The 2024 FIM Motocross World Championship returns after a weekend off to launch into another three-week run of events, beginning this weekend with the MXGP of Germany at the circuit of Teutschenthal.
The compact German valley has hosted a massive 26 MXGP events in its history, with its first being in 1971.
The winner that day was Suzuki star Joel Robert, on his way to the fifth of his six career world titles.
We didn’t return to the Talkessel until 1993, when a rider named after the great Robert, fellow Belgian Joel Smets, won the first of his 57 career Grands Prix on his thundering Husaberg.
The venue has been on the MXGP calendar every year since 1999, apart from 2013, when it hosted the Motocross of Nations instead, and the pandemic-affected season of 2020.
Italian Antonio Cairoli holds the record for the most Grand Prix wins at the circuit with five, amassing the most individual race wins as well with nine. All four of the leading MXGP contenders have seen success in Teutschenthal.
The MX2 class sees the home crowd’s biggest hope for a German winner, with Simon Laengenfelder currently sitting second in the points for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing.
Riders who lined up at the 2013 Motocross of Nations and will still race in 2024 include two of the Swiss team that day, Jeremy Seewer of the Kawasaki Racing Team, and Team Ship to Cycle Honda Motoblouz SR rider Valentin Guillod.
Fantic Factory Racing stalwart Glenn Coldenhoff was also there that day, although from the three, only Guillod got into the top 10.
The EMX250 Championship will return for their fifth round, with Mathis Valin bolting the red plate onto his Bud Racing Kawasaki after his home GP, and he now leads from Cas Valk, who is 23 points behind for Gabriel SS24 KTM, with previous leader Valerio Lata dropping to third for Beddini GASGAS Factory Juniors after scoring only 8 points at St, Jean d’Angely.
Teutschenthal also welcomes the FIM Women’s World Motocross Championship, back for the first time since 2018, when Courtney Duncan took the victory.
Home heroine Larissa Papenmeier has won there twice in the past, and she will lean on the local support to lift her from 7th in the series.
Kiara Fontanesi, winner in 2015, is third in the points behind the flying teenage pair of Lotte van Drunen, who will carry the red plate for De Baets Yamaha, and RFME GASGAS Factory Juniors star Daniela Guillen, who is only nine points behind as they reach the halfway point of the series, this being round four of seven for WMX in 2024.
The 2024 MXGP title race is proving to be the absolute classic that the dazzling line-up promised at the start of the year. The previous two MXGP World Champions, Team HRC’s Tim Gajser and Jorge Prado for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing, are just five points apart at the top of the standings after the Slovenian won the Monster Energy MXGP of France, while Romain Febvre sits just 24 points further back for the Kawasaki Racing Team after bravely fighting through a thumb injury sustained in Free Practice.
Jeffrey Herlings of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team is now fourth in the series and 61 points behind the leader, after winning race two at St Jean d’Angely.
With the weather forecast showing more rain possible for the MXGP of Germany, Herlings could be the man to beat at the German circuit.
Of the active MXGP field, Gajser has won the most at Teutschenthal, taking the MX2 trophy in his first title year of 2015, plus MXGP victories in 2019, ’21, and ’22.
Herlings and Prado have each won three at the Talkessel, with the current champion taking the honours last season. Febvre has only one overall win there, taking the MXGP class in 2015. His 2024 team-mate Seewer also won in MX2 back in 2017.
With a 43-rider entry list there should be a full gate in MXGP, with a large swell of local wildcards hoping to perform well in front of the usually large and raucous crowd. Tom Koch is the highest-placed German in the standings for the KTM Kosak Team, and the Schmicker Racing team will also be enjoying its home Grand Prix with its riders Corneliues Toendel and Adam Sterry.
The fight is well and truly still on in MXGP, both at the sharp end and throughout what is sure to be a crowded valley, both on and off the track!
MX2 CLASS
The MX2 class has provided some wild racing in 2024, with the first six riders in the standings all taking a race win on either Saturday or Sunday, and so far the Grand Prix victories have gone in waves, with Kay de Wolf taking the first three for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, Liam Everts the next two for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, then De Wolf’s team-mate Lucas Coenen taking the most recent two rounds.
De Wolf’s consistency has seen him stretch out a 52-point lead in the Championship, and the big home favourite Simon Laengenfelder (pictured above) is the next rider along, scoring well in every race apart from the second one in Portugal, where he crashed and broke his collarbone.
Struggling on with plating over the injury for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing, his speed has been climbing again, and he will be looking to make the most of the home support with the volume of the valley sure to rise with every move forward he makes. Lucas Coenen’s two wins have seen him rise back to third, just 7 points behind the German.
Everts and his team-mate Andrea Adamo, the reigning champion in the class, are fourth and fifth, with the other winner, Thibault Benistant of the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2, sadly likely to be out for Germany after hurting his back in a big crash in France.
Everts took the overall win at Teutschenthal last year, although he had a slight piece of fortune as Lucas Coenen suffered a broken chain whilst leading race two, after dominating the first.
Both De Wolf and Laengenfelder suffered injuries before last year’s event, so with the top five all healthy, the MXGP of Germany could prove just as unpredictable as every other round this year.
Photo courtesy Honda
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STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 7:
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 348 points; 2. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 343 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 319 p.; 4. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 287 p.; 5. Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 253 p.; 6. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 234 p.; 7. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 223 p.; 8. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 200 p.; 9. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 145 p.; 10. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 130.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 342 points; 2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 290 p.; 3. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 283 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 268 p.; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 257 p.; 6. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 226 p.; 7. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 216 p.; 8. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 211 p.; 9. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 159 p.; 10. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 126 p.