Coming into the 2025 season, Natalie Kane surprised many by making a return to racing, lining up to contest the Swedish Championship. Despite being away from the competitive scene for some time, the experienced racer quickly found her rhythm again and improved as the season progressed.
After rediscovering her enjoyment for racing, Kane has now confirmed that she’ll continue competing in 2026. The Irish rider will once again be a regular in the WMX Swedish series but will do so aboard new machinery – switching from Husqvarna to Kawasaki for the upcoming season. After finishing sixth in the Swedish championship this year she’ll want even better results in 2026.
It’s great to see Kane continuing to enjoy her racing, and it will be interesting to see how she adapts to the green machine as she looks ahead to another strong year on track – wouldn’t it be cool to see her wildcard a round of the world championship in 2026?!
“I am really excited about the change. It is something completely new for me since getting on the 250cc. I have never raced a Kawasaki my whole career on a 250cc. I am very happy with the change. This year I made my comeback and next year I am going to ride something completely new and why not? At this stage of my career, it’ll be nice to do something new. I actually tested the bike a few weeks ago and really enjoyed how the bike turned and the chassis. It was a standard brand-new bike I tried so we’ll do a few changes for myself. The first impression was that it’s a really nice bike to ride. I am looking forward to it and to be back with Benny, that’s the first reason why I first came to Sweden”, Kane told GateDrop.com.
“The comeback year in 2025 all in all went really good. There were a lot of ups, downs and setbacks. We’d go one step forward and then two steps back but it was nobody’s fault. I had a small injury and a few bike problems but they were just these things that happen. I do feel that if I got more riding done throughout the season like I wanted to that I would have done even better. But overall I am really happy with it – doing a full season getting the results I had and to see the speed is still there. I just need everything else to come together again and hopefully fight for a few wins or podiums”, concluded Kane.
The following announcement was made on social media:
We are super excited to finally announce that Natalie is going green for 2026 together with Bergmans Motor and Kawasaki Sverige. Benny is the reason to why Natalie come to Sweden from the beginning in 2014 and have won 3x MXSM gold medals together. So, it feels really nice to be back working together once again for next year!
Natalie hasn’t been on a Kawasaki since 2003 when she rode the KX85cc but is now really looking forward to getting back on the green machine together with this year’s Rookie of the Year Olle Mårtensson as a teammate. We are super grateful for this opportunity from Bergmans motor and Kawasaki Sweden. Let’s get the winter prep started. More partners that will team up with Natalie for 2026 will be posted shortly.
