Preview: 2014 Motocross of Nations

After a superb fourth place finish in 2013, Australia will be shooting for even more glory when the 2014 Motocross of Nations team is held at Kegums in Latvia on September 27-28.

Chad Reed (Kawasaki), Luke Clout (Yamaha) and Matt Moss (Suzuki, pictured) will represent Australia, with Clout, the recently crowned national MX2 champion, a late replacement for the injured Dean Ferris. It will be Clout’s first appearance in the MoN, while Reed has been a mainstay for Australia over the last decade.

Each rider will compete in two motos at the event, and the team with the lowest score wins. Last year that was Belgium, but only one rider from that winning combination – Jeremy van Horebeek – is returning in 2014, but he has some pretty handy teammates in Kevin Strijbos and Julien Lieber.

Belgium has won the MoN 15 times, one behind Great Britain and seven in arrears of America, which has reigned supreme in 22 of the last 35 events.

Four other countries have won the MoN – Germany, Italy, Sweden and the old Soviet Union – since it began in 1947, with Australia’s best result a third place in 2011 with Reed, Moss and Brett Metcalfe.

Thirty-four teams have entered in 2014, with the winner again likely to come from the big three: Belgium, America and Italy. The latter is represented by Davide Guarneri, world title juggernaut Antonio Cairoli and David Philippaerts, while America has Ryan Dungey, Jeremy Martin and Eli Tomac.

New Zealand will also compete in 2014, with its hopes resting on Hamish Dobbyn, Hamish Harwood and Scott Columb.

On Saturday there will be the competition to qualify for the A Final, where a maximum of 20 countries get through. On Sunday morning all the teams that didn’t qualify for the A Final compete for the last chance to get in, with only the winning country getting through.

Then in the A Final riders each class competes against the other once (i.e MX2/MXGP, MX2/Open and MXGP/Open). The scoring for the event works on the position system, i.e. first place is awarded one point, second place two, etc. The worst score of three races is dropped, and the lowest combined score wins.

Reed is Australia’s designated MXGP rider, Clout is in MX2 and Moss -- the most dominant rider in local competition over the last two years -- will handle the Open duties.