If Romain Febvre can win this years World MXGP championship on his Kawasaki machine, he will become the first ever MXGP/500cc World champion and only the fifth (male) Kawasaki rider to be crowned World Motocross Champion.

Looking through the World motocross champions, it might be a bit of a surprise that Kawasaki have often come up short with the top prize in the sport. For those of us old enough, we saw Stefan Everts win the World 250cc championship in 1995 and Sebastien Tortelli won twice on the Kawasaki in 1996 and 1998. Mickael Maschio won a 125cc championship on the green machine in 2002 and Christophe Pourcel won a World title for Kawasaki in 2006.

Since that victory by Pourcel nearly 20 years ago, Kawasaki have struggled to pick up the major trophy and while they have had a shot on many occasions, they continued to come up short. Kawasaki have never won a 500cc GP title, which I guess you could call the MXGP class now as they race 450 machines.

Kawasaki had their first success on the GP scene when Torleif Hansen finish second in the 1978 World 250cc championship. Brad Lackey racing for Kawasaki finished second in the 1980 500cc World championship.

In 1984, Georges Jobe finished second in the 500cc World championship and in 1987 and 1988 Kurt Nicoll finished second in the World in the 500cc championship. In 1992 Edwin Evertsen finished third in the World 250cc motocross championship.

1994 Everts finished second in the World 250cc motocross championship, and Darryl King finished third in 1995, while that same season Everts won Kawasaki their first ever World title. Tallon Vohland and Sebastien Tortelli finished third in the points in the 250 and 125 classes respectively in 1995. Vohland finished third again in the 250 class in 1996.

As mentioned above, Tortelli won Kawasaki their second World title in 1996 and backed that up with a World title in the 250cc class in 1998. Pit Beirer finished second in the World 250 title race in 1999 and finished third in 2000. Chad Reed scored second overall on a Kawasaki in 2001.

Mickael Maschio won the MX2 title on Kawasaki in 2002, and Pourcel finished third in the MX2 class in 2007. Gautier Paulin finished third in the 2009 MX2 championship on green, and then Steve Frossard did the same in 2010. Tommy Searle finished third in the MX2 championship on Kawasaki in 2011 and then second in 2012.

Max Anstie finished third in the MX2 championship for Kawasaki in 2015 and Clement Desalle finished third in 2018 in the MXGP class. Romain Febvre came home second in the MXGP class in 2021 and in 2023.

Of course in the womens class, Katherine Prumm (2006, 2007), Livia Lancelot (2008 and 2016) and Courtney Duncan (2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023) have won on green.

For the men, the numbers are very low for the amount of World championships run and apart from the Everts win, its been a French monopoly for Kawasaki and the number one plate.

Kawasaki World Champions

Stefan Everts 1995

Sebastien Tortelli 1996

Sebastien Tortelli 1998

Mickeal Maschio 2002

Christophe Pourcel 2006

Pascal Haudiquert and Kawasaki image