The 2016 Monster Energy MXGP of USA marked a day of remembrance of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and a day of firsts and lasts, as the 18-round FIM Motocross World Championship reached its conclusion at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California, today.
Just as he was at the penultimate round of the series last weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac was the man to beat, and although the European visitors stepped up their game, the American star delighted the partisan fans in attendance at Glen Helen with his second consecutive MXGP win and the second of his career via 1-1 moto scores. In MX2, Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings capped a brilliant career in the 250cc ranks with a 1-1 sweep after already locking down his third career MX2 World Championship title at Charlotte.
Neither man had an easy time of it, however. Tomac had to come from behind in both MXGP motos while Herlings had to fend off a strong debut by GEICO Honda’s Jeremy Martin to claim his 14th GP win of the season in MX2, and his last before heading to the premier MXGP class in 2017.
MXGP
Although smoother than it is during a typical round of the Lucas Oil [AMA] Pro Motocross Championship, the hard-packed Glen Helen circuit was its usual treacherously fast self for the GP, so it was a bit of a surprise when Dutch sand specialist Glen Coldenhoff not only flogged his Red Bull KTM into the early lead during MXGP Moto 1 but also held that lead for the first few laps while teammate and six-time MXGP World Champion Antonio Cairoli tried to reel-in Coldenhoff. Tomac, meanwhile, got off to a 10th-place start, but he quickly went to work on the riders in front of him, passing his way into fifth place by the end of lap one. After dispatching Monster Energy Yamaha’s Jeremy Van Horebeek and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Max Nagl, Tomac settled in behind Cairoli and Coldenhoff on lap three. Cairoli and Tomac would vault past Coldenhoff one lap later, setting up a fantastic battle for the lead.
Cairoli set a fast pace in the moto, but Tomac was able to gain time in the middle rhythm section on the lower-end of the course, and he used a brilliant triple jump move out of the corner leading into the section to skip past Cairoli before the final jump that led back onto the front straightaway. From there, Tomac commanded the race all the way to the finish, pulling 15 seconds clear of Cairoli. Coldenhoff slipped backward into the field, ultimately finishing sixth while Nagl ran a steady race to keep ahead of new MXGP World Champion Tim Gasjer and nail down third place in the moto. Van Horebeek finished fifth.
Tomac once again struggled to get off the gate, running 13th early in MXGP Moto 2 while Nagl took the holeshot ahead of Gasjer and exiting MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre. Cairoli, however, blew past Febvre and Gasjer before the end of lap one and immediately put pressure on Nagl for the lead. Febvre and Gasjer also engaged in a heady battle for third place. Cairoli showed that he isn’t averse to picking up on new lines as he used the same triple-triple-double attack on Nagl through the center rhythm section that Tomac had used in Moto 1. The move was a success, and Cairoli grabbed the lead on lap two.
Tomac was still mired in eighth place then, and for a time it appeared as though his chances for the overall win might be in jeopardy. That picture began to change, however, as he moved past Kawasaki riders Arnaud Tonus and Tommy Searle on lap three, initiating a march toward the front. Tomac gained another two places on lap five, passing Febvre and then clicking handlebars with Team HRC’s Gautier Paulin as he took over fourth place on the second uphill. One lap later, Nagl became Tomac’s next victim.
Gasjer kept steady pressure on Cairoli for the lead through the middle stages of the moto, but Tomac was clearly on the gas as he closed in on the new and old MXGP champions, cutting his gap to Gasjer and Cairoli from 8 seconds to just under 5 seconds in one lap and pulling to within sighting distance of both men. Tomac caught Gasjer in the S-curves leading onto the finish straightaway and shot past the Slovenian just before the finish line jump to grab second place. From there, it was just a matter of time before he would catch Cairoli, and Tomac had plenty of time left in the moto to do it.
Tomac hounded Cairoli, and although the MXGP master put a game defense of the point position, a lapped rider would turn out to be his undoing. Tomac had an easy time taking over the lead, and once there he again pulled away to win the moto by just over 16 seconds, landing the MXGP of USA overall win and becoming the first American to win more than one FIM GP in a single season since Mike Brown in 2002.
“I ate too much dirt today,” Tomac said. “My starts weren’t the greatest. The first moto wasn’t so bad; I had to make a few passes and eventually work my way to the front. We made a few changes from yesterday—a couple changes on the shock—and we went the right direction. It wasn’t necessarily good for the starts, but it was better on the track. Glen Helen is a tough racetrack. Those were two long 30-minute motos. The first lap of the second moto, there was some chaos. Guys were getting sideways. It was pretty wet and muddy, and I got clipped by a person on the step-up. I never went down, but I just got shuffled back on the first hill.”
Tomac said that he enjoyed the competition and the format in both of the World Championship rounds he contested over the past two weekends.
“I had a lot of fun,” he said. “Obviously, everyone is really fast, really fast, but it seems like they respect each other and it’s clean racing, so I enjoyed it, and I would definitely come back for another one.”
With the roll he is on right now in international competition, it was all but inevitable that he would be asked the question of whether he regretted his decision not to be part of Team USA for the 2016 Motocross of Nations team.
“You know, for me this is the 32nd weekend of racing since January, and I had to draw the line somewhere,” Tomac responded. “We also have the Monster Energy Cup. I need a little bit of time to regroup before January. I don’t know. It [Motocross of Nations] is an event that I wouldn’t want to miss.”
With 2-2 performances for second overall, Cairoli was pleased to put up a better performance at Glen Helen than he did a week ago at Charlotte when he was battling an illness.
“I was very sick at Charlotte, and I had to take medicine—antibiotics and this and that,” Cairoli said. “I knew it would be hot here [at Glen Helen], so that was not the best, but I liked the track, and I had about 25 minutes in my tank before I began to make mistakes. Eli [Tomac] was very fast, much faster than me, so I couldn’t hold [him] off. This season was very difficult for me. Hopefully next year I will be back and try to be more ready for the title again.”
Gasjer claimed third overall at the series finale, his 4-3 scores out-pointing Nagl’s 3-4. It was a decent way to end a dream season in which the he entered the Premier class as a rookie of unknown quantity and ended up winning the MXGP World Championship. Too bad that landing it just before his 20th birthday meant that Gasjer would be unable to legally celebrate it with a beer in the States.
“Yesterday was a tough day—I struggled a lot,” Gasjer said. “Today I came back a little stronger with two good starts. In the first moto, I was pushing too much in the beginning, but in the second moto it was better. We were batting for the lead before Eli came, but I am happy with third overall. Sixteen times on the podium out of 18 times, so I’m really happy.”
MX2
Spend any time around Jeffrey Herlings and it becomes clear that he projects confidence in himself and his abilities on a dirtbike, and it is quite possible that if not for the severe injury that he suffered while well on his way to a third consecutive MX2 World title in 2014, he might be exiting the MX2 series as a five-time champion. Sometimes the racing gods can be as cruel as they are kind, though, and after taking a dump on the Dutchman in the form of his snapped femur, they came back to haunt him further with an infection that effectively ruined his 2015 title hopes.
But make no mistake about it: Herlings was back to form in 2016, and his competition paid a heavy price for it as he once again proved to be dominant by reeling off an amazing 23-1 GP moto win tally en route to bagging 12 straight GP overall wins. Even after suffering a broken collarbone prior to round 13 and having to sit out three rounds of the series, Herlings came back with enough points in the bank to clinch the MX2 title a round early. Not only that, but he also got back to his winning ways by netting two more overall wins, finishing his title-winning season with 14 wins out of the 15 GPs he contested. The last one came today at Glen Helen as Herlings tangled with more than one tough American to land what will likely be the final MX2 win of his career.
Monster Energy Pro Circuit’s Austin Forkner wanted to be the man to roll up the American welcome mat on Herlings, and he pulled the holeshot over the Dutchman in Moto 1. Herlings was unfazed, however, and he railed inside Forkner to take the lead in turn two before setting sail out front. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Max Anstie also came along to take over second place, but newly recruited GEICO Honda rider Jeremy Martin was out to show his new bosses that he was worthy of the gig, and he also passed Forkner and then ran down Anstie to take over second place on lap four. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s MX2 regular, Thomas Covington, soon found his way into fourth place.
Herlings was steady as a rock on the speedy Glen Helen circuit, and he kept a safe distance from Martin all the way to the finish in Moto 1 with a 10-second margin of victory. Third through fifth place fell to American riders, with Forkner third, followed by Covington and Yamalube/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Mitchell Harrison.
In Moto 2, Herlings’ Red Bull KTM teammate, Jorge Prado Garcia, pulled the holeshot, only to surrender the lead to Anstie over the small jump between turns one and two. Herlings was quickly on pace as he moved into fourth place on the run up the first hill, and he was all over the back of Martin before outrunning the American rider through the S-curve just before the finish line jump to take over third place. Garcia would slip back into the field while another Jeremy, Suzuki World MX2’s Jeremy Seewer, came forward to battle with Jeremy Martin.
Herlings easily put away Anstie early in the moto to take the lead on lap two and began to etch out an advantage on the increasingly rutty Glen Helen track. Martin never let up, but he could not make up any ground on Herlings, who sped to the finish with another 7 seconds in hand to cement the overall win.
“What an amazing feeling to finish up this [MX2] career with a win,” Herlings said. “There was some strong competition today. In the first moto I pulled off a good start and was able to get into the lead pretty quickly and control the race, save some energy. In the second moto I was eighth in the first turn. Once I got into the lead, the track was pretty gnarly and slick. Down the hills it was pretty slick and dangerous. Some of the guys looked like amateurs out there. But it is cool to finish with a win and close this chapter.”
Martin’s second-place finish was all the more impressive considering that he had only been riding his new Honda for about a week and also by the fact that he put himself in a bit of a hole to start Sunday morning when he missed practice due to his misunderstanding of the event schedule.
“It was a good weekend,” Martin said. “We learned a lot, but I’m a little bummed. I got a revised schedule of the whole entire event, and I didn’t think practice was until 10:20 this morning, so I left the hotel around nine, and I got a phone call as I was coming down the highway, ‘Dude, practice is going on right now.’ So I just pinned it my Danger Ranger and started going like 95. I got here and everyone was finishing up practice, so I was like, ‘Alright, well, we’ll just test our settings out in the first moto.”
When asked if he was surprised by Herlings’ speed, Martin said no.
“Jeffrey is a three-time World Champion for a reason,” Martin said. “You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. He is fast. He is fit and, you know, he was stronger than me today. He was the better man. It was fun to race him. I really wanted to come here and ride with these [World Championship] guys. I respect them a ton. The whole day was good.”
Seewer was third, followed by Anstie and Harrison, the latter being the surprise of the day as his 5-5 moto finishes were good enough to earn his first career FIM MX2 podium after fellow American Forkner crashed in Moto 2 and Covington finished 14th.
“I came into the day just looking for a top five overall,” the 18-year-old Harrison said. “That seemed reasonable. But I got lucky and put in two solid races. Actually, I crashed on the first lap of the second moto, and I had to work my way back up, so maybe I really did earn that top-three finish.” [laughs] But that did give me a lot of confidence for next year.”
2016 FIM Motocross World Championship
Monster Energy MXGP of USA
Glen Helen Raceway
San Bernardino, California
Results: September 11, 2016
MXGP Overall
1. Eli Tomac (USA)-Kaw/1-1
2. Antonio Cairoli (ITA)-KTM/2-2
3. Tim Gajser (SLO)-Hon/4-3
4. Max Nagl (GER)-Hus/3-4
5. Gautier Paulin (FRA)-Hon/10-5
6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED)-KTM/6-12
7. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS)-Hon/11-8
8. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL)-Yam/14-5
9. Arnaud Tonus (SUI)-Kaw/13-7
10. Shaun Simpson (GBR)-KTM/12-9
2017 FIM MXGP World Championship Series Final Points Standings (after 18 of 18 rounds)
1. Tim Gajser-731
2. Antonio Cairoli-647
3. Max Nagl-603
4. Romain Febvre-564
5. Evgeny Bobryshev-545
6. Jeremy Van Horebeek-536
7. Glenn Coldenhoff-406
8. Clement Desalle-372
9. Valentin Guillod-352
10. Shaun Simpson-343
MX2 Overall
1Jeffrey Herlings (NED)-KTM/1-1
2. Jeremy Martin (USA)-Hon/2-2
3. Mitchell Harrison (USA)-Yam/5-5
4. Max Anstie (GBR)-Hus/8-4
5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI)-Suz/11-4
6. Benoit Paturel (FRA)-Yam/6-9
7. Brian Bogers (NED)-KTM/9-7
8. Thomas Covington (USA)-Hus/4-14
9. Chris Alldredge (USA)-Kaw/7-11
10. Austin Forkner (USA)-Kaw/3-18
2017 FIM MXGP World Championship Series Final Points Standings (after 18 of 18 rounds)
1. Jeffrey Herlings-739
2. Jeremy Seewer-625
3. Benoit Paturel-512
4. Max Anstie-504
5. Pauls Jonass-403
6. Brian Bogers-398
7. Dylan Ferrandis-378
8. Samuele Bernardini-377
9. Petar Petrov-351
10. Aleksandr Tonkov-320
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