2024 Motocross Of Nations | Kickstart Recap & Photo Gallery

2024 MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS | COMPLETE COVERAGE

There are a handful of crown jewel in the motocross calendar. The first is Anaheim One, when the hype of all-new everything lures everyone to Southern California. The second is the Trentino round of the MXGP series, where massive mountains surrounding the track and puts throngs of fans meters from the action and ratchet up the excitement of the motos. The third is RedBud, as the AMA series visits one of the country’s best tracks just in time for America’s patriotic holiday. A brutal sand track in the heart of Belgium’s motocross industry makes the Lommel MXGP the fourth while the spectacle of the Paris Supercross brings the year to a close in November.

But no race can compare to the Motocross of Nations.

This year’s running was billed as an all-time event, thanks to the caliber of riders from 36 competing countries, and the four exciting days spent at England’s Matterley Basin with fans from all parts of the globe helped it live up to the hype. Here’s a summary of what we saw and heard…

I got to the Norton Park hotel on Wednesday, just after Star Racing’s fleet of mechanics and Roger De Coster. A block rooms at the 54-acre spread in rural Winchester had been reserved for Team USA, but it might as well of been the host hotel for the race, as Team France, Triumph Factory Racing, Antonio Cairoli, Ryan Villopoto, and others with Youthstream-issued passes were around the lobby.

The Star Racing guys had just come from Yamaha UK’s workshop in London, where they finished building the motorcycles that got airfreighted from the USA days earlier. Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac’s late commitments to the race saved the American effort, for sure, but the effort by the wrenches to get everything necessary together and crated on just a few days’ notice made it all possible.

Steve Dixon is one of the key figures in the UK MX scene and the man responsible for this year’s MXON. A longtime team owner and part-time race promoter, Dixon’s days are spent balancing the BikeIt Kawasaki squad as it follows the world championship and making sure the scenic piece of property next to Cheesefoot Head is ready for the once-a-year event he’s contracted by the city of Winchester.

The work begins weeks ahead of time and the grassy amphitheater goes from preserved green space to world class race facility. A massive wall is erected around the track site to keep hooligans without paid tickets from rushing the gate, plots of land are mowed and marked off as campsites-parking lots-paddock spaces, and local authorities lay out alternate routes to deal with the overload of traffic that will funnel up and down the A272. The residents of the nearby hamlets have to be used to slowdowns on the narrow roads, as the next hill over from the track hosts the Boomtown music festival each summer.

The track was getting the finishing touches when I arrived on Thursday. Not a blade of grass looked out of place and workers were busy putting up the final sponsor billboards. The dirt, a dark but rocky mix that can be incredibly sticky and heavy when wet, had been tilled into massive chunks and was ready to be maintained however the weather required. Walking the track alone was a treat, a rare moment of peace before the first chainsaw was fired up or the knobby tires carved in ruts.

The trucks driven to rounds of the world championship that happen in continental Europe are far different than what’s in the United States; flat-front Scania or Iveco rigs are connected either to glassy workshops on wheels made by Dutch builder Expendable or “traditional” trailers that have more space for living quarters than hauling. Because the series was coming straight from the season finale in Spain a few days before, the afternoon was the only chance for teams to park, wash, and get ready for the busy weekend ahead.

Team France’s pit presence is the standard that all other teams now strive for. The FFM’s homebase is always a hub of activity, with space for the riders to get ready, an area for managers and spotters to strategize, and a large hospitality area for visiting guests. Others have followed suit, including Team USA’s fishbowl locker room that was parked behind the Alpinestars spread, Team Switzerland’s office on wheels that was on loan from Yamaha’s Swiss importer hostettler ag, and the working race rigs that were rented by Team Australia and Team Canada. Team personnel from different countries that I talked with during the weekend mentioned the perks of having all the riders under one roof, but there were distinctly different vibes in each area: lots of double cheek kiss greetings by the France and Switzerland pits, club music and kangaroo inflatables at the Australia truck, always happy attitudes from Canada, and nothing but business with America.

Friday is the official start to the weekend, a busy day of pomp and circumstance that includes the welcoming statements from InFront’s David Luongo and Dixon, the FIM’s official explanation of the race direction by Ingo Partsc and the ballot draw for gate pick by Antonio Alia Portela, press conferences with prominent teams, the announcement of future MXON locations, organized start practice for the riders, and an evening parade along the fan-lined fence.

Global politics really touches everything, and in the case of the MXON, we were reminded of Brexit a handful of times through the weekend. Getting the proper equipment and employee paperwork in order before crossing the English Channel is something that teams are used to by now, but a trip to the grocery store to replace food items not allowed in the country is a must. The exchange rate of pound to dollar to euro is far beyond my realm, but making sure fans got a bang for the buck with ticket prices was mentioned by Dixon during his time on stage and showed in the nighttime fun fair and on-site concession stands.

The rules explained by Partsch were straight forward, yet there were a few I could easily see a rider getting caught out by, including the difference in a displayed yellow flag (caution, jumping allowed) or a waved yellow flag (severe caution, no jumping or passing permitted) and the punishment for not adhering (loss of two positions for the first offense, ten spots the second time). Things like only the rider going to the gate when called to load it before the moto and no wiping the metal sheet or gate seemed like formalities everyone understood, but these would prove to be important later in the weekend.

The ballot draw had all the usual suspense, like Portela making the joke that deferred any responsibility for a country’s poor outcome to either of the Monster Energy girls assigned to the task, Belgium/Spain/Italy/the Netherlands getting prime spots, France and Australia pulling outside the top ten, America getting pick 24, and Germany the last spot. (Morocco, the country that got Saturday’s first gate pick in 2022 and 2023, did not attend in 2024.)

There’s nothing I can really recall about the team press conferences, as the only person who asked questions was announcer Paul Malin and everyone clearly wanted to get through the obligatory affair as quickly as possible, but everyone’s attention turned to the stage when groups of Americans and French joined David Luongo to confirm the worst kept secrets in MX of how the 2025 race will happen at Indiana’s Ironman Raceway and will be followed in 2026 at Moto Club Ernee in France. You can hear extended conversations that I had with MX Sports President Davey Coombs and Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton in this video, but simply put, the group’s trip to England was both to formally announce the race and to get a first-hand look at the infrastructure needed to accommodate the international crowd.

The return to Ernee so soon after the 2022 race was met with lukewarm response, but the decision makes sense: InFront says the best-attended MXON races happen in France/Italy/England/USA and that their intent is to cycle between these countries, and potentially, Spain. That, plus Moto Club Ernee being keen to pay the promoter cost and the natural amphitheater that offers unrestricted views of the action, make it a hard place to pass up.

There was no mention of location for the 2027 race but given that’ll be the 80th anniversary of the event, a return to Italy’s iconic Maggiora circuit seems likely.

Someone from InFront must have seen the crowd that gathered five-deep during the informal start practice at Ernee last year, because Friday’s session at Matterley Basin was an organized must-see event separated into groups. The practice spot was at flat area below the roll-in of the actual start gate, so while riders didn’t get the sensation of the transition, they still experienced things like wheelspin on the painted planks used by MXGP, which have less grip than the industrial safety weave used in the US series.

The Friday parade was good, with touching displays of patriotism by the British, German, and Australians that turned to pure fandom when the American riders were wheeled by in the bed of the Dodge Ram.

Belgian fans are all-night partiers that are there for the Red Knights, the Dutch are impossible to miss in their orange hoodies and jackets, and Slovenians go crazy for Gajser, but no country’s admiration for their riders comes close to the French. When the defending champion trio of Vialle, Febvre, and Reneaux came through late in the lineup, the heart of the smoke bomb mob began to sing their names between verses of unofficial national anthems.  

Friday was the first of a few late nights at the track, as Triumph used the evening to unveil its all-new 450cc four-stroke with Ricky Carmichael. It took the British brand five years to go from initial conversation to confirmation of final production details, and debuting the motorcycle on home soil with MXON legend Carmichael was big moment.

The interview with Carmichael, a quick catch-up with Villopoto at the hotel, passing hellos with Cairoli, and De Coster’s general presence really opened my eyes to how all-encompassing a relationship with an OEM can be for a retired rider. All four can get crowds rushing to catch a glimpse of them or, ideally, a selfie together, and while the attention is nice and the vibe is like no other, especially for a living legend, they’re at the race because they want to do their part in development, racing, and marketing.­­­­­

Seeing how the race happened almost two weeks ago, I’ll keep it light on blow-by-blow race details and say this: the two days of on-track action were billed as a potential once in a lifetime get-together between multiple generations at their peak, and from the early minutes of Free Practice to the last turn on the last lap in Moto Three, it lived up to the hype.

Saturday’s sunny skies were welcome by everyone, especially given the worries of rain in the weeks leading up to the race, but Open Class riders had to contend with harsh light and dark shadows their Qualifying Moto late in the afternoon. France’s showing on Saturday made another Sunday win seem likely and Australia cemented their status as front-runners while the Netherlands and USA reassessed their strengths and weaknesses after the results of the day.

Sunday was completely different weather-wise, as cooler temperatures, cloudy skies, and a strong wind made it feel like a proper British scramble. The steady mist wreaked havoc on goggles, an element that worked in more ways than one, because the moisture made the dirt stick together and created a brutal rocky roost.

The back-and-forth battle between New Zealand, Latvia, and Sweden in the B-Final will go down as one of 2024’s best races, as the last spots on the gate for the afternoon’s three motos was decided by riders that placed ninth, tenth, and eleventh at the checkered flag. Latvia advanced, and that in turn allowed MX2 rider Karlis Alberts Reisulis to put in an effort that caught the attention of multiple race teams.

Much has been said, and rightly so, about the top 10 speed that MX2 talents de Wolf, Laengenfelder, and Coenen showed through the weekend. All three will make important career choices as they age-out of the small-bore class, and there’s little doubt they’ll be front-runners wherever they wind up racing, but if you want an on the rise guy to cheer for in the next few years, Mikkel Haarup and Camden McLellan could be the ones to watch. The Triumph-mounted riders had impressive stamina late in the races and didn’t seem fazed to chase or pass someone like Cooper Webb, which is impressive given the contrast in career-arc.

Excitement peaked ahead of Moto Three. A handful of teams were within a few points of each other, some MX2 results didn’t look like they’d be dropped scores, and the gate was getting loaded with almost every major champion from the last five years. Any rough math was going to be decided by who came around the first turn where in the pack, and by fate, everyone of note was near the front when they came to the holeshot stripe. Every contending country had their rank rise or fall during the moto due to crashes, charges, and passes, but Australia’s historic first-ever win was confirmed when the two-lap card came out.

Anyone that says that the Motocross of Nations “doesn’t mean anything” didn’t feel the air of disappointment in the Team USA rig after the post-race press conference. It’ll be hard to top the pairing of Tomac-Webb-Plessinger, a true trio of patriots in every sense of the word, but in their opinion, they came into the weekend as written-off underdogs and every lap was a chance to show the world how good they are. Getting the Trophee des Nations for a second place was nice, but to come as close as they did to the Chamberlain Trophy and not leave with it was not sitting well with any of the three.

Team Australia were sure to soak in the moment, but celebrations in their pit and on their side of the Alpinestars hospitality truck never got out of hand. For Kyle Webster, Jett Lawrence, and Hunter Lawerence, the Chamberlain Trophy was latest accomplishment in what had been career-defining years for all three, but they were most excited about the small break they’d begin the next morning.