Sneak Peek! Christophe Pourcel on a Rockstar Husqvarna FC450 7

The rumor mill was churning this past weekend at the Santa Clara Supercross, with the possible return of Christophe Pourcel. After a bit of chatting amongst different team members, we heard he would possibly be testing with the Rockstar Husqvarna crew this week.

In Southern California, there is a typical schedule that most teams follow as to which tracks they hit during the week. This year, Pala Raceway has become the go-to place on Tuesdays and that's where we found Pourcel testing with the Rockstar Husqvarna crew.

The crew took the morning slow, as this was Christophe's first time with the Husqvarna FC450. As you can imagine, things kicked off with the team setting sag and controls before Christophe took to the track.

As always, Pourcel looks smooth and as comfortable. His first outing was his longest but once he became more accustomed to the bike, the session became shorter and the bike changes began.

The first few changes seemed a bit more minor, gearing, suspension, etc. But after a bit, the team performed an engine swap to give Christophe a broader/smoother powerplant.

During the swap, we caught up with team owner and manager, Bobby Hewitt, to ask him for more details about the test. Hewitt explained to us that they're very serious about bringing on Christophe Pourcel for the outdoors and possibly longer. He then mentioned that they haven't signed a contract with Christophe, but hope to have it done by this afternoon, if not tomorrow. When we asked if it would be for outdoors only, he commented that they have a few different offers for Pourcel to look at. Some have an even longer timespan, as the team wants to run two 450 class riders and two 250 riders next year. With Jason Anderson currently locked down through 2016, Bobby is hopeful that Christophe could be that second guy they're looking for.

The Rockstar Husqvarna team came out in full force for Pourcel's introduction to the bike. Including three mechanics, two suspension technicians from WP, Bobby Hewitt, and even Roger Decoster was on hand to overlook the test.

We spoke with Christophe briefly, and he already seemed very happy with the bike. He commented that it wasn't too difficult to get used to after his previous experience on a KTM, and the engine changes they made when we first arrived was a good direction (it's the same engine spec that Jason Anderson is currently running). When we asked about his future, he mentioned there are a few options for him. He wants to race outdoors here for 2015, but for 2016 he could do Supercross and Outdoors or possibly return to the GPs for another run at the MXGP championship. He also mentioned that he had an offer to race a 250 outdoors with another team, but he would prefer to race a 450 this go-around.

Photos and article by Michael Lindsay