It has long been considered the toughest circuit in the motocross world, and when the MXGP and MX2 classes head to Lommel, Belgium this coming weekend you can be sure that riders will suffer around the deep sand track.

A large group of very good sand riders in both classes on show this weekend for the Belgian GP, with the Dutch and Belgian still dominating the MX2 class, with series leader Kay De Wolf a heavy favourite, despite never having won at Lommel, but he has been on the podium. I think we are all excited for the 250 boys, to see what the Coenen brothers and Liam Everts can do on their home GP. Fireworks I would think for the MX2 competition.

In MXGP, we have Jorge Prado with four wins at Lommel, Tim Gajser and Jeffrey Herlings three wins each. I wouldn’t dare bet on who wins this one and while Herlings is looking like he is getting back to his best form, he hasn’t won at Lommel since 2018, which is now, a long, long time ago. Often out due to injuries, “The Bullet” will be confident after his Indonesian GP victory and his Loket performance last weekend. He looks to me, to be the fastest rider in the class, but will need to stay off the ground in this competition.

For decades Lommel has been a place that riders have to dig deep and control their fear of the roughest and toughest circuit in the world. No more so than in 1981 and 2012 for the prestigious Motocross of Nations.

Former World and AMA Motocross champion Danny Laporte remembers Lommel well. Back in 1981 LaPorte was part of Team USA, which won the MXoN for America, for the first time ever. Laporte knew when the team arrived at the circuit that it would be hard work, but he also felt confident.

“We were training for Lommel,” Laporte said. “Roger (De Coster) said we need somebody to go 45 minutes flat out in this deep Lommel sand. So, I said I will do it, and I rode hard, just pinned it and two laps before the 45 minutes I ran out of gas. So, we put the gas tanks from the 500cc bikes on our bikes, so we had enough gas to finish. Now had we not tried that we wouldn’t have even finished the moto’s in Lommel? That was one really tough circuit, and the American riders enjoyed it that year.”

History will remind us that Laport and his Team USA team mated shocked the World back in 1981, riding the sand like none of the European has seen before. From that moment on, until 1994, Team USA were unbeatable in the greatest motocross event on the calendar.

Of course, it wasn’t just the 1981 MXdN that saw the circuit enjoy this huge event. Back in 2012 the MXoN returned, and it was the battle between Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings, clearly the two best sand riders in the world, which attracted all the attention. It was also the day that Europe took over the World again, a domination by GP riders that lasted until Team USA won two years ago, at their beloved Redbud.

While Cairoli went 1-1 for the individual overall in 2012, the performance of Herlings was stunning as he first won his opening moto with ease and then came back from last (after a first lap crash) to nearly win his second moto. Sounds like a similar story to last weekend, doesn’t it? It was a ride that captivated the motocross World and assured us, he would add World titles on the 450 machine in the future.

“I was really disappointed not to win both moto’s,” Herlings said at the time. “But to fight back and nearly pass Antonio to win the second moto was a good performance. I felt that was in some ways a victory and showed who is the quickest in the sand. I love Lommel and to race the MXoN there was a high point in my career. Going to that circuit is often a big challenge, but it is one a rider from The Netherlands usually enjoys.”

Now it comes down to this coming weekend, the big three in MXGP, all having had success at Lommel, Gajser winning in MXGP 2019 and 2020 (twice), Herlings winning in MX2 in 2011, and MXGP in 2017 and 2018, and Prado winning in in MX2 in 2017, 2018, 2019, and MXGP in 2020.

Surprisingly, Herlings hasn’t won at Lommel since 2018, and missed several Lommel rounds with injury. This year, he probably comes in as the fastest of the big three, and we all know sand is his specialty, but then again, both Gajser and Prado are also brilliant in the sand.

Fortunately, weather conditions have dropped since last weekend, where we finally got something that resembled summer, very, very hot for those of us used to cooler temperatures. The sun is shining where I am in The Netherlands, maybe an hour from the Lommel circuit and by all accounts, it will be around 22 degrees for the GP, with a chance of rain on Saturday, but sunny on Sunday.

Of course, if we could predict the weather, we could probably predict the winner of both cases, which is impossible. Bring on the deep, dark sand of Lommel.