The time is now

Inside MXGP

MATRIX Styles New Honda!

The New 2027 Honda CRF support by HRC HONDA MATRIX aluminum Stand & Carpeted Work Mat. Available at finer Honda Powersports U.S. dealers nationwide.

Lucas Coenens Gives Up MXGP Lead

Surrenders MXGP class red plate following zero-point score.

Previous MXGP points-leader Lucas Coenen has described his Loket race-day withdrawal as ‘tough to take’, with a compressed sciatic nerve ultimately becoming too severe to ride through the pain.

The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider arrived in the Czech Republic carrying hematomas around his left hip that caused compression of the sciatic nerve. He initially lined up in Saturday’s qualification race, but was forced to exit while running fourth after six laps.

The 19-year-old then sat out Sunday’s races, while title rival Jeffrey Herlings (Honda HRC Petronas) swept the weekend with a 1-1 performance after also winning Saturday’s qualification race, transforming an 11-point deficit into a 49-point championship lead with six rounds remaining.

“Not much to say,” reflected Coenen. “I did what I could to be ready for Loket – physio, massage… But I was in pain all day. It’s tough to take. I can only hope I will feel a bit better with each day, and we can think about Lommel.”

Lucas’ brother Sacha also raced through injury at Loket, recording 7-7 moto finishes for seventh overall despite a broken collarbone sustained at Southwick. He remains in the MX2 title hunt, 33 points behind Guillem Farres (Triumph Factory Racing).

The 2026 MXGP World Championship season now heads to Belgium’s famed Lommel circuit this weekend – the home round of the Coenen twins – before a two-week break ahead of the MXGP of Sweden in mid-August.

Dubach takes on the most famous hill in world motocross

American legend and Yamaha Factory superstar Doug Dubach is back for VMXdN 2026.  Dubach is a regular at the VMXdN events, having raced at 13 of these events since its inception, and is the only racer to win three classes on one weekend when he was a member of the winning USA squad, the +50 and twin shock classes at the OG vets race formed in 2009. This year the event is in its 17th year, but this is the first one to be held at the historic and iconic Hawkstone Park GP circuit in Shropshire.

Born in 1963, Dubach began his passion for motorcycles on a Briggs and Stratton minibike. After a few years, he got an XR75 and rode it as often as he could at Saddleback Park. He started racing just before his 15th birthday. On a Yamaha YZ80, he quickly moved from 80 Novice to 80 Expert in just four months!

As a Southern California resident, he was in the hotbed of talent as the sport began to grow stateside, so he was perfectly positioned to become a star.

His pro career began in earnest at the 1982 Carlsbad National, finishing just behind Jeff Ward (Jeff was 9th; Doug was 10th). He continued racing Supercross and Nationals as a factory Yamaha rider; his greatest race was San Jose SX in 1991, where he took the win. Dubach kept racing professionally until his last one in 2001. Dissatisfied with other aftermarket companies, he started his own accessory business. His deep understanding of products, developed through his work as a magazine test rider and long-time factory test and development for Yamaha and his own DrD products, set a solid foundation for his business.

Dubach remains active in vet motocross racing and holds an unbeatable record in the World Vet Championships, with 27 titles and counting! In addition, he has always exhibited a super-positive attitude when dealing with the public, a great enthusiasm for all things moto, and is a humble family man to boot.

The buzz for the VMXdN brought to you by The Range has notched up a gear in 2026 with a change of venue to the picturesque Hawkstone Park circuit. A venue that covers all eras of MX in the UK, having been in constant use since the 50s and some of the most epic 500 GP’s over the years.

The anticipation for VMXdN Hawkstone is at an all-time high, and it’s only going to get bigger, so strap yourself in as news continues to drop in the final month leading up to the four-day motocross festival held over the annual date of the August Bank Holiday weekend, 27^th-30^th, 2026.

VMXdN is the ultimate event for MX Fans of all ages. It is most certainly the “must-see” event of the year.

If you plan to camp, be quick to secure your camping pass, be it regular or VIP (where you can watch the racing from your own awning), the promoters have rented three extra fields from the local landowners but space is still limited and selling fast, when its gone then there is no more space available – and it’s on target to sell out…. don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Saturday, Sunday, Weekend Tickets, and Camping Passes are available here 

It's Adventure Season...Call Tusk

Tusk Performance Adventure Riding Tir

With its aggressive tread pattern and unique rubber compound, the Dsport tire provides top performance in the toughest off-road conditions while providing great grip and long wear on the street. The deep 16mm tread depth on the rear and the 11.5mm depth on the front not only offer performance and wear, but give the tire a great aggressive look. D.O.T. compliant for road and offroad use.

Details

The Tusk Dsport® Adventure motorcycle tire is the ultimate dual sport designed for On and Off road use. With its aggressive tread pattern and unique rubber compound, the Dsport® tire provides top performance in the toughest off-road conditions while providing great grip and long wear on the street. The deep 16mm tread depth on the rear and the 11.5mm depth on the front not only offer performance and wear, but give the tire a great aggressive look. D.O.T. compliant for road and offroad use.

• The Tusk Dsport® Adventure tire is D.O.T. compliant for On/Off Road Use.
• Aggressive tread pattern offers grip in the toughest off-road conditions.
• Rubber compound is designed to not only offer great grip, but to provide long wear on and off the road as well.
• Tall knobbies not only offer performance and wear, but give the tire a tough, aggressive look.

Tom Vialle on getting back on the podium in Loket: “I’m still learning”

Tom Vialle returned to the podium in the Czech Republic with a strong second-place finish at Loket, confirming the progress he has been making since returning from the injury he suffered at the French Grand Prix in Lacapelle-Marival.

Beyond the result itself, it was arguably one of his most complete weekends of the 2026 season so far. While Vialle claimed victory at the Swiss Grand Prix back in March, his maiden MXGP overall win came with 1-6 moto finishes under unusual circumstances, and without scoring any points in Saturday’s qualifying race. He left Frauenfeld having added 40 points to his championship tally.

At Loket, however, the Honda HRC rider delivered remarkable consistency – three strong starts, laps led, three top-three finishes and a full haul of 50 championship points.

“It was a good day for me. In fact, the whole weekend went really well at Loket, starting with the qualifying race on Saturday and then continuing into both motos on Sunday,” explained the Frenchman. “The track was demanding. As everyone knows, I hadn’t raced a GP’s for three years, and coming back here to race against riders who are incredibly fast and have several years of MXGP experience isn’t always easy.”

After being caught up in an incident at the start of the second moto in France, Vialle missed the German and Latvian Grands Prix while recovering from injury. He returned in Italy and, after a run of difficult weekends (7th at Montevarchi, 12th at Agueda, 12th at Johannesburg and 10th at Foxhill), the factory Honda rider found his rhythm again in the Czech Republic.

“I had a really good feeling throughout the whole weekend. The last two or three GP’s had been quite difficult for me. I had the pace, but a few crashes stopped me from getting the results I was capable of. So yes, I’m really happy with today and with the whole weekend at Loket. I’ve been working really hard lately. People don’t always see it, but during the week I work extremely hard every single day. Today all that hard work paid off, so I’m very happy.”

In his rookie MXGP campaign, Vialle knows every weekend is another opportunity to gain valuable experience. At Loket, the two-time MX2 World Champion also benefited from racing alongside Jeffrey Herlings, using those battles to continue refining his riding against one of the very best in the class.

“I usually get good starts, and once again this weekend I managed three excellent starts, which helped me a lot. I was able to lead Jeffrey for a few laps in both motos before he passed me. I’m still learning. It’s my first year on a 450, so riding behind Jeffrey and trying to learn something every time he passes me is really important. Some riders get passed and immediately move on, but I try to analyse everything he does – his lines, when he chooses the inside or the outside – and learn from it to improve. That’s something that’s very important to me and it’s just great to be back. The bike is continuing to improve little by little, so we’re heading in the right direction.”

With one overall victory and now two podium finishes, Tom Vialle continues to write the opening chapter of his MXGP career. Having returned to Europe after three seasons racing in the United States, the Frenchman has quickly shown he belongs among the elite of the premier class. Sitting eighth in the championship heading into the final part of the season, a place on the overall podium is now out of reach, but his focus lies elsewhere: continuing to develop in MXGP and building towards the future. This year is about learning, the next could be about challenging at the very front. Already, 2027 is beginning to come into view.

Herlings talks riding the Honda on hard-pack tracks

After his weekend of domination at Loket on the hard-pack, MXGP championship leader, Jeffrey Herlings, spoke about how good the Honda feels on conditions that were traditionally not his strong point!

The HRC Honda man said: “This bike really, it’s just, like I’ve been mentioning, it just sticks onto the ground, and the track is really slippery, there’s not many lines, but it’s still technical. You can pass actually quite good, I think, because that was actually good when you have tracks that you can really go left, right, and make changes. So, actually, the track prep was actually quite good, I think.

“But, yeah, the bike just sticks to the ground, and I can just really do what I want to do with it, and like I said, the KTM was a great bike once again., don’t get me wrong, but these tracks, riding the Honda is something pretty incredible, and yeah, for me, it was a better bike on this surface.”

Heading into the Lommel, Herlings feels he has a better set-up than at the start of the season: “We’re in a very good spot. I feel really good. I’m physically fit. The starts go better. We have a great set-up. The set-up, compared to the beginning of the year in the sand, to now, we have definitely improved, because in the beginning, we were still fighting for the right set-up, but doing the Dutch races with great competition with riders such as Romain, we had a chance to try things, and I think in the sand now, I can also try to fight for the victory.”

“Obviously, in all the other sand races, I was more or less second best after Lucas, but I had nothing for him. So I don’t know if he’s going to be back next weekend, but if so, I don’t expect him to be as good and as fit as he was in the beginning of the year with his injuries. So I definitely think we have a chance to also win in the sand.

Herlings is looking more and more the dominant rider he used to be with every win on the Honda as his confidence in the machine keeps rising. The question is can anyone else not named Lucas Coenen match his pace for the rest of the year? 

2026 MXGP of Czech Republic

Washougal, Round 8

Jett Talks Footpegs

Jett Lawrence on his new footpeg design and Deegan’s first turn crash at Millville

Jett Lawrence gave some interesting insight into how his new longer footpeg helps with his ankle outdoors- but only on certain sections of the track in the latest Jaxxon podcast as the brothers look back in their day at Millville. 

On his new footpeg design, Jett says it helps but only in certain situations!  “My foot can’t flex enough in certain positions. It doesn’t flex enough to actually put weight on it, and then where I am putting weight on my heel, where the peg actually does help, I’m pretty far back off the bike to use that.

 

“So like In like sand like the sand rollers at Milville,  I could use it there, but like landing off jumps, not really. I can only use it in certain areas which helps it a little bit obviously throughout the 30 minutes for sure. But I still can’t use it as much so i’d like too.”

Jett also revealed that the doctor said a regular person with his injury would only be just starting to walk after 8 months! 

Jett said on the first turn crash that saw Deegan go down: “There was a saying Ayrton Senna said when you stop going for that gap then you’re no longer a racer. So yeah, there was a gap. I was trying to go for it and I got the gap.” 

On racing his brother for wins Jett admitted it is small margins! “It’s good. I’m not saying it in a cocky way, but I know that I’m hard to beat and for someone to beat me you have to be really good and the one person I’m okay with beating me is my brother.

For me it’s really cool. During the week, years before, we would be training and it would be the same lap times but during the race weekend I would be able to find that little bit where now we don’t have that little bit on each other. It’s like who has the better lines during the moto. It’s cool, you don’t have it very much in other sports. I’m happy because he is finally getting what he’s put so much work into doing. Do I want to beat him? Yeah, but at the same time I can’t be completely disappointed (if he wins).”