in Florida and also having supposedly asked for Tyla Rattray to be his teammate on the Kawi. The Florida house shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise seeing as retirement is also definitely an option but the Rattray thing is rather interesting. They seem to be good friends, having travelled together for the 2011 Motocross of Nations and them also obviously having the Mitch Payton link, and with Rattray’s Husqvarna career being pretty disappointing, it doesn’t surprise me to hear him looking for a ride.

All-in-all though, this all still seems to be rather too good to be true, however I think everyone except the executives at FELD would love it to happen and if RV started a go-fund-me campaign, he may well get whatever he asked for.

It would certainly be a step in the right direction for the World Championships which have the distinct possibility of following a similar pattern to the last couple of years with Herlings and Cairoli dominating for the Red Bull KTM team. It would add a level of interest for American viewers and would no doubt see fan attendance rise across the board in what is a very interesting “provisional” 2015 GP calendar. Qatar, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, two races in Argentina, a return to Russia and Lierop/Valkenswaard being replaced by Assen are the main talking points, but like I said, this is a provisional schedule and I’d be very surprised if things didn’t change over the next eight months or so.