Despite some unnecessary negativity ahead of the MXoN in some quarters the weekend featured great racing and an unbelievable atmosphere as well as excitement right down to the last lap of the final moto, proving once again why it is the biggest race in the world.
Two of the biggest stars of the event, MXGP world champ, Jeffrey Herlings and SMX world champ, Jorge Prado, who went at it for the win in the final moto, both explained why they race the event for free – passion for their country and the event.
Herlings said: “It’s still like kind of an Olympics for motocross,.kind of. Even though there’s nothing on the line, we all do it. I don’t know about other countries, but we kind of always do it for free. So it’s just a race we do for the country and for the team.
“And as you can see, regarding the fans, it’s quite impressive because there were like, well, 50, 60,000 people today. Everything was full. So you can still see it’s the biggest race of the year. The whole industry, you see the bigger hospitality over here. All these brands, so it’s just the biggest race of the year. So I think to do, you know, we’re doing, I mean, the Americans do over 30 races. We do over 20. So to do one extra race at the end of the year, I think, yeah, it’s quite good.
And it’s just a tradition, you know, because of Nation for me, it’s kind of a traditional race. And yeah, we should keep it in. And like I said, for all of us, financially, we don’t get really better from it. It’s just pure passion race.”
Prado commented: “It’s obviously a very nice event. The atmosphere, it’s incredible. And it’s, I think, a race we do with a lot of passion because we want to represent our country and that’s the main thing. Even for me this year, racing over 30 races and still wanting to come over. It’s just because we love the sport and we love the country. And I really wanted to put Spain on top of the box if possible.
“So we do it just because of the passion. For example, in my case, I’ve been racing all year long. And I also want to get some rest before I start again in January. We don’t have time. I say in America, everything is very tight and we don’t have time to rest. But I do a little effort on my part to come over and race for the team Spain. So in my case, it’s full passion. And hopefully one day we can put Spain on the very top of the box.”
