This Jeffrey Herlings Comeback is One of the Best You’ll Ever See

Jeffrey Herlings’ history at Loket, the home of the MXGP of the Czech Republic, does not put the Czech track among the Dutchman’s most successful. He has three GP wins there, in 2012, 2013, and 2018, but also only four podiums. However, his Race 2 performance at the 2024 edition of the Czech Grand Prix was among the finest he has produced in MXGP, despite not winning.

From the start, Herlings’ race was in trouble. The KTM rider didn’t get a great start, and as he approached turn two he got caught up with another rider, causing him to crash and drop to the back of the pack.

After the race, Herlings told MXGP-TV that he passed “10 or 15 riders in one-and-a-half laps,” after that second turn crash, but his charge was halted by Andrea Bonacorsi. The big Italian, who started the year on Yamaha’s factory MX2 team having won the EMX250 title last year, had jumped up to the MXGP class after a few races this year because it was decided that the #132’s stature was better suited to the 450 (and Yamaha was in need of riders after both MXGP rookie Jago Geerts and 2021 MX2 World Champion Maxime Renaux were out with injury in the early rounds).

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In Loket Race 2, Bonacorsi was running in 11th place when Herlings caught him on lap two, with 26 minutes left on the clock. The Italian spun up his rear wheel on the exit of the tight right-hander before the track crosses the start straight, and as Herlings tried to square him off and take advantage of the Yamaha rider’s mistake with better traction, he caught his front wheel on Bonacorsi’s rear, causing him to crash again.

This second crash dropped Herlings to 16th, but two laps later he was back on Bonacorsi’s rear wheel, again for 11th place, and he made the move stick this time. He made up another position, to 10th place, on lap five, and then got up to sixth by the end of lap six. Another spot came on lap seven, when he took fifth place from Kawasaki rider Jeremy Seewer, and he remained there until lap 14 when he passed the lead Kawasaki of Romain Febvre for fourth. Finally, Herlings caught Yamaha’s only surviving factory rider from the start of the season, Calvin Vlaanderen, on the final lap, but he was unable to complete the pass.

Although he missed the top three in the moto, Herlings’ charge through the pack in Race 2 secured him third place in the overall classification and meant that he only lost two points on the day to World Championship leader Tim Gajser, who won a Grand Prix at Loket for the first time last weekend.

Honda rider Gajser now holds a 36-point lead over reigning champion Jorge Prado in the riders’ standings, while Herlings is 55 points behind the Slovenian. Seven rounds remain, with the first, the MXGP of Flanders, coming up this weekend (27–28 July) at the infamous Lommel.

Lead image credit: Ray Archer/KTM.