Christophe Pourcel and CLS Part Ways
Below is a rough translation of a French press release that was released stating that Christophe Pourcel and his current team have parted ways. This was first reported by Moto Verte.
Last round of the 2012 Motocross World Championship, the GP of Germany was the last one for team CP377. Christophe Pourcel and Jean Jacques Luisetti, the boss of CLS, parts away but will keep a friendly relationship.
The contract between Christophe and Jean Jacques came to an end last weekend, after a strong season as Christophe won two Grand Prix and was a podium contender during the GP campaign. Coming back racing in Europe last season, Christophe had fun again on a bike and enjoyed fighting with Cairoli, Desalle and the others. He is now free of any contract and will have time to think about his future. “Unfortunately we had some issues in the last GP’s with the starts, and it affected our results; the bike was wheeling too much, and we would have continued working if the season was not finished. With bad starts it was not easy to battle with Cairoli in Italy, and in Germany it was even worse as the start was so important there. Anyway I’m happy with our results; the team didn’t exist one year ago and we won heats and GP’s in the most competitive series, with a Kawasaki that was nearly a production one against many factory bikes. Our goal was a top five results and we reached it, and with our experience I’m sure that in 2013 we would have been racing for the title. But we’ll never now as team CP377 stops racing activities, as we didn’t accumulate enough budget for next season; with Jean Jacques we’ve decided to stop our strong cooperation, and since now I’m not anymore contracted with anybody. I will for sure continue riding motocross bikes but at the moment it will be just for fun and only for fun, during the Charity Days that I will continue to organize as well as during some testing sessions or the next Supercross of Paris Bercy. It will offer me great opportunities to talk with people and friends, to enjoy riding a bike without the racing pressure. But be sure that I will prepare seriously for Bercy, as I don’t want to miss my comeback in Supercross in front of my fans” said Christophe after the German GP.
For Jean Jacques Luisetti who offered to Christophe this opportunity to comeback in GP’s, this experience will stay forever as a very good one. “We built this program with Christophe at the end of 2012, and we got great results with Christophe and Sébastien, with GP success and podiums for Christophe but also a French Elite title with Seb. Unfortunately we cant’ continue next season, for financial reasons, and it’s a shame because we have proved that we can race with the factory teams. I’m disappointed, but I’m also happy and proud to have been able to help Christophe to race the GP’s during nearly two seasons. My goal was to continue with him, but the crisis is there and we couldn’t find the solutions to go on; so we’ve decided to officialise our decision early. It will help Christophe, who has now no more contracts with us, to decide about his future. On a personal point of view, this experience will stay as one of the strongest for Jean Jacques Luisetti in his racing career” ended the French manager, who will focus next season in the MX1 class with Tommy Searle, but also on the MX2 with two GP riders and one European contender.