Ben Townley Cleared to Race Qatar

Despite suffering a knee injury in France last weekend at the Valence International in the Superfinal race (MX1 vs. MX2), Ben Townley will race the opening round of the FIM World Motocross Championship in Qatar later this month.

Team Suzuki World MXGP confirmed the news earlier today.

“I twisted my knee in the Superfinal and it didn’t feel good so I decided to retire from the race,” said Townley.

After a check up earlier this week, Townley was advised not to ride for a couple days. He has been cleared to race and will begin riding early next week.

“I’ve been preparing myself for over nine months now. I started at that time to be ready, if I had the opportunity to race again that I got. I’m very much looking forward to lining-up at the start and just race,” said Townley. “I don’t have any expectations, Stefan and I have discussed this a lot and my personal goal is to get the best possible starts I can, and that I can ride within myself so I can build up from there on.”

“I’m happy that it was only a minor injury. Now we can have the whole MXGP team in Qatar. We have a great new race set-up and I’m excited to start the season,” said Everts.

After retiring from full-time racing in March of 2013, the 2007 250SX East Region Champion signed a deal this off-season to race a full schedule with the Suzuki World MXGP team.