Greg Atkins - Spanish Rebuild
Greg Atkins is well known in the world of motocross. For more than a decade, the track designer from New Zealand has designed tracks for the MXGP and has always given 100% into his work. He was also applauded for his efforts for building circuits like Villa La Angostura, Argentina, Semarang and Sumbawa in Indonesia, Franciacorta in Italy, and so many others. He has also been involved in preparing circuits like Budds Creek, Redbud, Assen and many more for the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations.
The Kiwi is now in Spain, making an old track look beautiful and the opening European round of the 2025 MXGP championship will play out in Corza, Spain. We gave him a call and asked how the work is going on the circuit for the MXGP of Castilla la Mancha on March 15 and 16. Below you can read the interview and see some of the building that is going on in Cozar, Spain.
MXlarge: Greg, thanks for taking my call. The organizer, what can you tell me about him?
Atkins: Lorca Roman, he is a passionate guy and had a mountain bike shop before, but lost his business during Covid. He has some of the biggest Enduro tracks here and next to the GP track is an Enduro park. He has The Cozar Moto Ranch, which also organizes Enduro rounds for the Spanish championships.
MXLarge: There was some criticism for last year’s circuit there in Cozar, some saying it was too small and not Grand Prix level. Can you give me some history of that track, as I know you built it a few years ago.
Atkins: We built the track two or three years ago and it was meant to be a club day track, basically and then all of a sudden, they were having a Grand Prix there. So, it wasn’t possible to make too many changes there before the GP. The ground contained a lot of rock, and it takes a lot of work to make that better and he did some work last year, to just eliminate some of the problems, but it was small, small corners and not open enough for Grand Prix racing. Now, this year, he has improved a lot on it. If you look at the old photos from last year, the corners have now opened up for this year, so it won’t be as tight at the bottom area of the circuit. It will be a more open track, all the jumps have been prepped bigger and the major changes we have eliminated, some small corners to open it up and also, at the top end of the circuit, we have taken out some small corners and made one big corner, which will also open up the speed.

MXlarge: How about the dirt?
Atkins: We have improved the dirt, a lot of new soil has been laid, and it isn’t perfect, but we are also working on an idea to bring in even better dirt from about 10 kilometres from where the track is. We have taken the current dirt from a parking area, which is a lot better than what was there last year and putting 30 or 40 centimetres of cover around the track. The cool thing about being in this area and people say it is out in the middle of nowhere, but with all these little communities, the people are so keen to help, while in an area like Madrid, its hard to get the area to get involved in the event. We have some nice dirt that we might be able to get and the local city major spoke to the next city major and they all work together to make this a really great event, and they are working on getting this better dirt to us. It is a nice red sand material, and we are trying to get that organized via the local major.
MXLarge: It looked like you have revamped the complete track?
Atkins: Yes, it is a lot, we have rebuilt the whole track. Gabi Villada, who also helps me with a lot of the GP tracks four or five days now, but we have built the whole track. The track is over 10 metres, so wide enough and everything is much better than it was last year.
MXlarge: The community, the vibe of the local area is important to have a great GP and obviously last year Jorge Prado was racing, but there are some good Spanish riders and no doubt Ruben Fernandez will be important, to attract the crowd, so lets hope he does well in Argentina, but what type of crowd are they expecting?

Atkins: They are looking at targeting people in the 100 to 120 kilometre range and there are a lot of communities in that area and it doesn’t matter how far you go from the circuit, everyone knows that MXGP is coming to this area and that is important, it creates a type of hype for the event. I don’t think they will have any problem getting a big crowd here. This is the biggest event in the region, so everyone wants to get involved in it.
MXLarge: What else has needed to be changed for the GP?
Atkins: We have taken out the old water system, we had a lot of issues with that working. There were also a lot of tubes laying around the track, as they had too much piping, and we will instal a new water system, which will be under the ground, just with the sprinklers showing, that will be a lot better and also look a lot cleaner. I will meet with the water guy and see what they come up with.
MXLarge: What for you is the highlight of the track?
Atkins: We have added more triples and one is 10 metres bigger than it used to be and it has something similar to LaRocca’s Leap at Redbud (LaRocco’s Leap has been called the most famous and iconic jump on the entire circuit of Pro Motocross in USA), but a better landing point. I think the riders and fans will enjoy that jump and also the others we have made bigger. We have some good elevation at one area of the track, which is on the top of a hill.
MXLarge: You are famous for beautiful circuits around the World, how does this one rate?
Atkins: The area we have is a bit too tight, would be nice with a larger area and we tried to do that this time, but we are limited with boundaries, but it’s a good improvement and we do step by step and then next year another improvement. I always think a circuit needs a few years to get its maximum and the organizer knows he had to improve some things. This soil is good, it’s not the rock-hard baked stuff they had last year and a lot less rocks. If we get the new material (to add to the dirt), we will do that in the last weeks and that will be nice for some of the corners. For now, we get the new water system in and the promoter is adding more grandstands and they will be raised nearly 3 metres higher than the track and some area’s you can see the whole track and we can get like 2000 people inside the track, and we are trying to work out how to get the people inside, maybe a tunnel.
Full Gallery here






And below the old circuit from last year. Much tigher and saw some complaints from the MXGP and MX2 riders.

Also a GoPro of the circuit last year