Multiple Classes Land at Loket For The MXGP of Czech Republic.
MXGP: The 2025 FIM Motocross World Championships head to one of its most popular venues this weekend, as the brilliant Loketske Serpentiny circuit in the hills above the medieval town of Loket welcomes the riders for the 14th round of the season, the MXGP of Czech Republic.
As well as the MXGP and MX2 warriors, this round will also host the finales of the EMX85 & EMX65 European Youth Championships, the EMX2T Championship event, and the final two rounds of the MXE Junior e-Motocross Series as well!
The Loket venue celebrates the 30th anniversary of its first Grand Prix event this year, and it has been a mainstay on the calendar since then, with this year’s event being the 28th at the spectacular hardpack circuit. The Czech Republic has seen a round of the Motocross World Championships within its borders for most of the sport’s history, with the first GP ran near the capital city of Prague back in 1958, won by local rider Jaromir Cizek. Belgian legend Joel Smets won the first GP at Loket with a perfect day on a Husaberg back in 1995. He went on to win three more times here, and still shares the record for the most GP victories at the track with fellow multiple Champions Stefan Everts and Antonio Cairoli, who also won four apiece around the picturesque Czech valley.
This season’s red plate holder in MXGP, Romain Febvre, is one of five other riders to have won three times at Loket, and the Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP leader will be hungry to add another victory this year to his successes in 2015, 2019, and 2023. He comes in with a 15-point lead in the 2025 MXGP World Championship after a difficult MXGP of Finland, where the Frenchman finished second overall, but still scored 17 points less than his main Championship chaser.
That challenger, of course, is Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Lucas Coenen, who finished second overall at each of the previous five GPs before finally getting his hands on a winner’s trophy for the third time in his first year in the class. Lucas took a race win and third overall at Loket in MX2 last year, and was victorious on similar terrain in Switzerland back in April, so will certainly feel confident of continuing his momentum. Fantic Factory Racing MXGP star Glenn Coldenhoff is third in the series and on a great run of form, and he comes to Loket for his first podium at this track after achieving a best of fourth overall in both 2021 and 2022!
MX2 Championship leader Simon Längenfelder brings a 43-point advantage to the Czech valley over fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Andrea Adamo. Both riders in orange will be looking to strike on their favoured surface after a perfect weekend for defending Champ Kay de Wolf in Finland. The#1 plate holder for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing drew to within five points of Adamo in the series, and with two deep sand circuits on the horizon, a repeat of last year’s win for the Dutchman at Loket would be a massive bonus in his campaign for a second title!
Czech rider Julius Mikula will race his home GP for the first time as a factory rider for the TM Moto CRD Motosport squad in MX2, and as he sits 18th in the standings he will be looking to better his 9th-place overall finish from Castilla La Mancha!
A plethora of support classes will join the MXGP elite this weekend, as the Finale for the EMX85 and EMX65 European Championships take place for the young riders who have gone through the Area Qualifiers to fight for the title this weekend! EMX85 sees a clash between regional Semi-Final winners Pau Caudet from Spain and Lucas Leok, from that famous Estonian racing family whose father Aigar and uncle Tanel both raced to GP level. However, the French winner of the World Junior Championships, Rafael Mennillo of the Tech 32 team, as well as his countryman and winner of the first race at Romagné, Enzo Herzogenrath, will also have their eyes on the medals, as will Brian Gyles from the UK, Neo Nindelt from Germany, and Francesco Assini from Italy! Fans from New Zealand will cheer the familiar surnames and “sons of” Jaggar Townley and Nixon Coppins as they battle for their first major titles!
In the EMX65 class, the French team had a strong quartet claim the top four positions in the South-West & South-East Zone Semi-Final on home turf at Cussac. Arthur Annelot took both race wins ahead of Mathys Agullo, who took silver at the World Junior Championships three weeks ago. Timotei Cez and Liam Morette completed the French rout, and they will all line up at Loket. Sadly, the winner of the other Semi-Final, Jett Gardiner, has since picked up a leg injury in the UK and won’t be racing. The two who finished behind Jett, namely Haakon Ronning from Norway and Bas Verspaandonk from the Netherlands, are ready to step up for the challenge, as will Matej Masar from nearby Slovakia, who was fourth in that Central & North-Eastern Semi-Final. It should be a thrilling contest from the little rippers!
The EMX2t European Championships will also take place at Loket, and although reigning Champion Marcel Stauffer will race in MXGP rather than defend his title, last year’s podium man Vaclav Kovar will get his home fans behind him as he goes for gold this year on his Becker Racing KTM, and former EMX65 & EMX85 Champ Vitezslav Marek will be hoping to repeat his previous success on home ground. Spaniard Elias Escandell could be a force in this class, as could Finnish Beta rider Sampo Rainio, who ran in the top ten at his home round of EMX250 two weeks ago.
Just for an extra slice of action, the MXE Junior e-Motocross Series reaches its conclusion this weekend after its rounds in France, Germany, and Great Britain. British kid Austin Senior leads the series by just nine points from French rival Cesar Lagut, who won in Germany after issues for Senior in the first race there. Otherwise, Senior has won four out of the five races he was able to finish and will be hoping to bring the title home from Czechia. Spaniard Rodrigo Angel is 22 points back in third place, but anything can happen around the Loketske Serpentiny!
The MXGP of Czech Republic never fails to deliver thrills and spills, and this year’s event should prove to be no exception!
After extending his points lead with his first ever victory at Matterley Basin, MXGP World Championship leader Romain Febvre had his advantage cut to just 15 points after the MXGP of Finland, as his main contender Lucas Coenen took his third overall victory of the season with a perfect weekend in the sand of the KymiRing. With a similar points gain at this GP, the teenage Belgian would take the red plate to his home round the following weekend, but he now has to tackle Febvre at the only circuit where the Frenchman has won overall on three occasions!
Due to the Czech round being home to the finale of the EMX85 and EMX65 Championships in recent years, Coenen has only raced here twice, both times in MX2. However, after finishing eighth overall in 2023, he took the first race win last year before a crash in race two relegated him to third overall. There is no doubt that he will be a major threat this weekend.
For some reason, even though he has always gone well on similar surfaces such as Matterley Basin, Glenn Coldenhoff has never finished in the top three in a race at Loket, with a run of five fourth-place finishes across 2021 and the first race in ‘23! He is a strong third in the 2025 Championship for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP, with 42 points over fourth-placed Ruben Fernandez. The Honda HRC pilot has only raced in two GPs here, with a best of fifth overall in MX2 with 4-7 results in 2021.
A rider that has jumped up the standings through great results, as well as injuries to others, is Calvin Vlaanderen. With his first podium of the season in Finland for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, the tall South African-born Dutchman took the most recent race win of his career at Loket in 2023, as well as an MX2 race win in 2018, so his confidence will be sky-high as he attempts to close down the 41-point gap to Fernandez for fourth in the series.
Another tall rider on the up is Andrea Bonacorsi, who lies sixth in the standings for Fantic Factory Racing MXGP, and he will be hoping for redemption at a circuit which saw one of his worst weekends in his rookie season last year.
Behind three injured riders, Maxime Renaux, Jeffrey Herlings, and Tim Gajser, who has confirmed that he won’t be returning at Loket, is the leading Aruba.it Ducati Factory MX Team rider Jeremy Seewer. With a total of six podiums at this circuit, which exceeds that of any other rider lining up this year, Jeremy could be a real candidate for another top result, especially after his victory here in 2022. His teammate, Mattia Guadagnini, took his most recent GP victory here in MX2 back in 2021, and the Italian will hope to turn around what has been a troubled season since it started so well in Argentina.
As usual at this point in the preview, we have to mention the record of Jago Geerts, who took the MX2 overall victory at Loket in both 2022 and 2023, and literally bounced back from a big crash at the last round to take sixth in race two, showing that his form may be building for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, as he sits 13th in the points race despite breaking a toe at Matterley Basin.
Local fans will get behind reigning EMX Open Champion Jakub Teresak, who lines up for his third GP outing this season and will be out for his first points on home ground!
The MXGP class is an awesome sight to behold as it thunders through Loket’s rises and falls, and the Championship is closer than it’s been yet between Febvre and Coenen. We can’t wait to find out who will Lok’ up the win and “Czech” out!
MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 627 Points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 612 Pts; 3. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 449 Pts; 4. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 407 Pts; 5. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM) 366 Pts; 6. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, FAN), 353 Pts; 7. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 347 Pts; 8. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 325 Pts; 9. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 305 Pts; 10. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, DUC), 296 Pts;.
While the MXGP of Finland may have seen a resounding return to form for reigning World Champion Kay de Wolf with a perfect weekend for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, the MX2 World Championship is still being led handsomely by Simon Längenfelder, who has made a habit of moving forward through the races to score as many points as possible to keep the red plate on his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing machine. De Wolf also still has Andrea Adamo ahead of him in the standings after the Italian scored a solid second overall at the KymiRing.
Whilst the Loket surface might look to be very suitable to his skills, the German still hasn’t won an individual race or Grand Prix here, although he has given his many travelling fans plenty to cheer about with podium results in each of the last three GPs in Czechia. His home town of Hof is just over an hour’s drive away, making this a more local GP for him than his home round at Teutschenthal! He was third in 2022 with a 2-3 card, second with a 4-2 in 2023, and then scored a 2-2 for second overall last year. Can he get just one step higher up this time?
Loket was a nightmare round last year for the other Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Adamo, who was so beat up with a crash in the Qualifying Race that he sat out Sunday’s event, but he did take a race win here in 2023 on his way to fifth overall. A first taste of the bubbly in Czechia would be a real treat for the Italian, ahead of the sandy rounds to come! De Wolf, however, took third here in 2023 before last year’s win, and will look to overhaul the small gap over Adamo as a stepping stone to get to Längenfelder.
Now fourth in points is Sacha Coenen, who has scored five podium results in the last six rounds, and although a fifth in his very first Loket race is still his best here, the wild-riding Belgian will surely be out for more! Sadly for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, Liam Everts is likely to miss the Czech GP after his heavy fall in Finland. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Liam’s top five position is likely to be taken this weekend by Thibault Benistant, as the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 man is only five points behind the Belgian, and Loket is a track that truly suits the Frenchman, with two race wins at the venue earning two podium visits! Even though, due to early season injuries, he hasn’t seen the place since his second position overall in 2022, the spectacular riding style of the #9 will see him target an overall victory that he has waited a long time for!
Seventh in the series is Camden McLellan, and although he prefers the sand these days, he will have confidence at Loket with memories of his overall victory in the 2018 EMX85 Finale, when he put both De Wolf and Everts beneath him on the podium! The South African hasn’t seen an MX2 podium since Sardegna, even though he took the first race win for Monster Energy Triumph Racing at Trentino and could be very dangerous at Loket if he can get out of the gate well! His teammate Guillem Farres should also like the kind of hardpack that has served him well so far this season, as he looks to improve from tenth in the Championship.
Valerio Lata took a race win and second overall at Loket on his last visit to the circuit, which was the EMX85 Finale in 2019! The Honda HRC man is still fighting to get back to full fitness to defend his eighth in the series from former EMX250 rival, Van Venrooy KTM Racing’s Cas Valk. The Dutchman was unable to turn his practice pace into good race results in Finland, and with only eight points between him and Lata, he needs to focus on catching him before Farres, who is only 17 points behind, can go past his tally.
With EMX250 regulars Mads Fredsoe and Valentin Kees taking advantage of a break in their schedule to cut their teeth in MX2, as well as many hopefuls from the eastern side of Europe joining the fray, it will be a more packed grid to give a wild weekend of racing in MX2 at the MXGP of Czech Republic!
MX2 – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 613 Points; 2. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 570 Pts; 3. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 565 Pts; 4. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 482 Pts; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 464 Pts; 6. Thibault Benistant (FRA, YAM), 458 Pts; 7. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 393 Pts; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 297 Pts; 9. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), 289 Pts; 10. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 272 Pts.
TIMETABLE
SATURDAY: 07:20 EMX2t Free practice, 07:50 EMX65 Free practice, 08:20 EMX85 Free practice, 08:50 MXE Time practice, 09:10 EMX2t Qualifying practice, 09:50 EMX65 Qualifying practice, 10:30 MX2 Free Practice, 11:00 MXGP Free Practice, 11:50 EMX85 Qualifying practice, 12:35 MXE Race 1, 13:00 EMX2t Race 1, 13:40 MX2 Time Practice, 14:15 MXGP Time Practice, 15:15 EMX65 Race 1, 15:50 EMX85 Race 1, 16:35 MX2 Qualifying Race, 17:25 MXGP Qualifying Race, 18:05 MXE Race 2.
SUNDAY: 08:40 EMX2t Race 2, 09:20 MXE Time Practice, 09:55 EMX65 Race 2, 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 11:30 EMX85 Race 2, 12:40 MXE Race 1, 13:15 MX2 Race 1, 14:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:30 MXE Race 2, 16:10 MX2 Race 2, 17:10 MXGP Race 2.
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