Words: Simon Makker

A spectacular effort from Australia saw Jett Lawrence (Open), Kyle Webster (MX2) and Hunter Lawrence (MXGP) make history by capturing a first-ever Motocross of Nations (MXoN) victory at Matterley Basin in the 2024 edition this past weekend, leading Team USA and The Netherlands on the podium. MotoOnline takes a closer look at how it all unfolded in Q&A.

Q: What were the defining moments for Team Australia in their historic win?

A: While motocross is typically defined as an individual sport, MXoN is all about the best collective team effort. Team Australia – tagged as pre-event favorites with Jett Lawrence, Hunter Lawrence and Kyle Webster on the roster – put in an impressive, winning performance. As Jett strolled to a comfortable win in the first of his outings, then looked certain to win the final moto before a last-turn pass from Slovenia’s Tim Gajser, Hunter made the most of a strong start to the third moto to lock down a P4 result and effectively seal the overall. All three riders experienced a mixture of good and bad starts, but it was their ability to push through the pack in the opening moto that proved the difference for the team. Jett made quick work of the riders ahead of him in his final race, as he sliced his way from P14 on the opening lap to temporarily take the lead in the closing stages until Gajser countered. In the opening race of the day, Hunter recovered from starting mid-pack to finish P8, while Webster impressed many in the same moto by starting strongly and finishing 11th, and the second-best MX2 entry. A 19th in Webster’s second moto was the score that was dropped, meaning the team finished with collective scores of 1-2-4-8-11.

Q: How did the defending champions, France, finish off the podium?

A: Before the first gate-drop, many eyes were on the French team to see if they could defend their title on a vastly different track to last year’s outing at Ernee. It was a tough ask, with all three riders – Romain Febvre, Maxime Renaux and Tom Vialle experiencing their share of struggles around the demanding UK circuit. Vialle failed to fire in his opening MX2 moto, but fought his way to 12th overall in his second race. In the MXGP class, Febvre charged to a P3 result in the first race, but came up short on a jump and knocked the air out of himself while holding down sixth late in the final moto and DNF’d. In the Open class, Renaux was the most consistent of the Frenchmen as he finished his day with a 4-9 results, although he too crashed late in the final race while holding down P8. He was able to recover from 12th, but with Febvre’s crash, France dropped out of podium contention altogether.

Q: Who was the standout rider for Team USA?

A: He might have been a late call-up to the team to replace the injured Chase Sexton, but Eli Tomac was a huge force to be reckoned with whenever he was out on track. Racing the MXGP class, Tomac quickly found himself chasing 2024 MXGP champion Jorge Prado and Gajser early in the opening moto. He quickly dispatched of Prado, and even though he couldn’t quite close the gap on Gajser, he refused to settle all race. Tomac would then holeshot the final moto of the day, see off a challenge from Prado and tried to build a gap, but was eventually reeled in by both Gajser and Jett Lawrence. Even then, Tomac made their lives incredibly difficult and wouldn’t go down without a fight, finishing a strong P3 and the best of the US riders. In the Open class, Aaron Plessinger relished pitting his skills against the world’s best on a rutted, technical track, finishing the day fourth overall with consistent 7-8 results. In the MX2 class, Cooper Webb, who stepped in for the injured Chance Hymas, finished a credible fifth after he logged 17-9 results against the bigger-capacity bikes in both races.

Q: Who were the individual winners?

A: Former world champion Gajser and reigning MX2 world champion Kay de Wolf (Netherlands) ended their seasons on high notes. Gajser was the only rider to greet the checkered flag in both of his outings, and while he made short work of Prado and rode to a comfortable 6.8s win over Tomac in the opening moto, it was his incredible battle with Jett Lawrence in the finale that everyone will remember. After finding himself in P4 early, the Slovenian muscled his way past the front-runners into the lead, but found himself in the cross-hairs of Lawrence in the later laps. An incredible pass by the Australian saw him take the lead with three laps remaining, but Gajser stayed close as the two negotiated the chopped-up circuit, lappers and tried to outsmart each other. With half a lap to go, it looked as if Jett would claim his second win of the day, but a wild pass on the second-to-last corner saw Gajser steal the lead and a memorable win. De Wolfe, meanwhile, showed his class by passing the likes of 450-equipped riders Hunter Lawrence, Ken Roczen and Jeremy Seewer to finish P6 in the opening moto, then run as high as third early in the second race before a couple of mistakes saw him settle for P5. In the end, Gajser won MXGP, de Wolf won MX2 and Jett Lawrence won the Open category.

Q: How much did crashes affect the Netherlands’ results?

A: While the demanding conditions saw practically every rider make mistakes across the three motos, the Netherlands will be ruing some crashes that cost them the opportunity to take the runner-up spot from Team USA. De Wolf’s mistakes were minor, but Jeffrey Herlings spun out of a P3 spot early in the opening moto, which saw him drop several positions and he’d finish the day with two P5 results. The most costly errors came from Glenn Coldenhoff though, since while holding down 11th late in moto two, he crashed and crossed the line in P18. He then crashed again on the opening lap of the last race and had to claw his way through the stacked MXGP and Open field to finish a frustrating 15th. While a podium result isn’t terrible, the Dutch team will know they left points on the table this year.

Q: Was the weather a factor?

A: Leading up to the weekend there were early fears that this year’s MXoN could be a mudder, but fortunately heavy rain held off. Instead, riders encountered classic British mist and drizzle during the opening two motos, which presented its own challenges. The light rain meant riders ran through their roll-offs quickly and then had to make judgement calls about their best race strategy – they could either lose valuable time pulling in for another set of goggles and try to make up that gap with clearer vision, or slowly lose time trying to race with distorted vision, otherwise ditch their goggles completely and struggle through roost and flying rocks to the end of the moto. The wet weather also caused sections of the gnarly, rutted track to become quite greasy and unpredictable to read, but conditions improved noticeably for the final moto of the day.

Q: What happened to Great Britain at their home MXoN?

A: The weekend had started so promising for the English team when they found themselves in a fourth-place qualifying position. Unfortunately, things unravelled quickly in the opening moto when Max Anstie crashed hard in a set of rollers midway through the race. Not only did he DNF, but he didn’t return to the action for his second MX2 moto. That left Tommy Searle and Conrad Mewse with the difficult task of trying to salvage the Brits’ campaign. Searle had a tough time in both motos and finished with 23-24 results, while Mewse was the highest-scoring rider with a P6 and a P19 from his two outings. Those results saw Great Britain slump to 12th in the Nations classification.