Nick Kouwenberg heads back to defend European 250 title
By Team TMX on 3rd Feb 16
Nick Kouwenberg has decided to end his American Supercross adventure early as he aims to focus on his preparation for defending the European 250 title.
The Oakland round of the American 250 Supercross West Region Championship, held last weekend, was the last round that the Dutchman contested before heading back to Europe to the Jtech Honda team.
Kouwenberg has shown improvement with every round raced, despite competing with a broken rib as a result of a first round crash, and was running just outside of the Main Event qualifying places for the first half of the Oakland heat race. During his time racing Supercross, Nick has proven that he has a good race pace and comes away from the series with a fastest timed practice lap in his group from Anaheim 1.
Although Nick has been gaining increased competitive time aboard the CRF250R, the Supercross riding style is vastly different to that employed by European motocross riders. Kouwenberg feels that his time would be better spent with the Jtech Honda team preparing to defend their European 250 title.
Nick will now be focusing on the first round of the 2016 European 250 season, which gets underway at Valkenswaard on March 27-28 .
Nick Kouwenberg
"It has come to an early end, but I have to think smart and choose what's the right thing to do in this moment. It is pretty clear that the level of American Supercross is really high and when you come in as a privateer with little Supercross training it is a very difficult job to be competitive with these guys. For sure the broken rib from Anaheim 1 hasn't helped. It has been a great adventure though and for sure we have learned a lot but it is time to go home and focus on bringing Honda another European 250 title. I really can't wait to get back on that Jtech Honda and get ready for Valkenswaard! There are a lot of people I need to thank: all the guys in the K1 Speed/BWR Engines/SSI decals team, Honda US and all the guys that helped me to get out here. It has been a great adventure.”
