Photo by Frederik Van Eeckhoven
Normally, MotoXAddicts does not cover the Belgium Championship, but this Monday, August 15th, it was the mythical race at Balen on “the Keiheuvel.” With an entry list full of big names and Jeffrey Herlings–who made his debut on the 350F in the MX1 class–it was an amazing day of racing!
But the day started with a setback for the public. Crowd favorite, Clément Desalle, crashed in the start of the first heat. The Belgian came together in the air with Evgeny Bobryshev, and they both went down. Max Nagl could not dodge Desalle and went down as well. Clément was knocked out for a few moments, and when he came back to Earth, he knew his injuries were bad and that his season was over. He broke his left upper arm just under his shoulder and also suffered some injuries to his shoulder joint.
Still, the show must go on and on it went–with Jeffery Herlings in the lead from start to finish. The young Dutchmen did what everyone expected: he dominated. The second guy in the race, Kevin Strijbos, was 20 seconds behind and the third man, Joel Roelants, 50 seconds. Jeffrey rode that 350F like it was his 250F and the Keiheuvel was not a rough sand track for him, but was a smooth highway!
The second heat was going to start, and everyone knew who the guy to beat was. And, again, we saw a holeshot from Jeffrey Herlings. The Sandman on home soil was feeling it. Tanel Leok was trying to answer Herlings’ pace, but without success. The Estonian Express ended the race with 41 seconds behind. The Belgian sand master Roelants also did not have an answer for the JH84 and was in third again. Shaun Simpson became fourth, and Russian MX1 revelation Evgeny Bobryshev ended fifth, 1 minute and 24seconds behind Herlings. Kevin Strijbos, meanwhile, rode from dead last to eighth place.
In the third heat, it was more of the same. Herlings showed us that he is the best sand rider in the world, no doubt about it. Strijbos tried to match Herlings’ incredible pace, but at the end, he lost 18 seconds. Max Nagl, the third of the Lommel Grand Prix MX1, ended third in the third heat, but he lost 53 seconds on that 16 year old Dutch kid. A lot can be told by the fact that guys like Jonathan Barragan and Petar Petrov (5th in the first heat in Lommel) got lapped!
Jeffrey Herlings stood on top of the podium. Kevin Stijbos (Left) Joel Roelants (Right) Photo by Frederik Van Eeckhoven from Vepix.be
