Jeffrey Herlings: Defending in 2022

Jeffrey Herlings of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team is as tough as they come. Having fought through one injury after another, the Dutchman never gave up his chase for a fifth Motocross World Championship, and having already won titles in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2018, he felt the past two years of injury in 2019 and 2020 had to stop.

While he did get landed on in the Grand Prix at the Oss circuit and busted his shoulder, he recovered quickly and set about making up a bunch of points he has lost due to missing the second race in Oss and the Grand Prix of Czech Republic at the Loket circuit. Still, the mind set has been never give-up, no matter what.

“I kept saying to myself,” Herlings said. “After all the bad luck, all the injuries, I just kept saying to myself, I have come too far this year to not make it happen and I told myself that over and over again. I just knew I would do it and I did it.”

While the KTM rider crashed three times during the triple header in Trentino, Italy, he found his mojo and rattled off two GP victories in the final two rounds of the championship in Mantova and it was when the pressure was really on full beam, that he came through with flying colours.

“The pressure was on and Tim was the first to crack with the start thing and entering the track in the wrong place and due to that he lost a lot of points and he didn’t win a race the last four races when it counted, because he made some slight mistakes, so he was out of the championship battle first. Then Romain, I wouldn’t say he cracked, but he also made a mistake in the last race when it was all about the championship. So, I was the guy who didn’t make a mistake when it really counted. It was tough, because none of us were in that position before, well I was in 2014 in Mexico when I rode with a broken femur, but that was a totally different situation where I was riding to survive more than battle for the championship. I think it was tough for all of us and I came out on top. The season is hardly finished, and we look forward to next year.”

And now with that MXGP title in his pocket, Herlings has already started to prepare for 2022 and with a new bike from KTM, he is working over-time to get it sorted for the opening round of the championship at Matterley Basin on February 20.

“Obviously with Tony retiring, he is not on a full program anymore. Jorge isn’t riding so much anymore, but I believe he is back on the bike now, but I am not sure and the American guys riding the new bike, but preparing for supercross, so basically, I am the only guy riding the new bike outdoors. I put in a lot of hours to try and get the bike better, doing a lot of laps. It is a new bike and needs time to have it fully how we want it.”

“We will only know the improvements when we are actually racing, because when you are riding alone and just clicking off laps, nobody is matching your speed or battling. The new bike seems to have better handling, I think it will give more traction on tracks like Turkey, or Arco, I believe it will be better there. It is something we have to see next year, but the feeling is that is the area where it has improved. Until now it is good on every single track we have ridden, and the older bike was from 2018, so we have four years of feedback on that bike. We made minor changes throughout the years on that older bike, but now we need to figure it all out again on the new one.”

With two pre-season races to run for the Dutchman, in France and England, he will come into the opening MXGP round with confidence and a bike that might just make his job in 2022 a little easier. For now, though, it is the cold winter days at Lommel, and other tracks around Europe where you can find the World MXGP champion.

Photo Copyright: Ray Archer