As a fan of the sport since the 1970s, I often look back at seasons that were pretty special. The premier class, which was in the 500cc machines in the 1970s and 80, or the 250cc class in the 1990s obviously saw the legends of the sport create history. Be it Roger De Coster, Joel Robert, Eric Geboers, Dave Thorpe, Georges Jobe, Stefan Everts or Joel Smets. So many big names and so many brilliant battles.

Of course, the small bike class, which was the 125cc bikes in the 1970s or the 250cc bikes now, we have also seen some legendary battles and names. The first small bike hero was obviously Gaston Rahier, followed by names like Alessio Chiodi, Antonio Cairoli, Jeffrey Herlings or Jorge Prado more recently.

As a fan, who only arrived in Europe in 1993, some of the small bike titles that I enjoyed were the 2000 championship between Grant Langston, Mike Brown and James Dobb, which saw these three go hard in every single round and swap paint on more than one occasion.

Langston eventually won the title with 493 points, with Brown second on 419 points and Dobb third with 379 points, so it didn’t end closely, but for some of those rounds, it was all out war.

Another small bike championship was in 2011, when two young 16-year-olds, Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings did a similar job as Langston, Brown and Dobb, and just pitched themselves at each other in most of the rounds.

That title fight ended with Roczen the champion with 651 points and Herlings second on 632. Roczen won 19 motos to Herlings six and was a very deserving world champion, but they had so many close fights, that 19 to six doesn’t seem realistic now looking back. Roczen also took seven 1-1 scores, while Herlings had just two.

Of course, Roczen would go on to win two 450 AMA motocross championships an MXoN victory with Team Germany and Herlings could claim three MX2 title and two MXGP championships, 113 GP wins and also won the MXoN with The Netherlands. Both huge legends of our sport.

Both however suffered major injuries, that probably stopped them both fighting for GOAT honours. What is crazy, some 15 years after that 2011 season, Herlings wins the opening MXGP round of the season in Argentina and Roczen wins the latest round of the AMA 450 supercross championship in Detroit.

I might add, the new kids on the block, Jeff Lawrence, Lucas Coenen, Kay de Wolf or Haiden Deegan were running around in nappies when Roczen and Herlings battled in 2011.

Their longevity and their mark on the sport will forever be remembered. Those two young boys who fought so hard in 2011 are veterans and both in contention for their respective championships. Isn’t our sport just amazing!!!

Take a look at this very cool Ray Archer gallery from that magical 2011 season.