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Team Australia captures historic first MXoN victory in 2024

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Section: Competition Post: Alex Gobert

Team USA's Tomac, Webb and Plessinger P2 at Matterley Basin.

The final Nations podium featured the Australians ahead of USA and The Netherlands, while the individual class victories belonged to Tim Gajser (MXGP), Kay de Wolf (MX2) and Jett Lawrence (Open).

Race one featuring MXGP and MX2 saw Tim Gajser (Slovenia) take control in the early stages, going on to seal a commanding victory ahead of Eli Tomac (USA). Tomac put on a charge to second, but wasn’t able to track down Gajser at the front, and it was Romain Febvre (France) who completed the top three from Jorge Prado (Spain) and Jeffrey Herlings (Netherlands).

Positions six through 10 included Kay de Wolf (Netherlands) – top of the MX2 entries – ahead of Jeremy Seewer (Switzerland), Hunter Lawrence (Australia), Alberto Forato (Italy) and Ken Roczen (Germany). There were two major non-finishers in Max Anstie (Great Britain) and Lucas Coenen (Belgium), both exiting with crashes in the mid-stages of the race.

Next was MX2 and Open, where Australian Jett Lawrence made his first appearance to dominate on the way to winning race two. Lawrence led home Ruben Fernandez (Spain) as he did in Open qualifying, with Simon Laengenfelder (Germany) third, from Maxime Renaux (France) and de Wolf.

Local Conrad Mewse (Great Britain) made a move on Aaron Plessinger (USA) last in the moto, with Karlis Alberts Reisulis (Latvia), Cooper Webb (USA) and Mikkel Haarup (Denmark) the top 10. It was The Netherlands leading at that point, ahead of USA and Australia, but it was all to play for in the final encounter.

Race three was an all-450 affair with the MXGP and Open categories, with Tomac scoring an exceptional holeshot, before engaging in battle with a fast-closing Gajser. Lawrence, too, was slicing his way through the pack from the outside gates and, in the end, it was him and Gajser who fought for the moto win.

While Australia was firmly in position to clinch the Nations classification overall, Gajser managed to strike on a determined Lawrence in the final turns to steal the checkered flag in positions 1-2, with Tomac third, followed by Hunter Lawrence and Herlings the top-five. Sixth through 10th this time around included Seewer, Forato, Plessinger, Renaux and Roczen.

Australia took the 2024 MXoN victory on a total of 26 points from Team USA (Tomac, Webb and Plessinger) on 29 and The Netherlands (Herlings, de Wolf and Glenn Coldenhoff) on 36, completing the overall podium.