THE FINAL TRILOGY BEGINS WITH THE MXGP OF TÜRKIYE.
The FIM Motocross World Championship starts the final trio of events of the series, as the MXGP of Türkiye welcomes round 17 to the Afyon Motor Sports Center in the mountainous countryside to the west of the country, roughly 450km to the south-east of the capital, Istanbul.
This will be the eighth MXGP event to be held in the Republic of Türkiye, with the first being held in 2009 at Hezarfen, in the district of Istanbul, won by Antonio Cairoli in MXGP and Zach Osborne in MX2. Since then, MXGP came back to the country in 2018 to Afyonkarahisar and has run here every year apart from 2020, returning to run two events in 2021.
The MXGP class has only seen two winners at Afyon in those six GPs. Jeffrey Herlings won all four Grands Prix for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing from 2018 to 2021 but hasn’t raced here since. The last two GPs in Türkiye have both been won by Tim Gajser for Team HRC, who comes to this event after extending his Championship points lead with a double race win at the MXGP of Switzerland.
In the MX2 division, points leader Kay de Wolf from Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing seriously helped his cause with overall victory in Frauenfeld, when a dire day for Lucas Coenen left him with a 61-point gap to chase down to his teammate. If the gap stays over 60 after the following round in China, De Wolf will be Champion a round early. Neither rider has seen the podium in Türkiye, however, as the GP was won last season by Liam Everts for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, after race wins for Simon Laengenfelder and Kevin Horgmo. Laengenfelder sits third in the 2024 series for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing but lies 104 points behind.
There will be a world title decided in Türkiye however, as the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship comes to a conclusion with the year-long battle between De Baets Yamaha star Lotte van Drunen and Daniela Guillen on the RFME Spain National Team GASGAS. They go to Afyon just 17 points apart, meaning that if Lotte wins Saturday’s race, then she will clinch the title if Daniela is fifth or worse. It is therefore highly likely to go to the very last day! Lynn Valk is 44 points off the leader, so she has an outside mathematical chance of the title for Schmicker Racing KTM. Courtney Duncan is unable to defend her title for F & H Racing Team but will feel good at a circuit where she has won four of the five WMX events ever held.
This weekend sees the penultimate round of the EMX250 Championship fight between points leader Mathis Valin for Bud Racing Kawasaki and Valerio Lata for Beddini GASGAS Factory Juniors. The gap is only 11 points between them, and Cas Valk of the Gabriel SS24 KTM is only another eight further back. This one should go right to the wire!
Tim Gajser’s domination of the MXGP of Switzerland presented by iXS leaves him in a very strong position in the three-way battle for World Championship honours, but it is still far from over. Reigning MXGP World Champion Jorge Prado now has an 18-point deficit to make up in order to take a second straight title for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing, and his most recent success here was in MX2, back in 2019. Herlings is another 24 points behind and admitting that he “needs some luck” to claim his sixth world title, sitting 42 behind Gajser.
The Dutchman has won six individual races at Afyon compared to the Slovenian’s three, while Romain Febvre has taken two race wins and two overall podiums for his current Kawasaki Racing Team. Maxime Renaux of the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP team is the only other MXGP race winner here, taking one in 2022 to add to his race wins in MX2 from each of the previous two seasons, although he is yet to win overall here, finishing third in 2023. Kevin Horgmo of Team Ship to Cycle Honda Motoblouz SR has got great memories from last season, as he won the second race in MX2, his only race victory at GP level so far.
Most of the top ten Championship positions are not too closely fought, as Jeremy Seewer currently lies in fourth place for Kawasaki Racing Team, 37 ahead of Calvin Vlaanderen, who will be fighting to return, for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, from a knee injury which kept him out of the Swiss round. Febvre is only 23 behind Vlaanderen in sixth, and 13 ahead of Fantic Factory Racing’s Glenn Coldenhoff.
Vlaanderen’s teammate Jago Geerts continues his recovery from injury and returns to a track where he was third in MX2 last season.
It’s possible for a bit of history to be made in Türkiye, as Gajser’s Swiss win put him on 49 career GP victories, one short of the former all-time record of Belgian legend Joel Robert, who is currently fifth in the all-time GP win list.
Who will come out on top in the battle of titans in Türkiye, the first of the final trilogy of races to decide the World MXGP Championship?!
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 860 Points; 2. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 842 Points; 3. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 818 Pts; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 587 Pts; 5. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 550 Pts; 6. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 527 Points; 7. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 514 Pts; 8. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 386 Pts; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 329 Pts; 10. Brian Bogers (NED, FAN), 295 Pts.
The MXGP of Switzerland presented by iXS proved to be a crucial one for Kay de Wolf, who secured his seventh GP win of the season, and saw his teammate Lucas Coenen lose massive ground with seventh overall. This makes the gap between them 61 points, more than a maximum score over a GP weekend. In fact, if De Wolf scores a maximum in Türkiye, and Coenen fails to score completely, then the World Championship will go to the Dutchman here, if he also gains 16 more points on Laengenfelder!
There is little to say about either man’s record at the Afyon Motor Sports Center, as Kay did not race here last year, and Lucas scored just nine points across all three races! The 2024 red plate holder did just miss the podium in 2022, and was top ten across all four races in 2021. Neither rider raced here during their EMX careers.
In contrast, Simon Laengenfelder took the first race victory in Türkiye last season, but a sixth in race two denied him a chance of the overall podium. The German still sits third in the Championship after his win in race two at Frauenfeld, and is mathematically still able to be Champion, but it’s looking unlikely.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammates Liam Everts and Reigning MX2 World Champion Andrea Adamo have both been on the podium in recent races, although they still have Mikkel Haarup of Monster Energy Triumph Racing between them in the points standings, sitting in fifth, 11 ahead of Adamo. Liam took his third career GP win here last season through consistent 3-2 finishes, with Adamo 9-5 as he defended his Championship lead.
Nobody else lining up in MX2 this weekend has won a GP in Türkiye, as Tom Vialle won each of the three GPs before Everts’ success. With Jorge Prado winning in 2019, it means that the Red Bull KTM team has taken the last five MX2 GP winner’s trophies away from Afyonkarahisar!
The amazing action of MX2 is likely to continue in Türkiye as the season starts to reach its conclusion and those team contracts start to get signed up!
MX2 – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 831 Points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 770 Pts; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 727 Points; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 681 Pts; 5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 581 Pts; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 570 Pts; 7. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 511 Pts; 8. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 456 Pts; 9. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 337 Pts; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 317 Pts.
Text/Bild: Infront