Interestingly, the next stop in our MXGP championship is Uddevalla a circuit that hasn’t always been kind to the big three of Tim Gajser, Jorge Prado and Jeffrey Herlings.

Sure, Herlings and Gajser have won there (Prado yet to win there), but both the red plate owner (Gajser) and the Lommel GP winner (Herlings) have also suffered poor results there.

Sweden has been on and off the calendar in recent years, sometimes due to Covid, sometimes due to financial reasons, but it remains one of the circuits that has been around for a long time. It first arrived on the Grand Prix calendar in 1958, when Swedish legend Sten Lundin won in the 500cc class.

Of the current crop of GP riders, the most experienced at the Uddevalla circuit is Jeffrey Herlings, who raced there some 15 years ago in 2010 and finished second overall to Steven Frossard. Herlings went 2-4 and let’s not forget, it was his rookie season, and he was just 15 years of age.

A year later Herlings scored another second-place finish, this time to Ken Roczen, who scored 1-1 results, to the Dutchman’s 3-2 score. In somewhat ridiculous history, Herlings went 1-7 for yet another second place, this time behind Tommy Searle in that sensational 2012 battle for the MX2 championship. Searle went 2-1 and continues “The Bullets” run of runner-up finishes in Sweden.

2013 and finally a victory at Uddevalla, as Herlings finished with 3-1 results and making his first appearance at the circuit, Tim Gajser came home with 17-29 results. Romain Febvre finished with 16-9 scores.

A year later in 2014 and Herlings scored GP win number two in Sweden, with a 1-1 performance, while Gajser was third with 2-6 and Febvre fifth overall with 11-3 finishes.

2015 and Gajser takes his first win at the circuit with 2-1 in the MX2 class, with Herlings winning moto one and then DNFing moto two after crashing out in turn one of the second moto and nearly losing his finger, in a horrible looking injury. In the MXGP class in 2015, Romain Febvre came home with the win with 1-1 results.

No Swedish GP win 2016, but in 2017, Gajser won in MXGP with 1-2 scores and Febvre was second with 6-1 and Herlings finished with 2-DNF. In 2018 again no Swedish GP, but in 2019, Glenn Coldenhoff won the GP, from Gajser and Jonass. Gajser going 3-1. Febvre was in 10th overall with 2-DNF. In MX2 Tom Vialle won from Calvin Vlaanderen and Jorge Prado, his first visit to the podium at Uddevalla.

Due to Covid no Sweden in 2020 or 2021, but when we returned in 2022 Jeremy Seewer too his second victory at this circuit, with 2-1 results, winning ahead of Gajser with 4-2, while Febvre was fourth with 6-3 scores.

In 2023 Seewer showing his liking for the Swedish track, scored his third GP win there, going 3-1, ahead of Febvre 2-2 and Prado 1-6 and Herlings fourth with 8-4. Gajser struggled in 2023, with 10th overall and 10-5.

If you look at the race results of the big three, then you can see that Gajser is the most successful, with wins in 2015 in MX2, 2017 in MXGP and was second in 2019 and 2022. In 2023 he finished 10th overall.

Herlings won in MX2 in 2013, 2014, but since then, he has had a lot of misery, with moto wins, injuries, missing the round due to inuries and in 2023 4th overall was all he could muster.

Jorge Prado has amazingly never won there, not in MX2 and not in MXGP, and his best was second in 2017, third in MX2 in 2019, while in MXGP, he scored fifth in 2022 and third in 2023. He has been consistently on the podium.

Jeremy Seewer has won there on three occasions, in MX2 in 2017 and in MXGP in 2022 and 2023 and might just be the favourite, although he continues to struggle with his relationship with the Kawasaki 450, so his confidence might not be what it needs to be to take his third straight Swedish GP victory.

As Herlings mentioned last weekend, look out for Gajser in Sweden, as he is often on the podium and shows the best results there from the big three. He is my tip for the GP win and regain some momentum over Herlings and Prado. Herlings hasn't won there in a decade and Prado never, so the favourite has to be Gajser from this group.

Bavo Swijgers image