Just over three months after the conclusion of the 2021 season, the World Motocross Championship starts again, with all the world’s top riders heading to Matterley Basin, in England, for the opening round for 2022.
The series was due to kick off this weekend, but extreme weather has now forced organisers to postpone until next weekend, February 27-28.
When racing does finally get underway, it is sure that factory Honda riders Tim Gajser, from Slovenia, and Australian Mitch Evans, will be among the fancied few, both men having fond memories of racing at Matterley Basin.
For Gajser, this will mean an attempt to win a moto here for the fourth year in succession and grab hold of the red plate, like he has for much of the past three years.
Unfortunately, Gajser (pictured here) just missed out on the title last year, the title instead going to Dutch KTM hero Jeffery Herlings, but Gajser will be aiming for world title number five in 2022, with the long and flowing Matterley Basin venue being the perfect site to begin his fight for this year’s MXGP championship.
Gajser’s team-mate Evans missed out on 2021 entirely but in his first outing for Team HRC in 2020, he took fifth overall, including a third place in moto one to really show why he deserved to ride the amazing CRF450R.
Now though, after over a year of recovery, the Australian is back for a gate-drop once again and while there isn’t too much expectation placed on his shoulders, he still wants to go out there and show everyone he is still one of the best motocross riders on the planet.
The factory-supported F&H Kawasaki team also has high hopes of faring well in the UK.
The Dutch-based team has enjoyed success in the MX2 class, claiming the European title in 2019 and GP podiums every year since they entered the World Championship in 2018.
For the first time this season the team will have one rider in each of the MX2 and the MXGP series, a new development which is welcomed by everyone in the team. Norwegian Kevin Horgmo joins the team for the first time in MX2, while Australian Jed Beaton returns for his rookie year in MXGP.
“We had a great off-season; Jed is back with us and we are very optimistic, together with Kawasaki, that we can give him the opportunity to race up-front on the KX450 because he is a very talented rider.
“We achieved MX2 podiums with him, and we are happy to give him this chance,” explained team manager Nathalie Fase, who runs the team alongside her father Harry and is enthusiastic after the short winter break.
“With riders in two classes it will be different. We will need a new approach but we have less riders, going from three to two, so we can still focus on both; maybe it will be even better than with all riders in one class,” she added.
In 2022, the MXGPs return to a two-day format, meaning that there are now six sessions for the riders to work upon settings and improve their set-up.
The Matterley Basin track is a magnificent venue and hopefully a large number of fans will turn up next weekend and witness the beginning of what should be another intense year of the world motocross championship.
Photo courtesy HRC Honda
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