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00:00The Netherlands riders, but this is a track very different than Redbud in the rain and the soft.
00:05This is a hard-packed racetrack, and it's only going to get harder from here.
00:08Eli Tomac eyeing up the start straight, thinking, well, it's going to go one of two ways.
00:11It's either going to go TU, or it's going to come off a treat.
00:16So he's going to hope to sweep across.
00:18But when you look now, he's going to be having riders to his inside, like Finland, Honduras, Ukraine, Austria.
00:23There's going to be guys there that aren't going to get the drop.
00:25The supply race in 15-second board goes up. It's going to allow him to maybe just sweep across.
00:30But Ruben Fernandez is not going to make it easy for him, that's for sure.
00:34Right, 20 minutes plus two here, the first qualifying race of the weekend.
00:38Not a good jump for Eli Tomac, but up the inside, Jet Lawrence and Klen Koldenhoff as they rip around that first turn.
00:45Oh, Kenny Rockson off the back of the bike. Was it Kenny? No, it's not. He's there in third.
00:50Yeah, I see Jet get the jump. I was worried about that.
00:52And Fernandez immediately moved over on Tomac, making his life much more difficult.
00:56Rockson trying to force his way to the lead, but Jet Lawrence just stood his ground, stood firm.
01:01Hard and slick and stony under the trees.
01:04Yeah, it's getting really slippery.
01:05And Jet has really shown a propensity to remain super patient in the early laps.
01:10The exact opposite is typically true for Rockson.
01:12So I would expect Rockson to attack Jet early.
01:15This corner, more off-camera going into that right-hander than it looks on TV.
01:18Look how slick it is coming out of here as it starts to dry out.
01:22But Jet Lawrence double, double on the run-up to what used to be Godzilla.
01:27Which is now just a triple step into a 180 cutback at Gifting, trying to go after Fevra here.
01:33And Koldenhoff in that third place behind Jorgen Matthias Talvikou.
01:37Flying start for the rider from Finland.
01:38So Talvikou on the 55.
01:48Estonia, sorry.
01:50Stepping up into 13.
01:53Talvikou, Fevra at the 7 of Koldenhoff.
01:55Geiser just a couple of positions further back behind the blue and gold of Isaac Gifting.
02:00So frantic action here for the Grand Prix regulars.
02:04But it's Lawrence who leads the way from Rockson by just over a second.
02:09You see, Fernandez is up to ninth.
02:10That's really where Tomac would have liked to have been, coming around in the top ten on that first lap.
02:14I knew it was going to be a battle for position right out of the gate there.
02:17He's in 21st, so a lot of work to be done here.
02:20But the good news is it's a 20-minute plus two-lap race, 25 minutes.
02:23And obviously, not everybody is world-class in this field.
02:26Yes, there are a good nine or ten quality riders in MXGP as Geiser slips up the inside of Roman Fevra at the end of that opening lap
02:34and moves up immediately into fourth place.
02:37So Geiser not hanging around either.
02:42But Eli Tomac with a lot of work today to do, as you say, now in 19th place.
02:45How about this ride from Talvikou?
02:47He has raced here before in the 250 class or MX2 for our European friends.
02:52But nothing like this.
02:53Not a performance where he's running inside the top five at any point.
02:56So he's showing up for his team right now.
02:59On the drone here, Kenny Rockson dogging Jet Lawrence at the moment as they head uphill.
03:04So the Australian leading the German.
03:07Just gives you an indication as to how close those trees feel in real time
03:11as they sweep through this part of the racetrack through seven, dropping into eight.
03:15Again, a little bit off-camber as they tip in there.
03:17Then you've got these hard and predictable ruts.
03:20And the shadowing of the trees as well.
03:22You don't really see a clean line at that part of the racetrack, Jason.
03:25It's really difficult back there.
03:26Now, I've done several reports during our pro motocross races from that exact section
03:30because it is so difficult to see.
03:32You added rocks, bumps, ruts.
03:34It's almost more of feeling your way around the track than it is seeing it.
03:38The top two pulling away.
03:39They've got here, turn 12, at the top of the hill, turn 11.
03:42That's Geiser, Talvikou.
03:43Geiser now in the third place.
03:44Good right start, this, for Kenny Rockson.
03:53Keeping Jet Lawrence in his line of sight.
03:55Yeah, and Kenny is so good early laps.
03:58He's so explosive.
04:00And I think most of these riders have understood to really race Kenny,
04:03you have to withstand the barrage in the early laps.
04:06If you can do that, you get a few laps in, Kenny calms down a little bit and settles in.
04:10And I think that Jet has really kind of taken that to heart here.
04:12Great part of the racetrack here.
04:16Jet is tripling through the turn into those and tripling out at the end of that sand section.
04:21Didn't quite get that there.
04:22Maybe we can follow Jet Lawrence through there next time around just to give us an indication at home
04:26of exactly how he's getting through there.
04:29Doubling over the finish line.
04:31Not too many riders taking the opportunity on that this weekend so far.
04:35Yeah, it's a hard landing.
04:36We've seen riders, and honestly, they're more doing it today than typically at a pro motocross race.
04:41So the dirt is a little harder right now than we've seen at pro motocross races.
04:46I would say that's also because it's 2.30 in the afternoon versus, you know, an earlier morning type race.
04:52So we'll see if that continues.
04:54But it is a hard landing, and you wonder if they can continue to do that as they get tired.
04:58Roman Fevra up to 4th.
04:59Fernandez up to 5th.
05:00Gifting down to 6th.
05:01Colton off 7th.
05:02Telfico is down to 8th place.
05:04So Fevra, Fernandez.
05:07So Fernandez from Spain.
05:10Obviously occupying the captain's role.
05:13No Jorge Prado this weekend, of course, but still a solid team that Spain can put out with Ruben Fernandez there,
05:22Guillem Ferez, and Francesco from the EMX2 category.
05:30Garcia, of course, there's the 61 of gifting.
05:34He's in 6th place at the moment.
05:37That's an awkward section coming out of that corner, isn't it?
05:39Because it looks like you can double in or go out and single and double.
05:44Almost through the barrier there.
05:45It's really ruddy on the takeoff on the inside, so it is much quicker, but just it's so deteriorated on the inside that you really can't drive through it.
05:53Fevra thinking about booking up his ideas because as he launches up over the top of the hill, he's almost lost him.
06:00Guys are ahead of him.
06:01But we know that this is just about qualifying today.
06:03Two good scores, and for the scoring system, all weekend long, whether it's a qualifying race or the main race on Sunday, it's one point for the win, two for second, three for third.
06:13That would be the same in the EMX2 qualifying race, in the open race, and obviously the lowest score, the best score to go through automatically is going to be two points.
06:21So let's say Lawrence leading the way, if they go and get another one in any of the next two races, that's the absolute lowest score.
06:30They will qualify on pole position for the race on Sunday.
06:35Yeah, and again, I kind of let off before the race on top of the show, speaking about this.
06:40This start, it's not as critically important.
06:42You look at races like Red Bud, Bud's Creek, other MXGP rounds that have hosted Motocross of Nations.
06:47The inside dominates the starting position.
06:50This one's not so much.
06:51You want to kind of be more in the middle.
06:52So it's good news for Team USA.
06:54If they could qualify somewhere in the top seven or eight, I don't see a big advantage versus being, say, third versus sixth.
07:01It won't really matter.
07:21The inside будет.
07:21It won't really matter.
07:25Okay.
07:40Okay.
07:40Okay.
07:41See him.
07:41Okay.
07:42I don't know.
08:12I don't know.
08:42I don't know.
09:12I don't know.
09:42I don't know.
10:12I don't know.
10:43Just getting a bit squirrely and Fernandez not giving him any room to work.
10:47And then up the inside, look, who was it?
10:4946.
10:49Oh, it was Koonan that went down on the exit of the turn.
10:53I saw orange and gold and, you know, reds and yellows.
10:56And I thought that was Roxanne.
10:57But Roxanne emerged in second position.
10:59Good effort to be up to eighth by Lucas Koonan going down in the first corner and being ahead of Tomac already.
11:04That says a lot about his pace.
11:06Yeah, look at that.
11:07Oh, and the guys have caught him on the exit as well.
11:09That unseated him.
11:10Cost him a couple of positions.
11:12And a good recovery from him as well because he got himself up to fourth initially.
11:15But Fernandez has since gone by the Slovenian.
11:17But it's Lawrence who leads.
11:215.7 seconds clear as we are in America.
11:24American race fans so used to seeing this sight.
11:27Yeah, and this is basically what we've seen from him.
11:30First couple laps, let things unfold.
11:33Don't take any unnecessary risk.
11:35As you get more comfortable, you sort out the lines.
11:37Then you start addressing pace and you start to simply pull away.
11:40And we've seen Roxanne, once he was able to withstand that fury at the beginning, Roxanne settles in.
11:45And typically, Jett has more pace once they settle.
11:49Up into turn 11.
11:52Is this Fever coming back in the opposite direction?
11:54I think it is.
11:54About 20 seconds down on Lawrence at the moment.
11:57Got Fernandez just behind him.
11:58So this is the battle for third place.
12:01Over the single and then over the big booter.
12:04And then up into the GoPro 10.
12:05Incredible ride from Fernandez here.
12:07He was inside the top 10 of the first time.
12:11But he's passed his teammate, former world champion.
12:13He's about to pass the new world champion.
12:15And we see rides like this.
12:16It's not that atypical at Motocross of Nations to see riders stand out like this.
12:20But I think everybody has to be impressed.
12:23Nice improvised there under the liquid molly banner.
12:25He jumped onto the plateau, railed the outside, carried that momentum.
12:28And it's pulled him another couple of bike lengths closer to Roman Fevra.
12:32Both doubling in here.
12:33But Fernandez will have the inside line.
12:35He'll lose out at the end of the straight though.
12:37Pretty quick.
12:45Spill it.
12:46Shoo.
12:51Shoo.
12:51Shoo.
12:51Shoo.
12:53We've made it one minute time for right now, and amidst this exciting battle, we've continued
13:11to keep our eyes on it, but the question was, how much will he carry on the team?
13:14That was after an emotionally-trained MXGP championship, but guys, this is not looking
13:21like an unmotivated individual.
13:27...an issue there, the outgoing number one against the current number one in the HRC
13:36Honda team, but also Fever, of course, rode a little bit defensively towards the end of
13:43the season to get the championship, but now the gloves are off, just go for the race,
13:49go for the win. So it could get a bit chippy? Is that what you're saying?
13:52...and we get to benefit because we're watching it unfold in front of us.
13:55...different mindset completely now.
13:58...I love what Roger said, the gloves are off. All bets are final.
14:03...and Thomas still turns. Siever for the Suisse.
14:07Jeremy Siever, 11th and Luca Connen, who is now a little bit more than a second and a half.
14:15...back at the front. Jet Lawrence is just continuing to stretch away. He's over a second and a half
14:21quicker than Ken Rockson in second and the rest. He's just running away there, just pulling away.
14:27He's up to nine seconds now in front.
14:29...nine seconds is that gap. He just turned a 2.018. People may be thinking, hey, he's slowing down a little bit.
14:35...Megawatt. We see him do this at outdoor. We see him do this at Supercross. He finds a lead,
14:40a gap that he's comfortable with, maintains it. If it falls below that, okay, wake it back up.
14:45Francis, it's absolutely incredible to watch week in and week out how knowledgeable he is
14:49about how fast he has to go and how hard he has to push it. You see, the kid uses less energy than
14:56anybody on the track. But on the last lap, Romain Ferre quicker than Rockson, two seconds. We'll see.
15:04The gap is, yeah, he's two seconds more. If ever, still turning 2.01. Yeah, yeah, 2.01 is right there.
15:10Yeah, absolutely. Fantastic. Check out number four, Eli Tomac. He's right on the back wheel of
15:16Tony Cairoli now, but we know Cairoli will not roll over. Trust me. There we are. They go around
15:21pit lane. 22 Cairoli for Team Italy. Tomac head down, body language, charging hard. He's intense at
15:28the moment, but he can sense there's more points to be had. Eating the roost right there did not
15:33matter to Tomac. He wants that position as they go through the split lane. They're going to head back
15:37into the forest. Tony was going to steer with the rear, no doubt about it. Man left the power to it with
15:42the super drift. The incredible resistance of Tony Cairoli, who resists to Eli Tomac. Ladies and
15:47gentlemen, at 40 years, Eli Tomac, who has all the pains of the world to double in Tony Cairoli.
15:51Lucas Coonan, meanwhile, is all over the back wheel of Glen Coldenhof. So Belgium against their
15:56neighbors, the Netherlands, for seventh place. Coonan, from last 35th, right through at 37th, in fact, is
16:04already up to eighth place and very soon going to be seventh. Thirty places he's made up in this race.
16:10And Coonan just had to thread the needle right there, and he absolutely did it with precision.
16:14Set the bike down exactly where it needed to be to make another pass.
16:18Allez, un petit rappel. L'Australie devant, avec Lorenz. Deuxième, l'Allemagne, avec le numéro 16,
16:23Roxanne. Troisième, la France, avec Febvre. Le treize, le quatrième, l'Espagne, avec Fernandez,
16:28le numéro 10. Cinquième, la Slovénie, le numéro 19. Sixième, Gifting pour la Suède, le 61.
16:33Septième, Coldenhof, les Pays-Bas. Huitième position. On retrouve Lucas Connel, le numéro 46,
16:39après être reparti. Quarantième, il a doublé. Trente-deux pilotes, Lucas Connel, pour le moment.
16:44Et Kerouli, neuvième pour l'Italie. Dixième, Thomas, pour les Etats-Unis.
16:48In third place, Romain Febvre's just done his personal fastest lap of the race, 2-0-1-6.
16:53So Febvre, the French champion, the 34-year-old, ten years between his championships,
16:59is now putting on a late charge. We've got three and a half minutes before that two-lap board comes out.
17:04That speaks to what we were talking about. Who's holding something back? Who's got a little
17:08something left in the tank? And who didn't show their full hand with 10 minutes to go?
17:12And until the last lap, Romain Febvre will be 100, 200%.
17:17Guy's an animal. This guy is, yeah, yeah, exactly.
17:21I've been a fan of his for years. And Connel, it will be the same, eh?
17:24Yes, no question. You can check it, you can check it.
17:26Just one quick fact, everybody. One more, good enough now.
17:29The top, uh, out of the top 11 races, 10 of those are factory bikes.
17:34One privateer, Isaac Gifting, for the speeds. Right, there you go.
17:39Amazing, amazing.
17:42And we talked about Gifting's talent, we talked about his form on the bike and how good he looks,
17:46and there's, there's a testament to it right there, sixth place.
17:48One de trois minutes, trois minutes, three minutes.
17:51Go ahead, Hayley. Megawatt, you mentioned something
17:53earlier, I believe, about Jet Lawrence, that he's so efficient on the motorcycle.
17:57And one observation I have is when he looks really loose in free practice and early in
18:01qualifying, almost a little bit playful on the motorcycle, that's when you know that he is in
18:05a really good non-pressure and a great environment, great headspace. That's what I had witnessed from
18:10him earlier today in the free practice session, and he set the fast time.
18:14Absolutely, Hayley, and you and I witnessed that all summer long outdoors at the Nationals.
18:18That's exactly how he rides the bike.
18:19I'll tell you what, though, it's incredible.
18:21Roger Roxen in second again, the veteran out there. He looks good, he got the game,
18:26and there's no one going to take that away from him. Looking good for the Germans,
18:29but don't forget, they've got World MX2 Champions, Simon Langenfeld, to back it up.
18:33Francis, you and I talked this morning about a experience of whose name came up.
18:36Roxen. That's whose name came up during our conversation.
18:39A guy you're never going to count, I don't care if the guy's 50, you're not going to count him out.
18:43Yes, exactly. It's a great return ability for the guys like Luka Konnan, or again, like
18:49Romain Febvre. We'll find Jet Lorenz at the entry of the start line.
18:53It's 7 seconds on Ken Rodsen. And behind it, 16 seconds on Romain Febvre.
18:57A priori, it seems difficult for Romain to do better than the 3rd position.
19:00We see the 4th Geyser, sorry, the 5th Geyser, Luka Konnan, who is now 6th. Luka Konnan, 6th.
19:07So here we go, with just over a minute and a half to go before the two laps come out.
19:12We've got Australia lead from Germany with Roxen. France 3, Febvre, Spain 4, Fernandez, Slovenia 5,
19:20Belgium 6, Sweden 7, Koltenov 8 for the Netherlands, then Italy, and Team USA with Eli Tomac in 10th.
19:31I do believe for Team Germany, of course, we've talked so much about Ken Roxen, the number 16,
19:35maintaining that second place position. I think this team is counted out a lot,
19:38but I do think that they legitimately have podium aspirations, especially when you consider
19:43side of line. So that's got a little bit of help there.
19:45Yeah, and that's, you know, weight, race, pace. You can make up several seconds in one lap, but
19:50I'll tell you what, if Kunin can get up front early tomorrow, I don't know if he can beat Jet.
19:55That's the question we've been.
20:01How to manage a race, there's no question about it.
20:04And when you put that experience to good use of DMX.
20:06That's three laps to go.
20:08And Jet Lawrence's lap on lap three was a 159.8. So in that respect, when you think about
20:17Kunin's pace versus Jet Lawrence's pace, maybe there is another couple of seconds there.
20:22Of course, everybody comes in here thinking, yeah, we can beat him and whatever else.
20:24But the sort of it's like Instagram versus reality, isn't it? You know?
20:29Yeah, I don't say this about many riders, but I think we're watching one of the best that's
20:34ever done it. And that is, for me, high praise. And he's 22 years old. We're nowhere near, I think,
20:42peak Jet, maybe a year or two out. His brain and the physical aspects of Jet are going to
20:49kind of converge here at some point. And I don't know that there will be anybody that beats that
20:53guy as long as he doesn't want them to. He still looks like 15-year-old Jet as well, you know,
20:56in his face, in his facial expressions. You know, sort of skinny face and whatever else,
21:01and acts and goofs around like a kid as well.
21:03Right. Once he gains the kinds of mental maturity that his older brother has, and whether that's 23,
21:0924, 25, at some point, I think you're going to see a level unlock that we haven't seen for,
21:14maybe ever.
21:15Maturity, Hunter Lawrence. He was talking about Cherry Power, Mary Lou, yesterday.
21:23If you've not seen it, Paddock Chat with Lisa Leland and Team Australia. Nice little comedy moment.
21:30But, Kenny Rockson in second, but Lucas Coonan, probably the right of the race for me,
21:37going down on the first turn.
21:38Yeah, I would say he and Fernandez really kind of overcame for, you know, Fernandez gate pick
21:44out there with Tomac. He got the job done as far as executing on the start,
21:48and his pace was phenomenal. Coonan overcoming a crash and putting in some of the best lap times
21:53of the race. Both of them will sleep easier tonight, knowing that if they just execute on
21:57the things that they had troubles with today, that they're going to be in the fight.
22:01Isaac Gifting, sure he'll be fairly pleased with where he is in that seventh position.
22:05Uh, Glenn Colton offers, uh, well, I saw him dropping down the leaderboard and there he is,
22:09trackside dealing with a medic and looking like he's grimacing as well.
22:14So, is that going to be the, uh, the end really for the Netherlands?
22:18Yes, you can qualify with two riders, but you still need five scores out of six,
22:22which means you need all three guys healthy on Sunday.
22:25So, Glenn Colton off then out of what, seventh, eighth place with about three laps to go.
22:31Let's just hope that's a, uh, I don't think I can continue this race, but I'll be fine tomorrow.
22:35Because again, they'll use the top two today. Won't really affect the whole lot,
22:38assuming that Kai and, uh, Calvin Blander could put in solid results this afternoon.
22:43But it doesn't look great on the, on the surfaces.
22:45We saw a Kawasaki rider there pushing, pushing their motorcycle alongside the track.
22:50Not sure who that was.
22:52Well, in the, uh, process of elimination, we've got Roman Febvre on a Kawasaki.
22:57And then there's a couple down there, Joaquin Poli of Argentina and the, uh,
23:01Puerto Rican of Sebastian Vélez Cardona. So it could have been one of the other two,
23:06I would imagine, since, uh, Febvre is still showing on the intermediate sectors.
23:13Kenny Rockson, a wily old character, man of a lot of experience with these races.
23:18Tried to give Jet Lawrence a bit of a run at the start of the race, but you know what?
23:22He's been in that position before where you can try and match him, Jet finds another gear,
23:27you go with him, Jet finds another gear, and you just kind of go,
23:30you know what? We can keep doing this all day.
23:31So let's save some of those, uh, gear shifts for tomorrow.
23:34Yeah, but I, I truly think that Kenny won't worry about Jet so much.
23:37He'll be very pleased to beat the likes of Febvre, Geiser, Lucas Kunin.
23:43Like, he thrives on that. Remember, German, as we all know, he would have been,
23:48you know, multi-time, I believe. It was a big, big crash there.
23:51That was, uh, not sure who that was, but that was a big crash.
23:55Just in front of Tim Geiser there. But for, I think for Ken Rockson,
23:58he thrives on beating DMX GPO Eats because those were the, would be the rivals for him
24:03had he chosen to stay in Europe. Coming up on where that crash was.
24:07Yeah, that's Eli Tomac. He's now got himself up into ninth place.
24:10So, uh, wave medical flags and, uh, different flag rules as well for, uh, uh, 31, uh, Magnus Smith of Denmark.
24:19So the KL racing team rider normally.
24:22And, uh, yeah, you come out of that turn, you just, it's not even like a drop off.
24:25It's a gradual drop. So I wonder if you just caught an edge or something like that.
24:28Yeah. Lost traction, caught a rear wheel.
24:30Yeah. Lost traction high side there pretty easily. And remember that's, those are the sections you
24:34really can't see a lot. And speaking to riders that, you know, race this race in the pro motocross
24:39series that you don't see the bump and it catches you out. So you almost have to ride
24:43as if the lights are completely off because you're not really sure what you're going to hit.
24:47Final turn then for Jet Lawrence. Little double over the big double. Lights the candles. Little
24:53bit of a fist bump and a celebratory one-hander there as Jet Lawrence wins the qualifying race
24:59in MXGP here. The first race of the day at Ironman Motocrosser Nations.
25:05Looks pretty in control every step of the way as well, Jason Thomas, because no, no, you know,
25:11no one really challenged him apart from Kenny Rockson in the beginning, but
25:13Rockson coming home in second, February third, Fernandez fourth, Geisse fifth, Kunin.
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