JEFFREY HERLINGS PROVES THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO GET HURT WHEN MXGP IS RACING ON SUNDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY

On Sep 13, 2020 Last updated Sep 13, 2020

JEFFREY HERLINGS PROVES THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO
GET HURT WHEN MXGP IS RACING ON SUNDAY,
WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY

Jeffrey Herlings was sitting pretty before his crash in Faenza. Now KTM has announced that he will miss four GPs.

Jeffrey Herlings’ crash at Faenza on Wednesday couldn’t have come at worse time for the 450 points leader. First, he couldn’t race Wednesday’s Faenza race and had his 60-point lead whittled down to 22-points. KTM has already announced that he won’t be racing the third Faenza GP this Sunday and will not be released to race until after the Mantova triple-header on September 27, 30 & October 4.

The official KTM presS release: Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings will sit out the Grands Prix of Lombardia, Citta di Mantova and Europe from September 27-October 4 to undergo another MRI scan in the wake of his crash during Free Practice for the Grand Prix of Citta di Faenza last Wednesday.

The current MXGP FIM World Championship leader and winner of four rounds out seven so far in 2020 fell and suffered a large impact to his neck and shoulders at the Monte Coralli circuit on Wednesday morning. The soon-to-be 26-year old was taken to a hospital in Bologna and then to Herentals in Belgium where he was examined by renowned and trusted surgeon Dr Claes.

While Herlings was fortunate to escape serious injury, the hard landing means he needs to rest and monitor the state of his upper torso in the next two weeks. He is due to have another MRI on September 29th. The date means he will miss the next four rounds of the series. The Mantova circuit will stage a triple header in one week at the end of this month.

WHAT IT MEANS TO JEFFREY TITLE HOPES

Jeffrey Herlings, who turns 26-years-old this Saturday, could miss four races before the end of the month.

With so many GPs crammed on top of each other, a rider who gets injured stands to miss more races than he would on the old MXGP race schedule. Case in point: If Jeffrey is not be back for the Mantova triple-header, which starts on Sunday, September 27, he stands to miss as many as 5 GPs—and lose as many as 150 points (of what is his 22-point lead now). In fact, after this Sunday’s third Faenza GP, Herlings will no longer have the 450 GP points lead.

MXGP’s rushed Sunday/Wednesday/Sunday schedules have come about because of the five months that MXGP missed during the worst part of the Covid-19 virus, They have to cram in as many races as possible to two reasons:

(1) They want to get as many races done in the shortest possible time before winter sets in…and they already have a third Italian triple header scheduled for Trentino, Italy, on November 1, 4 & 8. They know that they can get a surprise snow storm, like the one that hit Colorado last weekend.

(2) Covid-19 is not done wreaking havoc on the world. An outbreak in the MXGP paddock, or inside a team transporter or to a region where they are scheduled to race, would mean that the season would have to be cut short. Thus, they want to get as far into the season as possible, so that if they have to call it off, they will have done enough races to call it a legitimate Championship series.

Jeffrey Herlings has shown in the past that he is willing to race injured, and able to make up a tremendous number of points in short order, will only have 7 GPS left to race if he doesn’t come back until after the Mantova triple header. There is a chance that the MXGP schedule will be extended by one round—if Argentina every gets a firm date, but, as for now, it is not officially on the 2020 MXGP calendar.