With the 2025 EMX250 championship getting underway this weekend, we thought we’d have a look back at the past winners of the series. There is no doubt that the pyramid system put in place by Infront Moto Racing is working incredibly well.
At a young age, riders are able to race in the GP paddock with big crowds and rough tracks starting with the EMX125 championship and most of the talent then move up to the EMX250 series – of course some riders make the move up to MX2 straight away but in most cases that is mainly just the elite talent.
How many EMX250 champions have actually gone on to win a world title though? Quite unbelievably – only one at the moment!
The series started in 2007 before later merging with the World Championships. The only rider to ever won an EMX250 title to go on and become world champion is Romain Febvre. The French talent who had a background in Supermoto before fully focusing on Motocross won the title in 2011 – four years later he won the MXGP world title as a rookie and what a year to do it. Going into the 2015 season the hype was all around Cairoli V Villopoto but the French rookie ended up winning the title.
Interestingly it was a French rider that won the title in year one – a certain Mr Gautier Paulin back in 2007 and a French talent last won the title in Mathis Valin.
See a list of the EMX250 champions below:
The latest EMX250 champion who is chasing a world title is Mathis Valin who is now actually team mate to Romain Febvre at KRT. The French talent had a strong off-season but crashed in the first MX2 GP moto of the season whilst challenging Kay de Wolf for the lead. But fourth in the second moto shows his potential after getting a bad start.
Valin is only a rookie but already has impressive pace. It’s unlikely he’ll win the title this year even though stranger things have happened but look out for him in 2026 and beyond as he gains more experience.
It’s nice to see two British champions in the past – Mel Pocock in 2012 and Steven Clarke in 2014. There is now an U21 age rule in the EMX250 series so moving forward it’s not going to be easy for another Brit to win the title but fingers crossed!
It’ll be interesting to see the next EMX250 champion that can also go on and grab world championship glory. Janis Reišulis from Latvia will be one to keep an eye on – if it wasn’t for his knee injury last year – he’d probably already be racing the MX2 World Championship in 2025 but after being out for a full season he’ll use the EMX250 series to develop and get back into race rhythm but the future looks very bright for him.
Previous champions:
2024: Mathis Valin (France)
2023: Andrea Bonacorsi (Italy)
2022: Rick Elzinga (Netherlands)
2021: Nicholas Lapucci (Italy)
2020: Thibault Benistant (France)
2019: Roan van de Moosdijk (Netherlands)
2018: Mathys Boisramé (France)
2017: Morgan Lesiardo (Italy)
2016: Thomas Kjer Olsen (Denmark)
2015: Nick Kouwenberg (Netherlands)
2014: Steven Clarke (Great Britain)
2013: Valentin Guillod (Switzerland)
2012: Mel Pocock (Great Britain)
2011: Romain Febvre
2010: Steven Lenoir
2009: Christophe Charlier
2008: Valentin Teillet
2007: Gautier Paulin
