Photo by: Ray Archer
On Saturday night, Red Bull / KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings finally made it back to the top of the MX2 mountain. After winning back-to-back MX2 World Championships by out battling Tommy Searle in 2012 and completely dominating in 2013, Jeffrey almost seemed superhuman at times. But a long string of serious injuries reminded us the Flying Dutchman definitely puts his pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us. In both 2014 and 2015, Jeffrey had huge leads in the championships only to lose them to one major injury after the next. The #84 showed us how much it meant to him at the end of 2014 when he literally raced the finale with a broken femur. Even after missing six motos, he missed out on that championship by just four points.
For a minute it seemed that 2016 might end just like ’14 and ’15 when Jeffrey broke his collarbone before the 2016 Czech GP, but luckily it was just a collarbone and he had a triple digit lead in the Championship. Jeffrey returned to action a week ago in Assen, and after winning there and finishing second to Star Racing / Yamaha’s Copper Webb at the inaugural 2016 MXGP of the Americas, Jeffrey can finally graduate from the MX2 class a three-time World Champ.
While Jeffrey was able to lock down his third MX2 World Championship in Charlotte, Webb made it a bittersweet day for the #84. In moto one, Jeffrey was the better man—coming from behind to take advantage of a mistake by Austin Forkner and passing Webb for the victory—but the bitter taste came in moto two. In Europe, nobody can come from a 19th place start to hunt down Jeffrey and pass him, but that’s exactly what Webb did inside Charlotte Motor Speedway’s dirt track. It was something Jeffrey had never had to experience before, but to be fair, Webb had the home crowd advantage and Jeffrey had only raced one race since returning from injury. What was most impressive, though, was the champ’s humility in the face of defeat.
Overall, it’s just one race, and while the USA versus Europe debaters would like it to mean more, nothing can be derived from that one race except that Webb was better on that day. Like Jeffrey says below, “to really know who is the fastest, you have to race a full championship on different kind of tracks.” We 100% agree. After the race, MotoXaddicts’ Chase Yocom dropped his camera, and grabbed his recorder. Check out what else Jeffrey had to say after his second overall in Charlotte, NC. below.
Jeffrey, congratulations on the MX2 World Championship. A third title finally. You won the first moto and clinched the title. Can you talk about moto one?
Yeah, definitely, it was all hyped up. This was the first time they got to see me race in America. And also against Cooper [Webb] who was the American supercross and motocross Champion. It was the best of one side of the ocean, and the best of the other side of the ocean. It was very cool. I’m very happy that we could pull off the Championship. Once again I’m super-pumped after three years and all the things I’ve been going through. I dislocated my hip, broke my femur and both those are some serious injuries. To come back from those is pretty tough. I’m happy that I have the championship.
Talk about moto two. We saw you racing with Cooper, but what was your strategy? We know you very well so I’m sure the strategy was win, but how was it racing with the Americans?
Racing in America is just way different. Those guys are so much more focused on the sport. In Europe we all talk, have fun and laugh. And those guys don’t talk to each other. (laughs) It’s like really weird when we get here. I’m like, “Oh, okay!” (laughs) It’s weird, those guys will shoot somebody to win probably. We are just like having fun, or whatever. I think they’re so much more focused and the development on the bikes and the way they live. We just have fun and we train, but not like they train. It’s different. I think we can really learn a lot from those guys, and the intensity they have. When they come from Supercross into the nationals we always do like all forty minute motos, forty minute motos but those guys, the speed they carry at the beginning, it’s was like, freaky. I never had to do that speed. It’s normally I take like fifth place start, and win. But with those guys, I had to step up my game. I think first moto I was the fastest but in the second moto, I’m just going to be honest, Cooper was faster. Definitely, everybody will say, hey, “Who is the fastest guy?” Is it Cooper, is it Jeffrey? I think that’s something you cannot compare ’cause it’s just the one event. I won first moto, he won second moto so it’s one, one. But to really know who is the fastest, you have to race a full championship on different kind of tracks. It’s just the one event. You cannot say that guy’s faster or that guy. Once again, I have a lot of respect for those guys. They’re gnarly kids and super fast. I’m very pleased to after all these years finally race the fastest American Lites riders—which they currently are.
Could you take me through the battle you had with Cooper in the first moto? That was pretty close.
I think this track wasn’t really easy to passon. There was just one major good line and that was the line. I knew I was next to Cooper, and I knew I had to make it happen. Obviously, things turned out my way with Austin [Forkner] going down, and Cooper lost a little bit of time there. So we were just drag racing and I was like wide open. (laughs) Like he just mentioned, I tried to put in two or three good laps and make a little gap. Then the race was won.
You pretty much put the bookmark on your MX2 career now with a third world title. It’s been an exceptional MX2 career. Can you talk a bit about your 250 days and moving to MXGP next season?
I think in Europe there’s not much to gain. If you take away Austin and Cooper today then I would have probably won by a minute. And as more and more guys go into the MXGP, so it’s definitely got time to do that. The reason I stayed in MX2—people know with the injuries I had—I just couldn’t prepare myself for MXGP. But now I think we’re ready and we have to make this step. I think I had a great Lites career&mash;a great MX2 career. We won 60 GP’s, and we won three championships. It could have been five, but we had some bad luck. So I think we’ve been really good in the Lites, and Its just time to step it up and race with the big guys.
Have you thought about racing the MXGP class at Glen Helen next week?
We haven’t tested any 450s yet so for the moment that’s not on the program. We also don’t have any things to test. I won a championship, but we’ll be in U.S. all week so we don’t have materials to test the set up. I’m not planning on racing a 450 at Glen Helen. Just try to finish my career off good on the 250. It’s the last race with Austin being there and Jeremy Martin. Try to do everything to hopefully possibly get a win to finish off my career. A win will be amazing, but I’ve got some strong competition. Hopefully Glen Helen will suit me better. I’m a tall heavy guy, and on this track was so many 180 turns. I felt like they had a little advantage on that point, but I think in Glen Helen the track is a little more sandy—more fast—so there is not a lot of turns where you have to start from nothing. I think we’ll be a little bit better at that track. Still it’s no guarantee we’re going to win, but we’re at least gonna to try to do our best.
Everybody knows about Cooper Webb, but what were your thoughts on Austin Forkner?
I was surprised how much speed he had, like in the beginning. Like Cooper just mentioned, in the beginning when the gate drops those guys are so gnarly and so fast! In Europe everybody starts slowly and gets in the rhythm, but those guys when the gate drops it’s just wide open. I think that’s also the point that I’ve maybe lost today is I didn’t have the speed [from the gate drop]. Those guys race like that every weekend and for me, it was the first time I had to race such fast guys. That was pretty tough, but I think if I were racing those guys every weekend I’d get better at it. For now I was just surprised because all year long I won easily pretty much everything. And now I’m racing those guys who are like two seconds faster than the competition that I’m always racing. That’s tough, and obviously with a broken collarbone I was out for five weeks, so I think I missed a little bit of bike time because I’ve only been on the bike for two and a half weeks. That’s not an excuse and I’m not saying I would have won if that didn’t happen, but I think that played a little part.
You clinched the championship the first moto. In the second moto, how much were you hanging it out there?
I just give 100%! I give 100% the first moto, I give 100% the second moto. I think the first moto I was just fastest and second moto I just wasn’t.
I know it’s an emotional title because of the way the last two years went. Is it weird that you actually probably aren’t going to be home for a week or more? Does that make it more special or kind of odd that you’re actually at a fly-away race when you finally get this championship?
Yeah, the last weekend was my home GP so there were like 20 or 25,000 spectators, all Dutch fans of mine. So it’s a shame I couldn’t have won the championship there, but now at least I won the championship—so that’s a good thing. But to win it here, it’s less nice. Because there’s not so many supporters, family, friends, whatsoever. It’s a serious trip. But at the end of the day, I won the championship and I should be very proud and very thankful for that. But definitely would have liked way more to win the championship in Europe.
