On the 25^th of April, 2010, a 15 year old boy became an instant success when he won his first ever motocross Grand Prix. Going 1-1, GP rookie Jeffrey Herlings of the Red Bull KTM factory team scored the first of what is now 100 Grand Prix victories.

KTM support Jeffrey Herlings and MXlarge: MX (ktm.com)

Nearly 13 years later and at the age of 28, nearly double the age of when he took that victory in Valkenswaard, he shot to victory with a 2-2 score to move a step closer to the all-time record of Stefan Everts, who has 101 GP wins to his legendary name.

Winning is something we have gotten used to with “The Bullet”. They have in the past come in quick succession, but lately, at least in the last two years, the numbers have dropped somewhat, of course in 2022 due to injury and in 2021 due to a very competitive championship battle with Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser. While he did take nine in 2021, his 2018 season in MXGP and a couple of his MX2 championships consisted of many more in a season, record breaking numbers in fact.

With 39 MXGP GP wins and 61 in MX2, he is behind Antonio Cairoli for MXGP overall wins, but is the king of the MX2 class, miles ahead of anyone else. Cairoli has 70 MXGP wins, a tally it seems Herlings would struggle to beat, but you just never know with the Dutchman. Another 10 this season and that 70 suddenly looks reachable. It should be mentioned, the Italian raced 13 years in the 450 class, while Herlings has raced just seven, or six if you don’t want to count 2022. Cairoli had 208 Grand Prix’s in MXGP compared to 67 by Herlings.

The Numbers - 2010 to 2023

In that 2010 rookie season Herlings won again in Latvia and then in 2011 in a heated battle with Ken Roczen for the MX2 championship won again in Valkenswaard, in Brazil, Portugal, Belgium, and Italy. A year later in 2012 he again had a brilliant battle in a championship winning season. Herlings battled British rider Tommy Searle and took out win in Holland, Italy, Mexico, France, Portugal, Russia, Czech Republic, Holland (again), Italy again. Nine GP wins and until that moment a record for the young Dutchman.

It didn’t get any easier for the opposition as Herlings completely dominated 2013, scoring 14 GP wins from 14 raced. He did miss the Belgian GP with injury, which was won by Australian Dean Ferris.

With the Grand Prix victories stacking up, 2014 was another year of many victories, but also his first serious injury, or at least, the first that ruined a World championship run. With victories in 12 rounds, he broke his femur and missed three rounds of the last four rounds, returning in the final round in Mexico, with the femur still broken and lost the MX2 championship by just four points. He had also missed the Brazilian GP earlier in the year with an injury.

A year later in 2015 and wins in Qatar, Thailand, Holland and France meant nothing as injury saw him finish well down the World championship standings. He contested just 11 of the 18 rounds and injuries started becoming far to frequent. Seventh in the World was not where this amazing rider was meant to finish, but he did.

2016 and finally the motocross God’s allowed him to actually finish a season and he scored 14 GP wins from 15 started. He was back, fit, strong and a three time World MX2 champion. Only a second place finish to Cooper Webb at the USGP stopped him from total domination.

Again though, an off-season injury in 2017 stalled his progress as he climbed to the MXGP class. Expected to dominate as he had done in the MX2 class his season started with 15^th, 17^th, 9^th, 12^th, 8^th overall, before he finished second at Valkenswaard and then won his first 450 GP in Latvia, adding another in Belgium, Switzerland, USA, Holland again and France. He might not have won the title, but in everyone’s eyes, he was the fastest man on the planet.

Again, injuries kept away for the majority of 2018 and he showed why we ranked him as the best in the World. Victories in Argentina, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Latvia, Germany, Great Britain, France, Indonesia (twice), Czech Republic, Belgium, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Holland again and Italy again. His greatest season so far with 17 wins from 18 races.

His GP tally was steamrolling now and everyone expected this to continue, but unfortunately for Herlings, injuries visited again and his 2019 and 2020 seasons were ruined. He did win in Turkey and China in 2019, but rode very few Grand Prix’s and was nowhere to be seen when the championship trophies were dealt out. 2020 wasn’t much better, with wins in Great Britain, Holland, Latvia and Italy, but again down the order in the MXGP points and injuries stopping his momentum once again.

2021 was far better on the injury side and he showed brilliance once again. The Covid riddled season, but wins in Italy, Turkey (twice), Sardinia, France, Spain, Italy again, and then twice more in Italy. Another championship to go to five, but it wasn’t an injury free season and what was to come was even worse. Another off-season injury in early 2022 and the Dutchman missed the complete season.

Enter 2023 and Argentina, a near win after 15 months out, then that amazing victory last weekend. His 100^th Grand Prix victory and as he said on the podium, keep counting. Lets hope he can capture that 101^st and 102^nd to pass the legendary Stefan Everts as the greatest GP winner of all time. Records are meant to be broken, and it was Stefan himself who eclipsed the record of the great Belgian Joel Robert back in 2001.

Robert had held the record of 50 Grand Prix wins for nearly 30 years and it makes sense that it’s been 22 years since Stefan took Roberts record and 17 years since Stefan won his final Grand Prix at Ernee in 2006. That final GP victory came just a week after Herlings 12^th birthday.

Who would have though, three years later, a 15 year old Herlings would win his first of 100 and now more 20 after Everts passed Robert record, a 28 year old Herlings would be so close to matching The King's 101 GP victories.

The circle of life and the breaking of records is something time can’t stop. Now it’s Herlings time for greatness. 

JP and KTM images