MXGP #131 2024

#131 2024

JEFFREY

S G N I L HER HANGING TOUGH

CONTENT

005 EDITORIAL

010 COOL SHOTS

012 RACING CATCH UP

042 RIDERS OF THE MONTH JEFFREY HERLINGS

054 SPECIAL FEATURE TATSUKI SUZUKI PODCAST

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SPECIAL FEATURE DUCATI DEBUT

RACING CATCH UP

066 SPECIAL FEATURE JOEL SMETS 1994 VERTEMATI 600

072 HALL OF FAME THOMAS TRAVERSINI

076 PADDOCK TALKS

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MONSTER G

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SPECIAL FEATURE

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COOL SHOTS

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RIDERS OF THE MONTH MXGP MAG

GIRLS

Chief Editor: Marionna Leiva Photos: MXGP

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HALL OF FAME

INFRONT MOTO RACING MEDIA World Trade Center II Rte de Pré-Bois 29 1215 Geneva 15 Airport Switzerland MXGP Mag #131 2024 The articles published in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position of Infront Moto Racing.

Then content of this publication is based on the best knowledge and information available at the time the articles were written.

The copying of articles and photos even partially is forbidden unless permission has ben requested from Infront Moto Racing in advance and reference is made to the source (©MXGP).

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DEAR MXGP FANS, THE END OF JULY IS MARKING THE ENTRANCE INTO THE LAST PART OF THE FIM MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. WITH FOUR GRAND PRIX WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE LAST 5 WEEKS, THE RHYTHM ACCELERATED FOR THE BIGGEST PLEASURE OF OUR FOLLOWERS.

What a season!

With three Grand Prix to go, the game is still on for the MXGP Title contenders with three fantastic champions, Tim Gajser, Jorge Prado and Jeffrey Herlings, who have 14 World Titles between them.

The past month the FIM MXGP World Championship went back to Sweden and its historical track of Uddevalla. Isaak Gifting was riding home, and put a show together starting from the sighting lap and then leading the pack in Race 1 for the biggest pride of its fans and his private team JK Racing Yamaha.

Motocross is probably one of the most exciting motorsports in the world because the riders’ skills, technic and determination are still more important than the technology and the bike. It is not the first time that a rider coming from a private team has great results in MXGP and MX2.

The fight for the title is on in the MXGP class and the last three podiums of Sweden, The Netherlands and Switzerland have been completed by the top 3 of the championship. Jorge Prado won in style in Sweden, then the MXGP of The Netherlands’s victory was for Jeffrey Herlings in front of the Dutch fans, and finally Tim Gajser did a perfect Sunday with 1-1 in Switzerland on a very technical track due to the challenging weather condition. This brings the top three in 42 points with 180 points still to be distributed!

MXGP World Championship the motorsport World Championship with the biggest number of Official Manufacturers.

The next three Grand Prix will bring a lot of actions.

Turkey is now a track well known by most of the riders, but then we will then fly to China for our comeback to Shanghai after the break imposed by the Covid pandemic, and the grand finale will be in Spain on the new track of Castilla la Mancha in Cózar.

After Cózar we won’t have time to breath as the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations will take place on one of the most beautiful tracks in the World, Matterley Basin – UK. Many Federations have already announced their selection, and it promises to be mega! This event is like no other in the World, everybody still has in their memory last year’s edition at Ernée, and I am sure the British motocross fans will bring a crazy atmosphere! All the best riders in the world will be present to represent their country during the amazing event that will start on Friday with the balloting and the team presentation and it will be full of action until Sunday evening. All the experience will also be available LIVE on www.MXGP-TV.com.

Finally on the media side we are very proud to have reached 400.000 subscribers on YouTube’s MXGP Official page.

I wish you a great end of the Championship!

See you in Turkey or follow us on www.MXGP-TV.com

In MX2, Kay de Wolf and Lucas Coenen continue giving a great show. Simon Laengenfelder, Liam Everts and Mikkel Haarup are completing the top 5, and with three Grand Prix to go, many surprises can still happen.

During the MXGP of The Netherlands we had the pleasure to host the first laps of the bright new Ducati Desmo 450cc and the participation of the MXGP legend Antonio Cairoli to the Grand Prix. We cannot wait to be in 2025 to welcome Ducati in the MXGP family as a new official Manufacturer, making the

David Luongo CEO of Infront Moto Racing

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COOL SHOTS

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COOL SHOTS

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COOL SHOTS

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RACING CATCH UP

THREe GPS, THREe WINnERS! THE AUGUST TRIPLE-HEADER OF THE MXGPS OF SWEDEN, THE NETHERLANDS, AND SWITZERLAND PRESENTED DIVERSE CHALLENGES AND GAVE US THREE DIFFERENT WINNERS IN THE PREMIERE CLASS, WHILE MX2 CONTINUED WITH THE BATTLE OF THE TEAMMATES.

Sports writers and fans like to talk about athletes gaining this magical thing called “momentum”, and it often rings true that a sportsman gains this from taking a big win, or an unexpected result, bringing confidence that he has the beating of his rivals and carrying this through the season to gain the ultimate prize.

In 2024, however, we are so blessed in MXGP with a titanic three-way struggle for honours, featuring athletes who have no need for this mystical advantage.

They have enough inside of them that they can fly in the face of momentum, and in fact gain reserves of energy and motivation from the fact that they were beaten the previous weekend, or being told that they cannot pass riders, or that their series lead is under threat. With riders like Tim Gajser, Jorge Prado, and Jeffrey Herlings, the top three in the 2024 MXGP World Championship after 17 rounds, with 13 world titles and 202 Grand Prix wins between them, every race weekend starts from zero and the end result could go in any direction between them.

What we ultimately have is the three biggest dogs in World Motocross all fighting over the juiciest bone in the sport – the MXGP World Championship trophy. And it is spellbinding to witness.

In a different way, the MX2 World Championship this season is equally as entertaining. It’s a classic battle of the teammates, and the feeling between them is almost on a level with the best that Prost and Senna, or for younger readers even Hamilton and Rosberg, could serve up in those inter-team rivalries that F1 generates due to the importance of the machinery. Motocross is more dependent on the man with the throttle in his hand, so you don’t this situation as often, but in 2024 the question is usually, ‘Which Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing rider will win?’ on any given weekend, and apart from just four occasions from the first 17 rounds, it has been either Dutch series leader Kay de Wolf, or Belgian teenage tearaway Lucas Coenen that have done the winning. Unsure of the scoreline?

Just check out how many Fox “Jolly Roger” flags they have next to the racing numbers on their jerseys

– a wonderful tradition reintroduced this season – and you‘ll see that it sits as KDW 7, LC 6, after the MXGP of Switzerland. As in MXGP, it also seems that momentum counts for very little, as it shifts with almost every chequered flag.

MXGP OF SWEDEN There was very little debate about the star of the show at Uddevalla, and for once it was not a title contender, or even a race winner. The crowd told the story as home hero Isak Gifting sported a toy Viking helmet on top of his race one, and full-length Swedish flag cape on the sighting laps of each race, that only served to whip up the noise and the smoke-flares from the packed hillsides around the circuit.

Brilliantly, the Swede backed it up with a phenomenal start in the first MXGP race on Sunday, tucking inside the Fox Holeshot winner Romain Febvre and leading into the second corner! The crazy Viking fans were delirious as their man held on at the front for four laps before the factory men came through, and he brought the JK Racing Yamaha home in a solid seventh place, on cloud nine from his earlier efforts in a race he will never forget.

The big three – Gajser, Prado, and Herling – were, for once, nowhere near the front on the opening laps and had to pick their way past Gifting, Febvre, and his teammate Jeremy Seewer. Gajser, who has been stunning on Saturday’s races all season long and could owe his Championship lead to his RAM Qualifying Race results, had the best start of the title contenders and got through to the lead on lap 12, but Prado was on a mission, making a mockery of anyone who thought he couldn’t make passes. Running brilliantly around the outside of Febvre, then up the inside of Gifting by the Pit Lane, the reigning Champ eventually closed on and passed Seewer, before a stunning move on Gajser surprised the red plate holder and left the Spaniard unchallenged to the finish. With his first Sunday win for over a month, and the fact that Herlings could only recover to a distant fifth, suddenly it was the Red Bull GASGAS man who looked to be in form.

Race two only confirmed this, and although he was only denied the Fox Holeshot Award by a tyre width from Glenn Coldenhoff’s Fantic, Prado was instantly into the lead, and in classic style was simply never in

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danger of losing the lead. Even though Herlings got past Gifting to get into second fairly rapidly, it was clear that this was not the sort of circuit where “The Bullet” could make up the sort of time he did at Lommel, and second was the best he could manage. Gajser did his part to defend his series lead with a third place, but it was down to just 17 points between the previous two World Champions at the top of the table.

Behind the big three, Febvre had a decent day for fourth overall, and Calvin Vlaanderen put the factory Yamaha into fifth overall, gaining further ground on Seewer in the chase for fourth in the series. Gifting was to claim the most celebrated eighth overall possible, while Jan Pancar continued his solid rookie MXGP season as a raw privateer with tenth overall.

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In MX2, once again we have to go back to the theme of momentum counting for very little. With some beautiful

lines on the technical Uddevalla circuit, Kay de Wolf had claimed an impressive RAM Qualifying Race win on the Saturday, although he was pushed all the way by Monster Energy Triumph Racing man Mikkel Haarup. Lucas Coenen had to fight back to third, and

ON ANY GIVEN WEEKEND, AND APART FROM JUST FOUR OCCASIONS FROM THE FIRST 17 ROUNDS, IT HAS BEEN EITHER DUTCH SERIES LEADER KAY DE WOLF, OR BELGIAN TEENAGE TEARAWAY LUCAS COENEN THAT HAVE DONE THE WINNING

after a rough home GP at Lommel, everything seemed to be going De Wolf’s way.

For Sunday’s races, however, fortunes swung completely in the Belgian teenager’s direction, as a mistake in turn two of race one saw De Wolf suddenly on the ropes, while Coenen made a swift move on Simon Laengenfelder to romp away with the first race win. The Dutchman crashed again on the second lap and faced a tough battle to get back to seventh at the flag. While his teammate repeated the feat in race two, the red plate holder was visibly conserving himself with a steady fourth place, although both riders nearly had disastrous contact with the same lapped rider, showing how quickly fate could twist the battle drastically in either direction.

Behind them, Haarup was again strong with second in race two, but again was denied a podium with an uninspiring second race. Andrea Adamo recovered well after being forced to miss Lommel with his injuries from Loket, and Laengenfelder converted his two holeshots into another podium finish, although he surely must be tired of not being able to match the Husqvarna men enough to claim a GP win in 2024.

MXGP OF THE NETHERLANDS Nobody enjoys a home advantage quite like the Dutch in their own country, with the sand of the sea-level nation being so unique that riders train for years to master it. Jorge Prado is such a rider, and after being defeated by Jeffrey Herlings at Lommel, this was almost the decider for the “King of Sand” title that

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the Spaniard had so brazenly claimed in his winner’s interview back in Sardegna.

The attention on home hero Herlings, going for his 15th win on home soil, but his first for four years, was slightly lifted by the debut of Ducati, with Antonio Cairoli on board. You can see the separate story in this magazine to see how that went.

Although both Herlings and Gajser benefitted from the speed of Coldenhoff and Febvre, who went 1-2 on Saturday in front of Prado, it looked like there was going to be no such reprieve for them on Sunday, as the Champ powered past the local Fantic man and made hey at the front, while after four laps and one botched attack on Febvre, Herlings was still in seventh position and 18 seconds down on the leader.

If we thought that Lommel was something special, this was almost better again. Dealing with Seewer and the fast-starting Kevin Horgmo, “The Bullet” still took until lap ten to haul in Febvre, but the gap to the front kept on reducing as he charged forward relentlessly.

As he passed Gajser with a savagely fast manoeuvre, he could look up and see the leading two of Prado and Coldenhoff. Catching up to Glenn gave him a massive near miss, as the two Dutchmen almost clashed in mid-air, a cigarette paper’s width between them! Unperturbed, Herlings simply powered round the outside of his countryman into second on the following corner. Prado succumbed to the inevitable with three laps remaining, but in truly persistent fashion kept the pressure on when Jeffrey nearly left the track shortly after making the pass.

Visibly sighing with relief at the end of the race, it was another vintage Herlings performance. Just how many more of these can he produce in his suddenly lengthy career? Well, race two was made easier for him with a much better start, and by half-distance he had already powered past Gajser and Prado in quick succession to claim his first GP victory at Arnhem, the 107th of his career in total.

A stubborn Gajser had held Coldenhoff back to keep the overall podium, but now Prado was just nine points adrift of his series lead, and even though both men did their best to convince each other that their favourite tracks are still to come, it was somehow easier to believe Jorge’s conviction more than Tim’s. How wrong we were!

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After hearing the Dutch national anthem play for both EMX125 winner Gyan Doensen, and new WMX superstar Lotte van Drunen, the home crowd fully expected another recital of it following MX2. However, Lucas Coenen had served notice of his pace by winning Saturday’s RAM Qualifying Race, although not many noticed as the crowd was cooing over De Wolf’s recovery from a first lap pile-up to claim second with an imperious charge through the pack, finishing 21 seconds down on his teammate.

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The first GP race was a comfortable jaunt to victory for Kay, with Lucas starting poorly and fighting back to second. However, the Belgian sent a message by marching up to the rear wheel of his teammate, finishing less than a second behind at the flag, and motioning to his team that he would get him next time. It was a statement of intent and self-confidence that was not to be ignored.

The pair started side-by-side, and as Sacha Coenen took Fox Holeshot number 16 to seal that award for the season, De Wolf was planting his brother against the inside of the track to give himself a clear advantage into the opening lap. It looked to be game over as Lucas was even further back than he was in race one. However, this is where Sacha did help out his twin, by holding his pace at the front enough to force De Wolf to charge after him. As Lucas worked up to third, Kay suddenly dropped the bike while closing on Sacha and let the other Nestaan man go through! By lap nine the teammates were first and second again, but trying to close the gap led to a massive crash for De Wolf that he was lucky to get up from. His bike suffered the impact instead, and although he restarted, Adamo and a spirited Camden McLellan both went by to relegate the points leader to fourth. It would be the Belgian anthem that rung out over Arnhem instead, as the points gap shrunk to 44 – entirely possible with four GPs to go.

Adamo again landed on the podium, celebrating it like a GP victory, and McLellan’s fourth overall was amongst his best performances for Monster Energy Triumph Racing.

MXGP OF SWITZERLAND So then, Gajser was on the ropes, and Prado was coming.

And now they’re going to the hard pack of Switzerland, a short track that favoured a good starter. Saturday saw another win for Jorge, cutting the points gap to eight, although Tim put in a good show for second. Herlings, meanwhile, was suffering with starts again, and had to work past two more fast riders returning from injury, Ruben Fernandez and Maxime Renaux, as well as the alwaysinspired Swiss hero Seewer, who would start his 200th consecutive GP on Sunday.

Team HRC boss Giacomo Gariboldi had told Paul Malin in the Studio Show that nothing short of a win would do the job, and the intent on Gajser was evident throughout Sunday. Barging up the inside of Fox Holeshot winner Renaux before the end of lap one, the Slovenian somehow just had more pace than anyone, and as Prado suffered a mid-race lull which allowed Herlings, and others to pass him, the Champ recovered to third to reduce the points loss to just five. Even so, the way that Tim was able to light the fuse and just go to the front was a surprise to many after a month of not winning on Sundays. Again, momentum is not something that these guys rely on!

The five-time Champ had to work harder again in race two, but not as much as the Dutch five-time Champ! Herlings was buried again, with Tim making urgent passes on lap

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one to finish it in fifth. Prado got past the resurgent Renaux to lead on lap seven, but again Gajser was simply not to be denied, blasting the Honda CRF around the outside of his rival and powering away at the front.

Herlings had to dig deep again to recover to second, getting around Prado with an audacious move through the deep ruts of a sharp 180-degree right-hand turn.

A glorious pass but he still lost points to Gajser, who doubled his points lead over the weekend to a much healthier 18!

Lucas Coenen dominated the MX2 RAM Qualifying Race, and it looked like his momentum was building as De Wolf crashed heavily while closing in on his teammate! The points leader recovered to still claim second, but he looked shaken by the incident.

All of that melted away on Sunday, as the wetter conditions seemed to baffle Coenen, who simply struggled for pace, being blown out of a corner by Liam Everts, who was on fire with glorious passes throughout the day. In the latter stages the Husqvarna man got passed by Haarup for fifth, then he ran across the bottom of the big, banked corner, earning himself a two-position penalty to land himself in eighth. As De Wolf passed the returning Thibault Benistant for the lead, then held off a late charge from Everts, the points gap was back up to over 60 between them.

Race two would be little better for Lucas, as an early crash dropped him outside of the top ten, eventually requiring a fight back to seventh. With De Wolf able to ride cautiously on the tricky circuit, which was not to his

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liking, the Dutchman claimed third for another Grand Prix win.

Karlis Reisulis was a revelation with the Fox Holeshot and twelve laps at the front of the pack, only being caught and passed by Laengenfelder in the final third of the race. Truly the Latvian is a talent to watch out for with results like this before the end of his first full year!

He just missed the podium spot to Everts in the final reckoning, but for sure he has sealed his place on that factory Yamaha team for 2025.

As they head to the final three GPs, it is looking possible that Kay de Wolf could seal his first World Championship with a round to go, that gap over Lucas now over the 60 points available in a GP weekend.

As he turns 20 on the final day of the Championship, this would make for a more relaxing birthday in the end! However, in this glorious season of unpredictable results in both classes, anything is possible on the tough terrain of Turkiye and China, before the big unknown circuit at Cozar closes the season.

As for MXGP, Gajser is always fast in Turkiye, and could feasibly claim his 50th GP victory there, making him equal fifth on the all-time list alongside the great Joel Robert. However, Herlings has never been beaten in a GP overall at the Afyon Sports Centre and needs the points more than anyone to stay in the hunt. Prado took a double MX2 victory there in 2019, and surely the Champ won’t allow the others to spoil a final GP title party in his home country at Cozar? Any one of these three legends could still take the 2024 crown. Fingers crossed we can still say that as we start the MXGP of Castilla La Mancha on September the 28th. It’s going to be a mighty battle to finish the year!

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MONSTER GIRLS

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MONSTER GIRLS

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RIDER OF THE MONTH

HANGING TOUGH The 2024 MXGP season has been nothing but sensational, with three riders still in with a chance of becoming World Champion with just three rounds remaining. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings is one of those still in the fight, quite literally, but as we head to Turkey the Dutchman trails Tim Gajser by forty-two points and Jorge Prado by twentyfour. MXGP Magazine caught up with ‘The Bullet’ on the eve of the MXGP of Switzerland where our Rider of the Month shed some light on some of the highs and lows of his fifteenth world championship campaign.

Motocross is tough! How tough? Ask Jeffrey Herlings! The five-time motocross world champion is almost at the end of his fifteenth term as a professional grand prix racer and if anyone personifies what it takes to get knocked down, get back up, re-group and go again, it’s him. His five world titles only portray part of his journey, and from the outside looking in, you would come to the conclusion that winning five titles is pretty impressive.

And it is. Obviously! The reality though, is that Jeffrey’s success has come at a price; injuries have played a massive part in his career, which truth be told, could have seen him add another three, maybe four more titles to his impressive CV. But rather than dwell on those lost opportunities, the soon-to-be thirty-year old continues to battle on, in the hope of adding another title or two to his collection before he hangs up his boots sometime further down the track.

TOUGH TIMES Since he won the 2021 MXGP World Championship, things haven’t exactly gone according to plan these past couple of years.

An injury at a pre-season photo shoot kept him out of the series for the entire 2022 campaign, and with his 2023 season marred by further setback’s, including a collarbone injury later in the year, it was clear that the

five-time champ might not quite be up to speed come the start of the new season.

With the anticipation of any new campaign, we never really know what we are going to get, but in MXGP you can always assume that when all the main players are fit, then it’s fair to suggest that any one of three, four, maybe even five riders can win a GP. What we didn’t expect was a rampant Jorge Prado, who won six of the first eight races, winning the first four GP’s overall! With Tim Gajser, it was a similar story, with the Slovenian on the podium at the first five rounds. Romain Febvre was in on the action as well, with six podiums in seven rounds.

As for Herlings, his return from the first five rounds was one race win and one podium, a 3rd overall in Sardinia. Since round six though, the ‘84’ has yet to finish off the podium, and when he took his first overall GP win in Latvia, round nine, it had been just over a year between wins.

A philosophical Herlings reflected on his first win in more than a year when we touched base with him in Maggiora, as well as his start to the season by saying, ‘Yeah, it took a long

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time; obviously I was unlucky in Portugal, that should’ve been my first GP win this year. The DNF in the first race when I was really close to winning, or getting 2nd, so we could’ve gone 1-1 or 2-1 and would, could, should … anyway, it didn’t happen, so I think it was round nine when I finally won in Latvia, hopefully we can keep building from here. It’s gonna be tough, the competition is strong, Tim is fast, as is Jorge, so yeah, I at least will try to win a few this year, that’s the goal.’

Having waited so long for that elusive 104th grand prix victory, did he ever feel that it was never going to happen?

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‘No! I really thought I could still win a race this year, I knew especially the first four or five

races okay, I never raced 2022, and basically half of 2023, so I’m far behind the rest; I’m not getting any younger, I turn 30 later this year, so I knew it was going to take a while.

I expected it to come a bit quicker because also now for the championship I’m pretty far behind. We are halfway through the season at this round (Italy) and I’m around 60 points behind (68, Ed.) The DNF didn’t help, but yeah, I wish it could have come earlier but I still hope and believe that I can still win a couple more during the season. I’ve got a few good tracks coming up, like Lommel, Arnhem, tracks that I really, really like so at least I should be able to fight for the win (there).’

KEY INGREDIENTS To be able to fight for the win though, you need a few ingredients, especially if this year’s

championship is anything to go by, and those are: starts, sprint speed early in the race and fitness, and whilst Jeffrey won the GP in Latvia, in his words he didn’t dominate it and went on to add more detail as to where he felt he was at, at that time in the championship:

WE KEEP FIGHTING FOR EVERY POSITION BETTER, BUT I’M ALSO REALISTIC. IF I DON’T START BETTER LIKE I DID, IT’S GONNA BE DIFFICULT, AND NOW I’M COMING TO TRACKS WHERE THE OTHER TWO ARE REALLY GOOD AT AS WELL

‘It’s not like I was dominating; okay, I had the win, but I wasn’t lucky to win. I was good, but I wasn’t dominant or anything. Right now, I feel there’s a lot of potential, I’m a bit like the underdog right now because everybody is expecting Tim and Jorge to win and I’m the fifth wheel on the car, let’s say, but I’m holding on tight and when I get my opportunity, I try to take it, and the season is not over until it’s over and anything can happen. You see this year, with all the rain we’ve had again today, it’s a long season. There are still eleven races to go right now, and it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.’

When Jeffrey got a decent start in Latvia and was behind Gajser, when asked if he was holding back due to the muddy conditions and not wanting to get roosted, his response was quite refreshing:

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‘Well, I couldn’t follow him. I’m actually gonna be honest. In the beginning I didn’t want the roost, but after two laps they (Jorge and Tim) started pulling away and I was like, I need to hold on, but I just couldn’t. They were a bit quicker in the beginning but halfway, I felt like I had the speed to close them back in, and I did close them back in; it’s just the opening few laps is my weak point for now. They were faster (in the beginning) but always, when it’s dry, especially in the first five laps they are faster. Four or five laps/ten minutes into the race I mostly have the speed that they have, to hunt them down, but I don’t have the opening speed yet. I don’t know when I’ll get it, and we are halfway into the season, so it’s time to get it by now, but they are my weak points for now; starts and my opening four or five laps. But my starts were better and I was 2nd twice, so that was good.’

I FEEL THERE’S A LOT OF POTENTIAL, I’M A BIT LIKE THE UNDERDOG RIGHT NOW BECAUSE EVERYBODY IS EXPECTING TIM AND JORGE TO WIN AND I’M THE FIFTH WHEEL ON THE CAR FIGHTING BACK In the two Indonesia rounds, Jeffrey won three of the four races before adding two more wins at the MXGP of Flanders in Lommel, and at that point, momentum was clearly on his side, reducing the points deficit from Gajser to thirty-eight points and fourteen to Prado. However, in Sweden, we saw once again how the pendulum of luck can swing in the opposite direction, and when Calvin Vlaanderen fell in front of him in the first turn in the RAM Qualifying Race, and Gajser cross rutted at the start of race one and nudged Jeffrey off the track in turn two, his seventh in the RAM race and his 5-2 on Sunday meant he’d lost ground once again, slipping to fortyeight points behind Gajser.

His second and two race wins at home in The Netherlands reduced the gap to thirty-five, but with four rounds to go, time was starting to run out. One thing you cannot do though, is knock his efforts or his desire to want to win, which is even more impressive when you think that he has not taken a weekend off from racing all season long as he chooses to compete in the British Championship when there is a break in the MXGP calendar. But why though?

‘I think it’s much better for me to keep racing, obviously until now I’ve been quite good on

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the injury side, apart from breaking my ribs in Sardinia, and I hurt my back before Arnhem. I didn’t crash, but I have something with my back.

But yeah, racing in England has helped me a lot because Conrad Mewse is always quite fast there and it was very safe racing with maybe 20-25 guys on the line, so it was always me and Conrad always first and second most of the time, and I could really use it as a practice because the tracks were watered, full of grip, lines, rough, rutted. I like that more and I just have the race rhythm and I really enjoy it. Also, the level is a bit less than MXGP, so I can really take it as a good practice, focus on the start, have guys next to me and I just use it as a practice. I just like doing races way more than doing practices.’

A quick look at the how the season has gone since round six in Galicia to Switzerland, and one thing stands out; Herlings has landed on the podium in twelve consecutive GP’s, whilst Tim and Jorge have ‘only’ managed nine each. He’s had the most race wins in that time as well, with eleven, compared to the eight of Prado, and five of Gajser, and when asked how he feels in 2024 compared to 2021 when he last won the title, his response was this: ‘I think from race six onwards, I’m the same as 2021; if you look from race five, I’ve scored the most points of everyone but it doesn’t help me, doesn’t bring me anything, doesn’t bring me a championship, doesn’t bring me anything, I know, but I think from then on, I’m a little bit the

same as 2021, just from 2021 the luck was more on my side. I had Tim breaking a collarbone which really, I hate that anyone gets hurt, but that weekend he gave me thirty or forty points, something like that. Then I had Jorge missing the second moto in Teutschenthal, he was 5th at the next race because of the crash. Tony missed Sardinia, so due to that I was a bit lucky, where this year I have been everything but lucky because I’ve had like four or five start crashes, Arco, Sweden, a couple more, had a DNF, so I just feel like the luck wasn’t on my side this year.’

As for the numbers Jeffrey just mentioned, from round five in Portugal to The Netherlands

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the points scored from the top three were as follows:

clicking a bit better, the speed is quite there and fitness is really good.’

Tim 595

With 180 points still on the line heading into Turkey, what’s the plan now? Just go and win as many races as possible?

Jorge 573 Jeffrey 602 However, with Switzerland now in the books where Tim went 2-1-1, Jorge went 1-3-3 and Jeffrey 3-2-2, those stats now look like this: Tim 654 Jorge 623 Jeffrey 654

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With just three rounds remaining in Turkey, China and Spain, according to Jeffrey, ‘the starts are still missing (*he’s not had a Fox holeshot since France, Race 1 in 2021 at Lacapelle-Marival) my sprint speed is still missing, but regarding fitness, I don’t think anyone can argue about the fitness part. I’ve been very consistent, won quite some moto’s and I think in the last six or seven races I was really, really good, won quite a few overalls (4) so yeah, I think everything is just

‘I just want to do my best, like, at the beginning of the year I had one goal; finish for the first time; actually since 2012, I did one year where I did all the races, which was 2017, even though I had a broken hand, (at the start of the season), so my goal was just to finish all of the races. If I would be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, I honestly didn’t care, but now I’m pretty close, but I think I lost it at the first five races.

But it’s still possible. Top three is more or less safe by now, but yeah, we keep fighting for every position better, but I’m also realistic.

If I don’t start better like I did, it’s gonna be difficult, and now I’m coming to tracks where the other two are really good at as well, you know?’

As always you can catch all the action from the remaining rounds LIVE on www.mxgp-tv. com and it’s our guess that you would not want to miss a single minute of it. We will see you there!

JORGE PRADO GARCIA 2023 MXGP WORLD CHAMPION

ANDREA ADAMO

2023 MX2 WORLD CHAMPION

“WE SELL WHAT WE RACE, WE RACE WHAT WE SELL”

PODCAST

TATSUKI SUZUKI DURING THE MXGP OF ITALY AT MAGGIORA, WE HAD A CHANCE TO HAVE THE MOTO3 RIDER TATSUKI SUZUKI FOR A SPECIAL EDITION PODCAST ABOUT HIS MOTO3 CAREER AND HIS PASSION FOR MOTOCROSS.

CLICK HERE

TO HEAR OR WATCH THE PODCAST

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SPECIAL FEATURE

DUCATI DEBUT � THE NEW PLAYERS ARrIVE - WITH AN OLD FAVOURITE! TWO ITALIAN LEGENDS CONVERGED TO PROVIDE BOTH A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE AND A DIP INTO THE PAST AS THE MIGHTY DUCATI CONCERN MADE ITS DEBUT AT ARNHEM, WITH A CERTAIN ANTONIO CAIROLI BEHIND THE HANDLEBARS.

Even if your national flag does not consist of a green, white, and red tricolore, the news that broke just a week before the MXGP of The Netherlands was massively exciting on many different levels.

There can be no doubt that Ducati has, over the course of the last 30 years, put itself in the position of being a kind of two-wheeled Ferrari, one of the most famous motorcycle brands in the world with an air of both mechanical mastery and delicious design. A myriad of iconic racing machinery has poured forth from the Bologna factory gates, and racing legends such as Carl Fogarty, Troy Corser, Casey Stoner, and current MotoGP World Champion Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia have only elevated Ducati’s status with their sporting successes.

heading the new project for Ducati, so it’s very exciting!”

The sight of the blood red banners with that familiar name appearing in the MXGP Paddock, therefore, was still incredible to see even if it was no surprise. Since the beginning of 2023, they have taken the expertise of the best ever Italian Motocross racer, nine-time World Champion Antonio Cairoli, into the fold in order to help develop their Desmo450 MX model into a competitive machine. Tony’s friend Alessandro Lupino has been campaigning the bike locally, holding third in the Italian Pro Prestige Championship until an injury halted his progress, and Antonio raced it at Maggiora in June. He won the event, although as a test it wasn’t ideal, being even muddier than the MXGP round there a few weeks before.

PASSION Speaking to Paolo Ciabatti, the General Manager of Ducati Corse Off-Road and a famous pillar of the brand’s management team, it’s clear that the passion is there for off-road motorcycle sport: “All my generation, and I am almost 67 years old, we grew up watching ‘On Any Sunday’, the fantastic movie with Steve McQueen and the mostly offroad racing world in the US. We all started racing Motocross on a 50cc or a 125cc. I was not that good, so in my second race I crashed very badly, I had to spend a few months in hospital, and then my Motocross career was over! It was still my first passion, and that of Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali, and now many years later I am

Finally, though, the Ducati was lining up in MXGP. The journalists and statisticians were loving life – all of the MXGP World Champions for the last 15 years were on the line, 23 titles between them.

Herlings and Cairoli alone gave you 200 GP wins from just two riders, and four of the top seven of all time on the GP win list were behind the gate!

Plus, like we have seen in MX2 this season with the arrival of Triumph, there were nine brands of motorcycle on the grid for the first time in decades. The Japanese trio of Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha. The Austrian trio of KTM, Husqvarna, and GASGAS. And now, the Italian trio of Beta, Fantic… and Ducati.

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Unlike the British brand coming in with the 250cc machine, however, the latest and possibly greatest Italian brand has come in straight at the top, with a 450cc motorcycle. Paolo is very clear that this is a part of Ducati’s usual strategy: “There was a lot of discussion when the project was approved, if we should start with a 250cc or a 450cc. Ducati has always launched the top of the range model, and then come out a year later with, let’s say, the younger sister? So like the Panigale before, then the Panigale V2 is following. Back in the old days it was the Ducati 916 and then the 748. So finally the decision was that yes, we are Ducati, so we start from the most difficult, the most competitive, the most challenging class, which is the 450cc, and the 250cc will follow the year after.” One may argue that this is a wise tactic, as horsepower in itself is not as important in the 450cc division as it is with a 250cc, and as their unique engine design and hand-crafted frame go through the rigours of

World Championship Motocross, there are sure to be developments that will help when they finally turn to the MX2 division as well.

PIONEERING The company has been a pioneer in many forms of motorcycle racing. The single-sided swingarm on their early Superbike machines, through to the revolutionary ride-height adjustment and aerodynamics that have changed the face of MotoGP in recent years, have all added to the reputation of the brand for out-of-the-box thinking that has actually proven to be effective.

The question is will they be able to bring this philosophy to the Motocross world, where bikes have looked very similar since the shift to fourstroke in the 2000s. Paolo gives us an idea of how they are getting off the ground to start with: “To design the new bike, obviously we did what

any company should do. We extensively analysed all the best bikes from the competition, and we took a lot of good ideas, but we also saw some solutions that we were not really convinced about.

So basically, with the engine, we are the only one using the Desmodromic Valve system, because it is a kind of key feature of Ducati sports bikes. We also have a very unique frame, if you look at our bike you see that our frame is very peculiar, it has very little welding on it, and we’re pretty happy with the result we have achieved so far. I think we managed to obviously get some good ideas from the other factories, but then we decided to go our own way, at least with the engine and the chassis.”

Listening to the bike in close quarters during the Arnhem Start Practice session, many were

surprised that the bike sounded, well, on the quiet side. That is mainly because they are already playing by future rules, as the 2025 regulations will drop the engine sound limits from 112 decibels (with a two-decibel tolerance at the end of races) to around 109. The Desmo450 MX went through the tests at 108.9, and as Paul Malin stated in commentary, if the sound is limited, so too is the horsepower. It was apparent, however, that the Ducati goes through the gears incredibly smoothly, unsurprising when you consider just how far their seamless shift technology has developed in disciplines such as MotoGP. Even with these limitations, and the fact that it is still very much a prototype production machine as opposed to a super-tuned racing special, the familiar #222 was still in the top three heading

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out of the first left-right sequence of corners in Saturday’s RAM Qualifying Race, the bike’s first World Championship level gate-drop! Even considering Cairoli’s usual starting prowess, that is seriously impressive.

ITALIAN ICON Cairoli, of course, is an Italian icon in his own right. The most successful Italian Motocross rider of all-time by some margin – his 94 GP wins and 9 world titles are almost triple those of the next best Italian, Alessio Chiodi, with 27 wins and 3 titles – he made his GP debut in 2002 and almost set the template for the modern racer, moving to Belgium and pounding the local sand circuits to overcome the natural disadvantage of being raised in a country with mainly rock-hard surfaces. Such is his affinity for sandy terrain that it influenced the decision for the location of the Desmo450 MX machine’s debut.

Antonio himself explains: “Basically, sand is my favourite soil, since I was a kid, I really loved it, and it’s easier for me to ride than hard-pack. That might look strange because I’m Italian, but I really, really enjoy the sand, and also because we were testing in The Netherlands and Belgium for the last two weeks, still for the standard bike to be on sale next year. So, we were here anyway, and we make the decision to see how we can work at a GP.” Going into the race he admitted: “Even though sand is my favourite ground, I know it’s difficult because it’s going to be a very tough track physically, especially for me being out almost three years now from MXGP, it’s not going to be easy, but we will see what happens, we take the best of it, without expecting so much of course.”

COMMON GOAL So how did Tony get involved in the first place?

From over a decade under the orange awning, how are we suddenly seeing him in black and red? “I take some personal pride in the fact that Tony has joined Ducati,” explains Paolo Ciabatti, “because I knew Tony, I was a fan because he had an incredible career in Motocross, and we were also in touch. Obviously, he loved what Ducati was doing in MotoGP, so we had a few opportunities to meet, but then when the rumours started to spread about Ducati coming into Motocross, we started to exchange messages. More and more, I understood that Tony and I had a common goal, a common desire to bring together an Italian brand with an Italian rider to achieve success in Motocross. We’re super proud that Tony is not only the best possible brand ambassador for Ducati in Motocross, but he’s also still super-fast, able to contribute to the brand of Ducati coming into a brand-new world. We count on his immense

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experience, and still great speed on the bike, it’s a win-win situation. Nobody really believed this could happen, but I tried and found the common understanding of bringing this Italian brand to Motocross and making it successful.”

Tony himself confirms: “I think it’s quite funny in a way, because I’ve always been a fan of Italian brands and really pushing a lot for them. I’m proud of being Italian and when Ducati contacted me first, with this project of possibly having a Motocross bike, I was really interested. Of course I spent my best years with KTM, and I feel like part of the family there, still now, I mean, we have a good relationship, but my role there was being Team Manager. I still want to ride a bike, I think there is always time to stop when you are not good at riding anymore, getting older and older. One day for sure you can’t ride anymore!

With Ducati I can still ride, and I can do a better job as a development rider with the bikes than just being a Team Manager, which I can do for many years ahead. This was a good challenge for me, especially with the Italian bike, working with Italian people, and being proud about this project. To develop the best bike possible for next year’s riders to compete in the MXGP World Championship, that’s the main goal.”

DESMODROMIC On the bike itself, it is clearly still in development, but Tony gives us a small insight into what is different with the Desmo450 MX. “We have a good bike, but it’s a standard bike that we are developing, we haven’t done anything to make it

a factory bike yet, but the engine’s Desmodromic system means that it revs more than the other bikes, so you can, let’s say, keep the gear a bit longer than the rest. This is just a small factor because you need a lot of power to be in front out of the gate, and this we’re still working on, but the data from this weekend will allow us to compare with the others and see where we are.”

Paolo confirms what their mission is long-term: “For sure, our ultimate goal is to be able to fight for the Championship in MXGP. We know it will take time because we are coming next year, for the first time we will do a full season with two riders, and I think possibly 2027 is when I think we should be able to be title challengers.”

Ducati’s first four Motocross World Championship points were scored with a seventh in the RAM Qualifying Race on Saturday, and then a further six were added with a difficult 15th in race one on Sunday. Pulling off-track at the end of lap five in race two was certainly not what the team were looking for, but the machine has turned its first laps in MXGP and with the work ethic and culture of this company, it’s impossible to ignore the potential. Several media outlets covered MXGP for the first time at the weekend, simply because of Ducati’s arrival. This can only be a good thing for the paddock, the series, and the sport in general.

If they can make their presence felt in Motocross as much as they have in other branches of motorcycle sport, then the face of off-road bike racing will never look the same again.

SPECIAL FEATURE

JOEL SMETS 1994 VERTEMATI 600 JOEL SMETS IS A FIVE-TIME FIM MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPION, WINNING HIS TITLES IN 1995, ’97, ’98, 2000 AND 2003. IN 1993, HE TOOK A LEAP OF FAITH BY ELECTING TO RACE FOR A LITTLE-KNOWN BRAND CALLED HUSABERG, WHERE HE PLACED 3RD OVERALL IN THE 500CC CATEGORY. THE FOLLOWING YEAR, HE PLACED 3RD AGAIN, ONLY THIS TIME HE WAS MOUNTED ON A VERTEMATI, AND IT’S THIS MACHINE WHICH WE WILL FEATURE IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE OF MXGP MAGAZINE.

When Joel Smets first took the 500cc world championship in 1990, he, like almost everyone else at that time, chose to ride a Japanese motorcycle, and a Honda at that. His first year in the class he scored 3 points and followed up the following year placing 17th overall, but by 1992 he ended the year 4th in the standings.

In 1993, he was approached by the Swedish brand called Husaberg, who specialised in 4-stroke machinery, and mostly enduro bikes at that. Not only that, because the ‘Berg was a 4-stroke, the cubic capacity could be extended to 600cc. But what was a Husaberg, and where and how did it originate?

Joel gave us a quick history lesson by reminding us that ‘the Husaberg was created by a Swedish man by the name of Thomas Gustafsson, after the Italian brand Cagiva took over Husqvarna, and when those engineers got left over let’s say, they stayed behind in Sweden and he was one of them. He was R&D at Husqvarna, he was Swedish, but he didn’t move over to Italy to work there, so they started again with a new bike called Husaberg.’

Smets raced the 1993 season for Husaberg as a factory rider, and the team was run by two Italians known as the Vertemati brothers, who were also the Italian Husaberg importers, but by the end of the season, according to Joel, ‘they were a little bit upset with the lack of support from Sweden, so they decided to build their own bike, which was based a bit on the Husaberg, and it was re-named Vertemati.’

Which leads us to 1994.

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So how much did things change, and was it even the same bike, even though it was ‘loosely’ based on a Husaberg?

Smets picks up the story: ‘It was the same team from ’93 to ’94, but the first year was on Husaberg with the full Swedish bike prepared by the Vertemati brothers; Alvaro was the engine guy and Guido was the frame guy. But the ’94 Vertemati bike was handmade, with a hand welded frame and handmade cranks and crank cases and stuff. The swingarm was also handmade from one massive piece of aluminium.’

One thing that the brothers needed to do in order for Smets to race at the ‘Berg at the highest level in 1993 was strengthen the frames, because as Joel recalls, ‘we had to make them stronger and stuff because the frames were a little bit weak; ‘Vertemati would always say ‘Joel, this is not steel, this is chocolate!’ and somehow they were right because these frames were not prepared to already take the obstacles we were used to racing, like the big tabletops and stuff like that.’

That was 1993, but the following year, and now armed with a bike that bore the family name, the Vertemati brothers felt they could improve the bike even further, which, according to Joel, transformed the bike completely: ‘The ‘94 was completely different because the frame which they completely hand welded was based on the measurements of a CR500 Honda, because the CR500 was a nice handling bike. Okay, the suspension was

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not always easy to set up, but the handling was great, so these brothers just took the measurements off the CR500 and made their frames and swingarm and linkage even, with a way more progressive link than the Husaberg had. It was a great bike; also, the crankcases, crankshaft, cylinder … I think the cylinder might have been a Husaberg standard thing but then cam shafts and stuff like that were really artisan, a real piece of work, like homemade, real old school, real artists with a real passion for engines and stuff. That bike was a real nice handling bike with really good power.’

Now, here is the twist. Usually when you reach the end of the season, you start working towards the following year with your winter training and testing programme, but for Smets and Vertemati, to say they didn’t exactly follow that plan would be something of an understatement, as Joel points out, and his recollection of events came flooding back when asked about his DNF in the first GP of the year at Payerne in Switzerland: ‘The first moto for sure I took the holeshot and was leading by the length of the start straight, but there is actually a longer story about that.

Funny, but also not so funny, for sure not back then.’

‘When they were building the Vertemati bike over the winter, of course, building a bike in theory and on paper goes quick, but to bring it to reality, is another thing. While they were building during the winter, I was doing my training, my winter preparation on a standard Husaberg because they didn’t have a bike ready yet. They started with it at the end of the ’93 season, but they didn’t have a bike ready yet. So, then one month before the first GP in Payerne, I still had no bike. “Ah yeah, but next week you can fly to Italy and then you can test!” A week after, nothing! Week after, nothing again, and by then it was two weeks before the GP and I had still not ridden my GP bike. Only the standard Husaberg. Oh my goodness!

‘Then, the Wednesday before the GP, I rode it for the first time in Maggiora. I flew to Malpensa. If you tell the guys nowadays, they say you are lying! I rode it for the very first time on Wednesday before the first GP. So, Wednesday night flying home, Friday morning leaving to Payerne, Saturday using the bike and I’m not sure, but I think I qualified 1st.’

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‘First moto, holeshot … I don’t know why but that bike suited me, I was so fast. In the second lap I had a problem with the needle of my throttle, in the carburettor. The needle popped half-out and my gas had stopped

on half throttle (sticking throttle essentially).

Maybe one quarter, and that bike became unrideable. I had to clutch, and since I already had a big lead, I was trying to continue but, in the end, I had to DNF because I was missing corners and stuff. It was too dangerous. So, straight away I started with a DNF.’ At the following round two weeks later at Sittendorf, Austria, ‘Smetski’ secured his first career race win when he won the opening race of the day. He then backed that up with his second career win to clinch his second grand prix victory (he won the German GP in ’93 with a 2-3). Reflecting on that win, Joel said ‘the second GP in Sittendorf, and this I remember very well, I blew everybody away. I won my first ever race in the first race, and then straight away, I win two. 1-1.’

This double-race win triggered a chain reaction of results where he finished inside the top three in the following five races (moto’s), and found himself leading the standings after round four in Great Britain. A win in race one at Arco in Italy was disappointingly followed by his second DNF of the campaign, but what was the reason behind this non-finish? Joel fills us in: ‘After Hawkstone Park, I was really in the running. Arco, I won the first race, and the second one I was doing pretty well, not leading, P2 or P3, catching up to the guys and then ready to eventually win that moto also, but then, I stalled it and I could not re-start it again anymore. F***! And then I lost 20 points and the championship lead, so yep, that was already the second DNF.’

One of the reasons for stalling the bike was due to the hydraulic clutch which Vertemati were running, something which was considered way ahead of its time, but one which came with its problems: ‘One of the biggest differences with the bike in 1994 was the clutch, because Vertemati managed to put an hydraulic clutch on it, even back in those days, but there I was often struggling with the starts, with the feel, and the release was not like a KTM is now let’s say – now the KTM clutch feels like a cable clutch – but I messed up quite some races or sometimes stalled the bike.’

And just like that, he lost another twenty points in the championship chase.

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Over the next seven rounds until the end of the championship, Smets scored another eight top three race finishes, including three more race wins and an overall victory in Germany, to end the season satisfied, with his second bronze medal. But how was the bike to ride?

Smets beams with enthusiasm as he recalls the intricacies of how to ride a 4-stroke at that time: ‘I liked the power delivery of the ‘94 bike, because I was used to that all my life, riding low rpm, so the fact that I started riding with a 500cc 2-stroke, and also these bikes you didn’t have to rev, so that helped me in general when I swapped to the 4-stroke in ’93. I was already used to shifting really early, and shifting early was a way to tame the bike down. But also shifting early with those big bikes made the power nice, and created a lot of traction, so not much wheelspin. Really, really controllable at low rpm but also, I think for other riders that had the classic school of coming through 125cc and 250cc two strokes, it might have been a bit more difficult and it might have felt brutal, because maybe they didn’t ride it the correct way.’

‘With those 4-strokes back in the day you needed good throttle control, and I was used to that on my first bike, a 500cc two stroke; you couldn’t just give clutch and keep it wide open. Even on those bikes I had to get the right throttle control and that was so nice on the 4-stroke in those beginning years on the big bikes.’

STANDOUT MOMENTS With the season done and another bronze medal in the pocket, the 1994 season with Vertemati was another learning year for Joel Smets, but there is no doubt as to the moments which stood out for him, as he recalls: ‘Getting the first race win in Austria. With the emotions, I already said many times to people, I think when I first qualified for a GP, for me emotionally, that was almost, yeah, maybe apart from winning the championship, that was emotionally just as nice as winning my first GP. You go step by step and then, especially I think that’s different; I don’t know, maybe for nowadays people that get predicted a nice future or something, but in my case, first time qualifying was like WOOOAH! I only had started riding motorcycles four years before, you know? And then suddenly, I was amongst the best of the world.’

‘So, you go up, then the first time you score points it’s OH MY GOODNESS, and you feel on top of the world! It’s crazy. It’s such an achievement, you keep on making progress and actually, on the emotional side, let’s say, those race wins … yeah, come on the same level of emotions, a bit strange of course but in my case, it was like that because I never started racing with the idea that one day maybe I could win a GP, or win a championship. That for me was always far away and unreachable.

It was always like it was never gonna happen to me. And then of course, winning the GP and dominating it like I did. It was also the moment actually there in Austria that I slowly started believing that maybe one day I could win a championship.’

The 1994 Vertemati 600cc 4-stroke machine that took Joel Smets to 3rd overall in the 500cc World Championship can be considered as one of those bikes in racing history that could have possibly won a world title. Why? Because in grand prix motocross, race wins are not easy to come by, and neither are grand prix victories, so to have taken SIX race wins, finished five times in second and four times third, with two GP wins and eight podiums in total, is pretty impressive. Especially for a brand-new bike like the Vertemati. But that is just our view. As for Joel, he looks at it through a different pair of lenses: ‘No, it wasn’t capable of winning the championship, because otherwise I might have won it. But that should not be a surprise that it wasn’t, because f***, that bike was only ready the week before the first GP. Can you imagine?

That the first time I rode that frame, the engine, was the Wednesday before the first GP, and it was a complete new bike. And then f***, we were super-fast, qualified first and then had a mechanical problem already in the first race, so the bike … with a bike that is that fresh from the belt let’s say, you cannot imagine, or expect it to be perfect.

‘I think those DNF’s what we had was just normal. If we would have not had DNF’s or mechanical issues then that would have been really strong and really strange almost, and in a way, for me, they say things happen for a reason but even for me, maybe looking back at it, it wasn’t too bad that I didn’t win it that year, yet. Because ’93, I had never been in the fight for the championship, okay, ’94 I was but even also myself, maybe I wasn’t fully ready to fight for the championship, and somehow, maybe those technical issues took away a bit of the pressure and made me just gain the experience and learn from it and be stronger for ’95.’

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HALL OF FAME

THOMAS TRAVERSINI on a 125cc, join a team, train several times per week and start racing on real motocross tracks. The results were promising enough to enter the European championship, and at the end of 1994 he received an offer to race for Corrado Maddii and Team Italia. They entered the 125cc World championship and Thomas scored his first points at the third round in Argentina, but a few days later he broke his right leg while training. In 1996 they raced the European championship and with six moto wins from eight, Thomas was crowned champion at the penultimate round in Spain. Two weeks later he was racing a GP instead of the final round of the EMX and impressed everyone with a fourth position at Nismes (Belgium), a fifth at Maribor (Slovenia) and a sixth at Jinin (Czech Republic). After that great season Thomas signed a five-year deal with Husqvarna factory to race the World Championship, but also to be a test rider. In the top ten for his first full season, Thomas had some ambition for 1998 but a huge crash while testing some new parts forced him to miss several GP’s.

For the first time in his GP career Thomas was able to race all the rounds of the 1999 125cc European Champion in 1996, Thomas series, and he got strong results with his Traversini was one of the best Italian first podium at Bellpuig (Spain) during the prospects in the nineties and, despite several fourth round of the championship, several injuries, he confirmed his potential by top five results and a fourth overall at the winning several GP’s and just missing the end of the season. Winner of the first moto final podium of the 125cc World Championship of the 2000 season in Spain, Thomas had an in 1999. Runner up at the 2000 Motocross of amazing month in June, when he won two GP’s Nations with the ‘Squadra Azzurra’, he is still in a row at Borgo Maggiore (San Marino) and involved in the sport and he will be again San Severino (Italy)! Even if he missed some the coach of the Italian team at the 2024 MXoN. rounds that season, his performance was good enough to convince the factory KTM to BORN ON 22ND OCTOBER 1977 AT PERUGIA, THOMAS sign him for 2001. But DISCOVERED BIKES WITH ONE PASSIONATE COUSIN, THE what could have been a dream, turned into a ONLY MEMBER OF HIS FAMILY WHO HAD INTEREST FOR nightmare, as Thomas MOTORCYCLES. BUT WHEN HIS FATHER OFFERED HIM A struggled to live in Belgium and missed LITTLE MALAGUTI TO PLAY IN THE FIELD AROUND THEIR five of the fourteen HOUSE, HE PUT A FIRST STEP IN MOTOCROSS EVEN IF HE rounds due to injuries.

HAD TO WAIT TWO MORE YEARS TO GET A REAL MOTOCROSS BIKE. IN 1986 HIS FATHER VISITED THE LOCAL DEALER TO BUY A 50CC KTM, AND WHEN THE DEALER SAW THOMAS RIDING THE BIKE, HE PUSHED HIS FATHER TO BRING HIS KID TO SOME LOCAL RACES EVEN IF HE HAD NO MORE EXPERIENCE THAN RIDING IN FIELDS.

When he turned 14 years old, and according to the Italian rules, Thomas could finally jump

Back with Corrado Maddii in 2002, he got great results during the pre-season races, but two weeks prior the first GP while training he collided with a rider who was on track on the opposite direction. It was a huge crash, and with several leg and knee

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injuries, the season was already over for Thomas. In the following years he raced a few GP’s, Italian championships rounds, and later entered a new career as coach of riders.

Since a few years now he is the manager of Team Italia at the MXoN, but in 2024 he is also coach of the Racestore KTM factory rookies’ team, currently leading the 125cc European championship with Gyan Doensen.

TEXT & PHOTOS: PASCAL HAUDIQUERT

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2004

REGIONAL CADET MINICROSS CHAMPION IN UMBRIA

1989

REGIONAL MINICROSS JUNIOR CHAMPION

1990

REGIONAL MINICROSS SENIOR CHAMPION

1991

REGIONAL MINICROSS SENIOR CHAMPION

1993

REGIONAL 250 CADET CHAMPION

1994

25TH IN THE 125 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP (HONDA)

1995

38TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HONDA)

1996

125 EUROPEAN CHAMPION (HUSQVARNA) 18TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

1997

9TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HUSQVARNA)

1998

19TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HUSQVARNA)

1999

4TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HUSQVARNA)

2000

6TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HUSQVARNA). WIN 2 GPS 2ND AT THE MX OF NATIONS WITH TEAM ITALY

2001

10TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (KTM)

2003

25TH IN THE 125 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HONDA)

2004

42ND IN THE MX1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (APRILIA)

2006

28TH IN THE MX3 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (KTM)

PADDOCK TALKS 1

7

74 1 2

4 5

8

3

1 2024 Team MXoN USA Unveiled! Sexton, Hymas and Plessinger will represent Team USA. 2 Lucas Bos has won the 2024 Junior e-Motocross Series at the last round in Switzerland.

3 Strong comeback of Frenchmen Maxime Renaux and Thibaut Benistant, and Spaniard Ruben Fernandez.

4 EMX250 leader, Mathis Valin will join the Kawasaki Racing Team next season to compete in the FIM MX2 World Championship with a brandnew factory bar in the paddock!

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5 Brian Bogers will continue to race the Fantic XXF 450 in 2025!

6 The Arnhem round witnessed history! Ducati entered for the first time ever in a Motocross World Championship race, with legend Antonio Cairoli on the 450Desmo MX. 7 2023 MXoN Champions, Team France, will send the winning team Romain Febvre, Tom Vialle and Maxime Renaux to defend their #1, #2, and #3 plates in the UK!

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8 Best rookie in the MXGP class this season and currently eighth in the FIM Motocross World Championship, Kevin Horgmo will stay in 2025 with team Ship To Cycle Honda Motoblouz SR! 9 Team Netherlands one of the favourites for the MXoN Chamberlain Trophy with the Jeffrey Herlings, Kay de Wolf and Calvin Vlaanderen.

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