2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Results and Coverage

2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Results - Tony Cairoli
Italy's Tony Cairoli

2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Results and Coverage:
The Netherlands Shines in the Mud

It looks like it’s going to be an epic Sunday at the 2018 Motocross of Nations at RedBud MX in Buchanan, Michigan. In Saturday’s muddy qualifying races, only a single point separated the top four teams–and none of those teams was the hosting United States.

The Netherlands came out on top thanks to Glenn Coldenhoff’s win in the Open class and Jeffrey Herlings’ third place in the MXGP class following a first turn crash and subsequent pit stop. Each team has three members, with the points scored by the teams’ top two finishers counting toward qualifying.

2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Results - Glenn Coldenhoff
The Netherlands’ Glenn Coldenhoff

Italy’s Tony Cairoli took the win the the MXGP class to lead Italy to a second place in qualifying. Cairoli was supported by Michele Cervellin’s four place in the MX2 qualifier. France took third overall in qualifying, courtesy of an MX2 class win by Dylan Ferrandis and Gautier Paulin taking fourth in the MXGP class. Germany also scored five points overall, via a second place in MXGP by Ken Roczen and third place from Henry Jacobi in MX2. Jacobi had led the MX2 qualifier early.

2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Results - Tony Cairoli
Italy’s Tony Cairoli

Disaster struck in qualifying for the United States. Eli Tomac got off to a sixth place start in the MXGP and had moved up a spot in the early laps. However, bike trouble at the bottom of LaRocco’s Leap ended the day early for Tomac, with a 29th place finish–that served as the United States’ throwaway finish, and it came in the first race of the day.

Aaron Plessinger got off to a strong start, and took the lead early in the MX2 qualifying race. On Lap 5, while leading Ferrandis, Plessinger crashed on a triple. Plessinger, who went 1-1 in the 250 class this year at the RedBud National, picked himself up in 7th place. However, he had to make a pit stop for bike repairs and finished the race in 11th place.

It was up to Justin Barcia in the Open class to keep the United States out of the consolation B-Final race, which would have been a humiliation on home soil. Barcia started fifth, took advantage of a fall by leader Max Nagl of Germany and eventually passed Italy’s Allesandro Lupino for second place. Barcia did catch leader Coldenhoff, but was unable to make a pass for the lead and finished the Open class in second.

2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Results - Justin Barcia
United States’ Justin Barcia

Barcia’s second place and Plessinger’s 11th place combined for 13 points, which put the United States in ninth place out of 19 qualifying teams. However, that was just two points behind fifth place qualifying Australia.

The much anticipated performance of the charity-focused Team Puerto Rico fizzled. Ryan Sipes led the way with a 14th in the MX2 class, and Kevin Windham scoring a 21st as an MXGP competitor. Travis Pastrana took a 27th place in the Open class, as the throwaway finish. The 35-point total put Team Puerto Rico in 24th place, between South Africa and Iceland in the B-Final.

2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Results, RedBud MX, Buchanan Michigan

    1. The Netherlands, 4 points (Glenn Coldenhoff, 1; Jeffrey Herlings, 3; Calvin Vlaanderen,  12)
    2. Italy, 5 (Tony Cairoli, 1; Michele Cervellin, 4; Alessandro Lupino, 6)
    3. France, 5 (Dylan Ferrandis, 1; Gautier Paulin 4; Jordi Tixier; 7)
    4. Germany, 5 (Ken Roczen, 2; Henry Jacobi, 3; Max Nagl; 8)
    5. Australia, 11 (Hunter Lawrence, 2; Kirk Gibbs, 9; Mitchell Evans, 15)
    6. Spain, 11 (Jorge Prado, 5; Jose Butron, 6; Carlos Campano, 29)
    7. Great Britain, 12 (Tommy Searle, 5; Ben Watson; 7; Max Anstie, 9)
    8. Switzerland, 12 (Jeremy Seewer, 4; Valentin Guillod, 8; Killian Auberson, 28)
    9. United States, 13 (Justin Barcia, 2; Aaron Plessinger, 11; Eli Tomac, 29)
    10. Sweden, 16 (Filip Bengtsson 7, Alvin Ostlund, 9; Anton Gole 11)
    11. Canada, 21
    12. Estonia, 21
    13. Belgium, 21
    14. Austria, 23
    15. Brazil, 24
    16. Venezuela, 26
    17. Czech Republic, 28
    18. New Zealand, 29
    19. Ireland, 29
    20. Ukraine, 29
    21. Japan, 31
    22. Portugal, 32
    23. South Africa, 33
    24. Puerto Rico, 35 (Ryan Sipes, 14; Kevin Windham, 21; Travis Pastrana 27)
    25. Iceland, 42
    26. Mexico, 44
    27. Argentina, 46
    28. Guatemala, 50
    29. Philippines, 52
    30. Israel

2018 Motocross of Nations Qualifying Gallery