THE ROOKIE ROCKET LUCAS COENEN
PADDOCK TALKS
078 HALL OF FAME
032 RIDER OF THE MONTH
MXGP MAG
Chief Editor: Marionna Leiva Photos: MXGP
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MXGP Mag #138 2025
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GIRLS
DEAR MXGP FANS, THE LAST MONTH HAS BEEN FULL OF ACTIONS WITH THREE GRAND PRIX THAT TOOK PLACE IN SWITZERLAND, PORTUGAL AND SPAIN.
The MXGP of Switzerland marked the first turning point of the season with the unfortunate injury of the leader of the championship Tim Gajser. All our thoughts go to this fantastic rider, we wish him a fast recovery and we cannot wait to have him again racing MXGP.
But this Grand Prix was also the theatre of the first ever victory of the rookie of the category. Lucas Coenen scored a perfect 1-1 on Sunday and started to write the history of precocity as he is now the youngest rider to win in the MXGP category in his first season in the main class. Finally, the Swiss fans were delighted to cheer for their hero, Jeremy Seewer, who also entered the History of our sport obtaining the first ever podium for Ducati in the MXGP World Championship. In MX2, Simon Langenfelder proved again that he has the speed to be in front of the pack, especially on the hardpack conditions that the track was giving to the riders.
The weather didn’t make our life so easy in Portugal, Agueda, and I want again to congratulate our organizer together with Infront’s track crew and all the people involved in the organization for the tremendous work they did during this Grand Prix to be able to run the full program despite the tons of water that we got during the entire weekend. Agueda never disappoints and here again Lucas Coenen confirmed that we will have to count on him for the title battle. Romain Febvre scored a second position, like in Switzerland, and secured the red plate for the lead of the championship while Ruben Fernandez kept the red colour of Honda HRC on the third box of the podium! In MX2 again we witnessed a fantastic race with the victory of Andrea Adamo, in front of Kay De Wolf and Simon Langenfelder.
Finally, we head back to one of the most newly appreciated tracks of the season, Lugo, Spain. Here again we had to deal with complicate weather and track conditions that were very different from Saturday to Sunday, but the Spanish fans answered the call to push home rider Ruben Fernandez for his second podium in a row. Then Romain Febvre
honoured brilliantly his Red Plate and extended his leadership on Lucas Coenen, who finished second. In MX2, we had again a third different winner in three Grand Prix with the incredible come back of Kay De Wolf during the second race, he gave everything to win the overall in front of Andrea Adamo and Sasha Coenen.
On the media side, we finalized an agreement with one of the most popular and iconic Television Network in the World and we were very proud to announce that Sky Sport Italia will broadcast the rest of the MXGP season LIVE on their channel, including the MotoGP Channel. It will bring a great exposure to MXGP in Italy and abroad.
Finally, we announced that the BLU CRU World SuperFinale will take place during the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations in Ironman. It is a great occasion to continue to highlight this fantastic project that was initiated in collaboration with Eric De Seynes and Infront Moto Racing almost a decade ago to help to young talented generation to join the European Championship. After several years of success, it will be the first time that we will bring this event overseas to continue the tradition started some years ago of organizing this final during the biggest Off-Road event on the planet.
But for now, we are heading to the MXGP of France, on probably one of the most iconic tracks of the year, Ernée!
I wish you a great MXGP of France.
MXGP Rocks
David Luongo CEO of Infront Moto Racing
COOL SHOTS
COOL SHOTS
COOL SHOTS
UNPREDICTABILITY RULES IN MXGP FROM SWITZERLAND TO PORTUGAL AND SPAIN!
AFTER THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 2025 SEASON HAD COMPLETED WITH ROUND FIVE OF THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AT TRENTINO IN APRIL, THE RED PLATES IN BOTH MAIN CLASSES WERE BEING HELD BY THE PRE-SEASON FAVOURITES OF TIM GAJSER AND KAY DE WOLF. HOWEVER, MX2 WAS CLOSE, AND WOULD GET CLOSER, BUT THE MXGP CLASS IN PARTICULAR WAS ABOUT TO TAKE A SAVAGE TWIST TO ITS TALE. The first surprise at the MXGP of Switzerland, held at Frauenfeld over Easter weekend, was a mild one in Saturday’s Qualifying Race. The twisty Swiss track is a tough one to pass on, but the fact that Ruben Fernandez was able to hold off his accomplished teammate Gajser for all of the 14 laps to lead a Honda HRC 1-2 was still a mighty achievement in what feels like a make-or-break year for the Spaniard’s factory status.
In that Qualifying Race, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Lucas Coenen finished a lowly tenth, suffering with arm-pump at a track that had virtually extinguished his hopes of MX2 title glory six months previously. Incredibly, the team did their analysis on the Easter Sunday break and came back for Monday’s GP races with new settings, and a new mindset. It worked instantly, straight into the lead with his first Fox Holeshot Award in the premiere class and not being challenged for a race victory that somehow felt different to his win in Sardegna, in that he had held back a determined Gajser to keep it.
After his dominant maximum over everybody at Frauenfeld in 2024, there’s no doubt that the Slovenian was the favourite, and after he gated behind Coenen in race two, he was hunting the rookie down, before running slightly wide in the fast right-hander after the wall section. The crash hurt his shoulder, and although it took a while for the news to come through, it ultimately destroyed Tim’s Championship chances, throwing the title chase wide open.
Coenen marched to another victory and suddenly looked like a genuine title contender. The man likely to be his biggest opponent for that, Romain Febvre, took second overall for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, but the final step on the podium was a sweet one for many reasons!
HISTORY!
Jeremy Seewer always wears red in Switzerland, but this year that wasn’t unusual as he made his home debut for the Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX-Team, and after a big crash for Maxime Renaux, the podium was suddenly
on despite his seventh in race one. He had one big orange target in front of him to make the podium – the Red Bull KTM of Jeffrey Herlings! A glorious last lap pass in front of a hillside of his adoring fans raised the roof and clinched the first podium ever in Motocross for the iconic Italian brand in the process! Speaking after the race, Seewer named the historic achievement as one of his best ever days in racing.
Coenen’s win was no less historic, as he became the youngest winner in MXGP since it switched to the modern format, and the first Belgian to win in the premiere class since Clement Desalle in 2018. Could he be the one
to break Belgium’s longest ever wait of 17 years for a World Champion in any class?
In MX2, Simon Laengenfelder had made his mission statement clear at the start of the year. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing star is tired of being Mr Third Place and wants the title in 2025. Still searching for his first overall Grand Prix win since Sweden in 2023, some 20 months earlier, the German chased series leader Kay de Wolf across the line in the Qualifying Race, but in Monday’s races he was simply untouchable, claiming his first Fox Holeshot Awards of the season and simply never having anyone overtake him. His career tallies of 15 GP race wins and just four overall wins are still a little mis-matched,
but the most important number was the three points between himself and De Wolf as they left Frauenfeld, the Dutchman having to settle for third overall behind his Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing teammate Liam Everts, as both the Belgian and Andrea Adamo were still hanging onto the points leaders, but needed a good GP in Portugal.
DEEP
ORANGE MUD – AGAIN!
One thing everyone was hoping for at Águeda was good weather. Initially, it looked like we might be lucky, and Saturday’s circuit was wickedly fast despite a rainstorm hitting it during Friday’s Blåkläder Start Practice. Sadly, the heavens opened just in time for the
Qualifying Races, and continued to soak the orange clay from there on.
Orange was to be the key colour of the weekend, as two riders claimed perfect weekends for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing despite the difficult conditions. Lucas Coenen was starting to look unstoppable and took a 13-second victory over Monster Energy Yamaha’s Calvin Vlaanderen on Saturday, in a crash-infested race that amazingly saw the colourful Swiss privateer Kevin Brumann finish fourth for MX-Handel Husqvarna Racing, and Roan van de Moosdijk of the KTM Kosak Team take fifth!
Coenen was to have a more consistent challenger on Sunday, with Romain Febvre picking up the red plate from the absent Gajser in the process, but for sure the veteran Frenchman, nearly double the Belgian’s age, must have been frustrated with two second places, especially as he had briefly got past the rookie in race one but spent the rest of the day in his muddy wake.
Honda HRC’s Ruben Fernandez salvaged some pride for his team with a fine podium on what was virtually home territory, while Andrea Bonacorsi of Fantic Factory Racing MXGP finished fourth overall for the second straight weekend. It was nice to see Pauls Jonass and Mattia Guadagnini return from injury on the factory Kawasaki and Ducati machines respectively, and the wet weather helped to reduce the intensity for them as Jonass took fifth overall, and “Á-Guada” tenth.
FRUSTRATION
After Laengenfelder’s showing in Switzerland, it was time for Andrea Adamo to show his colours, and took what he called his first ever race win in the mud on Saturday and followed it with a thumping 12.5 second win over Laengenfelder in race one on Sunday. Sacha Coenen was fast all weekend and took second in both the Qualifying Race and GP race two. Unfortunately for the Belgian, he got stuck in some trackside mud in race one and could only salvage 19th.
The most frustrated rider in Portugal must have been Liam Everts. Surely the favourite in those conditions after his incredible double win there in 2024, he fell from the lead early in race one, then got stuck trackside in race two. He worked out that he crashed more in Portugal than he had in the whole time he has spent on the Husqvarna since February! It made a serious dent in his title aspirations with Adamo’s triple victory and De Wolf and Laengenfelder also climbing the podium. The German was impressive with a last lap pass on the Dutchman in race one for second, and a recovery to fourth from a second corner crash in race two. The gap was four points as they headed north to Spain, with Adamo only six further back!
On to Galicia we all went, just 450km to Lugo for the MXGP of Spain, at the second GP to be run at the popular Circuito Municipal named after reigning Champion Jorge Prado. Rain hit us again, but it was expected, and the track was prepared beautifully to handle it. Instead of thick mud, the permeable rock instead gave
us slippery, but raceable conditions, and a new name on the MXGP winner’s board came from seemingly nowhere in Saturday’s Qualifying Race.
A GLORIOUS LAST LAP PASS IN FRONT OF A HILLSIDE OF HIS ADORING FANS RAISED THE ROOF AND CLINCHED THE FIRST PODIUM EVER IN MOTOCROSS FOR THE ICONIC ITALIAN BRAND IN THE PROCESS!
ENTER JAGO
It’s fair to say that one of the leading lights in MX2 in recent years, three-time silver medallist Jago Geerts, has had a torrid time since moving up to MXGP, with a plethora of injuries hampering his progress and making him look visibly timid on the machine. However, a Holeshot on Saturday led to the #93 looking in fine form, and he withstood the pressure from new red plate holder Romain Febvre to hold the lead for nine laps before the Frenchman forced past in a tight left-hander. Amazingly, the Kawasaki man fell in the same corner two laps later, and Geerts was back in front, but now with Coenen all over his tail! At the start of the final lap, the teenage Belgian hit the black Spanish dirt to give his elder countryman an easy final circulation for his first victory on a 450cc! With Maxime Renaux, racing through pain from his crash in Switzerland, in third place, and Vlaanderen fifth, the Saturday night mood at Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP was at a real high!
Sadly for Jago, his good fortune didn’t carry through to Sunday, and it was Febvre who took a solid win in race one ahead of his countryman Renaux and Fernandez, with Coenen looking a little tentative on the slippery circuit in fourth. With a replica Fox Holeshot in race two, Febvre looked to have it all wrapped up again, but a tumble on the first full lap dropped him to eighth, and Coenen passed Vlaanderen at the end of that lap to take over at the front!
Nobody was to catch the rookie as he rocketed away, and Febvre fought through in a great recovery to nab second from Vlaanderen with four laps to go, rescuing his second GP win of the season to give him a 49-point buffer over Coenen in the series. Behind those two, Fernandez got the home fans celebrating with a sweet podium, a great recovery after being part of a first turn melee that made a mess of his right arm in Qualifying.
STRONG
For all that the KTM boys had got their hopes up in Portugal, Kay de Wolf asserted his authority over MX2 in Spain, although he was unable to stop Thibault Benistant from making it an even sweeter day for Monster Energy Yamaha with a Qualifying Race win, his third of the season!
A strong win in race one over Everts and Benistant extended De Wolf’s points lead, especially as Adamo and Laengenfelder could only muster fifth and eighth respectively. They took a few points back in race two as the Champ had to recover from a dire opening lap, and indeed Adamo led De Carli’s two riders
home in a KTM 1-2-3 as Sacha Coenen took a good second place, although the Belgian was upset with himself after falling from a huge lead at two-thirds distance! Kay’s fighting fourth was enough for his second GP win of the season to also consolidate his points lead, which stands at 15 over Laengenfelder, with Adamo still six behind the German. Liam Everts, fourth overall at Lugo ahead of Benistant, is now 67 behind his teammate at the top.
EMX
The EMX250 series ran at all three recent events, and Swede August Frisk took his first overall victory with a perfect weekend at Frauenfeld for the Kullen 1502 KTM Racing
Team! Janis Reisulis had built a good points lead, but suffered a mechanical stoppage in the first Swiss race to cut his advantage right down, leaving Francisco Garcia in second, and delighted Swiss rider Nico Greutmann to take the third step on the podium at his home race!
Since then, however, “The Killer” Reisulis has gone from strength to strength, winning all four races on the Iberian Peninsula through rain or, well, just rain actually…. The Team VHR VRT Yamaha man has been utterly dominant with an average winning margin of 7.34 seconds across those four races, and while Noel Zanocz took podium results in both events for JM Racing Honda, as Garcia and Greutmann took the other podium finishes, the Latvian has once
more got a cushion of more than a race’s worth of points, with 26 more than Zanocz as they left Spain.
The EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing series saw action in Switzerland and Portugal, with Racestore KTM Factory Juniors rider Nicolò Alvisi claiming the first race win both times, although it was his Hungarian teammate Áron Katona who took the second race and the overall win at Frauenfeld, and he holds the red plate as things stand.
Yamaha Europe EMX125 rider Mano Faure took a stunning 39-second victory in the deep mud of Portugal’s second race, over Fantic DREAM TEAM man Cole McCullough as Katona’s bike came to a halt. Faure took the overall win at Águeda from Alvisi and Fantic Factory Racing EMX125’s Francesco Bellei, who now sits 23 points behind Katona in the points standings, with Alvisi just two further back in third!
WMX
The FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship resumed with its second round at Lugo, where the fiercely patriotic crowd cheered RFME Spain National Team’s home heroine Daniela Guillén to a brilliant first race win, catching and fighting past Van Venrooy KTM Racing’s Lynn Valk and FONTA MX Racing rider Kiara Fontanesi to win by just over three
seconds. Even better for her was that De Baets Yamaha’s red plate holder Lotte van Drunen finished back in fifth, undoing some of the damage done by Guillén’s crash in Sardegna.
Sunday’s second race was much wetter, however, and Guillén had to fight from a bad start. She had not long passed the SYE Racing Team 423 Honda machine of Larissa Papenmeier for third when she dropped her GASGAS on the start straight! In the meantime, Fontanesi had started second behind the Yamaha of Shana van der Vlist, before taking the lead on lap three and powering away to clinch her first overall victory since September 2021 in Turkiye!
Van Drunen rescued second place with a steady ride in race two, as Guillén recovered to third place, leaving Lotte still with the red plate and having an eight-point advantage over Fontanesi and Valk, who are tied for second, with Guillén now fourth, a further eight behind.
While the other four categories head to glorious Ernée for round nine of the GP classes, round seven for the EMX-ers, the Women will join us the following weekend in Teutschenthal as we hit the halfway point in the season! It’s still all to play for across the board, with plenty of amazing racing still to come!
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MONSTER GIRLS
MONSTER GIRLS
LUCAS COENEN –THE ROOKIE ROCKET!
Winners of the last two MXGP world titles, the Italian team ran by Davide De Carli, which would once again be named as Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, came into 2025 with a new challenge – to make a teenage tearaway into an MXGP Championship contender. They’re doing a good job…
As 2024 was logged into history, MXGP was faced with the exit of its World Champion, Jorge Prado, and the fact that the stars of the premiere class were not getting any younger. The title-winning De Carli team, however, had a pleasant surprise for all of us: 18-yearold firebrand Lucas Coenen was to race in MXGP for them, fresh from an incredible 2024 season that had seen him win more GPs than anyone else in MX2. And the 450cc rookie, after a tricky start, has emerged as a serious title contender with his first victories on the bigger bike.
So often featured alongside his twin brother Sacha, who Lucas claims is “one minute” younger than him, it is well deserved that the teenager who has truly shaken up the MXGP category is now our Rider of the Month. Although, when it comes to Sacha, he holds a firm belief: “In terms of raw speed, he is the faster brother. If he was five centimetres taller, I would not handle him. No-one would be talking about me, it would just be ‘Sacha, Sacha, Sacha’ all the time!”
Team boss Davide de Carli adds his support for his newest MX2 pilot: “Sacha is always fast, you can see when you compare lap times even to MXGP, he is always fast. Maybe we will get that five centimetres? I don’t think so now but anyway, I really believe in him, he can be a Champion of the future. I really believe in Sacha.”
LIFE’S A BEACH
Speaking from an Italian beach (“always, on a day off!”) in the down-time between the MXGPs of Spain and France – that’s between Lugo and Ernée to be exact –Lucas sounds relaxed and confident as he reflects on
a month in which he became the youngest rider ever to win a GP on a 450cc four-stroke in the MXGP era. While many might have thought that moving up to the MXGP class was a strange, almost premature move, this is something that Lucas has always dealt with. “I had the same moving from EMX125 to EMX250, then from there to MX2. I’m someone who likes to learn and have new goals and also push it to the limit, you know? I don’t like to stay in the class, like for some people it’s good and it makes a difference for them to stay there, but for me I like learning, and I learn quickly, so when I went to EMX250 when I was still only 15, people were telling me it was too early.”
Lucas finished third in the 2021 EMX125 series during his first season on a full-size bike, with the French BUD Racing Kawasaki squad, and that was despite the start of a strange tradition for him – a rough start to a season! Looking at the results from the opening round, it looks like he wasn’t even there! “Oh I was there, my brother was sending it with the first guys up there, I was more a top ten guy just battling, one race Sacha was first and I was second out of the gate, I got passed, and Bobby Bruce made a mistake then ran into me going onto the start straight! I hurt my wrist really bad, I thought it was broken, but on the scans we just saw it was a bad bruise, but I missed race two and had zero points from the beginning.”
FIGHTBACK
The fightback was on, not for the last time in his career, as Lucas joined his brother at the sharp end by round three, with the pair finishing first (Sacha) and third in the
second race in Germany, sandwiching young British rider Bruce. The #93 – Lucas has been a lifelong fan of MotoGP legend Marc Marquez, so enjoyed racing with his number until he couldn’t – took his first podium that weekend, and repeated that third overall in each of the next two rounds. The first race win came in the second of three rounds at Trentino, then he went unbeaten through the last two rounds, overtaking Kay Karssemakers for that series bronze with his double win at Mantova. Valerio Lata and Bruce finished first and second.
Even though Sacha missed the second half of the season through injury, de Carli could see that the twins were going places: “Since they were on 85s, I was admiring them, because I always liked how they ride, and I could see that both riders had big talent. I was speaking already with KTM since the first time I saw them.” About to become Team Manager for the first time as the Italian outfit was rebranded to become Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing, there’s no doubt that Austrian ears were listening to Davide’s recommendations.
HE BECAME THE YOUNGEST RIDER EVER TO WIN A GP ON A 450CC FOUR-STROKE IN THE MXGP ERA.
RUNNER-UP
The two 15-year-olds made their way up to the EMX250 division for the 2022 season, and although Sacha struggled with the more powerful bike, Lucas began to find his form very quickly. His brother’s struggles never went unnoticed though: “When we race together, and you see a yellow flag or something and someone is down you think ‘Ah, I hope it’s not Sacha!’, so you check immediately, and I asked Sacha if it was the same for him and he said he has the same feeling, so it’s like that for both of us.”
Lucas confesses to feel nervous in the new class: “The first round at Mantova, I again got no points, in the first race I got scared about riding with the EMX250 guys because they told me it was like crazy, lots of crossjumping and block-passing, so when I went back to the truck after I said ‘Wow this is not made for me!’ Then at the second round in Portugal I went 3-3 and got second overall, so that started things for me there.”
Racing against Norwegian Cornelius Toendel, South African Camden McLellan, as well as fellow 2025 MXGP factory rider Andrea Bonacorsi, the winning feeling took its time to come to Lucas, especially as eventual Champion Rick Elzinga, almost exactly four years older than the Belgian, won four of the first six rounds and went to round seven, at Lommel, 60 points up on Lucas, who was fifth behind all of those named
above. However, none of them would beat him again that season!
“When I went to Husqvarna with Team BT [Jumbo Husqvarna BT Racing, to be exact], we had a good communication together, and I was always loved the atmosphere there with the team boss and the people working there. I made a big step with them, a lot of fun, and good experience. It was one of the nicest years I’ve had.” The breakthrough came at his home round, as the series hit the sands of Lommel, always one of the family’s favourite venues, and after charging from outside of the top ten to pass Elzinga for the lead, he held back a charging Bonacorsi by just half a second!
Lucas never looked back from there and went perfect for the rest of the season apart from a mechanical DNF in Sweden. The average victory margin for his last six wins was an astonishing 21.83 seconds! Earlier results, including that DNF and one in France, might have cost him the title as he ended the year just 32 points behind, but he’s philosophical about that season: “Yeah they were both mechanical issues, this can happen in sport, and I finished P2 behind Rick, but yeah it’s a European, you can maybe remember it yourself, but it’s not like a world title, you know? In Sweden I was unlucky but it got me angry, second race I didn’t care anymore, I wanted to show them who was fastest, I just went out there and boom, beast mode, and I won. So, these things are a bummer, but they teach you how to bounce back.”
The week before Lommel saw a glimpse into the future for Lucas, with his first MX2 race as a wildcard at Loket, and he remembers the experience well: “I was really impressed, going into the Pit Lane, like in the warm-up, there was Tom Vialle, and Jago [Geerts, the one who held that number 93!], and they were like, the big boys! I felt so small between them, same as going into EMX250, I didn’t say it to the team, but I felt a bit stressed. Like I know I needed a good start, but the problem is they all know how to start. I was slow, and stressed, making mistakes, same feeling as EMX250.”
Racing #193, he earned himself just two points for 19th in race two. It’s still his worst ever Sunday at GP level.
THE LOOK
Although De Carli was still a fan of the brothers, they weren’t fully aware of what influence he might have had on their careers: “I don’t know about those things, but I remember Davide looking at us a lot when we were on 125cc. We never spoke, because my brother and I are like quite shy, so we don’t go and talk to people, but as we moved up the classes people started speaking to us, so I could see he was interested.” Sadly for Davide, his hands were tied when the time came for the twins to move into MX2 for real: “Unfortunately when they moved up to the MX2 class, I didn’t have the chance to have them in my team, because of other contract situations.”
Hitting MX2 full-time in 2023, on an Austrian machine but under the Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing awning, Lucas became a steady top ten rider instantly, top five in the sand, while his new teammate Kay de Wolf, with the team since the very beginning of his EMX career, challenged for the title before injury struck. Lucas claimed his first race win on the hardpack of Villars Sous Ecot in France, but a seventh in race one held him off the overall podium. After backing up his teammate with a 1-2 in the second race at Kegums, confidence flowed as De Wolf struggled with a midweek injury, and Lucas powered to a near eight-second win over Liam Everts in race one at Teutschenthal. The GP victory looked imminent.
In a similar position in race two, Lucas’ chain became derailed on lap 11 of 18, and the teenager visibly howled at the moon in disgust! Adding insult to injury, it was Everts who inherited the race win to claim his own first GP win. The look on Coenen’s face said it all: watch out next time!
AND THE 450CC ROOKIE, AFTER A TRICKY START, HAS EMERGED AS A SERIOUS TITLE CONTENDER WITH HIS FIRST VICTORIES ON THE BIGGER BIKE.
“Yeah I was feeling good, took good starts, riding really smooth, but you know, from tough times makes a stronger man, so the chain came off with like five minutes to go, and I saw another guy winning, also for the first time, you have everything in place so I was thinking OK, Indonesia, I don’t know what it’s like, how hot it is, but I don’t care, nobody’s gonna be in my way. So yeah, when I went there, I was on a mission, and nobody was gonna get in front of me.”
“I don’t talk much to Liam but there is no problem, he had his father so he knows the path, but then everybody expects you to do it so that must be difficult, whereas we just go and see what we can do. Obviously, Liam had a good trainer from the beginning, you need to have good advice, and we found a good trainer in France when we started racing there, Jérémy Lhermitte, and he taught us how to ride standing up a lot, and we still keep in touch now, he was really good for us. Those days were the most important ones, let’s say.”
After demolishing the opposition with all three victories, including the Qualifying Race, at the MXGP of Sumbawa, he saw out the year with speed but inconsistency, finishing second twice to Geerts at Lommel, and being denied the overall win at Arnhem by a first lap crash in race one, then a last lap pass by Everts, on Geerts, as Lucas won race two. Fifth in his rookie season, just ahead of De Wolf, showed the promise in the air.
TITLE BATTLE
Clearly the fastest in MX2 on many occasions in 2024, Lucas held the red plate after Saturday’s Qualifying Race at Patagonia, before an inexplicable crash meant that yet again he would have to fight back from a points deficit, and against his returning teammate De Wolf, who led the series immediately after taking the first three GP wins on the bounce.
“I wasn’t really thinking about the red plate. In 2024 there were some changes with the bike, and it didn’t really go in my direction, I was really searching how to set up the bike, so I was struggling a lot with that. I would make some silly mistakes, we did a lot of analysis and seeing what we could improve, I was searching for the right place on suspension, and it was very difficult. The first race in Argentina I don’t even know why I crashed, I didn’t feel anything wrong, I was going straight then my head was on the ground and I hurt my wrist, so we searched and analysed and worked to make it better. This is the past, you can’t change it, and maybe from this I am better now.”
Ultimately, it was the bad days that let him down in 2024. A quick look at the statistics reveals the reason for De Wolf taking the title, even though Lucas would win more of everything else:
Only once, on a below par day at Maggiora, did Kay allow any mistakes to put him outside of the top five overall. While Lucas was struggling with the machine setup and little injuries, he slipped outside of that top five a total of six times, with the worst timing being in Switzerland, as 8-7 finishes almost put a nail into his Championship’s coffin while De Wolf won. Kay was a master of recovering healthy points when things weren’t going away, and that truly made the difference in the final reckoning, despite Lucas winning the last six GP races of the season, finally feeling at home with his machine.
THE ROOKIE
Partway through the 2024 season, Davide de Carli spoke with the young Belgian, his brother, and their personal manager of course. Knowing that star man Jorge Prado would be leaving the scene, it was time for Davide to finally grab those promising twins he had
been watching for about five years. “Now they are with me finally, and now we need to make it happen!”
“Last year, he was talking about going to the MXGP class, and we all believed in this project. We put some hard work in over the winter to develop a good machine with KTM and WP, and I really believe we have a really good bike. We need to be consistent, and in the middle of the season we will see where we are”, said Davide about the revelation that Lucas would be looking to go to the bigger bike. For sure the perfect replacement for a rider like Prado, albeit with a fair difference in experience level!
“With Jorge, the last two years, we were coming from the past when he won two MX2 world titles, so he was a lot more mature in the last two years, he really knew what he wanted, so it’s much faster to get what we want with a rider like that. With Lucas we also have a really good relationship, this kid comes to us at seventeen years old, and when they are this young, you have to start from scratch. With everything, how to develop the bike, you have to work step-by-step, it’s amazing because this guy, for his age, is really skilful. He’s already in a really good spot.”
Rather than stick to MX2 and be an obvious title challenger, it seems like a big risk for a teenager like Lucas to hit the big class, but he is clearly revelling in the challenge: “The team around me are very good, they know that I am an 18-year-old boy, but I know what to do, they know what to do, and I think we are very strong now together.”
Is it tough for Lucas to now be watching his brother from the side, rather than compete with him? “Ah Sacha, he is sending it always. It’s nice to see, but for me now, it’s stressful to watch sometimes, because he is going so fast. It’s never nice to see him crash, but if we analyse what happens, also now I can see it, then if we take it all together then, yeah, it’s part of the process.”
ANALYSIS
There’s that word again: analyse. It’s clear that for all of their innate ability to twist the throttle, the twins both work hard to evaluate and, yes, analyse what is happening on the circuit. Part of that process involves their father Rafaël, and Davide again has a very strong parent to help him with his MXGP star: “With Jorge his father was always quite present, but it’s normal because Jorge moved to Belgium when he was ten years old, and only the father was there! They worked really well together, we never had a problem with Jesus Prado, Jorge’s father, and this year we have a similar situation with Rafaël Coenen. I feel that he is part of the team, we exchange information and help each other a lot. They leave the technical side to me, logistics etc, he is more concerned with the physical training and the training on the bike.”
Davide continues: “Swapping to the MXGP class, it is not an easy class, the level is so high. Lucas used the start of the season to get used to the class, to build up some good confidence, and I am really happy with what he is doing. The other riders have a lot of experience, and Lucas is learning how they race, and really well how to use the 450cc. In France, we saw the first podium, in Riola he won the first race, then the crash with Jeremy, OK that can happen, he was lucky there. In Switzerland it was an incredible weekend, we put the puzzle together. In Portugal he took 60 points, on that difficult track, really tricky. In Spain it was very difficult, many different conditions during the weekend. I’m really happy with how he’s performing, he’s really young and it’s amazing what he is doing as a rookie in the class. For me, he is very skilful for his age. Look at how he won all three races in the mud in Portugal! We don’t want any rush, we want to enjoy the weekend at every race.”
The win at Switzerland was particularly impressive when considering that his 2024 event there was so poor, and he limped to just tenth place on Saturday. That made the double victory on Monday, with a day’s break, even more impressive. Typically though, they used the opportunity for some analysis!
“Before the race”, Davide explains, “he always thinks a little bit about the previous year. But if you see the step we made, it’s huge. In Switzerland last year he didn’t feel comfortable, and then this year on Saturday he was struggling, he had a lot of arm pump, he didn’t feel good at the track, didn’t have the flow in the ruts and all of this, but then we had a day off on Sunday, and we used that day well! We had a small meeting with the team and we changed things on the bike and spoke a lot together, and then Monday was another day! It’s
good to compare but sometimes you have to turn over the page to start the day with a fresh mind.”
THE DROUGHT
In Switzerland, the young Belgian’s dominant display made him the first Belgian winner in the premiere class since Clement Desalle at Orlyonok in 2018. This is the nation with more GP victories and world titles than most others put together, yet there has not been a Belgian World Motocross Champion for 18 years, since Steve Ramon in 2007. This is a drought many fans never thought they would see, and now this young upstart could finally bring it to a close.
At 18 years and 166 days old, Lucas became by far the youngest winner in the MXGP class since it became a 450 four-stroke Championship. Davide suspected Antonio Cairoli might have been close in 2007, but the Sicilian legend was already 21 years old at that point. Even Jorge Prado and Tim Gajser, both GP winners in their rookie season, had at least reached the age of 19 when they first tasted premiere class champagne.
If Lucas Coenen were to become MXGP World Champion this year, he wouldn’t quite be the first teenager to become MXGP World Champion, as Gajser won his 2016 title, as a rookie, just five days before he turned 20 years old. For sure though, in a career where Lucas has always just come a little short of claiming a title, becoming the youngest ever Champ in the premiere class of World Motocross is now within reach, and wouldn’t that just be an incredible fairy tale for the family, for Davide de Carli, and for the proud Belgian Motocross nation.
INTO THE SNOW ZONE
AS AVID READERS OF MXGP MAGAZINE, YOU WILL KNOW THAT WE DO OUR BEST TO KEEP YOU UP TO SPEED WITH EVERYTHING RELATED TO MXGP, WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHER SUPPORT CLASSES ON THE AGENDA.
But, did you know that IMR is also the promoter of the FIM Snowcross World Championship as well? If not, then fear not! Here is a re-cap of the three round series which began at the end of February in Finland, and concluded on April 12th in Sweden.
ROUND 1
JOENSUU, FINLAND
Situated around five hours/435km northeast of Helsinki, the city of Joensuu played host to the opening round of the 2025 FIM Snowcross world Championship where home-racer Aki PIHLAJA arrived as one of the favourites for the championship. Pihlaja’s World SNX career had seen him finish as a four-time runner up from 2016-2019 before his persistence finally paid off, when he won the World Championship in 2023. In 2024, the Finn missed the opening round of the campaign as it clashed with the birth of his child, but despite that he still managed to salvage 3rd overall in the standings.
His main rival, although others would suggest the ‘main’ favourite coming into 2025 was Elias ISHOEL of Norway. The ‘200’ placed 3rd overall in 2017 and 2nd overall in 2023 behind Pihlaja, and after missing last year’s championship due to his racing commitments in America, was back for redemption. Admittedly, he was supposed to have stayed in the USA, but a thumb injury meant he had a better chance of fighting for the world title, if the healing process had gone as expected. Behind these two, a whole host of other ‘drivers’ were keen to get their hands on some silverware.
In the first Men’s Final, it was Pihlaja who bagged the holeshot with Ishoel tucked in just behind, and when the opportunity presented itself, the ‘200’ made his move for the lead, before going on to take the win. After the race,
the Norwegian shed light on his injury, saying: ‘I’ve been off for a month now, I broke my thumb; I took the pins out earlier this week and decided to go for it this weekend, and so far, it’s working really well and I’m feeling strong.’
And as for the race, he commented on how tough a rival Pihlaja is: ‘For sure it was a challenge. Aki is really fast at the holeshots and he’s an old guy and has a really hard pace throughout the whole race, so for me it was just try to get a solid gap there.’
As for Pihlaja, he too was not quite at 100% as he pointed out before the event, commenting that all was not well on Thursday when he arrived at the track: ‘Yesterday, when I woke up, I had a fever, I slept all day, but today I feel a lot better for that. I hope it goes well and that I’m stronger, at least tomorrow for the finals.’
The second final mirrored the first with Ishoel taking the win from Pihlaja and joining them on the podium at the end of the day was another Finn, Topi RINNE who took 4th and 3rd place finishes.
After the race, Ishoel commented: ‘I took the decision (to race) just before the race started and of course it was worth it to fly over and get some points from the first round, and we will see what happens for the second and third round, if I’m gonna stay in the States or if I’m gonna come over here and do the rest of them, so I’m gonna go back to the office and have a couple of phone calls.’
In the Women’s category, the doublechampion from 2023/’24 Malene COTTEW opted to miss this year’s championship, thus leaving a space on the trophy for a new name to be added. This year’s favourites included Saga FORSELL (FIN) and Wilma JONSSON (SWE). Jonsson came into 2025
having placed 4th and 3rd in the two previous championships, as Forsell looked to improve on her 4th overall in 2024. Emma LAAMANEN (FIN) was also in the hunt for a medal.
In Final 1, it was Saga FORSELL who took a start-to-finish victory as Wilma Jonsson was forced to battle her younger sister Elise, early on. Wilma Jonsson came home 2nd with her sister Elise taking 3rd. In Final 2, it was home girl Forsell who completed the doublewin, taking the overall victory from Wilma JONSSON, who was 2nd again, but rounding out the podium was Emma LAAMANEN who went 4-3, preventing the Jonsson sisters from sharing a first ever podium. After the race, Forsell seemed a little overwhelmed as she said ‘I don’t know what to say, I’m so proud of myself to show I can do this, because here are so many of my siblings and family and everybody. It was a little bit hard, but I made it!’
ROUND 2
KAYSERI-ERCIYES, TURKIYE
The circuit in Turkiye first made its way on to the calendar in 2024 and immediately stood out from the circuits in Scandinavia because of its hillside nature, although this year, the circuit was slightly shorter than the previous version.
Not far from Kayseri is Cappadocia, the city made famous for hot air balloons, and what a place to use as a media opportunity before the event. If you’ve never been, it’s a quick threehour drive southeast from the capital, Ankara. As for the circuit itself, Kayseri is another one-hour drive to the east, at the Erciyes Ski Centre … which explains why the circuit is on the side of a hill. Needless to say, this venue is at altitude and therefore has the potential to alter the performance of the Sled’s.
When we first came to this race in 2024, only the men’s championship class competed. However, three women were allowed to compete alongside them in the same race. One of those was the Swedish-based American Kelly Collier, who fills us in on the event of 2024 and how she managed to change the narrative to allow the Women to compete on their own terms in 2025: ‘Last year I came here and raced with the men; we were three women, and I really felt like to excel the women’s sport of Snowcross that all the women should have the chance to come here and compete in this environment. So, in
September, they had a SNX conference at the MXGP of Turkiye, and I tried to advocate, talk and say ‘yes’ we could be a certain number of riders, and it was really fun because in the end, it all came together and I feel like I’ve been such a big part of all of this because, just pushing for the women’s sport and actually what the future will be for Snowcross, that we always have the same type of competition level.’
After taking the overall victory at Round 1, all eyes were once again trained on Saga FORSELL and Wilma JONSSON, and as Forsell made another perfect start into the uphill first turn, Jonsson found herself squeezed into third by Tilde KARELIUS (SWE). As Forsell started to pull clear, Jonsson knew she could not afford to waste time behind the Swede, and just after she had completed an outside pass, Jonsson lost control of her sled and rolled out of 2nd. By the time she reached the chequered flag, Jonsson could only manage 4th. How crucial would those lost points be, come the end of the season, especially with Forsell taking another win? Forsell’s win meant three-in-a-row, and rounding out the top three was Karelius and Laamanen.
When asked about the race, Saga Forsell alluded to how challenging the circuit was: ‘The track is so much more different than we have in Finland and Sweden, so it’s hard to drive all the time, but I did my best and I took the 1st place so it’s good.’
In Final 2, Jonsson found herself taking the early lead with Forsell tucked in behind her, and as long as there were no mistakes on her side, the race one winner knew she would still take the overall victory. But, at the same time, you don’t want to ‘gift’ your rival three points, do you? As the race went on, Jonsson grew in confidence and did in fact go on to take the win, which was also her first ever World SNX race win, and as you can imagine, it was quite the moment:
‘Yeah, it was super fun, my sled really did rip the holeshot, and I was like ‘WOW!’ so it was fun, and staying out of all the roost and everything it does a lot.’ Asked if she felt the pressure from behind from Forsell, Jonsson replied ‘not until the last laps I think, then I was like ‘oh my god, she’s getting closer …’ but it felt great, yeah!’ Forsell took 2nd from Tilde KARELIUS, who made her first visit to the podium in 2025. Overall classification from Round 2 was Saga Forsell, Wilma Jonsson and Tilde Karelius.
The racing in Turkiye was frantic, and in the Men’s Final 1, it was Aki PIHLAJA who once again showed his starting prowess with another holeshot from championship leader Elias Ishoel. Sweden’s Mille ANDERSSON found himself in 3rd which is where he would stay until the chequered flag.
Up front, the battle of the giants continued until once again, Ishoel found a way to pass Pihlaja for the lead, and eventually the race win, and was quick to point out how challenging the track was: ‘It’s real tough out there, the track is pretty much one line so it’s really hard to overtake; I feel quite a bit faster than Aki right now but it’s pretty hard to overtake and pass out there, and it was the yellow flags in the one rhythm that’s kind of two lines, so I was just giving Aki a little bit of a gap there so I didn’t get all the roost, the water into the sled, so yeah, he opened the inside and I took it and the rest of the race I tried to stay calm and just hit the lines and save the sled for the second one. It’s really rough out there, rocks, water … I don’t know where the snow is but yeah, it’s good, it’s fun!’
In the Men’s Final 2, despite a poor start, Ishoel wasted no time getting back to 2nd but it was that man Pihlaja who grabbed another holeshot. The battle for the lead had us on the edge of our seats, as did the battle from 3rd to 5th. Aleksi JUNTUNEN (FIN) made the most of his good start and sat in 3rd before eventually being overhauled by Mille ANDERSSON and then Martin JOHANSSON (SWE). Juntunen eventually placed 6th after being placed by Robert LUNDEN (NOR).
Despite his efforts to make the pass, this time Ishoel was resigned to play second-fiddle to Pihlaja who went on to take his first victory of the season, and therefore the overall after his 2-1 to Ishoel’s 1-2. Andersson was 3rd, picking up his first podium of the campaign. In the press conference after the podium, Pihlaja stated his win might have come down to paying attention to his start position:
‘Yeah, I chose a different starting position in the second heat, because we always check the snow conditions on the starting line, so I’m pretty good to find a good spot there, it was just a good spot to start. I didn’t change too much for the second heat, I was just more accurate with the lappers, so yeah, that worked, ha ha … I was able to keep Elias (ISHOEL) behind.’
ROUND 3
FÄLLFORS, SWEDEN
The final round in Sweden took place in Fällfors at the DRIVECENTER ARENA which was hosting such a big event for the first time. Not only that, the promoters of the event were those behind the MXGP of Sweden, Uddevalla, so it’s fair to say they know a thing or two about how to stage an event. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that Uddevalla and Fällfors are local to each other; far from it. Instead, to get to the final round from Uddevalla is a not-so-brisk fourteen-hour drive, and a distance of 1130km north east, to a place where there was still plenty of snow.
WOMEN
THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
Just a handful of points separated the two main rivals heading into the final round, but it was the home favourite (literally) who made her way to the front. Behind Wilma Jonsson was Emma Laamanen and Tilde Karelius with the points leader, Saga Forsell back in 4th. Forsell initially seemed to struggle for pace, but eventually she made her way into 3rd with a pass on Karelius. By then, Jonsson was too far gone and went on to take her second win of the season. She had also gained a few points in the fight for the championship, which looked like it was a real possibility once again: ‘Yea, it’s starting to look brighter. I’m just gonna focus on myself and focus on this race like I told the commentator in Swedish, I haven’t tried to have any expectations for the world championship, and just go out and win my hometown race here and then we see how far the points will go.’
With four points separating Forsell and Jonsson, both drivers knew the mathematic equation they were faced with, and just as she did in race one, Jonsson made her way to the front early. This time however, Forsell was right there behind her, knowing that 2nd would be enough to lift the title. And that ‘was all she wrote’ as the saying goes; Wilma Jonsson crossed the line as a double-race winner for the first time to win her home round, but when Saga Forsell crossed the line in 2nd, it was enough for the Finn to be crowned world champion for the first time. When you cast your mind back to Turkiye, the previous round, the points lost when Jonsson rolled her sled from 2nd to 4th did in fact have a bearing on the final championship standings, with
just one point separating the gold and silver medallists.
Third overall on the day and in the series was Emma LAAMANEN who improved from 5th overall in 2024. As for the new world champion, all Saga Forsell could say was ‘Thank-you, I don’t know what to say, it’s really awesome. The hard work, and now I’m the world champion, so, everything is good. I want to say a big thank-you to my team, Jokikone Racing Team, my mechanics, my family, all my sponsors and all my friends who were cheering me up. Thank-you!’
THE FINAL RECKONING
MEN’S FINAL ROUND
After gaining momentum with a race and overall win in Turkiye, Aki Pihlaja came out fighting in Sweden, and that was never more evident than how he attacked the first turn in both races. In Race One, both he and the points leader Elias Ishoel went bar-to-bar into the first turn, but Ishoel stood firm, held his ground and came away with the lead with Pihlaja in 2nd. Behind them was Gustav SAHLSTEN, and as Ishoel began to pull away, Pihlaja had his hands full with Sahlsten (SWE) who eventually found his way past the title challenger. With Pihlaja now in 3rd, the opportunity of a five-point gain was on the table for Ishoel, and when Ishoel crossed the line as the winner, whilst there was still work to be done, he knew the pressure was eased somewhat heading into race two, saying:
‘I tried to be smart, at the same time I pushed in the first couple laps there, the track is so gnarly so, it’s about getting the sled to the finish, too. It’s easy to do dumb mistakes out there and I could actually see my hood, on the front of my sled was getting a little bit loose so I needed to take it easy the last laps and yeah, the lappers as well, it’s quite a bit one line out there but we gained some more points so that’s good for the second race.’
If we thought the first turn in Race One was tough, then that proved to be nothing, compared to what we witnessed in the final race of the season. Once again Pihlaja and Ishoel went bar to bar, only this time it was Ishoel who crashed out spectacularly when the two drivers clashed. When the ‘200’ rejoined the race, we didn’t know if there was damage to him, or damage to his sled, so it was going to be a tense final race to say the least. Up front, it was Oskar NORUM (SWE)
who led with race one winner Gustav Sahlsten 2nd with Pihlaja in 3rd.
As Sahlsten moved into the lead, he knew it would be good enough to claim the overall victory on the day, and with Norum now in 2nd, he was just praying to make it on to the podium. Behind him in 3rd, Aki Pihlaja’s urgency or pace seemed to elude him, and 3rd was the best he was looking at, almost letting fate do its thing to determine the final outcome of this championship.
One thing was certain though, and that was the determination of Elias Ishoel to get back to the front after his first turn crash. Eventually, the hard work paid off and his 4th place finish secured him the title with room to spare. On the day, the podium was Gustav Sahlsten, Elias Ishoel, Oskar Norum, but it was Ishoel who finally got his hands on that elusive gold medal as the 2025 FIM Snowcross World Champion:
‘It feels awesome. I couldn’t do all the races in the (United) States, so going for the World
Championship is just amazing with the season I’ve had and yeah, I should have had a couple (of titles) from before but now, for the first time I have it and yeah, ‘check mark’ and it feels amazing!’
Final Standings – Women
Bronze medal Emma LAAMANEN (FIN) 3rd
Silver medal Wilma JONSSON (SWE) 2nd
Gold medal Saga FORSELL (FIN) 1st
Final Standings – Men
Bronze Medal Mille ANDERSSON (3rd) ¬
Silver Medal Aki PIHLAJA (2nd)
Gold Medal Elias ISHOEL (1st)
DANIELA GUILlEN ON THE 2025 WMX SEASON
JOIN US AS WE SIT DOWN WITH SPAIN’S RISING MOTOCROSS STAR, DANIELA GUILLEN, FOR AN OPEN AND HONEST LOOK AT HER 2025 WMX CAMPAIGN SO FAR. FROM THE HIGHS OF RACING AT HOME TO THE GRIT IT TAKES TO STAY IN THE TITLE FIGHT, GUILLÉN SHARES HER THOUGHTS ON PRESSURE, PROGRESS, AND WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO CHASE GLORY IN ONE OF MOTOCROSS’S MOST COMPETITIVE SEASONS YET.
GORDON CROCKARD 2001 HONDA CR250
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO FREQUENTLY WATCH MXGP ON TELEVISION OR VISIT ANY OF THE FIM MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN PERSON, YOU MAY BE FAMILIAR WITH A MAN BY THE NAME OF GORDON CROCKARD, WHO IS THE HONDA EUROPE OFF-ROAD MANAGER.
Prior to his current role though, the former rider from Northern Ireland had a very distinguished racing career, which saw him win four premier class 250cc Motocross Grands Prix in an era when the field was stacked with some of the best riders ever to line up behind the start gate. In 2001 ‘Crockstar’ finished 3rd overall in the final 250cc World Championship standings aboard his
Honda, and so in this issue of MXGP Magazine, we unpack the 2001 Honda CR250 which took Crockard to that bronze medal.
Gordon Crockard’s first season in the FIM Motocross World Championship was in 1998 riding a CAS Honda, and with the class restricted to just thirty riders behind
the gate, qualifying needed to be an art form. For ‘Gordy’ though, that proved to be a real problem and something he never quite got his head around, and if he did qualify, he failed to score any points. After going back to the drawing board, Crockard came out swinging, and in 1999, not only was he qualifying, but he was also scoring points on a regular basis, ending the year 13th in the overall standings – a couple of 10th place finishes being the highlight of the year.
2000 proved to be something of a breakout year, and not only did the ‘Crockstar’ win the first race at the opening GP of the season at Talavera in Spain, but the 4th place he followed it up with in race two, meant he also claimed his first career grand prix victory. On his way to 6th overall in the final championship standings, Crockard had earned two race wins, two GP wins and six podiums.
Still armed with a CAS Honda, Gordon Crockard was now a rider who the rest of the grid knew about. His results from 2000 had given him a certain status within the paddock; race winner and grand prix winner was how he was now being referred as. However, there had been quite a few changes during the off-season, with the biggest being that the World Championship was now under the ownership of Dorna, which meant for the next three years, the old format of running two,
forty-minute plus two lap races had been replaced, and just like MotoGP, the motocross world championship would see riders competing for the grand prix victory in a single thirty-minute plus two lap race.
As a steel-framed motorcycle, Honda had had a real winning machine, but when the brand switched to the aluminium chassis in 1997, it was met with a bit of resistance amongst the moto community, something which took a while to come back around, as Gordy recalls:
‘Honda came out with the aluminium bike in ‘97 and they continued with that frame 97, 98 and ‘99. Then they changed it dramatically, reduced the spec of the spars. So, for year 2000, 2001 in my opinion, that was the best model they ever made of the aluminium CR250, and so in 2000, I really loved the bike; I really felt it was fantastic and had I moved into 2001 with the same motorbike, I probably would’ve been absolutely satisfied with that. However, you can appreciate that on the days that you’re not winning, you’ll scratch your head and think maybe I can improve the bike. So, you’re always working as an individual and as a team to try and improve, even if you’re satisfied with what you’ve got.’
That right there is every rider’s dilemma; taking a perfectly good motorcycle and trying to improve it. Even if you think you have the perfect bike, you cannot afford to sit still. The devil is in the detail, and it’s the finer details which you need to pay attention to. So, how did Crockard’s 2001 Honda CR250 start out, and what were some of the changes that helped turn it into a race-winning machine? Gordy picks up the story:
‘The motorbike was a customer bike out of the showroom and modified in-house by Nick Moores, who was the team technician at that time. Steve Brady was also working with Nick, so I had a good squad of guys who were completely responsible for my bike, and the way we went about it and with not being a factory team, meant we were free to do whatever we wanted, and we weren’t restricted by company policies.’
‘We had some support from SHOWA where they gave us their best performance suspension that they had, full factory 49mm front forks, and maybe a 18mm rod for the rear. We then had to change the triple clamp as well, along with the front axle. The negative point with having this suspension was there wasn’t enough material for me to also have that on my training bike, so the normal problem; I loved my practice bike probably more than my race bike, because you do more hours on that than you do your race bike, or at least I did. So, it was just a case of identifying the differences and once it came to the grand prix, we did get enough track time to very quickly get familiar again.’
Also working in the shadows was a very well-respected master technician, a Belgian by the name of Johan Luyten, who had previously worked with some of the world’s best racers as their crew chief and his role, along with Nick Moores was to further identify ‘marginal gains’ as Crockard points out:
‘Johan Luyten, who you might recall has a history of success in grand prix motocross, he was Georges Jobe’s mechanic and things like that (Nicoll also), so Johan made quite a few parts for my bike, including the crankshaft. He had a great formula where he would insert tungsten into the crank which would generate greater inertia for the bike and just control, I suppose, the power that it was producing.’
The real secret weapon though, according to Gordon was the cylinder, which had already been shown to be a proven race-winner almost ten years earlier, as he recalls:
‘We used a 1993 stock CR250 cylinder on my 2001 bike. Jeremy McGrath had publicly said that he loved the ’93 bike, all the way up until Honda changed the ally frame in ’97, which just didn’t work for Jeremy. We found that the port configuration of the ’93 cylinder, I think the exhaust port was lower, which gave the power that I was always asking for, and this was ported and tuned by Nick, who also made the cylinder head
as well. He had a particular cut for the squish that we used. There were lots of different things that we did, changed the carburettor as well. I think the bike came with a Mikuni carb’ but we preferred the Keihin carb, a 38mm I think?’
So, the team started out with a bike which was a model year 2001 motorcycle, replaced the engine with a cylinder from 1993 and upgraded the forks to factory SHOWA units. The upgraded aluminium chassis was already a proven winner, and all they needed to finish off the performance side, was an exhaust system, which came out of Holland, as Crockard explains:
‘Dominic, from DOMA was the exhaust manufacturer and he made us custom exhausts. Nick would’ve gone there, spent time with our bike and our engine and he
and Dominic would work closely to make a custom exhaust for that engine, so in the end, we had loads of flexibility which perhaps at a factory setting you wouldn’t have, and I loved it.’
The CAS Honda Team that Gordon raced for was far removed from a factory team, but after his race and GP wins in the previous season, there were options for a few official HRC parts here and there, something which at the time, Gordy didn’t know how to address, but not all of them made things ‘better’ according to GC:
‘Yes, there were some HRC parts, but similar to the suspension story in that there wasn’t enough of it, so you got bits and pieces, some of it was official support, some of it not. In the end, I was the rider, so I wasn’t in that arena of fully understanding about whether we
should be announcing or disclosing that we’ve got this or whether the stuff has come out the back door, where those parts should have never been released.’
‘I remember we got these fancy front brake systems, the master cylinder in particular (laughing) and it created quite a bit of positive energy, like ‘oh, we’ve got you these factory front brakes.’ I did about four laps with it and said ‘no, I don’t like it!’ because it wasn’t the same as my practice bike and the production one; the customer one was perfect. It made it rock hard which I hated; I liked a bit more feel. I like the brake where if I wanted to slow down more, I’d pull it in more, you know? That’s what I grew up on, so whenever they were saying ‘this is much better …’ for me no, it’s not better! It’s different, and I don’t like it! (laughing).’
There were a few cosmetic parts which made the bike look trick, things like wheels and foot pegs, hubs ‘which were a lovely colour, where the spokes were gold and the rims were a different colour.’ Gordy also remembers testing an ECU but yep, you guessed it, ‘I didn’t like it. It just made the thing rev like crazy ...’
When it came to riding the deep sand tracks like Lierop, in Holland, there were some changes to the bike which Gordy did like, and in particular the front end, as he explains: ‘For the sand we changed the steering bearing cups so it would change the rake, which pushed the front out, which made it like a chopper, and that was specifically for the sand, and that made a massive difference, it was excellent.’
Other ergonomic modifications included changing the position of the footrests, which were moved back 10mm, and to compliment that change, he also shifted the ‘bar mounts 3mm forward, and despite his tall 6’2 frame, Gordy preferred to cut away his seat foam making it lower, which enabled him to turn through corners quicker and more efficiently, or in his words just ‘better, due to the lower centre of gravity.’
When the season kicked off in Spain, nobody really knew how the new one-race format would play out, and one of the big unknown’s was how to approach the race itself, and Gordy was no exception, and despite leading the race early on, soon succumbed to arm-pump as a result of some new-found ‘advice’.
‘I had a lot of advisors through my career and whenever it switched from two moto’s down to one moto, everyone thought they had the magic advice, explaining to me that I needed to use the energy I had for two moto’s and use it for one moto, that I needed to go to the start line already sweating and heart rate sitting at 160, and all this stuff. And I did take some of that advice and did find out that those were mistakes. From then on, I kept it simple; go as fast as I can, for as long as I can, as many times as I can.’
By round four, Crockard was back to winning ways, taking an exhilarating victory over eventual world champion, Mickael Pichon, at Genk, Belgium, something which still stands out now, as he recalls:
‘That was a brilliant race, one of my best. We (Pichon and I) were over a minute ahead of 3rd place, which I think was Yves Demaria, and lapped up to 9th place in the grand prix, lapping Coppins, and Robbie Reynard, who was a guest rider as well.
‘I led the race, Mickael passed me and I passed him back extremely aggressively in the very next turn, and that was a brilliant win for me just to get the start, be passed and pass him straight back, and it was just the speed really. Mickael was faster than me, I’m not gonna try and say I was faster than him, he was, he was just
faster than me, and on days that I really excelled, it was enough to keep up with him or beat him, and that was one of those days. Conditions were quite tough, it was kind of like a wet sand, hard to not make mistakes but you know, wet sand in Belgium is no different to wet sand to Desertmartin; it’s wet sand, so that type of condition I felt quite at home in.’
Another victory came at Uddevalla in Sweden, which Gordy says was perhaps even more impressive than his win in Belgium because ‘that’s not a track condition that I have any connection to, there’s no reason why I would’ve gone fast around Uddevalla, it’s nothing like anything I was brought up on.’
With two rounds remaining, Crockard’s 2nd place in the championship was seriously coming under threat, from Chad Reed, who had moved to within twelve points of the Honda man, and after Reed placed 2nd at the penultimate round in Italy, Crockard could only manage 5th, meaning the gap was just three points, with everything to play for in Austria. Reed finished 3rd in the race to secure 2nd overall in the standings, as Crockard placed 5th, losing out on the silver medal, but as explains, even with three rounds to go, there was no real cause for alarm:
‘The championship was tightening up, but I still always thought, this was okay, especially given the terrain that we were going to in Austria. It suited me, it was a bit like Farleigh Castle, it was grassy, loamy soil, and it was a mud race, and that’s where it all fell apart. I panic-rode, I fell off about 6 times and each
time I crashed it got worse because I thought ‘oh no, I’m losing this, I’m losing this’ and that’s exactly what happened. I should’ve just switched off from thinking about the possibility of losing that 2nd in the championship, and I probably would’ve rode the race without crashing and enjoyed it and got a better result. So, it was totally my fault what happened that day.’
Despite that setback, and given where Gordon Crockard began life and his motocross journey in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, when all is said and done, 3rd in the world is still nothing to be sniffed as, is it? Well, that depends on your perspective, right?
‘(Laughing) … I know, it’s mad because people say ‘you were 3rd in the world’ but I always think I really should’ve been 2nd, so I feel that I really should’ve been 2nd. I never should’ve beat Pichon, no way, he was just better than me, so I don’t ever think I under achieved in terms of competing against Mickael, but to give 2nd to Chad, I feel like I just gifted it to him. He improved throughout the year, you know, he really did accelerate his form and he continued to do that, in his career after grand prix motocross, so I’m not embarrassed about Chad Reed being given 2nd in the championship, he’s a credible name. But when I do look at it, I think I could’ve managed myself better and not let that happen. But a classic Irishman would be where you’d say ‘you snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,’ which should be the other way round, but the Irish tend to be very good at getting it wrong (laughing).’
GAUTIER ‘GP21’ PAULIN
Born on the 26th March 1990 at Draguignan in Southern France, Gautier was only six years old when he saw a BMX video and knew that this sport was for him! His progression was spectacular as he became World Champion when he was only nine years old! A few years later he got an 85cc Yamaha, and he entered – and won – his first local race when he was thirteen. Then he entered the French series where he got good results with a second position in the 85cc Minivert in 2004, and a third in the Cadet Championship in 2005.
six of the fifteen rounds due to a broken leg. In 2009 he won his first GP in Italy on a Bud Kawasaki, led the MX2 World Championship during the first five rounds to finish the season with a bronze medal. Selected for the first time to race the Motocross of Nations with the French team, he was even more impressive as he won the MX2/Open race ahead of Philippaerts and Ivan Tedesco at his first attempt on a 450cc! He was not with his team mates at the podium ceremony, as he got injured in the last race, but began strongly his connection with this event.
He joined Team Yamaha Rinaldi in 2010, starting the season by racing some US Supercross events, but a few days before the first GP he got injured and missed the first four rounds. He ended that season with a GP win in the deep sands of Lierop in the Netherlands and tenth in the Championship. He had a better season in 2011, with seven GP podiums and fourth in the overall standings. He ended the season on a 450cc Yamaha at the last GP in Italy, and beat everyone to win his first ever MX1 Grand Prix! A few days later he had another opportunity to show his potential on a 450cc and won the MX2-Open race at the MXoN ahead of Jeffrey Herlings and Ryan Villopoto to help Team France to finish runner-up at home in Saint Jean d’Angely.
Friend with Antoine Meo, he joined him at the Honda Martin Racing squad to compete in the European MX2 Championship. Working alongside former World Champion Jacky Vimond, Gautier finally beat David Philippaerts by one point to clinch his first major title. Moving to the MX2 World Championship in 2008 he raced only
During the following three seasons he raced for the Kawasaki Racing Team, won six GPs and ended his association with the team by winning the Motocross of Nations at Kegums in Latvia with Team France. It was the first victory of a long series, as “Le Capitan” Paulin led the Frenchies to four further consecutive wins in the legendary team race. That was for sure the high point of his career, even though he collected an individual silver medal in the premiere class in 2015 with a factory Honda and a bronze in 2017 with Husqvarna. Back to Yamaha for his last two seasons he scored top five results before his racing retirement at the end of the 2020 season. However, he never definitively quit the paddock, as he remains a Yamaha ambassador and embraced a new role when the
he paddock,
Rally Raid in Morocco on a 700cc Yamaha Tenere!
2ND IN THE FRENCH 85 MINIVERT CHAMPIONSHIP (YAMAHA)
2005 3RD IN THE FRENCH 85 CADET CHAMPIONSHIP (YAMAHA)
2006 20TH IN THE FRENCH 125 JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP (YAMAHA)
2007 EMX2 EUROPEAN CHAMPION (HONDA). WON 4 ROUNDS 28TH IN THE MX2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
2008 21ST IN THE MX2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (KAWASAKI)
2009 3RD IN THE MX2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (KAWASAKI). WON 2 GPS 2ND WITH TEAM FRANCE AT THE MX OF NATIONS
2010 10TH IN THE MX2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (YAMAHA). WON 1 GP
2011 4TH IN THE MX2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (YAMAHA) 24TH IN THE MX1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. WON 1 GP
2012 3RD IN THE MX1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (KAWASAKI). WON 1 GP
2013 5TH IN THE MX1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (KAWASAKI). WON 3 GPS
2014 8TH IN THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (KAWASAKI). WON 2 GPS WINNER OF THE MX OF NATIONS WITH TEAM FRANCE AT KEGUMS, LATVIA
2015 2ND IN THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HONDA). WIN 1 GP WINNER OF THE MX OF NATIONS WITH TEAM FRANCE AT ERNÉE, FRANCE
2016 13TH IN THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HONDA) WINNER OF THE MX OF NATIONS WITH TEAM FRANCE AT MAGGIORA, ITALY
2017 3RD IN THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HUSQVARNA). WON 1 GP WINNER OF THE MX OF NATIONS WITH TEAM FRANCE AT MATTERLEY BASIN
2018 5TH IN THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (HUSQVARNA) WINNER OF THE MX OF NATIONS WITH TEAM FRANCE AT RED BUD, USA
2019 4TH IN THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (YAMAHA)
2020 5TH IN THE MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (YAMAHA)
1 Kevin Horgmo extends with Honda Motoblouz SR for 2026
2 YZ BLU CRU SuperFinale heads to USA
3 FIM Women’s Commission organized a WMX track walk in Lugo with de Wolf & Jorgensen
4 Tim Gajser underwent a successful shoulder surgery. Get well soon Tim!
5 GP prep secret? Friday media event spices up with local cuisine in Agueda!
6 The MXGP Academy season kicked off in Águeda.
7 The future of Swedish Motocross?! August Frisk wins first EMX250 for Sweden
8 There is a new red plate in the paddock! Frenchman Febvre is the new MXGP championship leader!
9 Oriol Oliver joins Gabriel SS24 KTM Factory for the 2025 MX2 campaign.
