Steven Frossard on his deal with Suzuki before Mantova crash


At the start of the 2015 season things weren’t going as planned for French talent, Steven Frossard. After being shown the door by Factory Kawasaki because Ryan Villopoto wanted Tyla Rattray as his team mate, Frossard had already turned away factory rides to stay with Kawasaki ended up signing with the STR KTM team.

“I had a one year contract with Kawasaki and during the season Red Bull KTM were interested in me as well as other teams but I said no because Kawasaki told me they wanted to keep me for the next season. Then the story of Ryan Villopoto who arrived in the team. The deal was that Villopoto would be the team’s number one rider and I’d be the second rider but he said he wanted Tyla Rattray as the second rider”, Frossard told GateDrop.com.

The results weren’t as Frossard would have liked at the start of the 2015 season on the STR KTM but when Villopoto got injured, Kawasaki picked him up for the rest of the season and Frossard was quite quickly getting back to his old self on the Kawasaki.

At the MXGP of Mantova, Frossard met with Stefan Everts to sign a Suzuki contract for the 2016 season but the French talent crashed the following day and that ended his motocross career.

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“The Saturday before my crash at Mantova, I signed a pre-contract with Suzuki and Stefan Everts but I crashed the next day, Stefan called me every week and he visited me in the hospital once to see how the recovery was going. After 4 months he told me that he took another rider (Ben Townley) for the season but if I can come back that a bike would be there for me. 6 months after my crash, I met him at a race – the Valence International and just the day before I saw my doctor to check my back. I told Stefan that it wasn’t possible to come back on the bike because my back wasn’t strong enough and I needed to have another operation. After this meeting with the team and Stefan he never called me again, no news or nothing. But this is the world which we live in, it’s normal”.

Frossard had no feelings in both of his legs from his crash at Mantova and the doctor told his family he’d not be able to walk again but Frossard is happy to say the doctor was wrong as he can now walk again unaided and has pretty much made a full recovery.

As for Suzuki, at that time it was kept fairly quiet that Frossard had initially signed a deal for the 2016 season. In the end Everts signed up his good friend, Ben Townley to make an MXGP comeback.

Article: Andy McKinstry

Pic: Nigel McKinstry