6 things to watch at Redsand

Round 3 of the world championship unfolds this weekend at the Redsand MX Park in Spain. With the EMX250s and EMX300s also racing, who and what should we keep an eye on?

The battle of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MXGP team-mates

Okay, they’re not strictly team-mates as Herlings rides for the Red Bull Factory KTM team and Cairoli rides for the DeCarli Red Bull KTM team but in effect that’s just semantics, they are both Factory KTM riders.

So far this season it’s 3-1 moto victories for Herlings with the young pretender seemingly able to turn up the pace at will in Valkenswaard. It’s been respectful and clean so far, but I think it only takes one dodgy pass for war to be declared.

The battle of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX2 team-mates

Ditto the above. Although in this case current world #1 Pauls Jonass has 4-0 moto victories over his young challenger Jorge Prado (DeCarli Red Bull KTM). Prado wasn’t happy about Jonass whipping his bike in front of him as they crossed the finish line jump last week. If they get together we can expect some fireworks between these two – read this great Prado interview for more insight into this simmering battle.

Max Anstie

Anstie spent plenty of time at Redsand for pre-season testing and reports at the time said he was flying around here. He showed that he can beat everyone at the MXON last year and was fast last week. Could this be a podium weekend for Mad Max?

More KTMs at the front, this time in EMX300

It’s Round 2 of the EMX300 championship this week. Greg Smets, Brad Anderson and Mike Kras were head and shoulders above the rest of the pack last week – over a minute ahead of fourth-placed man James Dunn in the first race. It’s hard to see anyone getting between them here, but the finishing order may change.

EMX250 class

The EMX250 championship kicks off this weekend. There are 92 riders pre-entered. 18 will qualify from each group with riders from 19th to 38th going to an LCQ for the final four places. For some riders, their weekend will be over by 11 o’clock on Saturday morning. It’s brutal! Read our exclusive feature on the hottest riders to watch in EMX250 here.

Track conditions

Half of the paddock has been here for winter training, so they should all know the place well and have their settings worked out, but this is the first time that an MXGP has been held here.

With two EMX classes, the track will get pretty hammered. It’s a fine, powdery type of sand with a hard base so depending on how much they water it and how deep its ripped before the race, I think it’s going to be very rough for the races on Sunday.