MXGP #109 September 2022 by MXGP MAG

#109 SEPTEMBER 2022

MAKE

TOM VIALLE: MINE A DOUBLE

P.22RACING CATCH UP P.48RIDERS OF THE MONTH COOL SHOT P.10 MONSTER GIRLS P.44 P.80HALL OF Massimo Contini CONTENT

ccscscs EDITORIAL � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �P�7 COOL SHOTS� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �P�10 FOX HOLESHOT � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �P�18 RACING CATCH UP � � � � � � � � � � � � � �P�22 SOCIAL � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �P�44 RIDERS OF THE MONTH Tom Vialle � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �P�48 SPECIAL FEATURE 10 Reasons MXoN.� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � P�66 SPECIAL FEATURE JUNIOR CHAMPIONS CROWNED. � � � � � � �P�70 SPECIAL FEATURE MXGP AWARDS � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � P�84 HALL OF FAME Massimo Contini � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � P�100 PADDOCK TALKS � � � � � � � � � � � � � �P�106 SPECIAL FEATURE Alessio Chiodi 1997 Yamaha YZ125 � � � � � �P�108 QUESTIONS TO THE EDITOR� � �P�114 MXGP MAG Chief Editor: Marionna Leiva Photos: MXGP INFRONT MOTO RACING MEDIA World Trade Center II Rte de Pré-Bois 29 1215 Geneva 15 SwitzerlandAirport MXGP Mag #109 September 2022 The articles published in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position of InfrontRacing.Moto Then content of this publication is based on the best knowledge and information available at the time the articles were written. The copying of articles and photos even partially is forbidden unless permission has ben requested from Infront Moto Racing in advance and reference is made to the source (©MXGP). OF FAME Contini

EDITORIAL

activities will start already on Friday with the Teams Presentation, the balloting and the riders’ parade and many exciting announcements This year’s edition will regroup 34 Nations coming from all around the world!

David Luongo CEO of Infront Moto Racing

I would like to thank FIM, FIM Europe, all our organizers, the MXGP partners, the teams and the riders for their Icollaborationwishyoua good summer and see you in RedBud!

On Sunday evening after the races, we celebrated all our champions during the MXGP Awards

EDITORIAL

THE MX2 CATEGORY GAVE A FANTASTIC FINALE

Theever

The last Grand Prix of the season just took place in Turkiye There were still three titles to be decided during that weekend, in the MX2 class, the WMX and EMX Open José Butrón won the Open category and Nancy Van De Ven won her first Women Motocross World Championship title The MX2 category gave a fantastic finale to all the motocross fans with the battle between Tom Vialle and Jago Geerts Tom Vialle won the final race and was crowned world champion for the second time

Dear MXGP Friends,

visit the race and I have no doubt that the competition will be more open than

Now all the eyes are focused on RedBud in the USA for the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations! It will be one of the most intense and spectacular racing weekends in history! The presales broke all of the last editions records and it actually shows that the MXoN is THE off-road event of the year Many special guests, VIP, legends of our sport will

COOLSHOTS

FOLLOW YOUR TEAM ON

REDBUDSEPTEMBER23-24-25USA2022 don't miss the event of the buyseason!now

ANOTHER SEASON OF THE FIM MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HAS COME TO A CLOSE AND WITH THE WORLD CHAMPIONS CROWNED, IT WAS TIME TO NAME THE REST OF OUR WINNERS, INCLUDING THE FOX HOLESHOT AWARD!

WINNERSTHE

FOXHOLESHOT

Previous winners…

The Finale

At the Bitci MXGP of Turkiye we saw four different Fox Holeshot winners, which were mostly

dominated by the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing riders In MXGP, the starts were won by Jeremy Seewer in the first heat, while in the second race and for the first time this season, Maxime Renaux got his hands on the black plate!

The Fox Holeshot award first launched in 2017 and has run every season since then As it stands, Jorge Prado has won the competition every year from the beginning of its introduction, as he was victorious in the MX2

This year, the Fox Holeshot Award crown in MXGP went to Jorge Prado of Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing, for the third year in a row, just in MXGP, but six years overall, has proven that he is the rider to beat when it comes to getting out of the gate Throughout the 2022 season, Prado collected 16 Fox Holeshot plates which put his grand total up to 113 – making him the ‘Fox Holeshot King’.

While in MX2, the Fox Holeshot Award went to Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Tom Vialle for the third consecutive year This year, Vialle racked up a total of 10 Fox Holeshots, with his closest rivals being Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing’s Simon Längenfelder who had seven black plates to his name and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jago Geerts who had six

Finishing second this season was Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jeremy Seewer, who collected five black plates compared to Team HRC’s Tim Gajser who ended up third with four Fox Holeshot’s

Both Vialle and Prado received their FOX Holeshot cheques during the annual MXGP Awards which was streamed LIVE to audiences worldwide on MXGP’s Facebook and YouTube channels, as well as www MXGP-TV com!

In MX2, the Fox Holeshot’s were shared between the title rivals, as Tom Vialle secured his 10th Fox Holeshot in the first race, while in race two Jago Geerts was the leading rider into the first corner and briefly led the way before being passed by Vialle who eventually was crowned the MX2 Champion

Antonio Cairoli 2018

MXGP

Jorge Prado 2021

Jorge Prado 2020

Back in 2017, Antonio Cairoli was the first MXGP rider to win the grand-prize, and he followed that up with two more victories in ’18 and ’19, before Prado made the move up and dominated the starts in the premiere class, just like he did in MX2 But this left the door open for a new Fox Holeshot star in the 250cc class and his then teammate, Tom Vialle took on the role producing his very own impressive overall stat of 61 Fox Holeshot’s since he made his MX2 debut in 2019

Jorge Prado 2019

category in ’17, ’18 and ’19, along with three titles in MXGP during the ’20, ’21 and ’22 seasons

Antonio Cairoli THE VIDEO

Jorge Prado 2022

Jorge Prado 2017

2017 WATCH

Tom Vialle 2022

MX2

Tom Vialle 2021

Antonio Cairoli 2019

Jorge Prado 2018

Tom Vialle 2020

RACINGCATCHUP

2 POINTS IN IT, 50 UP FOR GRABS!

AThere is no debate that the final round of the FIM Motocross World Championship was solely focused on the MX2 title showdown between Jago Geerts and Tom Vialle, who entered the 18th Grand Prix of the season separated by just two points, in favour of Geerts

THIS MONTH’S RACING CATCH-UP IS A GOOD ONE, AS WE TAKE A LOOK BACK ON THE SEASON FINALE AT THE BITCI MXGP OF TURKIYE.

It was clear that the title was Geerts’ to lose, and the real threat came from Vialle’s strong form over the previous two rounds in Finland and France, that saw the Frenchman win both GPs and take back an impressive 21 points Pressure was on for the finale in Afyon and with the points being so close, it was clear that winning races was the only way either one, Geerts or Vialle, were going to get their hands on the title this year

MX2 TITLE CHASE

winning the first race and Geerts finishing second, this meant that Vialle was one point up for the second heat This time around, the KTM and the Yamaha riders were side-by-side on the start and Geerts was able to put on a squeeze on the Frenchman to take the Fox Holeshot!

side-by-side on the grid, everyone prepared for a straight shoot-out between the Frenchman and the Belgian In race one, Vialle had the advantage of taking the Fox Holeshot and leading the way from the get-go, while Geerts was further behind and had to work hard to get around de Wolf who was not backing down easily

After getting around de Wolf, Geerts focused on Vialle forward and after setting some impressive lap times managed to close the gap Though on lap 10, Geerts went down which meant that the fight for the win was over and the focus then shifted onto race

Withqualifyingthepair

also making mistakes of his own, so Geerts was quick to get back onto his rear wheel and was not holding back The Belgian made several attempts which were almost successful but not quite enough as Vialle was fast to

WithtwoVialle

Aroundrespondthe

Vialle was fast to get going which was a crucial moment for him as he managed to get away from Geerts before he got back on the bike The gap was up to 5 094 seconds imme diately, but Geerts was on a mission and the purple sectors he was setting proved just that Geerts was looking to challenge once again but crashed for the second time which was an other tough moment for the Belgian and his team, who did not hide their disappointment in pitlane

Geerts needed to re-group, but a couple of mistakes allowed Vialle to pull away The Frenchman was

The gap was up to 12 186 seconds, which eventually Geerts was able

Geerts was looking solid in the lead, as he was in the perfect to get that title Though Vialle was not going to take it lying down, as he forced his way down the inside of the Belgian in what many describe as a ‘cham pionship-winning pass’ on the start straight at the beginning of lap two

halfway mark, Vialle crashed which subsequently took out Geerts too, who had no way of avoid ing the KTM bike This caught both riders by surprise, as Vialle revealed after that up until the moment he looked left and saw Geerts down also, he thought the chance of a second title was over

The weekend began with free prac tice, which was topped by Geerts Then in time practice we saw Vialle top the charts while Geerts finished fifth By the qualifying race, it was game on and as the gate dropped Vialle and Geerts were only separated by the Nestaan Husqvarna Facto ry Racing duo of Kay de Wolf and Roan Van De Moosdijk After some quick passes, Geerts found himself in second position, though could not do anything about Vialle, so instead he settled for second and focused on the action on Sunday Vialle won the

One of the most heart-warming parts of the entire celebration was the moment that Vialle stepped onto the podium with Rene Hofer’s #711 number plate in his hand, later revealing that this title was for him Vialle and Hofer were teammates before the Austrian’s tragic passing in late 2021 This was a big loss not only for the family but also the team and the entire paddock that knew the smiling Austrian It was a touching tribute to Hofer who was loved by everyone and remains greatly missed by all

Tom Vialle: “It was a great one, I mean I didn’t get the best start in the second race, but I passed Kay and Thibault and was second behind Jago I felt good actually and then after two laps, I passed Jago on the start straight Then Jago was push ing a lot, he passed me two times, but I passed him back and then I had a little tip over, and I crashed… When I crashed, I thought, this is it, it’s finished, because we were both so fast, but when I saw that Jago crashed with me, I thought “no way” this is not possible, and I managed to get going quickly It was crazy and I was lucky there a little bit, but that is part of the game It was a long race eventually; I was watching the clock a lot I am happy, it was a tough season and to finish like this is so nice”

Jago Geerts: “Honestly, I’m very disap pointed I really can’t believe my luck I felt good on the track today and gave everything In the first race I missed the start a little bit and then had a little crash, but still finished second In the second race, I was just really unlucky with Tom crashing right in front of me and I could not avoid his bike It cost me a lot of time, and then I had to push so hard to come

to bring down, but it was not enough to catch Vialle who won the race and sealed the deal on his second MX2 world title! Geerts crossed the line in second place, with the heartbreak evident in his body language as he stopped to shake hands with Vialle

4 points was the final points gap between Vialle and Geerts, as Simon Längenfelder rounded out the Championship top three! But the podium for the weekend also in cluded Roan Van de Moosdijk, who made his comeback to the box after injury The Dutchman had two solid races and was a key player in both heats as he made things interesting for Vialle and Geerts

FIGHT FOR THE MEDAL IN MXGP

As the gate dropped for race one, Seewer took the Fox Holeshot but was quickly passed by Febvre during a very busy first lap that saw many changes inside the top 10 There were at least three changes for the lead before the riders crossed the finish line to complete the first official lap as Evans steered the way ahead of Seewer, Febvre and Renaux

In the qualifying heat, Renaux was the ear ly leader from Jeremy Seewer and Mitch Evans Though Evans was quick to pass the Swiss and set his sights on Renaux In the first laps, the pair traded in who led the way, before a mistake from Evans allowed Renaux through

”

On lap nine, Evans was able to get back in control, though the Frenchman contin ued to apply the pressure until the last lap where he got back around the Australian to with the race Evans finished second ahead of Seewer, Ruben Fernandez, Tim Gajser and Glenn Coldenhoff

back that I fell again, and from there it was game-over

For Renaux it was the perfect start to his weekend as he had his eyes on the third spot in the standings Entering the races, the points looked like this Prado was on 557, compared to Coldenhoff who was on 553 and Renaux further back on 540 It was a long shot for the Frenchman, but his victory in the qualifying heat meant it was still possible!

But Seewer fought back before Evans was able to assert himself in the first position as Gajser made his way through from 11th Renaux found himself in third after passing Febvre, before pushing past his teammate Seewer as he climbed into sec ond place and then set his sights on Evans Evans was fast though and set two consec utive fastest laps as he looked to pull away from the rest of the pack

Valentin Guillod was looking very im pressive too, as he took away fourth from

While the MX2 battle for gold took up most of limelight, there was still medals up for grabs in MXGP, as the bronze position was still up for grabs! Three riders had their eyes set on third in the championship standings which included rookie Maxime Renaux, Jorge Prado and Glenn Coldenhoff

Onracelap

big out of second place and did not carry on with the race, while Seew er took fourth from Guadagnini as Renaux looked to enter the top 10 Febvre then set the fastest lap of the race as he extended his lead over Prado to 4 342 seconds, while Gajser began to close in on the Spaniard Further down the field, Vlaanderen was looking to take back his lost position from Renaux but made a mistake and went down hard He did not carry on with the

Then it was time for the final podium of the year! Gajser collected his gold medal and

An impressive move came from Alberto Forato in the latter stages of the opening heat, who passed Calvin Vlaanderen, Prado and Febvre all in one go to move up to sixth

In the final few laps, Gajser managed to get into fourth and began to challenge Guillod for third Guillod looked solid until a mistake saw him go down on the final lap, which allowed Gajser into third and saw the Swiss drop to sixth Renaux won the race ahead of Seewer, Gajser, Guadagnini and Forato

In race two and for the first time in 2022, the Fox Holeshot went to Renaux who led Febvre, Evans and Prado But Febvre was quick into the lead as Renaux crashed and was briefly stuck under the bike and could only re-join in 15th by the end of the Evanslapcrashed

Febvre and set the fastest lap of the race Further down the field Glenn Coldenhoff lost sixth position to Mattia Guadag nini and then was later passed by Jorge Prado as well as Gajser Coldenhoff then crashed and got going in 14th where he remained until the chequered flag, which was very costly for his hope to take third from Eventually,PradoRenaux was able to take away first from Evans, as the Australian began to fade Despite his best efforts, he was passed by Febvre, then Guillod and so on, before finishing the race in 12th position

10, Gajser found a way past Prado and worked his way to catch Febvre But Febvre held on and took the win and with it secured his first podium of 2022! Gajser ended up winning the Grand Prix tied on points with Seewer who was second and Febvre third

The Moto Festival is always a great addition to the GP weekend, with concerts taking place in the evening with some of the top performers in the country, while in the day fans can immerse themselves in various ac tivities such as volleyball, basketball, Formula 1 and MotoGP simulators at the Monster Energy station, as well as plenty of stalls with some of the best foods Turkiye has to offer

THE ATMOSPHERE

The Bitci MXGP of Turkiye was one of the best Grand Prix’s of the season for more than just the racing As always, the Turkish offers more than just the racing as the Moto Festi val always provides incredible entertainment off-track, while the riders give us all the thrills on Oncetrack!again,

And that is the end!, the end of another epic edition of the FIM Motocross World Cham pionship… but it’s far from over, as the 2022 season still has one more thing in store for us and that is the Monster Energy FIM Moto cross of Nations which we will tell you all about in the next issue of MXGP Mag!

A big part of the final race of the season was the MXGP Awards which took place in front of a live audience for the first time since the pandemic! You can read more about who the big winners were of the night in the next pages of the magazine…

the MXGP trophy from Infront Moto Racing CEO David Luongo and the FIM President Jorge Viegas, while Seewer got his hands on the silver medal as Prado rounded out the top three in the standings after a hard-fought GP

28,000 fans were present throughout the weekend which kickedoff with the opening ceremony on Friday! Following the family photo of Team HRC on the podium, we all headed to the Moto Festival stage to present the 2022 Bitci MXGP of PlentyTurkiyeoflocal authorities and politicians were present for the occasion, who shared their excitement for the return of MXGP in Turkiye It also showed the importance of the race taking place, since it receives such strong support from government figures Many of the top MXGP stars were in attend ance and took the opportunity to try the local delicacies and take the family photo on the stage, while being cheered on by the fans!

40 FIM MOTOCROSS WORLD RESULTSCHAMPIONSHIP

MXGPSOCIAL @manolyaurkan ALLEZ!! Racingseveral2022:FMFRenauxIllustration@maximerenaux959ofMaximeRacingReport|MXGPTakearecapofthelastGP’swithourFMFReport! @fb.model.agency Do you want to work in Motorsport? �� Stay tuned new CASTING soon @nesesiiyeter Yesterday’s small memories are becoming valuable memories of tomorrow @wells.zak Just the white highlights to go but come on people show @karlsuttontattoos some love he absolutely killed this piece grew up riding dirt bikes as a kid with my dad so it was only right few of my favourite riders of my era repost and share please GoPro Lap | FIM Junior Motocross ChampionshipWorld2022 Vantaa: Take an exclusive look of the Vantaa track with this GoPro Lap! @msc_wuesten Glückwunsch an @lare423 zum dritten Gesamtrang bei der FIM Womens Motocross World Championship

IN THE WORLD #MXGPOF @hamrazlk #motocrosschampionship#motocross#fingerscrossed#motocrossgirl @jkracingmx Good to have the ‘22 WMX Australian Champion @ charlicannon7 in our team this weekend in Turkey First WMX GP for her! Looking forward for the weekend Closer look | Team HRC | MXGP of Charente Maritime 2022: Take a closer look at the Team HRC with the 5 Time World Champion Tim Gajser and his teammate Mitch Evans! @lalamaranda backstage pics from MXGP 2022, when we opened for @ superslankdotcomhappytimes! @loic_le_freak161 Throwback thursday @yamahablucruofficial#TBT#bLUcRU#YZSuperFinale @lgm_racingteam Pronti a Secondcombattereagiornata di qualifica conclusa per il nostro Francy P 12 del suo gruppo, peccato per il traffico nel finale che non gli ha permesso di esprimersi al meglio La qualifica diretta era il primo obiettivo del weekend e lo abbiamo raggiunto

MONSTERGIRLS

OFRIDERTHEMONTH

MAKETITLEMINE A DOUBLE

First up, the foot injury that he picked up towards the end of the 2021 season, a season which didn’t end until November 10th, kept him off his motorcycle until the end of January Add to that, the tragic and untimely death of his young team mate Rene Hofer, the whole team was set back on a massive scale With Vialle unable to ride during the offseason, and now the lone MX2 rider under the Red Bull KTM

Having lost his crown in 2021 to fellow Frenchman Maxime Renaux, Tom Vialle was desperate to re-take his place on the MX2 throne, but after a difficult winter, the Red Bull KTM rider was starting 2022 behind the 8 ball

AS FAR AS EXCITEMENT GOES, THE MX2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON HAD IT IN ABUNDANCE AS TOM VIALLE AND JAGO GEERTS WENT BAR-TO-BAR AND TOE-TO-TOE IN THEIR QUEST TO BECOME WORLD CHAMPION. AFTER THE FINAL ROUND SHOWDOWN IN THE PREMIER MXGP CLASS IN 2021, WE WERE TREATED TO A SIMILAR FINAL ROUND SHOOTOUT BETWEEN THE TWO BEST MX2 RIDERS IN THE WORLD. OF COURSE, WE KNOW BY NOW WHO STRUCK GOLD, BUT WHAT AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY IT WAS, SO STAND UP AND TAKE A BOW, MONSIEUR VIALLE.

new chassis, new engine, new suspension; everything needed fine tuning before the start of the season, which was now just under one month away from getting started When the gates dropped for the first time at the end of February, the former world champion was not too badly placed, given the circumstances, and whilst he may have placed 2nd overall to Simon Längenfelder (1-1), Vialle would have much rather taken the win at Matterley Basin Still, at least he finished ahead of his ‘main rival’ Jago Geerts, whose 4-2 saw the Belgian place 3rd

After taking 2nd behind Geerts in the first outing, Vialle was

Well, during the pre-season photoshoot in Spain, Vialle’s MXGP team mate Jeffrey Herlings crashed, suffering a badly broken ankle, which would keep the defending fivetime champ out for the entire season, which meant that Vialle and KTM were suddenly in a place where they’d never been before; playing catch up before they’d even turned a Testingwheel

Byoverallthe

during this past offseason was crucial as KTM was lining up ready to race with an all-new bike, and when we say all new, it quite literally was, with 99% of the bike being different to its predecessor A

second round we’d already started to see how this season was going to play out though, and the MXGP of Lombardia at Mantova was the scene of the first of a few defining moments that helped shape the MX2 season

awning, testing the new 2022 race bike was put on hold until the Frenchman could resume his normal activities And what do they say about bad things happening in threes?

‘Let’s say I was really lucky with this one, happy to walk away because it was a big crash I don’t really know what happened because every time (the start of the race) the first few laps it’s wet on the track and I lost the bike completely on the take off I was really lucky to land really good on the landing of the jump, so it was a pretty good save I was disappointed to lose the moto but pretty happy to be healthy for the rest of the season ’

hoping to take the overall by winning race two, and things were looking good until he had ‘that moment!’ By that, we mean his monumental crash that could have finished his season, and although he managed to pick himself up and re-join the race, he and his bike were so badly beaten up that the best he could do was 21st, and his first ‘nil points’ of the season had just been registered In the blink of an eye, Vialle was suddenly 26 points off the pace, and it was only round two

In a similar fashion to what we’d seen from Vialle, Geerts used his DNF from Trentino to spur him on, and after winning the next round in Latvia (1-1), Geerts once again led the championship, but both he and Vialle left Kegums tied on points; Geerts led though by virtue of his race-win count, 6-4 over the Frenchman, and after winning again at Maggiora, Geerts was now 6 points clear of

points in Sardinia, Vialle was still 6 points adrift heading into Spain, but after an impressive 1-1 to Geerts 9-2 at into-Xanadu Arroyomolinos, the former world champ was once again sitting pretty at the top of the standings, with a 10-point cushion over his rival The lead was extended to 11 points as Vialle came out on top in a difficult French GP at Ernee, where we saw a possible threat to the ‘top two’ in the form of Thibault Benistant, who won the second race

They say it’s how you bounce back from defeat that defines you, and after winning the next three GPs in Argentina (2-1), Portugal (1-2) and Trentino (1-1), Vialle suddenly found himself taking the championship leaders Red Plate for the first time this season, as well as a 14-point lead at the top of the MX2 world Championship standings This time it was Geerts who suffered a DNF when he crashed out of the second race at Trentino, his championship lead gone after just three rounds in red

Bouncing Back

AfterVialletying

All Change

Just as we thought Vialle was somehow gaining momentum by winning the first race in Germany, Round 11, disaster struck the championship leader next time out in the second race; a technical DNF on Lap 5 whilst Vialle was 2nd behind Benistant, and ahead of Geerts, saw the championship leaders Red Plate back in the hands of Geerts, who

Whatpointswe were starting to witness was a real dog fight between Vialle and Geerts, and after Vialle cruised to the Indonesian GP win, he led the title chase once again; his margin just 4 points over Geerts heading back to Europe and the hard pack of Loket, Czech Republic And what a Grand Prix we witnessed there as well

now led going into Indonesia by 8

The Run In

After taking his second Fox Holeshot of the afternoon, Geerts was keen to put some distance between himself and his rival, especially since Vialle was in 3rd behind Liam Everts And then it happened! Geerts overran a berm at the start of the second lap, went over the ‘bars and found himself

This time it was Vialle who was forced to suffer, placing 10th in the first outing, losing his championship lead once again When the gate dropped for the second race, Vialle knew he had to win to narrow the margin which now stood at 5 points For ten laps, the Red Bull KTM led the Monster Energy Yamaha, until the Belgian forced Vialle into a mistake This was a crucial moment in the fight for the championship, and when Geerts crossed the line, he was once again the new points leader and the recipient of the Red Plate heading into his home round in

When we left Sweden with three rounds to go, 23 points was still the margin between Geerts and Vialle, and when Geerts won the opening race in Finland, Round 16, the gap was now out to 26 points, and Vialle was in desperate need of a miracle or some other kind of intervention; and he got just that

InBelgiumLommel,

Vialle struggled to 3rd overall (7-4) as his rival took the win (2-1), and as we headed into a one-week break, Vialle trailed his rival by 23 points Surely, this was a bridge too far for the Frenchman, wasn’t it?

Saint Jean d’Angely was the scene for one of the best GPs of the season The crowd turned out in full force and Tom Vialle brought his A-Game for the occasion, too Second position in race one meant that Vialle had cut the championship lead back to 13 points, and after winning the second race, where Geerts could only finish 7th after crashing, incredibly, the fight for the MX2 title was now down to just 2 points

Vialle drew first blood by winning the Qualifying Race on Saturday, meaning he had the pick of the start gates over Geerts He used it to good effect too, bagging his 10th Fox Holeshot of the season in the first race on Sunday He then went on to control the race,

pinned under his motorcycle Sensing an opportunity, Vialle found another gear, sped past Everts and opened up a comfortable lead As for Geerts, his championship lead was now seriously under threat, and after working hard to reach Mikkel Haarup in 7th, the two riders came together and fell; Geerts could only muster 7th at the flag but with Vialle winning, he had cut the lead from 26 and from a possible 29 (had Geerts won Race two), to just 15 heading to France for a second home GP for Vialle

Home Hero

Even more crucial was Vialle’s second race win Why? Because it was his 15th win of the season, and with Geerts on 12 race wins, IF, in the event of a championship points tie, the deciding factor between the gold and silver medal would be determined by race wins Geerts could no longer match Vialle’s win count Even more astonishing was the fact that since Finland Race 2 (3 races), Vialle had pulled back 24 points on Geerts TWENTY FOUR! We were once again heading for a last round showdown, this time in Turkey, this time in MX2

Leave Nothing on The Table

This time it was Geerts who took the Fox Holeshot with Vialle quickly moving from 4th to 2nd on the opening lap, and at the start of the second lap, Vialle jumped long as both riders emerged back on to the start straight, the KTM rider clearly catching the Yamaha man by surprise Either way, it resulted in Vialle taking over the lead, and from there it was a case of who would blink first

forcing an error from his rival whilst he was chasing him down With Vialle winning race one, he went into the final race as the new series leader, his margin just ONE POINT The situation was simple: whoever had the better result in the final race of the season, would be crowned world champion

Vialle looked to pull clear before being overhauled by his rival, and just as it looked like Vialle was under pressure, the ‘28’ fell from the lead Unbelievably, Geerts could not avoid the fallen Frenchman, and clipped the front wheel and fell himself The reactions from Pit Lane were priceless, and not just from KTM or Yamaha Everyone watching was fully invested in the outcome of this final race showdown Vialle was quickest to regroup and eventually went on to win the race, and when he crossed the Monster Energy Finish line at the end of the 18-lap race, he did so as a twotime world champion We caught up with him after the race:

‘It was an incredible race; it was so hard It was a tough one, I think it was the toughest race I ever had in my career until now Jago was pushing a lot and we crashed together, and when I crashed, I was like ‘it’s done!’ but then I saw him crash and yeah, it was so hard The longest moto of my career, but I’m so happy to win I did it again, but it was so tough Thanks to the whole team for their job, it’s incredible I’m so happy I’m going to the USA with another title I’m a two-time world champion ’

‘Winning the title was important for me, for the whole team for what

• 10 Grand Prix wins from a possible 18 (55 55%)

• 16 podiums from 18 Plates

‘Ihimneed

happened to Rene (Hofer) to give to him the title; it was an important one, really important!

• 308 laps led (from 635)that’s 48 5% The next best was Geerts, who led 154

We wish Tom all the best as heads to America from 2023, and congratulations once again in your two world championship titles

• 17 Race Wins, from a possible 36 (47 22%)

WATCH THE VIDEO

to thank a lot of people, I think first the team, and my parents; they did so much for me since I started to ride motocross

The rest of his season’s stats read something like this:

MX2 Career • 46 Podiums • 24 wins - 15 x 2nd - 7 x •3rd 44 Race Wins - 31 x 2nd - 15 x 3rd • 90 top 3 race finishes • 2 ChampionshipWorld titles

Jago Geerts swapped the Red Plate a staggering EIGHT times, but for Vialle, it was the final round where it mattered, turning red to gold in Turkey

• 5 Red

On his way to his second world championship, Tom Vialle and

To Joel (Smets), Valentina (Ragni), my mechanic, both my mechanics They work so hard the whole season to achieve the goal and now we achieved the goal All the people in the factory in Austria who work for KTM, thank you so much It was not an easy season with this new bike, but we did it ’

We were really close with Rene for the last two years, we were almost every day together on the bike, training in the gym For me to achieve the title in 2022 was for

• 6 Pole Positions

SPECIALFEATURE FEATURE

CANNOT10

10 REASONS WHY YOU CANNOT MISS THE MXON

2 The Pit Bike of Nations is back! We’re ready to see some legends rip around on pit bikes in the team event and see who will come out on top Be sure to be there on Saturday evening!

1 This year the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations returns to one of the most iconic tracks in the world, that is RedBud in the United States, the host of the very memorable edition in 2018 that saw Team France win for the fifth time in a row!

VIP Facilities are insane this year! With the VIP Diamond already sold out, this leaves the Platinum and Silver tickets which are still available to purchase The VIP Pass is a must have, with the best views of the track as well as special activations, meet and greets with your mx heroes and of course the food and beverages available throughout the weekend and freebies!

THE MONSTER ENERGY FIM MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS! AS WE APPROACH THE EVENT, WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE USEFUL TO GIVE YOU 10 REASONS WHY YOU CANNOT MISS THE EVENT THIS YEAR… SO LET’S BEGIN!

9 The Heroes Parade on Sunday This one really needs no explanation as some of the biggest legends in motocross history will tour a lap of the track in RedBud before the racing kicks off

10 Everything is LIVE on MXGP Digital PlatformsFacebook, Youtube or MXGPTV com - throughout the three days Social Media will broadcast the atmosphere events and all the activities on Friday while the Teams presentation to the crowd as well as the two days of racing will be LIVE on MXGP-TV – so really there’s no excuse why you can’t tune in and support your home team!

3 To be able to shout beginsmomentsThisdetermine7onsite!nationopportunityinbeallmissed,on6for34strongesttight,yeareveryMotocrosstheanythingasbetheto5notwouldsupporton11-yearwillthe4Buuuuuuuuuuud!ReeeeeeeeeeedIfyou’reAmerican,homeheroes,TeamUSA,belookingtobreaktheirdroughtandgetbacktopofthebox,sohomewillbeneededanditbeamomentyouwouldwanttomissifithappens!Theracingisboundbeinsaneandasalways,finalraceofthedaywillthemostintensebecauseweknowfromthepast,canhappenatMonsterEnergyFIMofNationsandpositioncounts!Thisthecompetitionwillbeaswehaveoneoftheteamline-ups,withdifferentcountriesfightingtheChamberlainTrophyTheTeamPresentationFridayisnotonetobeaswewillgettomeetofthe34teamswhowillfightingforthetopstep2022ThisistheperfecttocheeronyourandshowyoursupportTheBallotingtothestartinggridisoneofthemostintensebeforetheracingasweeagerlywatch

To experience all of this and more join us at the 2022 Monster Energy FIM MXoN by clicking HERE: https://redbudmxon nations/com/en/22471-motocross-of-motocross-tickets

which team gets which gate pick – and by now we know how important this is in a team’s strategy and chance of 8success!The

SPECIALFEATURE FEATURE

INWORLDINSIDE

INSIDE THE FIM JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPFINLAND!

The ceremony began with a look at the official postcard and welcome message of the event, followed by speeches from Sari

The FIM Motocross World Championship is an important event that gives the young riders their very first taste of championship glory as they work through the junior ranks and up to the World Championship classes where they too have the chance to follow in the footsteps of former junior champions Tim Gajser, Eli Tomac, Jago Geerts, Mattia Guadagnini, Jordi Tixier, Pauls Jonass, who have gone on to win further titles and have very successful Establishedcareersin1996,

In 2006, more history was added to the circuit as it hosted the FIM Junior Motocross World Championship for the very first time that saw the likes of Ken Roczen, Eli Tomac, Glenn Coldenhoff, Marvin Musquin and Alessandro Lupino battling for the junior titles – fast forward 16 years and all of these names are huge motocross stars!

72 THIS YEAR, THE FIM JUNIOR MOTOCROSS MXAND4-TIMEBY1963CHAMPIONSHIPTHEMOTOCROSS,NEWINTRACKTOCHAMPIONSHIPWORLDRETURNEDTHEFAMOUSLAVANKOINTHECITYOFVANTAAFINLAND.VANTAAISNOTTOTHEWORLDOFHAVINGHOSTEDFIMMOTOCROSSWORLDBACKINWHICHWASTHENWONTORSTENHALLMAN,THEWORLDCHAMPIONTHEFOUNDEROFTHORCLOTHING.

More than 180 riders from 26 different countries, including South Africa, Australia, Canada and USA, made the trip to Finland for the biggest junior event of the season! The strong outcome was very promising and exciting to

the Lavanko track, located in the industrial area behind Helsinki Airport before it underwent construction in 2020/2021 Previously the track was hard-packed clay and coarse sand but since the renovation, the club have brought in hundreds of truckloads of fine sand and is now a much softer surface which they refer to as the “Finnish Lommel”

Thesee weekend began with Friday’s opening ceremony which took place in the JUMBO Shopping Centre in Vantaa All 180 riders were presented to a local crowd of fans that lined the different levels of the shopping centre to get a glimpse at the next up and coming stars of motocross!

After the official ceremonies and all of the behind-the-scenes set up of the event was finalise, riders were signed on and passed their technical controls, it was time to focus on the racing, starting with the qualifying races on Saturday

125cc

The qualifying was crucial as 180 riders hoped to be among the final 40 riders in the 125cc, 85cc and 65cc categories to line-up for the Sunday races and have a chance to fight for the medal-scoring positions

The competition was close and to ensure everyone got a fair shot, each class was divided into two groups, where the top 18 from each group qualified and the rest took part in the last chance race at the end of the day A total of 4 riders progress through to the main races from the last chance heat, along with an additional 2 reserve riders

Multala, Finnish Olympic sailor and member of the Parliament of Finland, along with FIM Junior Motocross World Championship General Manager Patricia Maskarova and FIM/CMS Director Antonio Alia Portela Plenty of pictures and selfies were taken before the riders were reminded of the action from the event last year in Greece followed by a reminder for the FIM Ride Green Cup and its mission to help the planet be more green!

THE RACING

In the 125cc qualifying session, Janis Martins Reisulis topped the charts in the Group A session with a lap time of 1:42 668 compared to Ferruccio Zanchi’s 1:43 048 lap time and local rider Kasimir Hindersson’s lap of 1:43 875 Meanwhile, in Group B, the fastest rider was Francisco Garcia with a 1:40 510 time, compared to 1:41 995 of Karlis Alberts Reisulis and the EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing Champion Cas Valk, who was third with a 1:43 174 time Qualifying for the main action via the last chance race were Mads Fredsoe, Uldis Freibergs, Jakob Frandsen and Ofir Casey Tzemach, while

125cc Junior World Champion, Ivano Van Erp: “I feel really good in this moment! I had a big crash on Wednesday, so I could not train on my bike This weekend was my first time on it after the crash and I was struggling a little bit with the feeling on the bike In the first race, I took a holeshot and controlled the race by myself In the second race, I started sixth or seventh and then made a small mistake in the first corner Then I took second and was faster than Janis [Reisulis] at the end, but I just took it easy, didn’t push, stayed second and became World Champion”

Maximilian Ernecker and Collin Allen were the two reserve riders

In 125cc race one, Ivano Van Erp led the way after getting the Fox Holeshot ahead of Casey Cochran and Cas Valk There were a few riders that went down in the first corner, this also included Edgar Canet By lap three, Valk and Janis Martins Reisulis overtook Cochran and were pushing to catch the leader Van Erp, though they could not get close enough to the Dutchman and had to settle for second and third

A race win in the opening heat and second in race two meant that Ivano Van Erp was officially crowned the 125cc FIM Junior Motocross World Champion and secured the gold medal, while race two winner Janis Martins Reisulis secured silver ahead of Cas Valk who took home the bronze medal!

In race two, the Fox Holeshot went to J Reisulis as he led the way ahead of Mathias Valin, Alexis Fueri, Van Erp and Valk As the race progressed, Van Erp and Valk got around Valin with Cochran and Ferruccio Zanchi just behind By that point, J Reisulis was already comfortable in his spot and ended up winning 6 995 seconds ahead of Van Erp and Valk who was a further 13 seconds behind

85cc

In the 85cc class, Gyan Deonsen was the fastest rider in Group A with an impressive lap time of

85cc Junior World Champion, Gyan Doensen: “I’m speechless I worked super hard for this and this year it needed to happen, and it happened, so I’m super happy! I got second in the European Championship and now first in the World Championship, so yeah, I am really happy I want to thank my team for

In the first 85cc race, the Fox Holeshot went to Mano Faure, while Gyan Doensen had a decent start as he worked his way up the order and into second Jarné Bervoets was the leader for five laps until he made a mistake which allowed Doensen into the lead, and then crashed which opened the door for Vitezslav Marek to move up to second

In the second race, the Fox Holeshot was won by Filippo Mantovani, but his time in the lead was cut short as Doensen was quick to take over first place by the second corner Marek was right there too, following the Dutchman as the two battled closely Marek pushed hard, searching for any opportunity to pass, and after 11 minutes of the race, was able to finally get around Marek looked in control until the penultimate lap where he crashed, which handed the race win and the title to Doensen Bervoets finished third again

1:47 962 compared to Josh Vail’s 1:50 062 and Rene Nyman’s 1:50 101 lap times In group B, Dani Heitink was the fastest and set a lap time of 1:49 607 while second and third were Vitezslav Marek (1:49 619) and Erik Frisagärd (1:50 454) In the last chance race, the riders who progressed into the final were Carson Wood, Casper Lindmark, Ricards Alens Galcins and Juan Uzaguirre While the two reserve riders were Hugo Bergqvist and Jacob Blcoh

A 1-1 result meant that Gyan Doensen was crowned the 85cc FIM Junior Motocross World Champion of 2022 ahead of Vitezslav Marek, who placed second and Jarné Bervoets who placed third overall and secured the bronze medal

65cc Junior World Cup Winner, Lucas Leok: “I’m very happy and I really wanted to win here We worked hard for this with the whole team This was my first start in the World Cup so it means a lot for me The second race, I struggled a bit and the track was not easy anymore”

In the first 65cc race, it was Enri Lusts who took the Fox Holeshot though by the second corner was passed by Lucas Leok, who led the entire seven laps of the race Race two saw Lusts take the Fox Holeshot once again Lusts was quickly passed by Andrea Uccellini, who made a mistake which allowed Eeka Laaksonen to move into first place, but at this point Aston Allas and Leok were also closing in By lap three Allas and Leok were able to pass the leader and then two corners later Allas crashed and Leok was the new race leader The young Estonian was able to open up a nice gap to the rest of the field and win the race!

A perfect score with two race wins meant that Lucas Leok was crowned the 2022 65cc World Cup Winner with Ricardo Bauer securing the silver medal while Moritz Ernecker claimed the bronze

all the effort and my family and of course friends, everyone”

65cc

Last but not least, it was time to crown the 65cc World Cup Winner! In the qualifying practice, local rider, Viktor Leppälä was the fastest in group A and set a lap time of 1:56 489 Second and third were Lucas Leok (1:56 881) and Mortiz Ernecker (2:01 227) In group B, the fastest rider was Ricardo Bauer, as he set a time of 1:58 646 while Andrea Uccellini placed second with his lap of 2:00 338, and home rider Eeka Laaksonen was third with his time of 2:00 464 Heading into the final races were the last chance winner Alex Novak who was the winner ahead of Seth Thomas, Trent Valsecchi and Ollie Birkitt The reserve riders were Leo Wilson and Louis Morette

The youngsters received their medals in the end-of-day medal and

the qualifying races at the Bitci MXGP of Turkiye, a special press conference took place in the media centre at the Afyon circuit where the FIM President Jorge Viegas, FIM Junior Motocross World Championship Manager Patricia Maskarova along with the Organisers of the event, Ciprian Popescu and Adrian Raduta, shared their excitement about hosting the 2023 edition of the JWC in Romania TCS Racing Park will be the venue to host the prestigious junior race, which was

In the nations’ classifications, Team USA were the overall winners with 17 points, while second with 25 points were Finland, followed by Team Netherlands in third with 26 Thispointsyear, Team South Africa were the winners of the FIM Ride Green Cup for showing their dedication to caring for their environment

The track is situated 50 km north of Bucharest, the capital city of Romania and has become a central point of the Romanian Motocross Championship It has hosted different European Championship events, including the Sidecar Motocross World Championship and MX3 Motocross World Championship in The2003track

With the 2022 successful edition of the FIM Junior Motocross World Championship there was no time for resting as plans were put in place for the junior event in Following2023!

NATION’S CLASSIFICATIONS & FIM RIDER GREEN CUP!

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2023…

itself is a hardpack track which will be the perfect setting to host the fastest youngsters in the world! We can’t wait for 2023 to see who will join the list of World Champions and Cup Winners!

built over 20 years ago due to the passion of the Radutä family and Ciprian Popescu

prize giving ceremony and then got to celebrate all over again as they were invited to the annual MXGP Awards in Turkiye!

SPECIALFEATURE FEATURE

2022

MXGP AWARDS

2022

The guests enjoyed a buffet that contained the typical delicacies of Turkiye, mirroring the same set-up as the opening ceremony on Friday that was greatly enjoyed by the paddock!

ONCE THE FINAL CHEQUERED FLAG OF THE 2022 SEASON HAD FALLEN, THE WORLD CHAMPIONS WERE OFFICIALLY DECLARED AND THE MEDALS WERE DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE TOP THREE OF EACH CLASS, THEN IT WAS TIME TO CELEBRATE ALL OF THE INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ENTIRE PADDOCK WITH THE ANNUAL MXGP AWARDS!

For the first time since the pandemic, the MXGP Awards took place in front of a live audience on the stage of the Moto Festival area at the Afyon circuit The stage was lined with fans, riders, government officials and many of the paddock personnel who were eager to get the festivities under way

The MXGP Awards were hosted by the MXGP-TV Commentator Paul Malin and MXGP-TV

Argentina the first one, which was a big symbol and then Indonesia and other events that were missing during the previous two years, like Sweden and Finland And also having the public back at the races was a very big and important moment In MXGP, we have a great Champion as Tim Gajser who did not have it easy, with plenty of fast guys behind him pushing to win And MX2… What can I say? It was incredible Big Congratulations to Tom but also Jago who pushed hard and gave it his all This evening it’s great to have all of the Champions with us, including the Junior and European champions, really it’s a full package here to celebrate Thank you to all of the teams and riders for the support, motocross is a big family and everyone involved works incredibly hard to deliver a great championship like the one we saw again this year Thank you all, enjoy your evening”

Aschannelalways,

Presenter Lisa Leyland with the entire event live streamed worldwide on www MXGP-TV com, as well as MXGP’s YouTube

“Thank you so much to everyone in Turkiye, my friends, the riders, teams and special thanks to the public What a better scenery than here, beautiful place and people We had a wonderful championship which was decided today We look forward to coming back even better next year Enjoy your evening with the best riders in the world”

This year, Yamaha swept the manufacturer titles in MXGP, MX2 and WMX It was the first

FIM President Jorge Viegas:

The Awards ceremony officially began, as the winning teams and manufacturers were presented with their awards Team HRC and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing received their winners’ plaques for securing the MXGP and MX2 titles which were collected by Marcus Pereira de Freitas HRC General Manager and Team Manager of the Factory KTM team Joel Smets Chicco Chiodi also collected the team title for Ceres 71 Racing, the winning team of Nancy Van De Ven, who was crowned the Women’s World Champion this season

Infront Moto Racing CEO David Luongo: “First of all, thank you all for coming to this fantastic Gran Prix here in Turkiye Big thanks to the Governor, the Mayor, the Turkish Motorcycling Federation, the Organizer and everybody who made this event possible This season has been a challenging one, being the first one post-covid It was amazing to have the overseas back, with

the evening began with a special message from Infront Moto Racing’s CEO David Luongo and FIM President Jorge Viegas, who shared a few words about the 2022 season and took the opportunity to congratulate everyone for their efforts

EMX125night

Presented by FMF Racing Champion came next Cas Valk, before EMX250 Champion Rick Elzinga, as well as the WMX, EMX2t and EMX Open Champions, Nancy Van de Ven, Toms Macuks and Jose Butron

For the first time since the WMX class was officially declared a world championship 13 years ago, the world champion received a custom championship ring, the same as the MXGP and MX2 World Champions! The unique piece of jewellery was the perfect way to seal the deal on Van De Ven’s first ever title in the women’s division after the Dutchie finished second for the last four years in a row

Thismanufacturer!year’schampions received their prizes next, with Timoteï Cez being the first to collect his award for winning the Junior e-Motocross series and offered one of the cutest speeches of the night, as he read from a piece of paper words of thanks in English – which is a language the young Frenchman does not speak (yet!)

Next to collect his award was Ricardo Bauer the EMX65 Champion, followed by Vitezslav Marek, who won the EMX85 title and was congratulated virtually as he had other commitments on the

time that Yamaha had won the MXGP manufacturers title since 2015, marking the end of a very successful season for the brand as their premiere class riders placed second, fourth and fifth! With three prizes to collect, we had three different representatives on stage for the occasion, the first being Paolo Pavesio the Yamaha Europe Marketing Director, who picked up the MXGP manufacturer winner’s plaque Next was Alexandre Kowalski the Offroad Racing Manager at Yamaha Europe who was there to accept the MX2 manufacturer winner’s trophy, and last but not least came Jeffrey de Vries the Technical Supervisor at Yamaha Europe who had the honour of accepting the award for the winning WMX

Simon Längenfelder: “The first race in Matterley was the highlight for me as I went 1-1 It was a busy winter, moving to a different team, living in a different country and then in the first race to go 1-1, it meant that the work we did, and everything worked out in that race But yeah, for sure this was my highlight… When you win the bronze medal, you try to get better in the next year I will give my best and work hard in the winter And yeah, then we will see if we can get the world championship next year”

The next award to be presented was the Fox Holeshot Award of 2022 This year, the Fox Holeshot Award crown in MXGP went to Jorge Prado of Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing for the sixth year in a row! Prado has proven that he is the rider to beat when it comes to getting out of the gate as he has won the award a total of six times, three in MX2 (2017, 2018 and 2019) and three in MXGP (2020, 2021 and 2022) putting his grand total up to 113 Fox Holeshots since the competition was launched in 2017!

We also celebrated the FIM Junior World Champions in 125cc, Ivano Van Erp, 85cc Champion Gyan Doensen that unfortunately was not present due to some racing commitment, and Lucas Leok who was the 2022 65cc World Cup Winner Lucas Leok had a youth Estonian event to compete where he could actually become Champion, but he managed to attend the MXGP Awards and celebrate his important achievement as World Cup Winner

In MX2 the Fox Holeshot Award went to Red Bull KTM Factory

This year, Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing’s Simon Längenfelder was the recipient of the Jan de Groot Award that honours the most promising young talent Längenfelder was impressive this season as he ended the year third in the MX2 standings with 2 race wins, five podiums, including his Grand Prix win in Great Britain!

Afyonkarahisar Governor Assoc. Prof. Kübra Güran Yiğitbaşı: “First of all I would like to express how proud I am of such a magnificent event As the first female governor of Afyonkarahisar I am delighted to welcome such a remarkable international event that we believe contributes to the promotion of our country and our city Afyonkarahisar on a global level I would like to thank all the participants We will continue our efforts under the auspices of the Presidency to host this event every year, make it grow strong and successful, bringing global attention to Afyon and Turkiye Once again welcome to all who came here, who watch us from their homes I am extremely delighted and looking forward to the next season with more spectators, more participants, more riders Thank you, have a good evening”

“It’s really cool for Athena and MXGP to set up a contest like this and I’m really happy to win it! Of course, this would not be possible without all of the fans that have voted for me every GP you know, so really, I must thank them for the support and for this award!” explained Gajser after winning the award

The organisers of the Indonesian Grand Prix also received an award for the Best Media Opportunity, as clips played to remind us all of the fantastic and very warm welcome that MXGP receive in Samota-Sumbawa during the visit to the palace and the incredible parade through the streets of Sumbawa as thousands upon thousands of fans lined the streets!

Racing’s Tom Vialle for the third consecutive year This year, Vialle racked up a total of 10 Fox Holeshots, with his closest rivals being Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing’s Simon Längenfelder who had seven black plates to his name and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jago Geerts who had six Since Vialle entered the MX2 World Championship back in 2019, he has acquired a total of 61 Fox

Afyonkarahisar Mayor Mehmet Zeybek: “Welcome to our city, our country We are delighted to have all of you here I would like to take this opportunity and express my deepest gratitude to our President Recep Tayyip

Aspassionatetheevening

The evening then concluded with the awards for the two FIM Motocross World Champions, Tim Gajser and Tom Vialle, who each received their championship plates, along with their custom champions rings as part of their prizes for this season

also awards for the organisers of 2022, with the host of the final round in Afyon receiving the prize for ‘Best Promotion” which was received by the Afyonkarahisar Governor Assoc Prof Kübra Güran Yiğitbaşı and Afyonkarahisar Mayor Mehmet Zeybek who shared their excitement for the award!

Tim Gajser: “It means a lot Like I’ve said so many times, winning one world championship is a big goal that you have as a kid but now already having five of them, it’s incredible to think about it! It’s been an amazing season and a huge thank you goes out to my

ThereHoleshot’swere

The prize for Best Organizer went to Ernèe, France, after the incredible edition of the Monster Energy MXGP of France which showed once again why the French fans are some of the most

continued, it came to the time that we all got to find out which MXGP rider was the winner of the Best Rider of the Year Sponsored by Athena prize! The newly crowned MXGP World Champion Tim Gajser was declared winner, having received the most fans’ votes in total throughout the 2022 season

Erdoğan for the continued support and patronage”

WMX Manufacturer World Champion: Yamaha

Tom Vialle: “It was a tough one I had a lot of stress leading to this weekend I mean on Sunday; I had a good feeling and was feeling good on the track I won the first race, so I knew I just had to finish in front of Jago, but to be fair, it was really tough! The speed was so high, I pushed from the first lap until the end I had a crash and when it happened I just thought, ok now it’s finished he will pass me, but when I looked to the left I also saw Jago crash, so it’s still possible! Then I just finished the last laps, it was really a hard one, I think the toughest race of my career so far But, I did it, it’s so nice and I’m really happy about

MXGP Manufacturer World Champion: Yamaha

team, HRC, everybody around me We work super hard and hard work pays off!”

MXGP Winning Team: Team HRC

“Iit’

MX2 Manufacturer World Champion: Yamaha

“The beginning of the season was impressive, until I got sick Then I struggled for a couple of rounds but then got back in my rhythm and was able to bring home the championship and since then, I could ride last two GP’s just to enjoy and to have fun France was good and also here in Turkiye was good, especially to finish the season off on a high note”

MX2 Winning Team: Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Here is the complete list of winners, below:

had a few pretty tough moments in the season, I had a few crashes and it was not like 2020 when I got my first world title It was hard this year Also, after Lommel, it was pretty tough, I was 25 points behind but in the next four races I caught him and got those points until the last race It was tough”

EMX2T European Champion: Toms Macuks

WMX Winning Team: Ceres 71 Racing

MXGP Best Promotion: Turkiye

EMX250 European Champion: Rick Elzinga

Junior e-Motocross Series: Timoteï Cez

EMX65 European Champion: Ricardo Bauer

EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing European Champion: Cas Valk

65cc Junior World Cup Winner: Lucas Leok

125cc Junior World Champion: Ivano Van Erp

85cc Junior World Champion: Gyan Doensen

“Jan De Groot” Award (cheque €5.000): Simon Längenfelder

98 WATCH THE VIDEO

Best Rider of the Year, Sponsored by Athena: Tim Gajser

Fox Holeshot Award MXGP and MX2: Jorge Prado & Tom Vialle

MX2 World Champion: Tom Vialle

MXGP World Champion: Tim YouGajsercan watch the replay of the MXGP Awards HERE!

MXGP Best Media Opportunity: Indonesia

MXGP Best Organizer: France, Ernée

EMX85 European Champion: Vitezslav Marek

Women’s Champion: Nancy Van de Ven

EMX Open European Champion: Jose Butron

HALLSECTIONNAMEOFFAME

BUT

WORLDPODIUMS1986HISTHISALWAYSMASSIMOCHAMPIONSHIPINHISTHATWASTHISRIDERSINVOLVEDMANUFACTURERSSEVERALCHAMPIONSHIP,WORLDWITHDIFFERENTANDMANYCOMPETINGINCLASSASTHERENOAGELIMITATPERIOD.DURINGTENCAMPAIGNSTHEWORLDCONTINICOMPETEDINCLASS,DOINGBESTSEASONINWITHGPWINSANDINTHE125CCCHAMPIONSHIP,

IN THE 80’S ITALY WAS ONE OF THE MAIN FORCES IN THE 125CC

In 1983 he did his first campaign in the 125cc World Championship on an Aprilia,

first time in Launsdorf (Austria) to finish the series in fourteenth and later jumped on the podium at the Cup of Nations with Team Italy Moving from Aprilia to Kawasaki with team Cinti in 1984, he got his first race podium at the first GP of the season organised at Vittorio Veneto, entered the top 10 of the series with an eighth position, and again scored a second place at the Cup of

an Italian bike in 1985 with the support of Giunta, one of the main Cagiva dealer in Italy, he didn’t have his best season but worked hard and came back stronger with the factory support in 1986 alongside Pekka Vehkonen and Dave Strijbos At that period Cagiva was one of the strongest teams in the 125cc class, and all riders had a different bike with, as example, suspensions provided by three different companies Double winner at Grottazzolina where he

BackNationson

Born on 23rd of September 1958 at Cittiglio near Varese, Massimo had a taste of Motocross in his young age as his older brother was racing motocross and of course one day he jumped on one of his brother’s bike when he was fourteen From there he entered his first local races, then went to regional events and finally did the national championships where he got his first title in 1977 on a Villa, an Italian bike, when he was nineteen years old A few years later he raced his first GP, and during his first season in the World Championship he had the opportunity to race the Motocross of Nations in Switzerland where Team Italia scored a fourth position

TITLE

MASSIMO ‘CONTE’ CONTINI

ALSO AT THE MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS.

1984: 8th in the 125 World Championship (Kawasaki)

Winner of another GP in 1987, always on an Italian track –Arco di Trento – Massimo always struggled on the sand where he lost all chances to fight for a World title Fifth in the championship that year, he offered all his experience to the Cagiva team as he lived close to the factory and always had a strong relationship with the team Sixth in 1988, which was the last season of the Cagiva factory team, he remained loyal to the brand and raced as a privateer to finish tenth in the 125cc World Championship in 1989 and 1990 He finally retired at the end of 1991, as he was unable to train properly due to a knee injury After finishing his racing career Contini stayed in the motocross world for a long time as a technician for the Fiamme Oro team, profitably following the growth of the new flag bearers of the State Police sports group

1983: 14th in the 125 World Championship (Aprilia)

1990: 19th in the 125 World Championship (Cagiva)

Text and Photos: Pascal Haudiquert

1991: 29th in the 125 World Championship (Kawasaki)

1989: 10th in the 125 World Championship (Cagiva)

1988: 6th in the 125 World Championship (Cagiva) factory dernière saison

2nd at the Cup of Nations (125 class) with Team Italy

1985: 10th in the 125 World Championship (Cagiva)

1982: 4th at the MX of Nations with Team Italy (Aprilia)

1986: 3rd in the 125 World Championship (Cagiva). Winner of 3 GP’s 125 Italian Champion

3rd at the MX of Nations with Team Italy

Andwins!for

sure 1986 was his best ever season as he ended the season on a high note at the Motocross of Nations at Maggiora; the Italian federation brought together three rivals in the 125cc championship, as Massimo had Michele Rinaldi and Corrado Maddii as team mates, but they all did the job to finish third overall behind USA and Great Britain

celebrated his first ever GP win, Massimo had great results on the WMX Cagiva developed by Jan Witteveen – three GP wins and six podiums – during that season but also missed consistency with several DNF’s Tight with teammate Pekka Vehkonen at the end of the season, he finally got the bronze medal thanks to his three GP

1977: Cadet Italian Champion (Villa)

2nd at the Cup of Nations (125 class) with Team Italy

1987: 5th in the 125 World Championship (Cagiva). Winner of 1 GP

2 1 3 7 4 8 PADDOCKTALKS

Awards… 4 The

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2022! 7 Fans

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2 tribute from Tom Vialle as he brought Rene Hofer’s front number board to remember the late Austrian. many champions on one stage! at the MXGP riders enjoyed the opening ceremony at the Bitci MXGP of Turkiye in front of so many MXGP Trophy is back in the Tiga243! World Championship Team of at the Bitci MXGP of Turkiye the Formula 1 simulator at Monster Energy hospitality! atmosphere at the Moto Festival in Afyon the wait! Nancy Van de Ven got her hands on the gold plate in Butron pictured after winning race and securing the EMX Open title in Turkiye.

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1 Energy Yamaha Factory Racing MX2 revealed their 2023 team line

WMX! 10 Jose

9 Worth

YZ125YAMAHACHIODIALESSIO1997

SPECIALFEATURE

ALESSIO ‘CHICCO’ CHIODI IS A THREE-TIME FIM 125CC MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPION, AND BEFORE ANTONIO CAIROLI CAME ALONG, WAS HERALDED AS ITALY’S MOST SUCCESSFUL MOTOCROSS RACER. HIS FIRST WORLD TITLE WAS WON IN 1997 RACING FOR CLAUDIO DE CARLI’S YAMAHA TEAM, AND IT’S CHIODI’S YZ125 YAMAHA THAT WE WILL FEATURE IN THIS ISSUE OF THE MXGP MAGAZINE.

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impressions of his new bike, all Chiodi would say was ‘I liked it a lot!’ The power was engineered to have a good bottom to mid hit with an impressive top-end rev range

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There was no direct support from Japan, but according to ‘Chicco’, ‘the cylinder head was not standard; it had a factory stamp!’ And as for the cylinder, this also had some extra work ‘inside’ to tidy it up and make it more responsive When asked about his first

After placing 2nd overall in the 125cc class in 1994 to Bob Moore and then Alessandro Puzar in 1995, Alessio Chiodi switched from the 125cc class to the premier 250cc class for the 1996 season, but after missing seven of the fourteen rounds due to injury, the Italian ended the year in 16th place, something that neither he nor his team boss Michele Rinaldi had anticipated Somewhat disillusioned with how the year went, ‘Chicco’ fancied a move back to the 125cc class ‘because it was the category that I liked the most’, and in October of ’96, signed a deal to race for Claudio De Carli’s Yamaha team

The crankcases were standard ‘with special treatment’ and the bike was equipped with a 6-speed gearbox and a standard clutch When it came to the CDI, the factory teams were now using programmable ignitions where the mechanic could alter the power curve via a cable which plugged into a laptop

At the time, Michele Rinaldi’s Chesterfield Yamaha Team was focussed on the 250cc class but back at the team’s headquarters, his technicians were producing factory kits for Yamaha as well as ‘B kits’ for Yamaha supported riders that raced in both the 125cc and 250cc classes, and this is where the journey of Chiodi’s bike began

Inside the cylinder, Chiodi’s YZ125 ran a Vertex piston with the exhaust pipe coming from renowned Italian pipe-makers of the time, Messico, which in turn was married to a DLR silencer, another Italian brand more synonymous with road racing As for carburation, the team ran a 38mm Mikuni - standard at that time would have been a 36mm Mikuni

The rolling chassis of Chiodi’s 1997 YZ125 was standard, but the engine was a ‘kit’ from Rinaldi which was then modified by Claudio De Carli

The season started perfectly with a double-race win in Indonesia and even though he didn’t win every GP, Chiodi never relinquished his championship lead by making the podium at ten of the twelve rounds In fact, the only time anyone got close to threatening his lead was in the mud of Germany at Gerstetten, where he finished 4-13 because, as Chicco puts it, ‘I fell many times in the mud!’

The1997airbox was standard and the radiators were oversized - remember, back then, the duration of the grand prix races was 40 minutes plus 2 laps, and so on wet, muddy weekends, those bigger rads’ would have come in handy to prevent overheating Unlike today where fuel tanks are carbon fibre, and around the same size as production (7 litres) Chiodi’s 1997 YZ125 ran an oversized aluminium tank with the capacity to hold 10 litres, and more if needed in deep sandy conditions Whilst we are on the subject of carbon fibre, the lightweight material of choice was titanium, and the bike was littered with titanium nuts and bolts as well as a titanium subframe and foot

the bike at both ends, the team opted to run 47mm conventional factory forks from Sölva, with the interesting thing being the rear shock was KYB Roland Sölva, the owner of the fork company, would prepare the front forks whilst De Carli took care of the rear shock which also ran a standard linkage The triple clamps were also Sölva, with the top clamp being lower than production The wheels were standard with Excel rims and the brakes were also standard Nissin, with standard size front and rear brake discs

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Suspendingpegs

- at the time, this was pretty revolutionary - and Chiodi’s bike was equipped with such a system in

However, the highlight of Chiodi’s season came at the final round and the deep sand of Lierop in Holland, where 3rd place in race one landed him with his first world championship, and to end the season on an even higher note, Chicco won the GP by winning race two as well; aside from the fact that he had just become world champion, he was more pleased with how he performed in the sand, as he recalls:

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Another notable performance came at the British GP at Foxhills where Chicco raced to an unexpected 1-1 What was significant here was the fact he was riding through the pain barrier with a fractured scaphoid, and in doing so, extended his lead over Alessandro Puzar to 30 points, extending it further to 34 points a week later in Slovenia

‘Lierop, winning the championship and the GP on the sand was a greater satisfaction; for an Italian not used to such soft ground, a great job was done the week before with Johan Boonen!’

Not only was it the first title for Alessio Chiodi, but it was also the first for Claudio De Carli as a team owner Since the 125cc class was upgraded to world championship status in 1975, it was only Yamaha’s third title in the 125cc division in that twenty-two-year period More significantly however, Chiodi’s world title in 1997 also turned out to be the last time that Yamaha would win the 125cc world championship and therefore the last 2-stroke Yamaha title in the class as well Yamaha’s next world title in this division had to wait until 2005 when Antonio Cairoli won the MX2 title, formerly known as the 125cc class

In 2023 the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations will take place in France at Ernée track, like in 2015, where team France MXGPThankswon!

QUESTIONS

Bernard ❞

Janis ❞

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MXGPRegardspayments;packId=P822607031https://www.mxgp-tv.com/here:

❞

Hello Jean :

TOTHEEDITOR

❝

Hi would like to know if theWWhere will the motocross of nations take place next year?

Dear Bernard, you can check out the latest issue of MXGP Magazine MXGPBesthttps://issuu.com/mxgpmagHERE:Regards

Hi youJanis,willfind all the old races of Antonio Cairoli on the MXGP-TV website by clicking on this link and by buying an “archive pass”

❝ How can I see old 2012 races of Antonio Cairoli?

❝

I saw that there were race summaries in Italian after each race weekend, will you do it next year too? Federico

Hi Indeed,Camille,you can find them all on the website of our partner Fox Racing, by clicking on this MXGPThanksmoto/collections/new-arrivals/https://foxracing.co.uk/men/link:

Camille: ❞

❝ I really like the outfits that Tim Gajser wore this season, I would like to be able to buy some of them, where can I find them online?

Jean

Hi yesFederico,ofcourse. You can find all our News Highlights in Italian on our youtube channel! Thanks MXGP

❝ Hey MXGP, where can I find the latest issue of the magazine?