The 2018 Motocross World Championship enters one of the busiest parts of its season as the series heads to Latvia for the first of five rounds to take place in the upcoming six weekends. Team HRC’s Tim Gajser and Calvin Vlaanderen will be joined by returning MXGP rider Todd Waters, who makes his debut aboard the Honda CRF450RW machine as he steps in for the injured Brian Bogers in the MXGP class.
After a trip of mixed emotions to Russia, Tim Gajser is ready for the new event knowing he has the speed to fight for strong results, following his delayed start to the season. Gajser is keen to right past wrongs at the Kegums track after last year’s nightmare weekend, where the 21-year-old Slovenian came away with a 14th place finish in race one (after being involved in another rider’s crash) and a DNF due a heavy tumble in the second moto.
Calvin Vlaanderen is setting his sights on the podium at a track that saw him third overall last year. The young South African rider had a strong performance on race day last time out, as he came less than a second short of third place at the MXGP of Russia.
Todd Waters is eager to get things started after the news of his return to the world stage: the 27-year-old has had some days to get to grips with the factory-spec version of Honda’s 450cc motocross machine, and will be looking forward to getting in the mix with some of the rivals he has raced against in the past.
The Kegums motocross track is located 50km southeast of Latvia’s capital city Riga and on the eastern bank of the Daugava river. For the 2018 edition of the MXGP of Latvia, the track layout has been subject to modification, which means that all riders will have a new challenge to get ready for.
