Jeffrey Herlings

In motocross, a debate has raged for over 50 years… You see, there are two ‘Holy Grail’ championships at the pinnacle of dirt bike racing; the European MXGP World Motocross Championship and the American AMA National Pro Motocross Championship. Each series has its own set of 40 professional riders that compete in a plethora of rounds across all sorts of terrain (dirt, sand, mud etc.) The problem is, these two sets of riders seldom ever get to compete against the other. So fans have long pondered which lot’s faster… Well, in 2017 the stars miraculously aligned and we got to see Europe’s top rider, Jeffrey Herlings go head-to-head with Eli Tomac and everything else America had to throw at him! The following is what transpired…

It was a dark day in American motocross. European rider, Jeffrey Herlings had just come over for a one-off, guest appearance race in the AMA National Pro Motocross Championship… And won. Even coming from last place after a first turn crash, all the way back up to lead before the chequered flag, passing Eli Tomac and all the rest of them along the way like they were standing still! But the real reason he was stateside? To acclimatize himself in preparation for the next round of his MXGP World Motocross Championship, which was set to take place in Jacksonville, Florida the following weekend. In light of all that’d happened, Tomac and a number of other American riders entered themselves as exhibitionists, and the world watched on with baited breath as it seemed like we were finally about to get a definitive answer to the age-old question… Who’s faster, Europeans or Americans?