MXON: Who could surprise?
With the Motocross of Nations fastly approaching we will take a look at some of riders that could surprise in France this weekend.
Tim Gajser #60 – Open Class – Slovenia
Newly crowned MX2 World Champion, Tim Gajser will ride a 450 in the open class for Slovenia this weekend. For the last few GP’s I believe Tim has just been riding smart in order to bring home his first World Championship – not pushing too hard and doing anything stupid. Now that he has won the title the pressure is off him and he excels in hard pack conditions. It has been a while since the last hard pack GP in Europe – Tim will love the track this weekend. The 450 will suit him brilliantly, he is a very big guy for a nineteen year old, the 450 will probably suit him more than the 250! If Tim’s starts are good this weekend I wouldnt be surprised if he battled for a moto win, he is that good!
Valentin Guillod #21 – Open Class – Switzerland
Like Tim, Valentin will be riding a 450 machine in the open class this weekend for Switzerland. Valentin has experience riding the bigger bike as the last two nations he has rode a 350 KTM. Two years ago at the Nations in Germany, Valentin actually lead the for four laps and was beating the worlds best riders at the time. Valentin has improved leaps and bounds since then, he isn’t 100% at the moment but he finished third overall at Glen Helen which should help his confidence and shows he is on the mend – he could be a surprise package this weekend and be battling in the top five.
Max Nagl #13 – MXGP Class – Germany
Everyone knows how fast Max Nagl was at the start of the year – he was in sensational form, its just such a shame he got injured. Since Max has returned from his injury he hasnt been in the best form, it has been easy to forget about him at times. I feel he came back and is un-motivated as he didnt have much to fight for in the championship. However, he will be motivated this weekend as everyone is for the Nations, I expect to see the best Max Nagl this weekend, that we havent seen in a while. Don’t be too surprised if he gets the holeshot, he could definately challenge for a moto win on Sunday.
Martin Barr #55 – MXGP Class – Ireland
It’s hard to believe that ten years ago Martin Barr made his Nations debut for Ireland! He made his nations debut at the very same track as well! He was just seventeen years old at the time and holeshotted the MX3 qualifying race beating the likes of David Vuillemin, Ben Townley and Kevin Windham! Unfortunately, he stalled the machince a few laps in or else Ireland would have easily qualified for the event that year. This weekend will bring back some good for Martin in what is his eleventh consecutive year riding for Team Ireland, a pretty incredible stat. Imagine if he holeshots the qualificating race again! Martin also rode really well in Latvia last year as he won the qualification race beating some top GP and European stars!
Ben Townley #67 – MXGP Class – New Zealand
Ben Townley is back riding the Nations this year for New Zealand and has been preparing for the event by riding with Cody Cooper for the last few months. Ben rode the Glen Helen GP and i really didnt expect him to do as well as he did but he showed speed wasn’t a problem as he finished the first moto in eleventh. He was battling with Musquin and Paulin before he faded but that is too be expected as he hasnt raced in a long time. It’s a shame he didn’t do more races before the event to prepare as he would have been more prepared and got better results.
Article: Andy McKinstry
Pic: MXGP
