2022 FIM MX2 MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPION
PRIZE FIGHTER!
After winning the MX2 championship in 2020, Tom Vialle – Red Bull KTM suffered the first serious set-back of his fledgling career the following season when a broken hand effectively ended his title defence before it had even properly started.
His speed was never in doubt – he had claimed a double win at the opening round of the season – but his injury put him at a disadvantage he could never recover from and he ended the year in third.
Returning fighting fit for 2022, the twenty-two-year-old son of French ’90s motocross star Frederic – who was plucked from the EMX250 class at the end of 2018 – showed true fighting spirit over an epic eighteen-round series that saw him and title rival Jago Geerts – Monster Energy Yamaha play pass the parcel with the series leader’s red plate from the second round onwards.
In the hardest, most closely-fought title battle since Jordi Tixier pipped Jeffrey Herlings to the MX2 crown in 2014, there were just four points in it at the end of a season packed with drama.
After thirty-five motos and approximately twenty-one hours of racing, Vialle led by a single point heading into the final race of the year at the MXGP of Turkey.
A true winner-takes-all moto, Vialle drew on his four years of hard-earned experience in top-flight racing to take the win and the title in Afyonkarahisar.
The statistics speak for themselves. Out of the thirty-six motos staged this season, Vialle finished on the podium twenty-nine times with seventeen race wins. He won ten overall verdicts including victories in the final three rounds and also claimed the Fox Holeshot Award in MX2 for the third consecutive season.
PALMARES
FIM MX2 Motocross World Champion – 2020, 2022
Past Editions
2020 FIM MX2 MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPION
IT IS A FAMILY AFFAIR!
The son of French ’90s motocross star Frederic, Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM) gave himself a late twentieth birthday present when he swept to the MX2 title in the opening moto at the MXGP of Pietramurata in early November.
With three races still to run – and in just his second full year in the FIM Motocross World Championship – his victory served to underline the incredible potential he displayed in 2019 when he finished fourth in his rookie season.
Plucked from the EMX250 class at the end of 2018 after finishing the series in eighth, Vialle’s debut year was nothing short of sensational as he went bar-to-bar with older, much more experienced riders and even gave his team-mate and soon-to-be champion Jorge Prado something to think about when he took the overall win at Uddevalla in Sweden.
This year, with twelve months of hard-won experience under his belt, Vialle led the MX2 championship from round two – the MXGP of The Netherlands – in March. After initially level-pegging with Jago Geerts (Monster Energy Yamaha), a double win at round seven at Faenza saw him break free of the Belgian as he began a determined push for the crown.
The statistics speak for themselves. Out of eighteen rounds Vialle finished on the podium on fourteen occasions with a total of seven overall wins, but there is more. Of the thirty-six motos staged he won fourteen of them and finished inside the top-three twenty-eight times – plus he also won the Tag Heuer Best Lap Award for MX2 and topped the Fox Holeshot MX2 category with twenty-one!
