Team HRC’s Max Nagl, riding with the No.19 plate for Team Germany, took a third place in his opening race this weekend at the Motocross of Nations in Kegums, Latvia.
After qualifying fourth yesterday, race one saw Nagl very nearly take another of his characteristic holeshot starts on the CRF450RW. Crossing the Fox Holeshot line in second, the German star then set about maintaining his position in the sand amongst a field of 40 of the best motocross riders in the world. Chasing down Team USA’s Ryan Dungey, he crossed the line just 1.1seconds adrift in third.
Race two saw Nagl get another good start and settle into fourth position, making strong progress in a battle for second before a crash at the halfway point halted his progress and demoted him to 15th. Mounting a comeback through the field, he reached 12th before the chequered flag came out and curtailed his assault.
Team France took the overall Motocross of Nations victory, followed by Team Netherlands and Team USA, who claimed the final step of the podium in the last race of the day thanks in part to Eli Tomac on the Honda CRF450R.
Max Nagl
“My bike was really strong again this weekend and in the end I’m happy with the result. In the first race I had a good gate jump and was second in the first turn. The speed was really high in the first few laps from the first five guys so I couldn’t really go the same speed but could just follow, but after half way I was going better and I could pass some guys again to finish third. It was a really good race and I’m really happy about it.
“The in the second race I started from the outside from gate 27, and still I managed to get a really good start to sixth, and then riding was going really well in the beginning but then I made one little mistake and crashed. The track was really hard and I was really tired and had a lot of arm pump. After the crash it was a bit difficult to continue riding but I was able to catch the pack again and make some positions back. In the end the results are ok but I’m really happy with my riding this weekend.”
Keisuke Inomoto
“Today it was good to continue our strong performance and good speed from the last two South American races. Qualifying and the first race in particular were very good, and the second race also looked like being a good result but unfortunately Max made a small and rare mistake and crashed. Still, to finish the season with the wins and showing such good speed, and with the bike working so well, it gives us a lot of confidence for next year. This year had been HRC’s first since re-entering the series and we have made very good progress. Now we will work hard in the off-season to continue this and come back next year even stronger. It was great to see so many fans in Latvia this weekend supporting their national teams, and I’d like to thank everyone again for their support of Honda and HRC all year.”
Roger Harvey
“Overall results-wise it was a reasonable day today. Max had a good first race in difficult conditions, but we’re really pleased with that. In the second race he got a bit of traffic early on and then when he started to settle and was riding nicely, he just lost the front and went down which set him back and after he lost the front group it was tough but he still made some progress again.
“At the finish of this seaon Max has peaked at the same time that the bike has gelled with him and everything has come together. The work that’s been done by the team and HRC over the course of the year has been excellent and we’ve seen major steps on the bike and in the last two races of the season and again this weekend we’ve really seen the benefit of that, so we can be happy to finish the season showing very strong performance.”