Suzuki teammates Joel Smets and Kevin Strijbos won both heats at the Mantova Motocross event last week aboard their prototype factory RM-Z450 Suzuki motocross machines. The aluminum-framed RM-Z450 is expected to debut in production form next August.
After qualifying, Smets rode his RM-Z450 to second place in Superpole, just 4/100ths of a second behind Yamaha’s Stefan Everts. Smets was later injured (not seriously) and unable to complete the weekend’s racing, but the RM-Z450 is already a very competitive machine. Interestingly, Suzuki claims the RM-Z450 makes more than 60 horsepower at the crank (more than 51 horsepower at the wheel), and has a dry weight of 216 pounds.
