FUNCHAL (Portugal), 15 January 2013 – Youthstream’s President Mr Giuseppe Luongo has travelled to Qatar to meet up with Mr Nasser Khalifa Al Attya, President of the QMMF, before the celebration of the first FIM Motocross Grand Prix in the Middle East, which will take place at Losail International Circuit during the 1st and 2nd March. On Sunday Mr Giuseppe Luongo and Mr Nasser Khalifa Al Attya hosted a press conference at the QMMF office in Doha where they officially presented the event to the numerous and enthusiastic media from the Gulf region.

While many were gorging on Christmas food over the holidays new Monster Energy Yamaha recruit Joel Roelants was putting in the miles across the cold sand of Dunkirk and enjoying his first outings in Yamaha colours and on the YZ450F. The 23 year old Belgian – a rookie to the FIM MX1 World Championship in 2013 – was able to ‘blow away the cobwebs’ after recovering from a hip operation and clocked his first laps in Blue. Roelants took some time out from his training schedule in Corsica to explain his first sensations of the factory YZ450FM and the feeling of getting back in the saddle.

The latest issue of Motocross Illustrated is online and once again we have a great issue. Interviews with two of the leading MX1 contestants Max Nagl and Ken De Dycker. A special tribute to Georges Jobe from Joel Smets and David Thorpe and a lot more.

Three new riders will be part of the JK Gebben SKS Yamaha squad for the 2013 season. The eighteen year old from Parma Simone Furlotti, who obtained the silver medal of the 2012 FIM 125cc Motocross Junior World Championship, the sixteen-year-old Leonardo Frosali and the seventeen year old Luca Mattolini will join MXGP winner Sebastién Pourcel and the young Dutch rider Herjan Brakke.

Red Bull KTM Factory rider Ken De Dycker has been working hard in the winter to find the extra speed to compete against his team-mate Antonio Cairoli. Cairoli totally dominated the second part of 2012 and everyone including De Dycker could do little but sit back and watch the six times World Motocross Champion show just how good he is.