For Lennox Dickinson, the 2026 Motocross des Nations at Ernée marked a major milestone in his young career as he finally made his long-awaited debut for Team Ireland at the biggest event on the motocross calendar. While Ireland missed out on qualifying for the A Final, Dickinson can look back on the weekend with plenty of positives. Making his MXoN debut in front of an incredible French crowd, the young Irishman was the best-placed Irish rider in the B Final, putting in a strong performance on one of the most technical tracks he has ever raced.
Having made his MXGP debut at Foxhill earlier this year, Dickinson feels that experience helped him deal with the pressure and atmosphere of the Nations, allowing him to focus on riding his own race rather than being overwhelmed by the occasion. He also admits that he thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of Ernée and believes the experience will help him prepare better should he return to the event in the future.
With the 2027 season already on his mind, Dickinson also discusses his plans for next year, the possibility of racing more MXGP rounds, his future machinery and why he wants to increase the amount of racing on his calendar. We caught up with Lennox after his MXoN debut to discuss his weekend in France, racing alongside Jason Meara and Glenn McCormick, his experience at Foxhill and what could be next for the young Irishman.
GateDrop: Lennox, it’s been a long time coming but your Motocross des Nations debut is now in the books. Obviously we didn’t make it to the A final but I mean we haven’t since 2019 so it’s not really anything new in that way but I feel like you should be pretty happy with the way you rode out there. I mean you were the best placed Irish rider in the B final and it’s your first time so in terms of the riding, it was pretty good…
Dickinson: I mean, you just sort of have to come here and give it your all. You are riding with the best in the world so you just have to come here and try your best. The other two guys as well, they rode their best, it was brilliant riding today so it is what it is. You can only do what you can do but there’s always next year.
GateDrop: I mean what was the atmosphere like, it’s my first time here as well actually and nothing really compares to that. Have you ever rode anything like that?
Dickinson: No, the atmosphere is crazy, without the fans it wouldn’t be what it is. Even on the sighting lap you go around and you just look down to the crowd, it’s class. It’s just so good to everyone and all the smoke bombs and stuff. it’s just brilliant out there.
GateDrop: How did you feel out there, did you feel comfortable? Because you haven’t really raced at a high level that much except for Foxhill, did you feel comfortable and did you enjoy it? Some people come here and they don’t ride like themselves but I feel like you actually rode better than maybe you would at a British?
Dickinson: I was saying this to some of the guys yesterday and I felt like the British Championship was a real big thing and then I went to Foxhill to do the GP and obviously got the nerves out of the way. Now I have experienced the GP, anything I have raced since Foxhill, I don’t really get nervous anymore which is good. Even coming here because I did Foxhill, I didn’t really get too nervous to be honest. I was just riding my own race and just trying to do myself proud as well just riding the best I can.
GateDrop: Well, that’s pretty good, it takes people years to get comfortable so to only do the one GP before this and already feel comfortable, it’s pretty good!
Dickinson: Yeah, it’s definitely a good skill to have and I am happy about that.
GateDrop: I mean how did you find the track, it’s rough out there and it’s so technical, I mean you don’t get anything like that in England never mind Ireland so it’s hard to prepare for those sort of things coming from such a small country…
Dickinson: It is hard to find those type of conditions. We have a few tracks that are hard pack back home but you don’t have anything like that there even in England. You have the likes of Landrake and stuff but it’s nothing like that. You come here and even the qualifying race yesterday, doing the sighting lap, I was like it’s going to be technical. But I got through it and felt pretty good in the long ruts and stuff. It’s just something I haven’t rode in while because we’ve just been riding the sand for the British and stuff. But I felt pretty good considering the conditions.
GateDrop: I was going to ask, did you enjoy it out there at all?
Dickinson: I absolutely loved it and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had to be honest.
GateDrop: It’s good if you can come here and ride a track like that and actually enjoy it because it means the next time you race at an event like this, you know what it’s going to be like….
Dickinson: Yeah, next time I come here, I can sort of prep for it better. It’s always nice knowing what it’s like and even for the British when you’ve been to a track before, you can prepare for it weeks in advance. Something like this that you’ve never really rode before, you can’t really prepare for it so you are just going in blind pretty much. You just have to learn as quickly as you can during the qualifying race and sort of prepare for the next day.
GateDrop: Obviously Jason and Glenn are pretty experienced at this event, Martin is even more experienced. What was it like having them in the corner and were they helping you all weekend and what was the atmosphere like with the team?
Dickinson: Glenn, Jason and Martin have been a big help just giving me tips here and there. Both the boys rode amazing so thank you to them, all three of us tried our best out there.
GateDrop: Foxhill was your MXGP debut, how did you find that? That was the first time for you in the paddock, I thought you rode pretty well for your first time racing MXGP!
Dickinson: Foxhill was good. It’s good to be in that sort of clique with Herlings and all those boys. I would like to do some more next year, it’s just obviously the budget and getting over to these European races is a bit a bit too much. Probably my main focus next year will just be the British Championship and then squeezing in some GP’s if we can. I absolutely loved Foxhill, it was a brilliant experience and I prefer the longer races because I sort of find my strong point is coming towards the end of the races instead of the start. I only get going towards the end.
GateDrop: Do you know yet if you’re staying with the same machinery next year in Honda’s or is it still up in the air?
Dickinson: It’s still up in the air just yet. We’ll see what happens.
GateDop: I mean you are still pretty young, I feel like you need to be racing because if you just do the British it’s only eight races a year so even if you don’t do GP’s, would you think about maybe doing some Scottish or maybe more races at home as well?
Dickinson: Yeah, I think I might do some more races at home because there was good numbers this year. That is sort of why I want to do some GP’s too because there’s not that many races in the British and before you know it, the season is over. I would like to do a bit more racing next year.
