The 68th FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocylisme) Motorcross of Nations is being held at Kegums, Latvia on September 27th and 28th.
However, it was not to be, and team Belgium repeated their Lierop, Netherlands triumph of 2004 - when Stephan Everts was among the Belgian team.
The United States was second last year, with Italy third, Australia fourth and France fifth, ahead of Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Switzerland with Estonia tenth.
The event is being organised by the Latvian Motorcyclist's Federation, which was founded in 1924.
The 1,540 metre circuit is some 60km from Riga (the Latvian capital) and the event surrounding the races opens at 2pm on Thursday September 25th.
First staged in 1947, teams compete for the Chamberlain Trophy, and the modern format (established in 1985) is actually an amalgamation of three separate events - the original Motocross des Nations, raced with 500cc motorcycles, the Trophée des Nations, raced with 250cc motorcycles, and the Coupe des Nations, for 125cc motorcycles.
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The first Motorcross of Nations was held in 1947 in The
Netherlands - when Bill Nicholson on a BSA took the British team to the first
win
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Prior to 1984, the three events were held in three different locations on different weekends, but the revised format, which is now in its 31st year, sees each rider in the three man National teams competing one in each class.
The advance betting has the US team installed as hot favourites including, as it does, Ryan Dungey who was a member of USA in each of the last three times the Americans won the event from 2009 to 2011 - indeed the United States posted seven consecutive wins from 2005 before Germany took its first ever win in 2012; last year's Belgian triumph was their 15th in the 67 year history of the event. This puts Belgium level with Great Britain, also with15 wins, with only the United States having won more often (22 times).
This year's FIM SuperMoto of Nations will be held on 12th October at Cremona, Italy.
For further information visit www.fim-live.com and www.lamsf.lv
