Following a career predominantly spent racing Hondas for Dave Thorpe, 22-year-old Josh Gilbert will be chasing his GP dream next season on the PAR Homes RFX Husqvarna team.

ā€œIt happened so quickly,ā€ said Josh. ā€œWe had been speaking a little bit but it all happened within the space of seven days.

ā€œDave could only offer me an MX Nationals and British championship deal and it felt like I was taking a bit of a backwards step so when this deal came up I was a bit shocked because itā€™s pretty much everything I wanted. I would have been silly to have turned it down.ā€

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After 2020 Josh will be too old to race MX2 GPs so it will be his last chance to contest the world championship on a 250 and his initial plans are to race all the European rounds along with the MXGP of Argentina.

ā€œTo start with Iā€™d like to consistently score top 20 results, which I think Iā€™m more than capable of and then break into the top 15 ā€“ it would be nice to get some top 10 finishes.

ā€œIā€™ve only done about an hour-and-a-half on the Husqvarna because the weather has been shocking but the pre-season plans sound good and weā€™ll definitely be doing Spain and it looks as though weā€™ll be testing tyres with Michelin at the end of this month and also heading to France before Christmas.

ā€œWeā€™ve also spoken about going to Sardinia which I think is an amazing place for pre-season practising.ā€

Josh, who will be team-mates with Joel Rizzi, Nathan Dixon (and just announced, Evgeny Bobryshev), will also be racing the British championship and after finishing second in 2018 and third this year heā€™s hoping GPs will help him pick up the pace.

ā€œMy goal is to be #1 ā€“ Iā€™ve had second and third now for the last two years. GP riders always seem to have a little edge when they come to ride the British championship and thatā€™s through doing the longer races and being around the faster riders. Hopefully, with doing the GPs next year I can come back to Britain and have the edge over the others.ā€

Team manager Neil Prince is looking forward to a successful season. ā€œI am really happy that Husqvarna Motorcycles UK have stepped up to help us for 2020. I have wanted to work with the brand for a number of years now and it feels good to finally be able too.

ā€œI became more involved with the team during last season and will continue to be involved with that and being a mentor to Joel Rizzi. For 2020 we have also signed Josh Gilbert. I watched him all last year and we believe we can drive and work with him to earn the championship results he deserves.ā€

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