Valentin Guillod swops from Yamaha to join Assomotor Honda in the MXGP series next year, riding alongside Italian Alessandro Lupino on the Honda CRF450R. Mathys Boisramè joins Alberto Forato at Assomotor Honda Junior in the EMX250 team.

Swiss ace Guillod finished the 2016 championship ninth overall, one year after being in contention for the 2015 MX2 World Championship. Lupino raced for the Assomotor Honda team in 2016, and although his MXGP season was blighted by injury, he took the Italian MX1 Championship title for the second time in succession.

In 2016, Team Manager Alfredo Bevilacqua started the Assomotor Honda Junior team, and in 2017 Alberto Forato remains and is joined by Mathys Boisramè. Forato took the MX2 Under 21 Italian Championship crown this year, and Boisramè joins Honda after an EMX250 season in which he took a fourth in Spain and another fourth in France, as well as the French Elite MX2 Championship title.

The Assomotor Team was founded in 1991 by Alfredo Bevilacqua, who himself competed in the Italian Enduro championship. The team’s relationship with Honda started in 2001. In 2015 the team left Supermoto for motocross, and joined the MXGP championship with Alessandro Lupino and Kei Yamamoto. This year the Assomotor Honda Junior team was founded with Alberto Forato competing in the European and Italian Championships, and in 2017 the squad will compete in MXGP, the Swiss and Italian MXGP National Motocross Championships with Guillod and Lupino respectively, and the French and Italian MX2 National Motocross Championships with Boisramè and Forato.

Guillod said: “I’m really happy to be part of the Honda family, and I’m really looking forward to trying this new CRF450R. I watched Bobryshev riding on it the last GPs, and it was impressive. I’m going to ride for the first time out on the Honda CRF450R at the Geneva Supercross 2-3 December 2016, and I will do all that I can do to represent Honda and the team in the best way in the MXGP class.”