We are in a pretty special time in the sport as we find ourselves in something of an era change. While names like Jeffrey Herlings, Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser are still riders capable of winning overalls and also championships, there is a breed of young guns come to take their place.

The fight for supremacy is happening in both Europe and America and I just find it so exciting. In America, of course Jett Lawrence isn’t even close to being a rookie and his achievements in USA are already legendary, which is stunning for somebody who is just 21 years of age, turning 22 in a couple of months.

While Jorge Prado is struggling at the moment, probably with confidence, the bike, the tracks and so much more, he too is a rider more than capable of matching Lawrence, but it might take him a year or two to get to that stage. Sometimes the grass isn’t greener on the other side and Prado is finding out that the Austrian bike he was riding might not have been as bad as he thought when he mentioned how awesome Kawasaki is.

You then have Haiden Deegan, another rider to take the challenge to Lawrence on the 450 in years to come and clearly hungry for success and a determination similar to that of all the past and present legends.

In Europe, Lucas Coenen is fighting to gain the place at the very top and so far, he is working his way to the red plate in fine fashion. At one point in 2025, he was 98 points behind series leader Tim Gajser and now with Gajser out, Coenen has pulled back the points lead to just 26 points. Of course, Romain Febvre holds the red plate now, but Coenen has scored more points than Febvre in the last three GPs.

When you talk about Lucas Coenen, you also need to talk about Kay De Wolf, Andrea Adamo, Simon Langenfelder and Liam Everts, because all four of these guys will be very good 450 riders. They all have the skills and the determination to be success stories in the MXGP class.

For me, is Jett Lawrence the number one rider in the World at the moment, and I just cannot put anyone above him for now and as much as I would love to put Jeffrey Herlings number one, for the time being, the Aussie takes the top spot.

Just a masterful performance so far, in winning the first three rounds of the series and holding a handy points lead over his rivals. Lawrence is already ninth in the all-time AMA win list for motocross, with 32 overall victories, and just ahead of him are Ricky Johnson with 33, Broc Glover with 35, Jeff Ward with 36 and Bob Hannah with 37. Expect him to pass all those guys in 2025 and the only ones ahead of him would be Eli Tomac 44, Ryan Dungey 46, James Stewart 48 and RC 102.

For all time 450 wins, Lawrence has 18, and is equal with Kent Howerton, and just behind Stewart with 20, Ken Roczen with 21, Ricky Johnson with 22 and Bob Hannah with 27. Again, he can pass all these guys apart from Hannah in 2025. That would place him fifth in the all time 450 list behind Hannah 27, Eli Tomac 32, Ryan Dungey 39 and RC 76.

We all know the Herlings stats, five World titles, 109 GP wins, nearly a 50% win rate, and so much more. The Bullet continued to surprise us, continues to come back from one injury after the other and never give up.

His wins in Germany and Latvia the last two weeks have been inspiring and I sure hope he can continue to build, get some of those old fashioned Herlings victories and maybe even head to Ironman in October and shock the World again.

His 2017 Ironman AMA National victory performance remains a high point in his career and to see him return there, in peak form and battle the likes of the Lawrence brothers and other leading AMA riders would be pretty cool.

We could have a multiple battles, with names like Lawrence, Herlings, Tomac, De Wolf, Coenen, Febvre, Deegan, Roczen, Gajser and so many more. The era’s criss-crossing and all of us wondering which era comes out on top as we enter September and October. Will it be Febvre or Coenen, or will it be Tomac or Lawrence?

JP/KTM image