The traditional stop for the Belgian Grand Prix over recent years has always been at the toughest motocross circuit in the World, Lommel and while this current generation probably see Lommel as a really old school circuit, old buggers like me see it differently.

It was in 1990 that Finnish great, Pekka Vehkonen won the 250 Grand Prix, the first time the Lommel circuit was used as a Grand Prix facility. Of course, the circuit had held the 1981 Trophee des Nations, won historically by Team USA, but for GP battle, Lommel was a newbie. Now, some 34 years later, it remains as one of the most popular stops for fans and racers alike. They ran the 250cc class twice more at Lommel in the 1990s, in 1993 and 1994, with Belgian legends, Marniqu Bervoets and Stefan Everts winning.

Three years later, in 1997 underdog, Avo Leok of Estonia raced through the mud of Lommel to lead home a bunch of heavy favourites to take his first and only Grand Prix victory.

Leok finished that opening round of the 500cc championship with 4-2 results in a really weird day of racing. Moto winners were Belgians Jacky Martens and Johan Boonen (the current promoter of the GP), but both Martens and Boonen struggled in their other motos.

Gert Jan Van Doorn was second overall with 3-3 results and third overall was Boonen with 11-1, while the favoured riders, Joel Smets, Kurt Nicoll, Darryl and Shayne King all floundered around in the mud. Shayne King the defending 500cc champion really having an off day with 9-7 scores. Amazingly, Leok finished 16th in the World that year and scored more than half his season points in Lommel.

That was the first taste of 500cc Grand Prix motocross for Lommel, and while Namur was the regular circuit for the 500cc class, in 1997, the series had two rounds in Belgium, on at Namur and one at Lommel. This was my (the writer) first visit to Lommel and as many know, Lommel and mud don't make for a great event and I told myself, I would never come back to this place!!!! Well, I have been back dozens of times and generally, love the circuit and it's history.

Since that 1997 visit Lommel hadn’t really been a regular stop on the Grand Prix calendar. Due to the involvement of the legendary Namur circuit, and stops in places like Neeroteren, Nismes, Genk, and so many others it seemed that Lommel was a little forgotten and was generally just a training facility for the Grand Prix riders.

It wasn’t until five times motocross world champion, the late, great, Eric Geboers got involved and decided to bring the circuit back to the Grand Prix scene, and of course the fact Namur was closed forever. Belgian motocross needed a home, and Lommel because just that.

When Lommel returned to the Grand Prix schedule in 2008 it was Spanish rider Jonathan Barragan who put his name on the winners list with an MX1 overall, while Gert Krestinov shocked the world to win the MX2 overall.

Names like Marvin Musquin (2009 MX2), Ken Roczen (2010 MX2) and Ken De Dycker (2009 MX1), joined Barragan and Krestinov as GP winners, but it was the performances of Antonio Cairoli in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 that stand out. Cairoli won three GPs and the MXoN overall with 1-1 results and showed he owned the circuit in that era.

Jeffrey Herlings took wins in 2011 and scored 1-2 results in the 2012 MXoN but injured ruled Herlings out of Lommel in 2014 and 2015, with Max Anstie making the most of that, to win both those years, scoring 1-2-1-1 in the process. Shaun Simpson added his name to the Lommel winners list with 1-1 in MXGP in 2015.

In 2016 Kevin Strijbos pulled off an amazing victory in the MXGP class, with 3-3 results, beating home Max Nagl and Antonio Cairoli. In MX2 it was Max Anstie who took victory number three, as Jeffrey Herlings was again out injured. Second in MX2 was Jeremy Seewer and third Petar Petrov.

In 2017, Herlings added yet another victory to his long list of sand wins, beating Antonio Cairoli and Glenn Coldenhoff in the MXGP class, with Herlings going 1-1. In MX2 Jorge Prado went 2-1 for the win ahead of Pauls Jonass and Julien Lieber.

2018 and Herlings won again, this time 1-1 ahead of Cairoli and Max Anstie and in the MX2 class Prado added his second overall win, also with 1-1 ahead of Thomas Covington and Thomas Olsen. 2019 and Tim Gajser won with 2-2, ahead of Romain Febvre and Glenn Coldenhoff and in the MX2 class Prado continued his undefeated run there, again with 1-1 ahead of Calvin Vlaanderen and Ben Watson.

2020 and of course Covid handed us three Belgian GPs at Lommel, with Gajser winning one with 1-1, ahead of Febvre and Seewer, Prado winning one with 2-1 ahead of Gajser and Cairoli and Gajser winning again eith 2-1 ahead of Paulin and Prado. In the MX2 class in those three GPs, which were run in the span of a week, it was Ben Watson, with Tom Vialle winning twice.

2021 was the year of Romain Febvre, who won with 2-1 scores, but all eyes were on that guy, Herlings as he was coming back from injury and still went second overall with 1-5 results, with third place going to Pauls Jonass. Prado was fourth overall and Gajser sixth overall. In the MX2 class Jago Geerts won from de Wolf and Renaux.

In 2022, Dutchman Brian Bogers pulled off a shocking win, with 1-3 to finish ahead of Calvin Vlaanderen and Glenn Coldenhoff and in the MX2 class, it was Jago Geerts with 2-1 ahead of de Wolf and Vialle. And finally, in 2023, Febvre again won with 1-2 ahead of Prado 3-1 and Coldenhoff 2-3. Geerts again won MX2 from Lucas Coenen and Simon Langenfelder.