History was made today with the first ever victory for Team Australia in the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations, as the 77th Edition of the event took place at Matterley Basin in front of the packed gallery of fans who enjoyed an incredible spectacle of racing that will live long in the memory!
It's no exaggeration to call this weekend’s event an instant classic, with stunning battles and individual performances that took the breath away, especially in the final race as excitement levels reached fever pitch with a last-ditch pass for individual glory amongst all of the team success!
The Australian team of Hunter Lawrence in the MXGP class, Kyle Webster in MX2, and the mercurial Jett Lawrence in MX Open delivered the consistent results necessary to fend off a strong challenge from Team USA, for whom Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, and Aaron Plessinger scored enough for second overall, with the Team Netherlands trio of Jeffrey Herlings, Kay de Wolf, and Glenn Coldenhoff rounding out the podium.
Despite wetter conditions than yesterday, the track was universally more appreciated by the riders, and it delivered three memorable races for the spectators to savour!
It was a familiar picture for MXGP fans at the start of race one, as the machine of Team Spain's Jorge Prado powered across the Fox Holeshot Award line to lead from Team Slovenia rider Tim Gajser, with Jeffrey Herlings in third for Team Netherlands! Through the tricky downhill third corner and into a short but difficult double jump, Team USA's Eli Tomac stuck his into fourth ahead of his old rival Team Germany's Ken Roczen.
With his customary early-race intensity, the German megastar blitzed past the American, and then Herlings briefly, before the Dutchman took the place back. Before the end of the first full circuit, Gajser forced his machine around the outside of his season-long rival Prado to take the lead, and immediately started to pull away at the front.
With Kawasaki Racing Team’s Romain Febvre closing in on the battle for third, Tomac moved Roczen aside, allowing the Frenchman up to fifth as they started lap two! He drew alongside Tomac as they dropped onto the start straight, but suddenly found a prone KTM in his path as Herlings spun to the floor, briefly holding up Febvre!
Among the riders suffering from poor starts were Team Australia Hunter Lawrence, the duo Max Anstie from Team GB and Team USA's Cooper Webb. Sadly for the host nation, Anstie crashed in the waves and had to crawl off the track, and his day was over, as were the hopes of the British team for a repeat of their 2017 podium here.
One rider making waves was the leading MX2 pilot Lucas Coenen. The Team Belgium's ider fought past Jeremy Seewer from Team Switzerland before putting an audacious move on Roczen and closing in on Prado! As he attempted to make up for the lack of power with his smaller engine, the Belgian fell at the bottom of the final big uphill on lap 11 and rolled off the track in pain, holding his shoulder with a suspected broken collarbone. His day was also over.
Gajser controlled the race to win by nearly seven seconds from Tomac, and Febvre took third after passing Prado, who took fourth, on lap five. Herlings recovered to take fifth ahead of his Dutch teammate Kay de Wolf, the rider being the first 250 home and putting Team Netherlands in the lead at the end of race one.
Seewer took seventh ahead of Hunter Lawrence, who put on an impressive charge through the pack for eighth. Team Italy's Alberto Forato had a great finish to the race by passing Roczen for ninth with three laps to go.
Webb recovered to 17th to put Team USA second in the standings, and Webster also backed up his teammate to put the Aussies in third.
Race 1 (MXGP + MX2) – Top 10 Classification: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 35:11.182; 2. Eli Tomac (USA, Yamaha), +0:06.810; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:08.978; 4. Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), +0:18.038; 5. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:28.371; 6. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:30.159; 7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +0:31.445; 8. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Honda), +0:42.032; 9. Alberto Forato (ITA, Honda), +0:51.153; 10. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), +0:58.580
For the second race in succession it was a Spaniard who took the Fox Holeshot Award, as Ruben Fernandez blasted his Team HRC firebrand into an early lead ahead of the MX2 machines of Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing rider Simon Laengenfelder and the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 machine of Karlis Reisulis, who had won the B-Final earlier in the day to help Team Latvia through into the main races. Jett Lawrence was fourth ahead of Team USA’s Red Bull KTM Factory Racing star Aaron Plessinger, before he suddenly burst through the two MX2 bikes to claim second halfway around the opening lap, and at the start of the first full circuit he blasted past his fellow Team HRC pilot to take a lead that he would never relinquish.
Battling with the 450 machines in dogged fashion was De Wolf, who passed Laengenfelder for third on lap four before falling short on a double jump and losing ground and positions. He and Plessinger passed each other several times through the race, and while the top three of Lawrence, Fernandez, and Laengenfelder would hold position from lap eight onwards, Maxime Renaux fought forward to claim fourth for Team France and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP.
De Wolf would ultimately claim fifth, and second MX2 rider in the race behind Laengenfelder. He had sealed the overall MX2 individual winner’s Gold Plate, ahead of the brilliant Reisulis, who finished in eighth ahead of Webb and the Monster Energy Triumph Racing pilot Mikkel Haarup. Laengenfelder was third overall in MX2 behind Reisulis, who helped his country from winning the B-Final to taking tenth overall at the end of the day!
The ride of the race belonged to home hero Conrad Mewse, who got tangled in a first corner crash and was 24th by the start of the first full lap. The Crendon Tru7 Honda rider picked up places at the rate of at least one a lap by half distance to get up to eighth, before passing a tired Reisulis and perhaps his biggest scalp of the day, American star Plessinger, to finish the race in sixth. It was the stand-out moment of the day for the home nation’s fans, even taking into account Jett Lawrence’s near eight-second advantage over Fernandez at the front.
Team Netherlands still held the lead despite a P18 finish for Fantic Factory Racing veteran Coldenhoff, but Team USA were just a point behind, with Team Australia in third. France held fourth as Saturday winner Tom Vialle scored a disappointing 12-22 Sunday for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. Spain was a little further back in fifth, but had a 26-point finish to drop from WZ Racing KTM rider Oriol Oliver, so were still very much in the hunt.
Race 2 (MX2 + Open) – Top 10 Classification: 1. Jett Lawrence (AUS, Honda), 36:14.723; 2. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:07.919; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:10.438; 4. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:12.162; 5. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:29.029; 6. Conrad Mewse (GBR, KTM), +0:35.536; 7. Aaron Plessinger (USA, KTM), +0:37.007; 8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:41.572; 9. Cooper Webb (USA, Yamaha), +0:43.286; 10. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:43.325
Billed as “the big one” at the end of the day, the third race of the 77th Edition of the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations was a spectacle that few will ever forget.
Few consider Eli Tomac to be a holeshot artist, but the American captain blasted into the lead at the start of race three, determined to deliver the race win that would give his country the best chance of victory. Seewer, Hunter Lawrence, Prado, and Gajser gave chase, while Roczen, Herlings, Jett Lawrence, Febvre, Forato, Plessinger, and Renaux were all in the mix! What a line-up of legendary Motocross talent!
Further back however, there was a multi-rider crash that involved Coldenhoff and Fernandez, putting Dutch and Spanish hopes of a podium in jeopardy. Prado and Tomac swapped places twice, the first of several back-and-forth battles that made this race special, but the Spaniard led at the end of the first full lap, as Gajser moved up to third past Hunter Lawrence. The Slovenian was in a determined mood on a track that he loves and whipped past Prado for second on lap four.
A lap later, both Lawrence brothers got the better of Prado to run third and fourth, and Australia started to emerge as the clear leaders overall, especially as Plessinger had slipped to eleventh. Tomac was giving it everything at the front, under pressure from Gajser, before the pair engaged in a back-and-forth slugfest that drew gasps from the crowd, an all-out Transatlantic war that saw both riders taking maximum risks for supremacy!
Gajser finally shook the American off to take a clear lead by lap nine, while Herlings and Febvre relegated Prado further down the order. A crash for Renaux had dropped him to the edge of the top ten, so the pressure was on Febvre to salvage a French podium, but he landed short on a double jump with three laps to go and despite not crashing, pulled off the track in obvious pain from the brutal landing. Team France ended their title defence in fifth spot, with Renaux second in the MX Open class.
On lap ten, Jett was starting to put the track together and use the kind of creative lines that he has become famous for. Skipping past Tomac for second place, he still had a four-second gap to close in on Gajser.
Further back, Prado dropped to an eventual 14th behind Team Canada’s Dylan Wright, with even teammate Fernandez getting past him to claim 12th. Spain finished the day in fourth, with Fernandez third in MX Open. Enzo Lopes took a fine 11th for Team Brazil behind Roczen, who saw Germany home in 6th. Renaux recovered from his crash to take ninth, Plessinger eighth, and Forato by far Team Italy’s best rider in seventh, and his country in eighth. Seewer finished his Kawasaki career with a decent sixth place to put Team Switzerland in ninth.
The battle at the front for the last five laps was spell-binding, as Jett Lawrence and Gajser both pushed to the maximum and a little bit more, especially the Australian, who saved a near nosedive over a downhill jump and barged a lapped rider out of his path in his efforts to catch the Slovenian.
The inevitable pass, when it came, was one of the finest ever seen in World Motocross. This is no exaggeration! Seasoned observers and veterans of the sport were left aghast as the Australian somehow found a completely new line out of the first corner to blast past the five-time World Champion along the Pit Lane Straight. How he turned so tight with such forward momentum was magical, and it looked as if the race was done and dusted – Jett would win and crown Team Australia’s first ever win.
Clearly, Gajser had not been given the script. Not fighting for a national victory as Slovenia went on to claim seventh, or even the class victory which was already his over Tomac and Herlings, he recovered from the shock of the move and dug in, getting back onto his fellow HRC rider’s rear wheel on the penultimate lap! A troublesome rut on an off-cambered corner seemed to kill his drive, but on the final lap he built his momentum, but still looked too far back to do anything but chase Jett across the line!
Incredibly, on the final uphill triple jump, Tim changed his flight path and dived to the inside of the penultimate corner, requiring Jett to chop the throttle mid-corner! The crowd truly went wild, and the MXGP Vice-Champion kept the inside line through the final corner to win by under half a second! It was a grandstand finish to send any Motocross fan into raptures.
With Tomac third, and Hunter backing his brother up in fourth, Team Australia were finally crowned Champions after going from third to second to first in the last three competitions. Kyle Webster did his bit behind the fastest brothers on the planet, and the Australians deserve their time, but the joy of this event was the wide-open racing between a pack of some of the greatest riders the world has ever seen.
This amazing competition will take its 78th Edition to the USA again next season, to the fantastic Ironman Raceway in Indiana, and if it is half as good as this year’s event then we will again be in for a stunning weekend of action. Matterley Basin was very special, and the flame of the Motocross of Nations continues to burn ever brighter.
Race 3 (MXGP + Open) – Top 10 Classification: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 35:51.888; 2. Jett Lawrence (AUS, Honda), +0:00.459; 3. Eli Tomac (USA, Yamaha), +0:17.172; 4. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Honda), +0:18.129; 5. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:20.434; 6. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +1:00.988; 7. Alberto Forato (ITA, Honda), +1:09.220; 8. Aaron Plessinger (USA, KTM), +1:12.390; 9. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +1:17.022; 10. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), +1:20.261
Team Slovenia’s Tim Gajser was the overall winner in the MXGP category, while in the MX2 class it was Team Netherlands’s Kay de Wolf. Team Australia’s Jett Lawrence won the overall win in the Open category while it was Team Latvia’s Karlis Reisulis who got rewarded the Ricky Carmichael Award for the youngest and best scoring rider in the class.
The top three teams were presented with their FIM medals by FIM President Jorge Viegas, ACU President Tim Lightfoot and FIM/CMS Director Antonio Alia Portela, followed by the presentation of the Champions Rings to the winning team by Infront Moto Racing CEO David Luongo.
Nations Classifications – Top 10: 1. Australia 26pts, 2. USA 29 pts, 3. The Netherlands 36pts, 4. Spain 45pts, 5. France 50pts, 6. Germany 62pts, 7. Slovenia 67pts, 8. Italy 70pts, 9. Switzerland 86pts, 10. Latvia 103pts.
Jett Lawrence: “It was good. The first one was nice and cruisy. The second one I didn't get as good a start, but that made it exciting. I had to get a good flow going. I was able to reel the front boys in and got around Tim (Gajser) but then he got payback from last year on the last lap. I got him on the last lap last year. He got me this time for a better position. But no, it was good. I'm more just excited and happy for Australia, man. It's a first timer, and I'm pumped we're able to do that with these two other guys and it's just unreal!”
Eli Tomac: “It was 100% worth it to come here. I mean we gave a strong effort of course, we wanted the win but we did all what we could and I'm proud of both these guys who rode with me. We put in the fight just a little bit short, but overall okay,”
Jeffrey Herlings: “I didn't make it easier myself and I got a good start but then crash and in the second I didn't really have a good start. But I keep fighting for the Dutch country. So we did our best, I'm really proud of the team that we could see on the podium. It was a difficult one, but I hope we get two steps higher again next year!”
MONSTER ENERGY FIM MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS QUICK FACTS:
Circuit length: 1880m
Type of ground: Hard Pack
Temperature: 15°
Weather conditions: Cloudy
Overall Weekend Crowd Attendance: 64,900