Super Stats: 2024 Motocross of Nations Preview and Historical Breakdown

Yesterday at 09:00 PM

The best race of the year! The  77^th Motocross of Nations competition will be held this weekend at Matterly Basin in Great Britain.

I was hoping to make the trip to England to attend this year but my schedule didn't quite work out – I will be at next year's race at Ironman!

This will be the third time Matterly Basin has hosted the Motocross of Nations. It last held the event in 2017 where France took home the victory. The track also held the 2006 event where the United States was victorious.

This year's event should be another great one with no clear favorite coming into the race. For this article, I am going to breakdown the (top) teams and riders and then some historical stats.

I'll include any interesting stats and notes for any team or rider that is worth mentioning.

Two things to note, I don't follow the MXGP series all that closely – my sports brain is at capacity with all the other sports I follow. Also, I am American and heavily rooting for Team USA so some bias might come across through this article!

Onto the teams! (I'll be going order of the of the entry list – which is based on last year's results. All team lineups as of 10/1/24.)

France

MXGP – Romain Febvre

MX2 – Tom Vialle

Open – Maxime Renaux

France won last year's race on home soil in pretty dominant fashion. Tom Vialle and Maxime Renaux both won their classes in 2023.

This is Febvre's 5^th time representing Team France – so far he's is 4 for 4, winning every MXoN where he has been on the team.

The only other riders to have at least 4 wins with a 100% win rate? Jeff Ward, David Bailey, Rick Johnson, Johnny O'Mara and Ryan Villopoto…pretty good company!

Febvre was also on the 2017 French team that was victorious at Matterly Basin.

France has won 7 Motocross of Nations, tied for 4^th all-time with Sweden. They will be one of the favorites again this year.

Australia

MXGP – Jett Lawrence

MX2 – Kyle Webster

Open – Hunter Lawrence

The Lawrence brothers lead the way here for Team Australia. Last year, Australia recorded their best ever finish at the MXoN with a second place finish. A lot of pressure on Kyle Webster to put in a good performance in the MX2 class.

Team Australia has three total podiums in their MXoN history: 2011, 2022 and 2023.

Italy

MXGP – Alberto Forato

MX2 – Andrea Adamo

Open – Andrea Bonacorsi

Italy had a surprise podium finish at the 2023 MXoN. This is where my lack of MXGP knowledge is coming in, I don't really know how strong this team is.

Italy has three total MXoN victories and 9 total podiums. Italy finished 7^th at the 2017 MXoN at Matterly Basin.

Andrea Adamo is the most experienced MXoN rider on Italy’s 2024 team, making just his third appearance. Forato and Bonacorsi have just one prior MXoN race under their belts.

Germany

MXGP – Ken Roczen

MX2 – Simon Laengenfelder

Open – Max Nagl

Ken Roczen won the MXGP class at last year’s event. This is a strong team that should be Top 5 and can maybe challenge for a podium.

This will (in all likelihood) be Max Nagl's 16^th time representing Team Germany in the final! This will put him into second place all-time for Final starts (more on this later.) Nagl has been on Team Germany 17 prior times, however, two of those times he either did not compete or Germany failed to qualify.

This is Roczen's 8^th time on the German team.

Germany did not have a good 2017 MXoN at Matterly Basin, finishing last in 20^th.

Belgium

MXGP – Jago Geerts

MX2 – Lucas Coenen

Open – Brent Van Doninck

Some recent injuries have shaken up this team, again my lack of MXGP knowledge is coming in here. Belgium finished 5^th at last year's race.

Belgium is one of the most decorated Nation's in the history of the MXoN, winning 15 times – good for 3^rd all-time. Furthermore, Belgium has 59 podiums in MXoN history, a rate of 78.67%, a rate higher than even the United States!

Switzerland

MXGP – Jeremy Seewer

MX2 – Arnaud Tonus

Open – Valentin Guillod

Switzerland has 1 podium in their MXoN history – back in 1965. The team finished 6^th last year.

Jeremy Seewer's best team finish at the MXoN was 5^th in 2017 at Matterly Basin. This is Seewer's 12^th time representing Switzerland.

Spain

MXGP – Jorge Prado

MX2 – Oriol Oliver

Open – Ruben Fernandez

Jorge Prado leads Spain with his 7^th time on the team. Spain has never podiumed in MXoN history.

Prado finished second in the MXGP MXoN individual class last year.

United States

MXGP – Eli Tomac

MX2 – Cooper Webb

Open – Aaron Plessinger

Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb!

Eli Tomac is last minute fill in for Chase Sexton, huge credit to both Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb for stepping up!

This is Eli Tomac's 5^th time on Team USA. His last appearance was in 2022 when the USA was victorious. Tomac will have tough competition in the MXGP class going against the likes of Jett Lawrence, Jorge Prado, Tim Gajser, Jeffery Herlings, Romain Febrve and Ken Roczen.

Cooper Webb is another late fill in for the injured Chance Hymas. Webb is dropping down to race a 250 for the first time since 2016! This is Webb's third time on the team and actually his first MXoN on a 250. He was in the Open and MXGP class in 2015 and 2016.

A rider dropping down to race a lower class was common place back in the 1980s for Team USA. How have other riders fared when dropping down a class lately in MXoN history? Well, not great:

Marvin Musquin raced the MX2 class for France in 2022, he finished third in his class which is pretty good…but his moto scores were 14-9.

Antonio Cairoli raced the MX2 class for Italy in 2014, he finished 15^th in his class with 40-19 moto scores.

Max Anstie raced the MX2 class for Great Britain in 2022, finishing 17^th in the MX2 class with 37-30 moto finishes. More on Anstie later.

Also consider Ken Roczen racing a 250 at Ironman this year, 9^th overall with 9-12 scores.

So its going to be tough for Cooper Webb but hopefully he can buck the trend. Luckily for Webb, the MX2 class is not very deep. I have a hard time seeing Webb beating the likes of Tom Vialle, Kay de Wolf, Lucas Coenon and Simon Laengenfelder. But after that its pretty open.

Aaron Plessinger is making his second appearance for Team USA at the MXoN.

I feel like the United States has should be about Top 5 and a podium would be a great success. I think Deegan in MX2 would have pushed them up into the top tier of contenders. A healthy Sexton would help too. Regardless, I am very excited to see how Team USA does!

Slovenia

MXGP – Tim Gajser

MX2 – Jaka Peklaj

Open – Jan Pancar

Tim Gajser stands out here once again as a 5x World Champion, but his supporting cast here just isn't very strong.

Slovenia's best ever MXoN finish is 9^th overall, finishing in the position in 1998 and 2023. At the 2017 MXoN at Matterly Basin they finished 12^th.

Estonia

MXGP – Gert Krestinov

MX2 – Tanel Leok

Open – Harri Kullas

Mentioning Estonia to highlight some Tanel Leok stats.

Tanel Leok is making his 22nd appearance for Team Estonia! Yes, you read that correctly! Since 2001, Leok has only missed one MXoN – 2021.

Estonia's best finish at the MXoN is 4^th place, which they have achieved three times (2004, 2015 and 2019). Leok’s best individual class finish is 2nd overall, which he achieved in 2012 and 2013, both in the Open class.

Leok is riding in the MX2 class this year, he last raced the MX2 class in 2016. In 2016, he finished 6th overall in the MX2 class.

This is Harri Kullas' ninth appearance for Estonia. Kullas has raced for Finland four times at the MXoN.

Skipping some teams here.

Netherlands

MXGP – Jeffrey Herlings

MX2 – Kay de Wolf

Open – Glenn Coldenhoff

The Netherlands finished 18^th in France last year. They really had no chance as they had only two riders race in the event with only Calvin Vlaanderen in MXGP and Kay de Wolf in MX2. They didn’t have an Open class rider.

Jeffrey Herlings is making his 9^th appearance for the Dutch. He has won his individual class 5 times which is tied for 2^nd all-time in MXoN history with Ken Roczen.

Herlings has been very strong at the MXoN, any time he has raced in the MXGP or Open class, his average class finish is 1.43. In his last 5 MXoNs, the Netherlands have finished in 2^nd four times and won the event in 2019 on home soil.

Kay de Wolf is making his third appearance for the team.

Glenn Coldenhoff has had some great results at the MXoN, winning his class in both 2018 and 2019. This is Coldenhoff's 11^th time on the Netherlands team.

Onto some historical stats!

Final Starts by Team/Country

To clear up any confusion, Final Starts means when the country has qualified for the final race – which is 20 teams as of now.

Basically, think of it as the same as Main Event starts in Supercross but for the teams.

Wins by Team/Country

• The United States, Great Britain and Belgium have won over 70% of the Motocross of Nations
• All of France’s victories have occurred this century

Podiums by Team/Country

• I find it interesting that several countries on this list no longer exist
• Ken Roczen has had a lot of strong results at the MXoN however, it has only resulted in two podiums for Germany
• Sweden has not podiumed since 1993
• On the flip side, France has recorded 18 of its podiums since 1994

Final Starts by Individual Rider

As mentioned above, this is only counting when a rider on a team reaches the final race. So for example, Martin Barr from Ireland has been on Team Ireland 17 times, however, Ireland has only qualified for the final race 11 of those times.

• I don’t think Tanel Leok’s record here is ever being broken, as he will (likely) add another to the count this year with 22 total
• For perspective, lets say Jett Lawrence represents Australia every year going forward and is never injured…he would break this record in 2044!
• Cool to see Roger De Coster on on this list!
• Have we found out if Harri Kullas is Estonian or Finnish yet?

Team Wins by Individual Rider

• Jeff Ward – 7 for 7 for team USA!

Team Podiums by Individual Rider

• Lots of Belgian riders here!

Individual Class Wins by Rider

• Herlings could tie Stefan Everts this year for most all-time, Roczen could as well

Moto Wins by Rider

Important to note the total number of motos in the MXoN final has varied heavily throughout its history.

Laps Led by Rider (Since 2004)

Laps data for the Motocross of Nations is only available back to 2004. (Sound familiar?)

If you like the historical stuff here, make sure to read this article I wrote on Pulp last year! It includes a lot of historical nuggets for the Motocross of Nations and how it evolved over the years. Its outdated by a year now but still a good read.

Lets hope for a great race weekend!

Go Team USA!

Thanks for reading! Any questions, hit me up on Instagram or Twitter @MXReference