Swordy switch!
By TMX Archives on 7th Jan 05
British MX2 champion Stephen Sword will not defend his domestic title this season. Instead, the 24-year-old factory Kawasaki star will base himself in Holland at the Eindhoven workshops of team boss Jan De Groot as he attempts to win the world MX2 title. "I've sat down with Kawasaki UK and Jan and given it a lot of hard thought," explains Swordy. "But at the end of the day my contract with Jan is to race the world championship and try and win that for Kawasaki. "Kawasaki UK haven't put any pressure on me - obviously they've got their own British championship team to look after - but to be honest I'm gutted I can't do both. But I've decided to go to Holland and race the Dutch championship and be closer to the team. I need to race more in the sand - I like sand but you could hardly call me a sand specialist. If I can spend enough time in the sand it will improve both my technique and my confidence. "At the moment I know I'm not as quick as some of my world championship rivals in sand and to win a world championship you've got to be fast everywhere." With three British titles on the trot, Swordy would have started as automatic favourite to take crown #4 this year - despite a fresh injection of talent including former AMA and ACU champ Mike Brown - but the Scot's looking at the bigger picture. "I'm not moving away because I think I'm too good for the British championship, I'm moving because I want to get better in the sand and work more with the team to try and win the world title. "I'm going to miss racing over here but we've got hopefully three GPs in Britain this year and if I can get over for a round I will."