Saad Soulimani has secured an MX2 World Championship ride for the 2025 season after inking a deal with the DVS Junior Racing TM team. It’s a big opportunity for Soulimani after he finished fifth in the EMX250 series this year. After aging out of that class he needed to move up to MX2 and he has secured his ride.
Kevin Frelaud from DailyMotocross.fr recently caught up with Soulimani to discuss his opportunity…
You’re joining the DVS Junior Racing TM team for the 2025 season. How did that come about, and what attracted you to the project?
Soulimani: I started by talking to TM France. We worked out a good deal with TM France for next year, both for the elite and the SX Tour. That was already agreed before Paris Supercross. It’s really cool, I’m really happy to be riding the bikes, I really like it. After my fifth place in the EMX250 series this year, my aim was to continue and race the World Championship. We tried to find solutions, both with the factory and with this TM Team in Belgium.
The team had already spotted me during the year, without even knowing that I was going to ride with TM France; they had already approached me. Except that I wasn’t interested at the time, because I hadn’t been able to test the TM; I didn’t know what it was like. After testing TM France’s TM, we were able to work out a deal so that I could continue to aim for my world championship goals.
We managed to find a good deal. It’s really cool. I didn’t expect to do so many Grand Prix’s, but we’re still going to have a great season with them. I’m going to do just over 15 GP’s, so that’s huge. I’m really super happy. It was what I wanted from the start, to continue on the MX2 World Championship, plus the SX Tour, plus the French Elite, so it’s really given me the season I wanted.
It’s no secret that I don’t think TM is known as the most competitive bike on the grid. How do you feel about it, and what are we going to work on to prepare for 2025?
Soulimani: The TM is very under-rated, I got to test it before talking about it. Personally, I didn’t necessarily have any preconceived ideas about it. I just tested it, and I really liked the bike, especially in terms of handling. That said, we still have a lot of development work to do on the bike to make it perform well.
But already, with the few hours we’ve done, we’ve got a good bike for the moment, so I’m happy. The 2025 bike is working well, both in terms of handling and reliability. I don’t think it will be long before the bike moves up in the rankings with the other bikes, because it has the potential to do so.
What are your objectives for the World Championship next year?
Soulimani: This will be my first season in the World Championship, so my aim will be to get as close as possible to the factory riders. The aim will be to battle it out with them, and then to progress throughout the season. I may not do so well in the first few races, but I’ve got a lot of races on my calendar for next year and the aim is really to get stronger and try to get as close as possible to the top 10 and the factory riders as the season progresses.
You can read the full interview, here.
