The 2023 Motocross of Nations (MXoN) has been run and won at Ernee, with stacked fields of internationals across each of the categories providing entertaining racing and filling the next chapter of the prestigious event. In this latest Rated feature, MotoOnline takes a closer look at the class, moto and overall winners from the 76th edition in France.

Image: James Lissimore.

Rider: Ken Roczen
Rating: B+
Rundown: Consistency was key for Team Germany’s Ken Roczen, who impressed onboard the RM-Z450 to claim the MXGP overall at Ernee. Compared to his closest rivals, Roczen had completed minimal motocross racing in 2023, with his only outdoors outing prior to France coming at High Point, where he made a 450MX cameo. However, that didn’t slow the HEP Suzuki regular rider down, and fresh from his second place overall in the SuperMotocross World Championship, he battled his way to a solid P3 in the opening race on Sunday (MXGP and MX2), besting Switzerland’s Jeremy Seewer and Team USA’s number one Aaron Plessinger. A fast start in his final outing, race three (MXGP and Open) saw Roczen grab the lead before he was later passed by Jett Lawrence, ultimately taking the checkered flag in second behind the Australian to secure the overall. While Germany was four points shy of a podium in the Nations classification, Roczen was the second-best scorer out of everybody at the highly-stacked event.

Rider: Romain Febvre
Rating: B+
Rundown: Kawasaki racer Romain Febvre was the form man throughout much of the second-half of the 2023 MXGP season, and it was little to no surprise that he was a key contender at home in France for the MXoN. Following a battle with MXGP world champion Jorge Prado in race one, the Team France captain was able to emerge on top which started his Sunday on the best possible foot. An average opening lap in race three saw the number four just inside the top three, but he was never really able to gain traction in the outing with seventh the best he could manage. Despite his less than ideal finish in the final outing dropping him outside of the top three of the MXGP overall, both of his moto scores counted towards Team France’s Chamberlain Trophy winning effort. A notable statistic regarding Febvre also is that he has been victorious in the Nations classification with France in each of the four MXoNs that he has contested.

Rider: Jett Lawrence:
Rating: A-
Rundown: Considering his impressive 450 debut at the event last year at RedBud, where he won the Open category, plus his success in the 2023 season which included a 250SX West title, a perfect 450MX season and a 450SMX championship win, it was hard to look past Lawrence as a favourite in Ernee. The qualifying race on Saturday saw Lawrence complete the opening lap in P7, charging his way through the field as the encounter progressed to ultimately take the checkered flag in second position and 4.376s behind Prado. Lawrence’s first outing on Sunday was race one, where a crash while trying to make a move around the outside in the early stages left him to recover from the back of the field. Following a spirited charge, he was able to reach P6 by race-end. His final race of the weekend was the third moto, and after starting second he was able to take the lead from Team Germany’s Roczen in the middle stages of the bout to conclude the weekend with a victory, to land second overall in MXGP. Lawrence was a key part in helping Team Australia achieve its best-ever Nations result of P2, but despite showing immense pace and grit to claw his way through the field in race one, that opening lap incident ultimately proved costly in terms of his individual overall result. You could argue that Lawrence was the benchmark in terms of outright pace across the weekend.

Image: James Lissimore.

Rider: Tom Vialle
Rating: A
Rundown: After a season racing in the US, France’s Tom Vialle reminded everyone exactly everyone why he is a two-time MX2 world champion at Ernee with a dominant performance in the class. Vialle started strong with a win in the MX2 qualifying heat, and powered on in race one on Sunday be the first rider in-class to take the checkers in eighth-place outright. A testament to how strong France was as a whole at the event, Vialle’s result from the opening outing was the score that was dropped from team’s Nation’s result. Race two was a stunning display from the Frenchman, finishing less than a second away from an outright victory with third-placed Liam Everts (Team Belgium) 16.4s in arrears. Vialle bested the likes of 250SX East and 250MX champion Hunter Lawrence, plus current MX2 world champion Andrea Adamo (Team Italy) to take the MX2 overall, and after a strong end to 2023 both in the US and abroad, he will be one to watch when the gates drop on the 2024 season.

Rider: Maxime Renaux
Rating: A
Rundown: The best overall scorer at Ernee, the performance and contribution towards France’s Nations’s victory by Open class representative Maxime Renaux cannot be understated. The Monster Energy Yamaha MXGP regular comfortably won Saturday’s qualifying heat and held-off teammate Vialle to take victory in his first outing on Sunday. Keeping his nose clean in race three, Renaux was relegated to third by Lawrence on the opening lap and rode on to finish the encounter a relatively lonely P3, with his overall score for the event just four points, seeing him comfortably atop of the Open category, while a France was 20 points clear of nearest rivals Australia in the Nations classification.