It’s hard to believe that we’re saying this, but it’s actually happening – the FIM Motocross World Championships is returning to the hallowed slopes of Foxhills Moto Parc in England for the Monster Energy MXGP of Great Britain this weekend!
This fabled venue on the south-west of England, about an hour’s drive from London itself, hosted many memorable events in the 1990s, first hosting a 250cc GP in 1992, won by American legend Bob Moore, although many local fans will fondly remember a first race win by British flyer Rob Herring! The instantly-popular circuit saw the first ever “double-header” GPs to be run outside of Japan from 1995 onwards, setting a standard which became the norm.
Through the years the events here came to be dominated by Stefan Everts, with three consecutive wins in the 250cc class as well as a famous decimation of the world’s best in the mud at the 1998 Motocross des Nations! Sebastien Tortelli and Alessio Chiodi would join Moore in winning two GPs apiece at the circuit, but some of the best days for British fans came with victories for MXGP-TV’s own Paul Malin, in 1995, and the last ever 125cc GP winner there, James Dobb, in 2000.
Now, after 26 years of being restricted to national and local races, the steepest hillsides many riders ever come across are returning to the world stage, as round twelve descends on the fully revamped circuit near the town of Swindon in the county of Wiltshire!
The MXGP World Championship is being led handsomely by Lucas Coenen, who holds a 68-point advantage for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, although he did suffer a big crash at the AMA Pro Motocross event at Southwick last weekend. His main challenger for the title, five-time World Champion Jeffrey Herlings, is one of the few non-British racers to have raced at Foxhills before, winning the only race in a national Championship event, that was cancelled halfway through the day, in 2023. The Honda HRC Petronas rider, who won the 2024 national title in the UK, has raced three times in the country already this year, and will be likely to have the strongest support from the British fans!
Defending Champion Romain Febvre lies in third place for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, and the veteran Frenchman will surely feel at home on what has often been described as a very French circuit!
There is a much closer battle in the MX2 World Championship heading to Foxhills, as Sacha Coenen holds just a 14-point margin over the in-form Spaniard Guillem Farres of the Triumph Racing Factory Team! Sacha is questionable for Foxhills after his crash in the USA but his fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pilot Simon Längenfelder is back up to third in the Championship after his podium in South Africa, and the German has a stunning record in the UK, having won eight of his last nine GP and Qualifying Races in England! Can he carry that form to this new circuit? He certainly needs to for his ambitions of defending his title!
This weekend sees the return of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship, and it will be their first event in the UK since the opening round of 2020, when Courtney Duncan went 1-1 in her first GP with the #1 plate. The Kiwi is third in this year’s series after returning from a year off with illness for DRT Kawasaki. Spaniard Daniela Guillen leads the way for RFME National Team GASGAS, by a slender 6-point margin over Kiara Fontanesi and her FontaMX Racing GASGAS. Fontanesi has taken three podium trophies home from the UK but never quite the overall win.
Amazingly, just one point covers third-placed Duncan to eighth-placed British hope Lucy Barker on the EMEKS KTM! Between them lie Malou Jakobsen, Shana van der Vlist, Amandine Verstappen, and Lynn Valk, who will sadly be absent through injury. Reigning World Champion Lotte van Drunen has had a tough season for De Baets Yamaha and is only ninth, four points behind Barker. Foxhills should see a big shake up in the WMX World Championship!
The EMX125 European Championship Presented by FMF Racing will sprinkle some old-fashioned two-stroke magic around Foxhills for its eighth round of ten scheduled, and the sad news from the World Junior Championship is that points leader Moritz Ernecker suffered a broken leg and will be unable to compete again this year. His Norman KTM Factory Rookies teammate Ricardo Bauer, who won the 125cc World Junior title, will pick up the baton with a 29-point lead over Yamaha Europe Monster Energy MJC’s French flyer Sleny Goyer. Fantic Factory Racing EMX125’s Danish rider Bertram Thorius, fresh from his birthday celebrations this week, is next in line, while Hayden Statt is the top Brit in the series for Chambers Racing KTM and keen to add more top ten finishes to his campaign on home soil!
The best of all that modern MXGP has to offer will mix with one of the greatest circuits of years gone by this weekend, and we think that it will make for an incredible spectacle as fabled Foxhills makes its world-class return! Do not be missing this one!