For the first time in 18 years, the Republic of South Africa welcomes back the FIM Motocross World Championships for its eleventh round of the 19 scheduled, and it’s the Terra Topia MX Track that plays host, on the north-western edge of Johannesburg, the largest city in the South African nation!
This will be only the sixth Motocross Grand Prix to be held in this country, and the fourth host venue. The nearby circuit of Corobrik held the first GP here back in 1985, a 250cc event won by French Yamaha rider Jacky Vimond. Then in 2004, Sun City held the first of three annual GPs in the MX1/MX2 era, before the most recent South African event was hosted by Nelspruit, 350 km east of Johannesburg, in 2008. The winners that day were Jonathan Barragan for Spain, and Britain’s Tommy Searle, both racing for KTM.
Obviously, everybody competing this weekend will be racing their first GP in this country, and the biggest issue many will have is the elevation, running nearly 1,800m (approx. 5,900 ft), meaning that the air will be thin for both men and machinery, limiting engine power and making the athletic effort all the more stressful. The surface itself is a shade softer than recent circuits at Montevarchi and Águeda, and with the lack of support classes to chew up the ground, it should be a fast and spectacular track for the MXGP elite!
The two World Championships are still being led by the twins Lucas and Sacha Coenen, and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pair might have a slight advantage after racing in the USA in June, at similar altitude to that of Johannesburg.
Lucas holds a 57-point lead over five-time World Champion Jeffrey Herlings, but the Honda HRC Petronas firebrand has won the last two GPs and will be keen to make it three in a row. Defending Champion Romain Febvre lies in third place for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, and is still searching for his first GP win with the #1 plate.
Red Bull Ducati Factory MX Team rider Calvin Vlaanderen, just over a week after his 30th birthday, was born in the much more southerly Port Elizabeth, but is supremely excited for his first GP in the country of his birth, having been in the crowd as a pre-teen in 2008!
Sacha Coenen lost 14 points from his Championship lead last weekend, as Guillem Farres enjoyed his first ever perfect 1-1-1 weekend for the Triumph Factory Racing Team, cutting the current gap to 32 points. Reigning World Champion Simon Längenfelder took third place back last weekend for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, but he is only two points ahead of Camden McLellan, who is champing at the bit to compete in his first home GP, just a stone’s throw from where he was born! The Johannesburg native is having a storming season and would dearly love to send his home fans into raptures with victory here for Triumph Factory Racing Team!
As we are in the winter season here in the southern hemisphere, and there are no support classes, the schedule will be run a little earlier, but the time zone is the same as Central European Time, so it will be a straightforward affair to tune in and enjoy MXGP’s first visit to this region for a racing generation!
Lucas Coenen does seem to be managing his Championship lead well, actually making ground on Jeffrey Herlings over the MXGP of Portugal weekend, but he will of course be looking to stop the run of “The Bullet” and prevent any building of momentum. The Belgian has won in the Southern Hemisphere three times before, in Australia last year, as well as twice in Indonesia in MX2, so we know that he can travel well!
Herlings has a total of eight GP wins south of the equator, from Argentina to Indonesia and even back to Brazil in 2011, and knowing his love of building statistics, he is for sure keen to add another country to his win list. Romain Febvre took his first GP win in Brazil in 2014, and has won twice in Indonesia. The big thing for the Champion will be to try and secure his first GP win of the season.
The same applies to Tim Gajser, fourth in the standings for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, with his teammate Maxime Renaux in fifth. Renaux won in this hemisphere back at the start of 2025, while Gajser has a total of six GP wins from Indonesia and Argentina. How their machines will cope with the altitude is another question mark for them, as it is for everybody!
Andrea Adamo for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and Ruben Fernandez for Honda HRC Petronas, are close together in sixth and seventh, just nine points apart. Of course, Fernandez enjoyed his sole GP victory in Argentina in 2023, so he can cope with travelling no problem. Sadly, Kay de Wolf, eighth for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, is still out following his injuries from Italy. Tom Vialle should move past him for Honda HRC Petronas this weekend, as he has been trying to get stronger after missing two GPs from injury before this run of three.
Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Pauls Jonass, twice an MX2 GP winner in Argentina, is the target for Calvin Vlaanderen as he tries to get back into the Championship top ten with home crowd support behind him! Calvin took his very first GP win south of the equator back in 2018, and would dearly love to be close again!
The 450cc machines won’t suffer at the elevation as much as their MX2 counterparts, but they will be able to crank the throttles more as they battle for supremacy in the Gauteng province!
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 506 points; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 449 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 394 p.; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 371 p.; 5. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 334 p.; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 313 p.; 7. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 304 p.; 8. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 273 p.; 9. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 265 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 234 p.
Sacha Coenen leads into the second half of the Championship in MX2, and the young Belgian won his only GP outside of Europe in China last year, so he has no issues with travelling, and won’t have the heat to deal with either this weekend.
What he will have to deal with is the Triumph pairing of Guillem Farres and Camden McLellan, who will both be determined to score a fourth GP win for the team this season, especially the South African on home ground! Simon Längenfelder won for the first time outside of Europe in Argentina this season, and for sure the lack of heat will be welcome for the German as he tries to turn his season back around, having not seen the podium since Sardegna in April!
Liam Everts will be the sole representative in either class for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, and he is still fifth in the points chase and hunting for his first win of any kind this season. Mathis Valin’s participation might be in question for Kawasaki Racing Team MX2 after his big crash last weekend, and he was passed in the series by Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 teenager Janis Reisulis, but there are only three points between them!
Eighth in the Championship is Karlis Reisulis for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2, who will be looking for a better second half of the season that the first one, as will Valerio Lata, ninth in the standings for Honda HRC Petronas.
Kay Karssemakers will be the top non-factory rider in the class to make the journey, for Dixon Racing Kawasaki, and he scored his best individual race finish yet with a sixth in Indonesia back in 2022, so can he find some magic again south of the equator?
The MX2 riders will be working hard to get significant power from their machines at the altitude this weekend, but then means they will all be pushing as hard as possible to compensate for the lack of power! It certainly won’t give us any lack of entertainment as the MXGP of South Africa gets underway near Johannesburg!
MX2 – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Guillem Farres (ESP, Triumph), 35:00.046; 2. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:11.717; 3. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:30.984; 4. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:34.502; 5. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, Triumph), +0:45.394; 6. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:50.426; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:52.293; 8. Kay Karssemakers (NED, Kawasaki), +1:20.236; 9. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), +1:25.086; 10. Jens Walvoort (NED, KTM), +1:56.275;
TIMETABLE
SATURDAY:
09:00 Blåkläder Start Practice MX2, 09:35 Blåkläder Start Practice MXGP, 10:15 MX2 Free Practice, 10:45 MXGP Free Practice, 12:50 MX2 Time Practice, 13:30 MXGP Time Practice, 15:25 MX2 Qualifying Race, 16:10 MXGP Qualifying Race.
SUNDAY:
10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 12:15 MX2 Race 1, 13:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:10 MX2 Race 2, 16:10 MXGP Race 2.
Published by: Infront Moto Racing
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