Lommel and MXGP

It has been nearly 40 years that Lommel started its association with the World Motocross scene and despite holding that very famous Motocross des Nations in 1981, where Team USA won their first of 22 MXoN victories, it wasn’t until 1990 that a Grand Prix was held at the circuit.

Lommel held some 250 GPs in the 1990’s, with Pekka Vehkonen winning in 1990, Marnicq Bervoets in 1993 and Stefan Everts in 1994. Lommel held its first 500cc GP in 1997, with Latvian veteran Avo Leok winning in the rain and mud.

Since that 1997 visit Lommel hadn’t really been a regular stop on the Grand Prix calendar, due to the involvement of the legendary Namur circuit, and also stops in places like Neeroteren, Nismes, Genk, and so many others it seemed that Lommel was generally just a training facility for the GP riders.

It wasn’t until five times motocross world champion Eric Geboers got involved and decided to bring the circuit back to the Grand Prix scene, and of course the fact Namur had been closed. When Lommel returned to the Grand Prix schedule in 2008 it was Spanish rider Jonathan Barragan who put his name on the winners list with an MX1 overall, while Gert Krestinov shocked the world to win the MX2 overall.

Names like Marvin Musquin (2009 MX2), Ken Roczen (2010 MX2) and Ken De Dycker (2009 MX1), joined Barragan and Krestinov as GP winners, but it was the performances of Antonio Cairoli in 2010, 2011, 2012 (MXON) and 2014 that stood out. Cairoli also won the MXoN overall with 1-1 results and more or less owned the circuit in that era.

The sandman Jeffrey Herlings took his first win at Lommel in the MX2 class in 2011 and scored 1-2 results at the 2012 MXoN, but injuries ruled Herlings out of Lommel in 2014 and 2015, with Max Anstie making the most of that and won both those years, scoring 1-2-1-1 in the process. Shaun Simpson added his name to the Lommel winners list with 1-1 in MXGP in 2015.

In 2016 Kevin Strijbos pulled off an amazing victory in the MXGP class, with 3-3 results, beating home Max Nagl and Antonio Cairoli. In MX2 it was again Anstie who took victory number three, as Jeffrey Herlings was again out injured. Second in MX2 was Jeremy Seewer and third Petar Petrov.

In 2017 Herlings now in the MXGP class added yet another victory to his long list of sand wins, beating Antonio Cairoli and Glen Coldenhoff, while Jorge Prado won his first Lommel overall from Pauls Jonass and Julien Lieber.

Again in 2018 Herlings won from Cairoli and Anstie and in MX2, it was Prado from Thomas Covington and Thomas Olsen and last year Prado went 1-1 for the win and Tim Gajser scored 2-2 for the win in the MXGP class.

So, as we enter this weekend’s Grand Prix at the famous Belgian sand track, will Cairoli make it five wins at the circuit (including his MXoN overall) and his first victory at Lommel since 2014, or maybe Prado picks up his fourth straight win at the circuit. In MX2 it seems that the fight will be between Tom Vialle, Jago Geerts and Thomas Olsen, and maybe one of the youngsters can get their first win on the dark sand.