The 2026 FIM Motocross World Championships prepares for its third GP in as many weekends, taking us to the eighth round of the series at the challenging Motocenter Zelta Zirgs venue, near the town of Kegums for the MXGP of Latvia! The general description of this track is always to say that it’s sandy, but there is definitely a harder base than the sand of the Benelux countries, meaning that good hardpack riders can find something for themselves to perform on as well!

Ben Rumbold/MXGP Story JP/KTM Image

Motocross World Championship action has been seen here since 2005, when Belgian Sven Breugelmans won his second Grand Prix on his way to that season’s MX3 world title. The full MXGP series first came here in 2009, won by Antonio Cairoli, also on a KTM, with Potugal’s Rui Goncalves taking victory in MX2. We have been back to the Zelta Zirgs, named after the “Golden Horse”, Latvian mythology’s symbol of strength and bravery, every year since then, with the standout event being the Motocross of Nations in 2014. We even came here for three GPs in eight days to restart the Championship after the Coronavirus suspension was lifted in 2020.

This year the MXGP World Championship is being fought out between the top two riders here in last year’s GP. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing lead the way with their teenage prodigy Lucas Coenen, and after problems for Honda HRC Petronas rider Jeffrey Herlings in Germany, the Belgian now holds a 31-point advantage over the Dutch legend, who is going for an amazing tenth Grand Prix win at the circuit! Fifty points further back is Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s reigning World Champion Romain Febvre, who has yet to win here but is always a contender! His teammate Pauls Jonass, Latvia’s only Motocross World Champion to date, finally makes it to his home GP after missing it through injury for the last three seasons! He sits just two points outside of the series top ten and will be fired up for his home round!

For the first time in Motocross history we have twin brothers, or indeed brothers of any age difference, leading two World Championships at the same time, as Red Bull KTM Factory Racing flyer Sacha Coenen wears the red plate at Kegums, holding it for the first time at the start of a race weekend. The title chase is closer in MX2 however, as defending Champion Simon Längenfelder is only three points behind the Belgian for Red Bull KTM Factory Racinng, but will be mindful of the fact that Sacha has won the last two MX2 GPs at the Latvian venue! 19 points off the lead is Spaniard Guillem Farres of the Triumph Factory Racing Team, but the home fans will be looking to the Reisulis brothers, Janis and Karlis of the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 squad, to be challenging for their first Grand Prix podium, especially as the younger of the two, Janis, has been getting closer to that top three throughout his rookie season!

The EMX250 European Championship sets up for its sixth round, which will mark the halfway point of the season for them, and the Venum BUD Racing Kawasaki pairing of Francisco Garcia from Spain and Jake Cannon from Australia lead the way, 30 points apart, while Danish rider Nicolai Skovbjerg holds third for Mx-Handel Racing Husqvarna. Local man Jekabs Kubulins has had an up and down season for JK Racing Yamaha, and has pace far better than his 14th place in the standings might suggest!

The EMX125 European Championship Presented by FMF Racing fires into the second half of its series this weekend, and the Norman KTM Factory Rookies squad are dominating with their two Austrians, Moritz Ernecker and Ricardo Bauer, leading the way. Frenchman Sleny Goyer is still giving chase in third for Yamaha Europe Monster Energy MJC, and while there are no Latvian points scorers in this Championship so far, there should be a healthy dose of local support for the prodigious KTM MX Futures Estonian Lucas Leok, as he fights from tenth in the series!

The MXGP of Latvia often delivers some fantastic racing as the shifting sands test even the toughest of competitors, so don’t be missing this intense weekend of Motocross ahead of us!

Lucas Coenen looked immaculate with his double victory at last weekend’s Liqui Moly MXGP of Germany, and for sure his main rival Jeffrey Herlings will be hoping that their respective past records in Latvia hold true for another season! The Belgian has finished second across multiple races at the Zelta Zirgs, including all three races in MXGP last year, for second overall, and in two of the three races in MX2 back in 2024, again claiming second overall! He even took a second in the only Sunday race he finished back in 2023!

In contrast, Herlings is coming to one of his best ever circuits. Literally, in terms of GP victories, his nine wins here are only matched by his nine at Valkenswaard, a venue we haven’t raced at for some time. He’s been on the podium at Kegums 12 times from his 15 attempts, including his last six visits! Winner of the last three GPs here, and seven of the last nine individual races, his record here is nothing short of ridiculous, stretching back to only his second career victory anywhere, back in 2010. Does this make him the favourite, or do we think of the sheer pace of Coenen this season, especially in the softer going of Sardegna? There’s no way that the King of Kegums is going to give it away without a fight!

Romain Febvre has been a solid podium contender for almost as long as “The Bullet”, with six top three results in 13 visits, including third overall last year and third in the Qualifying Race. He hasn’t won an individual race since his first title defence in 2016, but one of the best sand riders ever from France cannot be discounted!

Neither can Tim Gajser, who is seven points back from Febvre for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, and he has four GP wins and six race wins to his name here, as well as his last attempt at a Qualifying Race win in 2024. His teammate Maxime Renaux, just five points further back from the Slovenian, took a double race win here in his MX2 title season of 2021, but only a best of fifth in the premiere class.

Kay de Wolf continues to march up the points table for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing, moving up to sixth place after Germany thanks to the injury-enforced absence of Honda HRC Petronas’ Tom Vialle. The Dutchman won his first ever overall GP here in 2023, and has either crashed or won in most of his outings since. The former MX2 World Champion will be hoping for nothing less than another podium result, while Vialle is uncertain to be riding at the site where he won a single GP back in 2020, but was third on his last visit in 2022. The Frenchman’s Honda HRC Petronas teammate Ruben Fernandez, still eighth but closer after his German GP podium, has a surprisingly good record here, with fifth overall last year and a podium in 2022.

Another who enjoyed his first 2026 podium in Germany was Andrea Adamo, and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pilot will be looking for his first top three result of any kind at Kegums. His fellow Italian Alberto Forato moved into the series top ten with a sixth in Germany, and although he got an EMX250 podium here in 2019, sixth overall with a 4-9 scorecard in 2022 is his best in Latvia at GP level.

The other Kegums GP winner lining up in MXGP is Jago Geerts, who won three times in MX2, and took his best Sunday result yet in the MXGP class here with sixth overall last season. The MRT Racing Team Beta rider will be hoping for something similar to lift himself from 19th in this year’s Championship, while home hero Pauls Jonass will initially be happy just to be here after three years of missing out on his local fans’ adulation! He actually took second overall the last time he lined up at the Zelta Zirgs, with three second places across the weekend in 2022. Just a single race win in his MX2 title season of 2017, plus an EMX125 victory in 2013, look likely to remain his only victories from home territory, but the Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP man can certainly dream of more!

Be prepared for a stunning showdown this weekend in the MXGP class!

MXGP - World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 344 points; 2. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 313 p.; 3. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 263 p.; 4. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 256 p.; 5. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 251 p.; 6. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 223 p.; 7. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 219 p.; 8. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 216 p.; 9. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 211 p.; 10. Alberto Forato (ITA, FAN), 142 p.

The timing could not be better for Sacha Coenen to wear his first ever red plate, apart from those earned on a Saturday, as he returns to the site of his first ever GP victory in 2024, which he repeated last year! The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider was helped by a last lap crash from the lead for his teammate Simon Längenfelder in the 2025 GP, so the German can pick up the pace here to try and reverse that three-point gap between the two! He took last year’s Qualifying Race win, as well as podium trophies from each of the last two visits to Kegums. He needs to dig deep again this weekend!

Guillem Farres didn’t have a great GP in Germany, and he took eighth overall from his only visit to Latvia last season. From fourth in the Championship, Liam Everts will be looking for his first Kegums podium for Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing as he tries to claw back the 20 points to Farres. He will likely be challenged by the other Triumph Racing Factory Team rider Camden McLellan, who is only three points behind the Belgian and stronger in the sand than his sixth here last year might indicate!

Mathis Valin is riding high from his first ever GP win last weekend for Kawasaki Racing Team MX2, and is on a three-GP podium streak as well, so he will be looking to repeat his 2023 EMX125 victory here and press forward from sixth in the Championship.

Behind him, though, is his successor as EMX250 Champion and absolute home favourite Janis Reisulis, and the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 rider pushed to this limit to enjoy a perfect day in EMX250 last year, sending the fans into raptures, and they will make intense noise for both him and brother Karlis, who also had a great weekend with his best ever Qualifying result of third last season. Valerio Lata is currently a point ahead of the elder brother for Honda HRC Petronas, and the Italian will be looking to remember his race win here in EMX250 two years ago, rather than his double DNF of last year!

Rounding out the top ten is Julius Mikula, and hopefully the likeable Czech racing for the Ošicka KTM Racing team has recovered well enough from his big crash of last weekend to defend that spot, although Kay Karssemakers will fancy his chances in the sand for Dixon Racing Kawasaki.

With all of their home heroes to cheer on in both major classes, the Latvian fans should generate another fantastic atmosphere around the Zelta Zirgs circuit, and we look forward to a brilliant GP as the top riders battle in the Baltics!

MX2 - World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 320 points; 2. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 317 p.; 3. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 301 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 281 p.; 5. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 278 p.; 6. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 264 p.; 7. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 252 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 189 p.; 9. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 188 p.; 10. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 144 p.

TIMETABLE

SATURDAY:
07:40 EMX125 Group 1 Free Practice, 08:10 EMX125 Group 2 Free Practice, 08:40 EMX250 Group 1 Free Practice, 09:10 EMX250 Group 2 Free Practice, 09:50 EMX125 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 10:30 MX2 Free Practice, 11:00 MXGP Free Practice, 11:50 EMX125 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 12:25 EMX250 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 13:00 EMX250 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 13:40 MX2 Time Practice, 14:15 MXGP Time Practice, 15:00 EMX125 Race 1, 15:45 EMX250 Race 1, 16:35 MX2 Qualifying Race, 17:25 MXGP Qualifying Race.

SUNDAY:
09:40 EMX125 Race 2, 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 11:30 EMX250 Race 2, 13:15 MX2 Race 1, 14:15 MXGP Race 1, 16:10 MX2 Race 2, 17:10 MXGP Race 2.