As we saw at Loket, a bad start left Jeffrey Herlings mired mid-pack in race two and arguably cost him the win and vital points towards a title, even in Lommel Herlings’ starts were not the best but he was able to come out top six by hugging the inside, it has been his achilles heel all season and that has been amplified by not just Jorge Prado’s consistently great starts but also Tim Gajser who rarely starts outside the top three.
When your competition for the title are more than often coming out 1-2 out of turn one and the best two starters in the class, you are already fighting an uphill battle even if your name is Jeffrey Herlings!
So, in a bid to be able to start the races on terms with his toughest compeition, Herlings admitted KTM have an update that was testing this week in a bid to improve his starts. Let’s see if it works at Hawkstone Park!
“We have an update coming this week, so hopefully that will improve my starts,” said Herlings at Lommel during the press conference. “I don’t know if it’s going to be better, I pray it’s going to be better because I have a very weird bike set-up the way I ride. I am super happy with it on track but the starts could be a bit better, I am fully aware of that but I choose to have a good bike for riding as well. Hopefully this update will bring what I am searching for, it’s not a promise but if we don’t try we don’t know.
“I think if we get a good start in Sweden i can run on the podium and run with Tim, Romain and Jorge and those guys,” Herlings continued. “I showed in Loket on a hard track I came from basically dead last twice to the top guys almost. I feel like the last five or six races I have the speed to win or at least matching their speed. I don’t see why I can’t be on the podium again in Sweden. If I want any chance of the championship, I need to win, they don’t have the pressure and I do. My goal at the beginning of the year was to try and make all the races, that’s still my main goal, I haven’t succeeded in that very often, even if I get third this year, I don’t see it as a mess up, if I make it to all the races that’s my highest priority and stay safe.”
