Steven finally announced his choice today, and confirmed that he has extended his contract for one more year – with an option for 2010 – with the team which offered him the opportunity to enter the GP’s last year.

Runner-up in the 2006 European MX2 championship, Steven was unlucky last season as he got injured during the Italian Grand Prix but he never gave up to recover promptly. Dominating the French Elite series earlier this season, Steven wasn’t successful during the first GP’s but clinched his first great result – fifth in the second moto – in Italy.

Two weeks later in Great Britain he collected his first heat podium, and then finished six of the last eight rounds in the top five with a fantastic GP podium in Germany.

Steven who turned twenty one two weeks ago will now be totally focused on the racing, for the last five GP’s – starting in Belgium this weekend – as well as the French series where he will defend his leadership during the final round in two weeks time in Lacapelle Marival.

His teammate Gregory Aranda, curently in the top three of the French Elite MX1 Championship and in the top twenty of the MX2 World Championship also extended his agreement with team CLS for another season, and will race exclusively in theMX1 class.

Steven Frossard:

I took my decision one week ago, after long reflexions about the situation and the different offers that I got. I have a good experience of our Kawasaki bikes, and there are in the CLS team great people working with us, such as Jean Jacques Luisetti, Ben Contigliani, Jerome Salhi. I have full confidence in them, and I wanted to continue with them. I was just waiting to know which support will give us the factory, and when I got confirmation that Kawasaki Europe and Kawasaki Japan were helping us my choice was done. I think it’s better to stay where I am now, that’s in this team that I will have the best chances for next season. There are not so many team who offered such a great staff to their riders, for me that’s a guarantee and I know that with a hard winter training I will be stronger next season. We’ll have with us Jean Savoca, a man with a great experience who helped us a lot in South Africa. Now I’m focused on the upcoming GP’s, I will have in Lommel a new engine developed by Jerome Salhi and I expect to score some other top five results”

Gregory Aranda : 

 I didn’t signed yet my contract, but I gave my verbal agreement for next season to Jean Jacques Luisetti. I will race in the MX1 class, and we’ve decided that Lommel would be my last MX2 appearance; I will ride a 450 in Loket, in order to prepare 2009 during the last four events. I feel well in the CLS team, we have a great staff working in a good atmosphere and everyone gives his best to have success. With Steven we are friends, and we would like both to bring the team to the highest level”

Steve Guttridge (European Race Planning Manager, Kawasaki Europe):

"We are very happy to have secured Steven for next year in the fiercely competitive MX2 class with Team CLS. We have watched him closely for the past few years and knew he had tremendous potential in terms of his focused attitude and ability on a bike. Injury fee, he has been able to show us that potential this year already in both French National and World MXGP Championships. The team has developed him well and this can continue now with our full support"

Jean Jacques Luisetti (manager of team CLS):

“A dream came true, as never since I made the decision to create the team CLS I spent so much energy to convinced Steven to stay with us. I knew that he got great offers from other teams, and we had to give him all the guarantees before he made his decision. This was possible thanks to the Kawasaki family, who trust in Steven and us. I also want to thanks the family of Steven and Jean Savoca, who were a great support for us. Next year we’ll have a strong technical support from Kawasaki who will provide us factory parts, and Jerome Salhi who is our technical advisor will be fully involved in the team. Ben Contigliani our physical trainer will enter his third year with us, and we’re pleased to meet in the staff Jean Savoca, the famous and experimented osteopath who will help our riders. This entire package convinced Steven to stay with us, in a professional atmosphere, and now we are even more motivated than ever to give our best for him and his team-mates. Another great new is the fact that Gregory Aranda has also extended his contract for two more years, but in the MX1 class. He got great results in France with a 450, and thanks to Kawasaki and Youthstream he will make his GP debut in this class during the GP of Czech Republic. We have now to finalize our second MX2 rider, as we’ll have two riders in this class, and we hope that it will be Loic Larrieu who already show his potential this season.”