With Jeffrey Herlings out of the MXGP title hunt as soon as he injured his knee back in October, there were murmurings that it might be the perfect time for the Dutchman to race a season of AMA motocross, giving the five-time world champ more time to recover from the injury and get back into race shape.
We asked Herlings in Arco if that was ever a possibility but as long as Sexton was fit, it didn’t seem to be an option Herlings could take:
“Well I think you know if Chase would have got hurt, maybe KTM would have sent me there, but with Chase being completely healthy, luckily he’s healthy and he’s trying to fight for a championship at Supercross. I mean he’s faster than I am right now, so why would they? They don’t need me there, and also even here, well I’m not ready for any championship anymore, but I’m just trying to be (ready for) the second part of the season, trying to fight for podiums and yeah, work from there.“
After he did a social media post just before the start of the supercross season about Haiden Deegan and his admiration at his speed, we asked Herlings how the 18 year old version of himself and Deegan would have faired racing together given they have a very similar mindset!
Herlings admitted: “Yeah I had the same attitude when I was 18, like I didn’t care about anything, and he’s the same and he was winning. I mean yeah, I have a lot of respect for him, I watch his vlogs, I rarely watch any vlogs, but the danger boy ones I really like and they are also very professional, so I always like it and I’m a massive fan of him. I think he’s not like super, super talented as Jett Lawrence, don’t get me wrong he’s super talented still, but not like you know, Jett , but he works so hard and he is so mentally strong. So him being talented, super strong mentally and fast and have so much desire to win, I think that’s why he’s that good.”
Get the full interview below:
