Australian Women Motocross champion last year, young Meghan Rutledge 18 years old impressed everyone earlier this year when she finished runner-up in the opening round of the FIM Women World Championship in the Netherlands. She will be back in Europe next week, and will race the remainder of the season with team Rockstar Kawasaki Bud Racing.
With the injury of Livia Lancelot, who underwent successful surgery to her knee last week but will not be able to race anymore this year, team Bud had bikes and parts but no rider in the Women series. There was a great opportunity to work with Meghan, who is supported in her native country by Kawasaki Australia, and the Australian lady will enter the next rounds of the World Championship and the X Games with Rockstar Bud Racing Kawasaki.
“It has always been a dream for me to become World Champion, and I will never forget this great opportunity that offers to me team Rockstar Bud Racing Kawasaki. I will be able to enter all the series; after my second place in the Netherlands I didn’t know how I could finish the series, now it’s up to me and only me. I think that I proved in Holland that I have my chance to race for the win; next Monday I will be in France to discover and test my new Kawasaki, and then we’ll move to Slovenia for the second round of the World Championship” said Meghan just before leaving for some months Australia.
Australian champion last year and only eighteen years old, Meghan came twice in Europe last season and already impressed with strong results. Third in Germany for the last Women GP of the season, during her fist appearance in Europe, Meghan won a few weeks later the Geneva Supercross. Fast on all kind of tracks, she proved in the sandy Dutch layout of Valkenswaard that she will be a strong contender for Chiara Fontanesi, the reigning World Champion.
The calendar of the Women World Championship:
June 9th: Slovenia; June 16th: Italy (with MX1 and MX2) ; July 7th: Croatia ; August 25th : Great Britain (with MX1 and MX2) ; September 1st : Czech Republic ; September 8th: Slovakia.
Standings in the WMX:
1.Fontanesi (ITA, Yamaha), 50; 2.Rutledge (AUS, Kawasaki), 44; 3.Kane (GBR, KTM), 40; 4.Laier (GER, Kawasaki), 35; 5.Papenmeier (GER, Suzuki), 32; etc….