Team Australia 2nd | 2023 MXoN Ernee, France

For the majority of the 3-day event, all we could hear was airhorns, chainsaws, and the 100,000+ fans and spectators screaming at the top of their lungs. With arguably the strongest Australian team we've ever had going into a Nations, this was our chance to beat our best finish of 3rd place with either a 2nd or the dream result, a 1st placed finish. MXoN is the race of all dirt bike races and to tell you guys the truth we were all nervous, anxious, and most of all excited for the racing to begin after finishing 3rd in qualifying!

Watch event recap below!

MXGP & MX2

With a stacked field of world class riders, it was the Lawrence brothers up first with Jett riding in the MXGP class and Hunter riding in the MX2 class. The gate dropped with Spain's Jorge Prado grabbing the holeshot and quickly after our jaws dropped too, with Jett going down in the second corner. Local Frenchman, Romain Febvre eventually made the move around Prado which set the Ernee crowd off. Febvre would then lose the lead to Prado, but with 2 laps to go Febvre regained the lead to take the race win ahead of Prado in 2nd and Germany's Ken Roczen in 3rd. With a heroic ride, Jett came from the back of the pack to 6th place with a last corner pass on Tim Gajser before the finish. Hunter Lawrence finished in 10th which left Team Australia with a combined score of 16 points heading into the second race.

MX2 & Open

With French locals in 1st on a combined score of 9 points, it was up to MX2 rider Hunter Lawrence and Open rider Dean Ferris to rein the 7 point gap in! The gate dropped and we saw Switzerland's Valentin Guillod score the holeshot with Dean Ferris narrowly missing the big first turn pile up. The French locals would have a perfect race with Open rider Maxime Renaux taking 1st and MX2 rider Tom Vialle finishing in 2nd. Aussie Hunter Lawrence would have a small tip over mid moto and make his way to 5th place while Dean Ferris finished in a respectful 12th place. With a combined score of 12 points, it would take a catastrophe for France to miss out on the 1st place finish... however, stranger things have happened as we head into the final race of the weekend.

Open & MXGP

Team Australia headed into the final race with a combined score of 31 points as Dean Ferris and Jett Lawrence looked to battle for a podium finish! As the gates dropped it was Germany's Ken Roczen who took the Race 3 holeshot with Jett Lawrence closely in 3rd! Jett would make his way around Frenchman Maxime Renaux and on lap 7 made his way around Ken to take over 1st place and comfortably take the race win. Dean Ferris battled it out with a rough track and found himself finishing in 16th place. Team Australia would drop the 16th place finish and end up with a combined overall score of 34 points after the 3 races.

Team Australia's best finish to date!

In front of a record 102,000 fans, Australia takes home 2nd place for the 2023 MXoN in Ernee, France! Marking Australia's best finish to date at the 76th edition of this incredible event. The podium had France in 1st on 14 points, Australia in 2nd on 34 points, and Italy in 3rd on 43 points. We look forward to coming back stronger and hungry for the number one spot at the 2024 MXoN in Matterley Basin, Great Britain!