Slaw Dog
The 75th edition of the Motocross of Nations takes place today at RedBud and you can watch it LIVE on CBS Sports Network and stream it on MXGP-TV.com
Team USA topped qualifying with a score of 3 on Saturday, but France (4) and Australia (5) were close behind. Spain and Belgium rounded out the top 5.
Racing starts today at 10:50 a.m. with the B Final. The mains begin at 1:00 p.m. ET. Stay here for all results.
Note: This page will update through the day.
Race 1 | MXGP + MX2
Rain hammered RedBud overnight, but this wasn’t a 2018 situation. The track crew did some heavy work to get it in a rideable condition and all things considered, the track was pretty good.
Eli Tomac was a man on a mission in the first race, leading start to finish to put Team USA in a great position on home soil.
Jago Geerts, in his first ride on a 450, keep Tomac honest for much of the moto, but Tomac was able to distance himself at the end.
Crazy to think, but this was Tomac’s first ever race win at a Motocross of Nations.
Geerts took second over Maxime Renaux would finished third ahead of Jeremy Seewer and Mitch Evans.
Hunter Lawrence was the best MX2 rider in eighth just ahead of Justin Cooper.
Team USA currently leads the overall with 10 points. Australia is second with 13 and Belgium in third with 14.
Remember, each Nation will drop its worst score.
Race 2 | Open + MX2
Rain came back for the second race at RedBud, but it didn’t slow Jett Lawrence in his 450 debut.
A huge pileup off the start collected Tommy Searle and Dylan Ferrandis, among others. Up front it was Italy’s Mattia Guadagnini who held the early lead over Chase Sexton and Jett Lawrence. Justin Cooper and Hunter Lawrence were in tow.
Hunter tried to make an early move on Cooper and the two came together with Hunter going down. Hunter went down again late in the race and finished 10th.
Up front, Guadagnini was holding strong against Sexton and Lawrence. Around the 17 min mark, Sexton finally made his way into the lead, but Guadagnini jumped the Leap and retook the top spot.
At the 14 min mark, Lawrence made his move. He made an aggressive pass to take second from Sexton and two minutes later made the pass for the lead on Guadagnini.
With six minutes plus two left, Sexton finally made his way around Guadagnini for second. Jett would cruise to the moto win over Sexton, with Guadagnini taking third. Justin Cooper took fourth ahead of Spain’s Ruben Fernandez. Ferrandis came all the way back to sixth.
Through two races, USA leads with 16 points over Australia (24) and France (32). REMEMBER, EACH NATION CAN DROP THEIR WORST SCORE, so it will be interesting between those three in the final moto.
Race 3 | MXGP + Open
Three countries entered the final race with a legit shot at the Cup: USA, Australia and France.
And it was chaos off the start in the third race. France jumped out to a 1-2 start with Maxime Renaux and Dylan Ferrandis out to the early lead over Chase Sexton. Disaster struck for Team Australia early when Mitch Evans went down and fell back to 34th.
Eli Tomac had trouble off the start as well, as he got caught up in Jago Geerts crash and was outside the top 10.
Ferrandis was on fire up front and was leading the race when he went down around the 20 min mark and fell back to sixth.
Rénaux took the lead and went on to cruise to a four second win over Jett Lawrence.
Sexton finished third and Tomac sixth, which means FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2011, TEAM USA ARE CHAMPIONS OF THE MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS.
France would finish second. For the second time ever (they last finished on the podium in 2011) Australia finished on the podium in third.
