Jeffrey Herlings is currently side lined due to injury and that give Gypsy Tales an opportunity to catch up with the reigning MXGP World Champion.
The Factory KTM rider admitted the plan was to race the AMA Nationals this year but due to little preparation, he felt he wouldn’t have been a championship contender so decided to focus on the 2023 instead.
Herlings, has revealed that he has still got plans to race an AMA Nationals season and perhaps during his final season as a professional – hopefully we’ll still see him race a couple of MXGP seasons yet though.
“I really wanted to go to the US this season, but I barely couldn’t make it. I was just 2-3 weeks to late on the bike. I could only start riding on the 8th of May or something with the first National on the 28th of May. I didn’t ride for three and a half months so I felt I wouldn’t be capable of doing a full 35-minute moto and imagine that guys speed. The championship is so short with just 12 races in the series week in, week out. I wouldn’t have been capable of fighting for the championship so that’s why I eventually decided not to do it. My long-term goal is still to race a full outdoor championship probably in the last year of my career. It’s my goal today but maybe it will change in the future due to injuries or whatever. We will see but I felt really bad because I really wanted to do the full series in the US because I personally believe the competition is super strong. Those tracks I feel are much better for me, the European tracks are so hard and slick… not so fun to ride while the US tracks all look so amazing. Pro Motocross do such a great job preparing the tracks and that’s probably why Tony (Cairoli) enjoys it so much because the tracks are like a chocolate cake”, Herlings told Gypsy Tales.
As well as that, Herlings is keen to race Eli Tomac with just those two out on the track – Tim Gajser might feel like he’d want an invite too though!
There is a chance that Herlings could make it back in time for the Motocross Des Nations at RedBud in September which could also be Eli Tomac’s last Motocross race as he’s expected to be Supercross only in 2023.
Listen to Herlings thoughts, below:
Pic: Ray Archer