Hakon Fredriksen – Yamaha raced into an early Moto class lead when the opening round of the 2026 FIM Sand Races World Championship – the Morocco Sand Race – was staged over the weekend at Mazagan, located around ninety kilometres south of Casablanca on the Atlantic coast.
- Moroccan start for 2026 FIM Sand Races World Championship
- Hakon Fredriksen and Mathilde Martinez on top at Mazagan
- Belgian Randy Naveaux takes Quad double on Atlantic coast
While the Norwegian was busy carving out an advantage with one-three scores over the weekend’s two seventy-five-minute Moto races, France’s Mathilde Martinez – Honda led home the Moto Women category in both.
Victory in both sixty-minute Quad races was claimed by Randy Naveaux while, racing together, Felix Cardinaux from France topped the Moto Junior class with one-two finishes after two forty-five-minute races and his compatriot Pablo Henouillle dominated both races in the Moto Vintage category.
Marking the start of the five-round series with its first-ever visit to Africa, the event proved to be an early test of character for reigning Moto champion Todd Kellett – Monster Energy Motoblouz Honda who struggled to make passes in Saturday’s opening race before a technical problem dropped him down the order on Sunday.
Kellett has dominated the discipline for the previous three seasons, winning the first two editions that carried FIM World Cup status before its upgrade last season to a full FIM World Championship, but on his series debut for his new team the British rider found himself in the unfamiliar position of chasing the leaders rather than setting the pace at the front.
Eating up the six-and-a-half-kilometre course, Fredriksen – Yamaha Monster Drag’on Tek led the field around the opening lap on Saturday, less than a second ahead of Belgium’s Cyril Genot – Honda with Kellett battling hard with Frenchman Adrien Petit – Honda and Dutch racerDamien Knuiman – Yamaha.
Despite constant pressure from Genot, lap after lap the twenty-three-year-old Norwegian – who has represented his country at the FIM Motocross of Nations on multiple occasions – gradually extended his lead and when the chequered flag was waved he had stretched his advantage over the Belgian to twenty seconds with Kellett just over a minute further back in third.
With Knuiman and Jeremy Hauquier – Drag’on Tek Yamaha the final two riders to finish on twenty laps, the series’ early front-runners appeared to be established, although in a sport as unpredictable as Sand Races nothing is set in stone – something that was clearly apparent following a drama-filled second race.
It looked to be a case of business as usual for twenty-nine-year-old Kellett on Sunday morning as he pulled out a four-second lead over Fredriksen to lead after the opening lap with Petit, Knuiman and France’s Hauquier all in contention, but Genot’s challenge ended prematurely when his tyre came off the rim.
Fredriksen quickly began to eat into Kellett’s advantage and with back-to-back sub 3:50 laps he found himself holding a narrow lead as the race approached half-distance, but it all changed on lap nine when a suspected electrical issue dropped the champion down the order and out of contention.
Any breathing space Fredriksen gained from Kellett’s misfortune was short-lived and over the next two laps he was forced to pit twice for running repairs that cost him his lead as Knuiman, Hauquier and the French pairing of Joey Nuques and Antoine Alix – Suzuki all took advantage.
Having raced to second in this year’s FIM EMX Open Championship at Lommel in Belgium, Knuiman’s credentials in sand are well-proven and the young Dutchman kept his cool to take victory on eighteen laps and secure second overall.
Hauquier, who won bronze last season, finished second to claim the final step of the overall podium as Fredriksen staged a determined comeback for third to secure the championship lead with Nuques – who was sixth in the opener – fourth, one place ahead of Alix, but after losing over twenty minutes on lap nine, Kellett crossed the line all the way back in seventeenth for ninth overall.
“We knew today that if I finished third in the race I would still win the overall,” said Fredriksen. “That’s what we did and I’m really grateful.”
The Moto Women’s contest boiled down to a fight between defending and two-time champion Mathilde Denis – Yamaha and Martinez with the series newcomer coming off best in both races to leave Morocco with maximum points.
Fast opening laps proved to be key for the multi-time French champion and former FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship competitor as the twenty-seven-year-old established an early advantage that Denis could not close as they both performed wellagainst their male counterparts.
Martinez’s overall race finishes of fifteenth in both underlined her skill, speed and fitness, while Denis also more than held her own as she crossed the line twenty-fifth in the opener and twenty-first in race two.
Both Quad races were won by Belgium’s Naveaux who finished the opener on a total of eleven laps with a lead of more than three minutes over his compatriot Oliver Vandendijck withDirk Schelfhout completing the Belgian one-two-three another seven-and-a-half seconds further back.
Crossing the line fourth and fifth, Frenchman Alois Waloszek and Glenn De Swarte from Belgium were the final riders to finish on the same lap as Naveaux.
Naveaux produced a repeat performance on Sunday afternoon to win on nine laps, but this time his advantage was reduced to one-and-a-half minutes as Britain’s Harry Walker– who completed just one lap of Saturday’s race – bounced back to second with Vandendijck coming home in third for second overall.
Schelfhout once again got the better of Waloszek and De Swarte to secure third overall with the top six all completing nine laps and Schelfhout’s heroics also earned him victory in the Quad Veteran class ahead of Frenchmen Axel Dutrie and Benoit Sebert.
Racing with the Vintage class, theMoto Juniors put on an impressive performance with Cardinaux winning the opening race by just under twenty-four seconds ahead of Portugal’sGoncalo Cardosa. With less than three seconds covering second to fourth, French racer Enzo LeFebvre and his compatriot and defending championMatheo Gerat – who ended the race in third and fourth – remained in contention until the end.
After finishing fifth in the opening race, Israeli racer Ben Yakov Almagor – HGS KTM came out fighting to win Sunday’s race by thirty-two seconds to take second overall with Cardinaux securing the top step of the weekend’s podium in second, just over seven seconds ahead of Gerat as Cardosa claimed third overall with fourth.
Finishing one lap up on his rivals in the opening race, Henouillle led home an all-French Moto Vintage top-three completed by Anthony Golleau – Honda and Sebastien Antony.
Henouillle then confirmed his dominance by winning Sunday’s race by two laps with Antony this time finishing ahead of Golleau to claim second overall as defending champion Freddy Seguin twice finished fourth for fourth overall.
The action in the 2026 FIM Sand Races World Championship now shifts to Italy on 23-25 October for the Bibione Sand Storm 2026.
VINTAGE AND JUNIOR RESULTS HERE
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