After a long line of hard-pack, clay-based circuits to round out the first half of the 2025 FIM Motocross World Championship, round eleven takes the series even further east for the third weekend of action in a row, to the sands of the Zelta Zirgs Motocenter near the town of Kegums! It’s the MXGP of Latvia, giving the riders a chance to show off their sand-riding skills and prove their worth in the soft stuff!
This will be the 20th MXGP event held at this venue, the only one in Latvia to host a Motocross World Championship event on two wheels. We have been coming here every year since 2009 if you include the 2014 Motocross of Nations, won by Team France, and even raced here three times in eight days during the COVID-affected 2020 season. Belgian Sven Breugelmans won the first World Championship event at Kegums, an MX3 GP, in 2005, and other past winners include Antonio Cairoli, Clement Desalle, and Ken Roczen.
The most successful exponent of the shifting Kegums sands is none other than Jeffrey Herlings, and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing legend has won more here than at any other venue in the current calendar, with eight GP victories spanning from MX2 in 2010 to each of the last two years in the MXGP class. This round comes straight after his first GP win of the season at Teutschenthal, and for sure “The Bullet” will be rubbing his hands at the prospect of more glory in Latvia!
At the top of the Championship table sits Romain Febvre, who holds a 36-point advantage for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP over chief chaser Lucas Coenen, who has finished second overall at each of the last three GPs for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. The fight for third is closer still, as just four points separate Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP’s Maxime Renaux and Glenn Coldenhoff, who is fourth for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP. A big disappointment for the local fans will be that Pauls Jonass will be unable to compete at his home GP for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP after hurting himself at Teutschenthal for the second year in a row!
The battle for the MX2 World Championship is closer still, as 2023 World Champion Andrea Adamo holds just a three-point lead over fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pilot Simon Laengenfelder, while reigning Champion Kay de Wolf made some ground back in Germany to lie 31 points off the lead for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing. Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Karlis Reisulis will be hoping to lift himself from 14th in the series for his home fans in his first MX2 GP on home sand!
After a weekend off, the EMX250 European Championship returns for its eighth round, and these races might see the most enthusiastic fan support of all, as Latvian rider Janis Reisulis leads the series for VHR VRT Yamaha Official EMX250, having won half of the 14 races so far. He enjoys a 25-point lead over JM Honda Racing’s Noel Zanocz, who won last time at Ernée and in EMX125 last year at Kegums! Spaniard Francisco Garcia is currently third for Venum BUD Racing Kawasaki.
The EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing series has its ninth round at Kegums, and Racestore KTM Factory Juniors rider Nicolò Alvisi leads the Championship from MJC Yamaha Official EMX125 pilot Mano Faure, who won in Germany, while Filippo Mantovani holds third for the KTM Beddini Racing Team. Home supporters will cheer for the JK Racing Yamaha of Jekabs Kubulins, who is seventh in the series with a race win back at Cozar and a second behind Faure in the most recent outing in Germany.
The deceptively difficult Zelta Zirgs Motocenter is bound to throw up a rollercoaster of racing for the MXGP of Latvia – don’t be missing it!
The MXGP World Championship is currently a battle between two vastly different riders. The red plate is still fixed to the Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP machine of Romain Febvre, looking to break the record for the longest gap between a rider’s first two world titles as he strives to add this year’s crown to his 2015 Championship victory. His pursuer, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Lucas Coenen, is nearly 15 years his junior, aiming to break the record for the youngest world title winner in the MXGP class since its inception.
Neither rider has tasted GP victory at Kegums before, as Febvre has finished third overall four times, only bettered by his result of second in 2019. Coenen also has a best of second, which he achieved in last year’s MX2 Grand Prix with a 2-3 scorecard. He also finished second in race two of the 2023 GP, but never raced here in the EMX classes. Febvre did at least win two individual races at Kegums back in 2015 & ’16, but has yet to achieve that on a Kawasaki.
Behind the leading pair, early red plate holder Maxime Renaux has fought through injury to hold third place for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, just four points ahead of Fantic Factory Racing MXGP team leader Glenn Coldenhoff. Both riders have achieved success around the Latvian circuit, with Maxime taking a maximum score in his title-winning 2021 MX2 season, while Glenn has won on two occasions in the MXGP class, back in 2015 with Suzuki and in the first of the three 2020 GPs here. It is in fact the only circuit where he has claimed two GP victories, and he was even second in the MX2 class, behind Briton Tommy Searle, in the 2014 Motocross of Nations here.
Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP star Jago Geerts has also enjoyed victory in Latvia with three GP wins in the MX2 class, but the rider who stands out as the King of Kegums is Jeffrey Herlings. Always riding for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, this Saturday will be 20 days short of 15 years ago that he took only his second ever GP victory here back in 2010, and he added wins in 2013 and ’16 in MX2, then in MXGP in 2017, ’18, ’20, ’23, and ’24. His 15 individual race wins is over double that of the next best, which is Antonio Cairoli with seven! Jeffrey’s win at Teutschenthal put him up to tenth in this year’s Championship.
Apart from Coldenhoff, the only other rider lining up this weekend who was also at Kegums in the 2014 MXoN is Jeremy Seewer, who is currently ninth in the series for the Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team, and has stood on the Latvian podium on two occasions. A privateer to watch for could be Roan van de Moosdijk of the KTM Kosak Team, as he finished second overall here in MX2 in 2023, and took a double race victory in EMX250 back in 2019.
One of the most popular GPs on the calendar with the riders, especially those that love sand, the MXGP class in Latvia is bound to generate some spectacular race action!
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 487 Points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 451 Points; 3. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 326 Points; 4. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 322 Pts; 5. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 305 Points; 6. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 298 Pts; 7. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, FAN), 265 Pts; 8. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 262 Pts; 9. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, DUC), 244 Pts; 10. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 244 Pts.
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Main Photo: MXGP Start Kegums 2024
Bottom Photos: 1. Jeffrey Herlings ; 2. Romain Febvre
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Once more in MX2, the hot potato that is the Championship leader’s red plate has been passed to another rider, and it goes from one Red Bull KTM Factory Racing machine to another, in the shape of Andrea Adamo, who has surprised everyone this year by being a far more prolific winner than he was during his title season in 2023, especially considering he didn’t win a single Grand Prix as defending Champion last year!
The Italian, with four GP wins from the first ten, still holds only a slender three-point lead over Simon Laengenfelder, and with the entire second half of the season to go, there is all to play for! Neither rider has a great history at Kegums, however, with Laengenfelder the best of the pair with third overall last season, and Adamo had a best of fourth overall in 2023.
It is clearly more of a GP for the sand riders, and Kay de Wolf definitely fits that category! Taking a maximum here in 2023, and a first race win in 2024 before crashes dropped him to ninth in race two, he could be considered the favourite for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, and needs the points after falling to 31 behind Adamo at the top. His teammate Liam Everts came home fifth overall last year, and sixth the year before that. Since owning the red plate after round three, he is looking to rebuild from fourth place in the standings and 89 points down on Adamo.
Behind him in the points is Sacha Coenen, who took his first ever GP victory here last year for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and even after losing the GP win to a second race crash in Germany, he still moved up in the standings and undeniably has the pace to be victorious again at the Zelta Zirgs Motocenter!
The rider he passed in the Championship is Thibault Benistant, who bizarrely has only scored one podium finish here in MX2, back in 2023. Bizarrely, because he won all three rounds of EMX250 held at Kegums in 2020, as well as an EMX125 race in 2018! Now sixth in the series for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2, the Frenchman will be looking to find some of that old form in his last race here on a 250!
Behind him in the standings is Camden McLellan, who loves a bit of sand and will be looking to get back to the sharp end for Monster Energy Triumph Racing, especially after his teammate Guillem Farres took a race win in Germany! Valerio Lata won a race here in EMX250 last year, and is starting to come good for Honda HRC, for whom he might be the only rider in either class as Ferruccio Zanchi and MXGP rider Ruben Fernandez are being checked for fitness this week, with Tim Gajser already out of course.
Van Venrooy KTM Racing’s lone wolf Cas Valk is ninth in the Championship and has many good memories of Kegums, with an EMX250 overall here last year, and an EMX125 victory in 2022! The top non-factory rider in the series will be out to do some damage after a disappointing couple of GPs.
Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider Karlis Reisulis will be the focus of the patriotic Latvian fans and looking to pick his season up from 14th in the Championship. He has showed top ten pace but struggled to put it all together on occasion. The fans will be urging him to greater things!
With ten separate riders having taken the chequered flag in either Qualifying or GP races this season, MX2 could bring us any result imaginable this weekend, so let’s see what the Baltic battles bring us as we start the second half of the campaign in style!
MX2 – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 466 Pts; 2. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, KTM), 463 Points; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 435 Points; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 377 Pts; 5. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 342 Pts; 6. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 337 Pts; 7. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 294 Pts; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 265 Pts; 9. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), 231 Pts; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 220 Pts;.
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Top Photo: MX2 Start Kegums 2024
Bottom Photos: 1. Karlis Reisulis ; 2. Andrea Adamo
All the photos from the MXGP of Latvia will be available HERE.
You can find the complete results HERE.
TIMETABLE
SATURDAY: 07:05 EMX125 Group 1 Free Practice, 07:30 EMX125 Group 2 Free Practice, 08:00 EMX250 Group 1 Free Practice, 08:30 EMX250 Group 2 Free Practice, 09:10 EMX125 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 09:50 EMX125 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 10:30 MX2 Free Practice, 11:00 MXGP Free Practice, 12:10 EMX250 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 12:45 EMX250 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 13:40 MX2 Time Practice, 14:15 MXGP Time Practice, 15:00 EMX125 Race 1, 15:45 EMX250 Race 1, 16:35 MX2 Qualifying Race, 17:25 MXGP Qualifying Race.
SUNDAY: 09:40 EMX125 Race 2, 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 11:30 EMX250 Race 2, 13:15 MX2 Race 1, 14:15 MXGP Race 1, 16:10 MX2 Race 2, 17:10 MXGP Race 2.
LINKS
Photocredit _ MXGP
