As the FIM Motocross World Championship begins the second half of the season, it’s that time of the year when we head to the world’s fourth most populous nation, and the largest archipelagic state on the planet, the Republic of Indonesia!  The first of two Grands Prix to be held at the Selaparang Circuit on the island of Lombok, the MXGP of West Nusa Tenggara is named after the political Province which covers the western portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands.

The island of Lombok is roughly half the size of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, but home to roughly 4 million people, and the circuit itself is on the grounds of the disused airport of Selaparang, on the edge of the Province’s capital city of Mataram.  This will be the second year of action at this particular circuit, after the GP in 2023 saw overall victories for Kawasaki Racing Team’s Romain Febvre in MXGP, and Jago Geerts for the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Team in MX2.

The Indonesian islands have hosted 12 MXGP events at seven different circuits in total, the first being held in 1995, which saw the first ever Grand Prix win for French legend Sebastien Tortelli in the 125cc class at the Yogyakarta circuit, where he also won the following year as part of his first world title-winning campaign.  Yogyakarta hosted three 125cc GPs in total, with nearby Bandung hosting a solitary 250cc-only race in 1997.

More recently, the MXGP World Championship went to Pingkal Pinang in 2017 & ’18, Semarang in 2018 & ’19, and Palembang in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic restricted a return to Indonesia until 2022’s sole event at Sumbawa.

The 2024 MXGP World Championship has seen five straight rounds of the red plate swapping between reigning Champ Jorge Prado for Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing and Team HRC’s Tim Gajser before the recent MXGP of Italy.  Sadly for the Spaniard, a first lap collision and pile-up left him with a leg injury that took him out of the second race at Maggiora, leaving the Slovenian, who won the GP overall, with a 34-point gap at the top of the standings as the teams packed the flight cases for Indonesia.

Fortunately for Prado, he was left with nothing worse than heavy bruising and is able to race on two weeks later.  He still has a 37-point advantage over Jeffrey Herlings, who lies third for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing.  In the absence of the injured Febvre, Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP rider Calvin Vlaanderen, and Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jeremy Seewer moved up to fourth and fifth in the Championship table.

All of the top six in the series have tasted success in Indonesia, with Seewer winning his first ever Grand Prix back in 2017 at Pangkal Pinang’s muddy MX2 race, before Vlaanderen also took his very first GP victory at the same track in MX2 a year later!  Both Prado and Gajser have won three GPs in the islands, although Prado’s were all in MX2.  Herlings won both events in 2018 but hasn’t been to this part of the world since then.  Febvre won both Indonesian events in 2023, starting a five-GP winning streak for the Frenchman, who is sadly still out with his thumb injury from St Jean d’Angely.

The biggest question in MXGP is whether or not Prado will be able to return to the blinding pace of the leading riders in the class, and be able to haul back the points gap to Gajser as the second half of the season gets underway!

MXGP – World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 511 Points;   2. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 477 Points; 3. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 440 Pts; 4. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 339 Pts; 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 332 Pts; 6. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 327 Points; 7. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 302 Pts; 8. Pauls Jonass (LAT, HON), 274 Pts; ; 9. Brian Bogers (NED, FAN), 213 Pts; 10. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 206 Pts.