British teenager Gradie Featherstone has scored a last-minute deal to race a Kawasaki KXF250 in the US Supercross championship.The 19-year-old will be based in California and will contest the East Coast series. Last year, he rode as a total privateer in the series and qualified for three main events. But until now he has been without a 2017 deal. He jets out to join the team tomorrow.

Featherstone has bene riding in the MotoHead-backed UK Arenacross series on an XBladez Husqvarna backed by WD-40 but has so far failed to qualify for the main event following some crashes and bad luck. The team will now look for a replacement rider for the rest of the series. The team has signed American Arenacross expert Collin Jurin for the final two rounds of the series. The team also now has 18-year-old Danish 125 champ Frederick Hojris who finished fourth in the Birmingham round on Saturday night. It’s his first season of 250 racing.

Team manager dave Willet said: “Our Arenacross project has been a real roller coaster. Everyone one has worked hard to put a bike underneath Gradie so he can go racing!

“But he’s a had a deal of a life time offered to him to follow his dream Stateside and we would never crush his dream – in fact we want to encourage him. It’s just unfortunate Gradie never really gelled in the Pro class aboard the 350.

“Looking back we maybe should have had him on a 250F in the Pro class but I went with his decision. We turned around an awesome package for Gradie thanks to all involved. We can’t think them enough. It’s just one of those things and now it’s best for all concerned to refocus on the job in hand which we already have.

“We still have Frederick Hojris on the Pro lites and Collin Jurin well make his return for the last two rounds. We are still currently looking for a second rider to join Collin. We’d like to wish Gradie all the best Stateside and we will be following him chase his dream!”