Nathan Watson will race the French sand race championship for the Honda France SR Motoblouz team next season, ending his factory KTM deal to race the WESS world enduro series.

The SR Honda team fields Jeremy Van Horebeek and Valentin Guillod in the MXGP series. Van Horebeek has raced some beach races for the squad which now needs to build up a separate team to focus on the beach race side as it kicks off in October – before the MXGPs end.

Watson will be joined by Lars van Berkel and Richard Fura at the Championnat de France des Sables which begins on October 24th in Loon and ends at Le Touquet on January 24. The opening round on October 11 in Berck has been axed due to Covid concernerns.

Could it pave a way for Watson to get back into MXGPs?