Eleven in a row and just seven to go: Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings is well into the second phase of considering a ‘perfect’ season of Grand Prix wins in the MX2 class and once his elusive and belated third world title is in the bag.
The Dutchman faced one of his hardest tests last weekend in Great Britain with a hairline fracture of his right heel proving a difficult and painful obstacle for the big jumps an hard-landings of the Matterley Basin circuit.
Herlings looked off-key on Saturday as he rode to fifth position in the qualification heat but reaped the benefit of two holeshots and bore the discomfort of the injury sustained in a incident during the previous weekend’s Dutch Championship meet at Markelo to triumph convincingly. It was his 10th ‘double’ of the year and brings his tally to 21 motos from 22.
“We turned a very negative weekend into a positive one,” he said. “When I woke up this morning [Sunday] it [the heel] was so stiff and I couldn’t stand on it. That’s why I didn’t do the quad jump [in the races] because I was afraid of coming up short or over-jumping. The doctor said I couldn’t make it worse…I would just have to stand the pain.
“Riding with that is not fun. On Thursday night I was in a big stress and I was thinking about two top fives. In the end I managed to gain fifteen points and we are almost 150 ahead; here it gets dangerous because in the last two years I managed to get injured and lose it!”
Now almost three grands prix ahead of Suzuki’s Jeremy Seewer with seven remaining Herlings is split over giving importance to an incredible achievement of seeing out 2016 without defeat. It is a distinction that former Team Manger Stefan Everts almost managed in 2006 but missed out by one event. The Belgian was denied by Josh Coppins at the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland.
“I would say no…but the closer I get to the end of the season then it does,” Herlings mused on the chance of the record. “I’m getting close and I don’t want to give it away. I know Mantova, Lommel and Assen are my tracks but I know places like Loket will come and in America there will be some American guys like Pro Circuit. There will be some serious competition. We’ll go for it. It will be nice to be the first guy undefeated for ‘overalls’.”
