Now a five-time FIM Motocross World Championship title-holder, Jeffrey Herlings has been on a winning streak ever since he scored his first national title at the age of just eight-years-old, when he won the 2002 Dutch Amateur 65cc Championship.

Already turning heads from that young age, Jeffrey quickly moved through the age classes, picking up world and European titles on the way and winning plenty of admirers for his phenomenal raw speed on sand tracks. That's how picked the nickname he's know by still to this day, 'The Bullet'.

In 2009, aged just 14, Jeffrey stepped up to the MX2 class, where he achieved a more-than-respectable second place in the European Championship and a third place in the Dutch Open Championship.

At the dawn of 2010 and only just 15-years-old, Jeffrey moved to the full MX2 World Championship with the Red Bull KTM Factory team, where he won his first GP on home soil at the Dutch Grand Prix in Valkenswaard and again later in the season in Latvia to mark himself out as future world champion.

After finishing runner-up in the 2011 MX2 season and winning another five Grands Prix, Jeffrey dominated the 2012 MX2 season to snap up his maiden world championship title in spectacular style two full races before the season finale. He then absolutely the 2013 MX2 series to win his second world tile by over 130 points despite missing two complete races with injury.

2014 saw him in imperious form again and well on his way to a hat-trick of MX2 crowns after winning 12 out the first 13 Grands Prix when a broken femur suffered a charity race took him out of three GPs. Returning to action at the final GP of the year in Mexico, he rode in immense pain to try and salvage enough points to secure the title, he came up just four points short and had to be content with second place. The victories kept on coming in 2015, but so did the run of injuries that took him out of another title race.

2016 saw Jeffrey back to full fitness and a landmark 50th Grand Prix victory achieved on home soil at Valkenswaard that March was part of a commanding season that saw him finally claim that third MX2 crown even though he was forced to miss three rounds due to a collarbone injury. Such was his domination, he never even lost the lead of the championship when he was on the sidelines.

With the MX2 category well and truly conquered, Jeffrey made the step up to race the giants of the sport in MXGP for 2017, where he continued his successful partnership with the Red Bull KTM Factory Team aboard the brand's all-conquering SXF450 bike.

After finishing a strong runner-up to KTM stable-mate and MXGP legend Tony Cairoli in that debut premier class season, Jeffrey took his speed to the next level in 2018 and dominated the sport's best to claim his first MXGP world title by more than 150 points over Cairoli.

With game-changing speed comes the risk of game-changing crashes and injury, and sadly for Jeffrey the following 2019 and 2020 season were ruined by successive serious, career-threatening injuries. However, demonstrating the single-minded focus to be the world's best motocross racer that's marked his career to date Jeffrey returned a more determined and complete racer in 2021 and finally claimed his long-awaited second MXGP title in a thrilling final moto showdown in Mantova, Italy.

Unfortunately, Jeffrey could not defend his title with a foot injury ruling him out of the 2022 season. Determined to return to title-winning ways in 2023, he looked back to his best as he scored wins to set a new all-time GP wins record of 102 during the first half of the season. Unfortunately, while closing in on the championship lead, Jeffrey suffered another nasty crash whilst leading the German Grand Prix and his run at title number six was ended by a damaged vertebrae.

After another long rehab, Jeffrey was back on the line again in 2024, with his eyes firmly on adding more wins to his record-breaking number and scoring that sixth world title.

Unfortunately, despite having a more or less injury free season, the Dutchman could only finish third in the MXGP championship chase and probably the first time in his career, that an major injury free year saw him NOT win the title.

He showed mid-season that was in fact ready to reach his peak again, taking GP wins in Lombok, Latvia, Lommel and Arnhem, that he could still get the title, but the heavy season maybe saw him drop off somewhat in the final rounds.

Herlings had ridden every single weekend for months, winning a Dutch and British motocross championship, but he finished the season with 2-6-3-3 and lost out to Jorge Prado and Tim Gajser. An injury free season might see him return in 2025 and once again be at his best and I for one, would love to see him add more GP wins and another MXGP title to his already legendary career.

Ray Archer images