The world‰Ûªs biggest motocross race has started at America‰Ûªs RedBud Motocross Track today with the 72nd Edition of the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations Qualifying races. The hills of the Michigan circuit filled with thousands of wildly passionate and patriotic motocross fans creating an atmosphere that only the MXoN can provide.
Qualifying in the top spot was Team Netherlands who scored 4 points with
Jeffrey Herlings,
Calvin Vlaanderen, and
Glenn Coldenhoff. Going to the line second tomorrow will be Team Italy,
Antonio Cairoli,
Michele Cervellin, and
Alessandro Lupino who scored 5 points along with Team France‰Ûªs
Gautier Paulin,
Dylan Ferrandis, and
Jordi Tixier.
Today‰Ûªs racing was epic and full of drama as all of the thirty country‰Ûªs teams competed for the top 19 spots to guarantee a place in tomorrow‰Ûªs final races. Three different qualifying races, one for each category, followed the morning‰Ûªs Free Practice sessions. Of the three race results the two best are counted into the nations classification and the 19 teams with the lowest scores are placed directly into the main races tomorrow while teams from 20th on will have one last chance to compete via winning the B-Final tomorrow morning.
MXGP The MXGP category will likely be the most watched class tomorrow with a long list of stars headlined by the Netherlands Jeffrey Herlings, USA‰Ûªs
Eli Tomac, Germany‰Ûªs
Ken Roczen, and Italy‰Ûªs Antonio Cairoli.
When the qualifying race kicked off today it was Team Italy‰Ûªs Antonio Cairoli leading Team Germany‰Ûªs Ken Roczen. Team Netherlands‰Ûª Jeffrey Herlings went down in the first turn while Team USA‰Ûªs Eli Tomac was 6th behind Team Great Britain‰Ûªs
Tommy Searle.
Herlings went straight to Pit Lane after the start crash and after a few adjust was back on track in dead last. Meanwhile Team Spain‰Ûªs
Jose Butron was fighting to hold on to 3rd while under pressure from the #1 of Team France‰Ûªs Gautier Paulin. By the fifth lap Butron was passed by Paulin, Searle, and Tomac while Herlings was already up to 11th.
Cairoli impressively pulled away from Roczen lap after lap as Roczen did the same to Paulin. On lap 8 Herlings was up to 5th while fans struggled to find Tomac who previously held the position. Tomac was then discovered at the bottom of the circuit near ‰ÛÏLaRocco‰Ûªs Leap‰Û