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Morning Report

We are set for a perfect weekend of action here at Ironman Raceway. Ideal weather conditions and some fall foliage welcome people from around the world to Crawfordsville, Indiana for the 78th running of the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations. 

Following Friday's pre-race press conferences (event introduction and teams), plus the gate pick ballot, and the teams' parade, today will be the qualifying races to set the starting line for tomorrow's points-paying motos. Follow along today on MXGP-TV.com.

Check out today's schedule.

MXGP Free Practice Session

Riders were battling for the top position in the first of the three 40-minute free practice sessions of the day. Lucas Coenen, Ruben Fernandez, Tim Gajser, Ken Roczen, Eli Tomac, and more showed speed but in the end, it was a blazing 1:55.866 from Jett Lawrence that topped the field. Gajser, L. Coenen, Tomac, and Fernandez rounded out the top five. Antonio Cairoli was tenth, Jeremy Seewer 13th.

With gate picks for later today already set from Friday's gate pick ballot, these practice sessions were used for riders to learn the track. Riders often came into the pit/mechanic area and made adjustments, also jumping onto their second bike (riders can each tech two bikes), and trying to get comfortable on both just in case. 

MX2 Free Practice Session

Justin Cooper, Kay de Wolf, Sacha Coenen, Guillem Farres, and Kyle Webster rounded out the top five in this MX2 session in what we expect to be a really fun 250cc division all weekend long. De Wolf had the top time late with a 1:59.442 but Cooper snuck into P1 with a 1:58.594 to take over the top spot, bumping the Netherlands' Husqvarna rider back to second.

Open Free Practice Session

In the first and final free practice session, RJ Hampshire had the top time until Hunter Lawrence put in a 1:58.217 late to take P1. Hampshire, Calvin Vlaanderen, Maxime Renaux, and Liam Everts rounded out the top five. Jo Shimoda was sixth fastest. Next up will be the individual class qualifying races shortly.

Check out some photos from this afternoon.

Qualifiers

MXGP

In the MXGP qualifying race it was no surprise to see Jett Lawrence with the holeshot. Germany’s Ken Roczen was close in second and kept the pressure on the first part of the race. Meanwhile bad luck for USA’s Eli Tomac who was way back off of the start, not even in the top 20, and Belgium’s Lucas Coenen who went down in the first turn.

Back towards the front, Slovenia’s Tim Gajser was running third, but the duo of the recently crowned World Champ, Romain Febvre and Spain’s Ruben Fernandez were coming on strong with a battle of their own. At one point Fernandez made his way into third but Febvre was able to rebound and snag the position, though they continued to battle and less than two seconds separated the two at the end of the race.

Tomac was charging at the beginning of the race, came around the first lap about 19^th, and made his way to 13^th by the start of the second lap. However, once he caught Antonio Cairoli, Tomac’s momentum slowed, and he was unable to pass the fast Italian. Running 10^th for the second half of the race, Tomac moved to 9^th when Glenn Coldenhoff went down with three laps to go.

Lucas Coenen put on an incredible charge from last to sixth. Even more impressive with shorter qualifying motos, only 20 minutes plus two laps. It will be interesting to see what Lucas can do tomorrow if he can get a good start.

Out front, after about the first third of the race Jett opened a sizable lead over Roczen, while Roczen continued to pull away from the Febvre/Fernandez battle. In the end Jett had an eight second lead while Roczen had over nine seconds on Febvre.  

MX2

The MX2 qualifying race got out of the gates and it was KTMs Sacha Coenen (Belgium) and Simon Längenfelder (Germany) out front early on. Coenen had a close call as he came down the hill after the old, massive Godzilla jump. I was standing behind the turn after the tunnel jump, and when the #47 machine came up and over the roller jump, he was doing a flying W with both feet off the pegs! Coenen would somehow save it, staying up on two wheels, and remaining in the lead! Längenfelder and de Wolf would keep Coenen honest, especially late in the race when Coenen was under some serious pressure from de Wolf. Right behind those two was Justin Cooper, who nailed his start from the very outside and was within the top five early in the race. He got around Längenfelder and was on the gas just about two second back of de Wolf.

Aside from his near crash early on, S. Coenen rode a solid race. The battle would get close, as with two laps to go the top three were separated by just two seconds! S. Coenen would hang on for the race win, taking the checkered flag with a 2.891 gap back to de Wolf. The #47 machine hit the roller jump after the finish line with a huge fist pump. That is two great rides from the Coenen brothers, one of a reported five sets of brothers racing together this weekend! (Hint hint, the Lawrence brothers had a perfect 1-1 day, with Jett winning the MXGP race and Hunter winning the Open race). There were a ton of battles in this class all race long. At the end it was S. Coenen, de Wolf, and Cooper, followed by Längenfelder then Kyle Webster, Camden McLellan, Guillem Farres, Mathis, Valin, Janis Martins Reisulis, and then Andrea Adamo. Expect this class to bring the heat once again tomorrow. It would not be shocking to see the top five, or even top ten, all shaken up tomorrow.

Open

It was de ja vu off the start of the Open moto with another Lawrence out front. This time Hunter Lawrence took off with the lead and quickly separated himself from the rest of the field. Switzerland’s Valentin Guillod was in second and got into a heated battle with Italy’s Andrea Bonacorsi.

Further back it was a couple of first timers to the 450 class, Japan’s Jo Shimoda in fourth followed by Liam Everts, both looking comfortable on the bigger displacement. USA’s RJ Hampshire again had a poor start coming from the outside gate but charged hard right away and was in the top ten by the start of the first lap. He then hounded Everts for sixth, got around Guillod, and set his sights on Bonacorsi for fourth.

At the end it was Hunter with an eight second lead over Shimoda, who had about six seconds over The Netherlands Calvin Vlaanderen in third. RJ Hampshire in fourth and Liam Everts rounded out the top five.

Watch our full Saturday recap video.

Overall Scoring After Saturday

After Saturday's qualifying races, the overall top ten looks like this:

1st Australia (2 points)
2nd Netherlands (5)
3rd Belgium (6)
4th Germany (6)
5th USA (7)
6th France (10)
7th Spain (11)
8th Italy (14)
9th Slovenia (15)
10th Japan (16)

Jett and Hunter Lawrence winning their respective motos, Kyle Webster’s result—a fifth in MX2— became the drop race for Team Australia, giving them a perfect 1-1 for two total points and the top position heading into tomorrow’s races. The Netherlands sit second with five total points, then Belgum’s six, followed by Germany (also six but lost the tie breaker), then USA with seven. Jo Shimoda’s strong result—second in the final Open qualifying race—helped Team Japan a ton, as their team sits tenth overall at the moment.