Red Bull KTM Factory Racing icon Jeffrey Herlings is working towards a competitive return to motocross action and through the final stages of rehabilitation after surgery to repair a torn right ACL.
The five-times world champion and most successful Grand Prix winner in FIM Motocross World Championship history is coming closer to his goal of being able to ride, test and get back into MXGP shape for 2025. 30-year-old Herlings underwent an operation to fix the right knee injury, which he sustained in the sand of Valkenswaard in October 2024 and after a strong campaign in which he completed the 20-round season with 3rd in the standings and with 4 GP wins and 15 podium finishes.
Since the medical procedure the Dutchman (Red Bull KTM’s longest serving racer after joining the factory MXGP team in 2010) has been following the rehab steps and is now just a few weeks away from being able to ride his 2025 KTM 450 SX-F.
Herlings will not be able to join the rest of his team for the season-opening Grand Prix of Argentina on 2-3 March but will then assess his pace and progress until he is ready to enter the MXGP start gate once more for his eighth attempt at the class and his sixteenth year as a world championship athlete.
Jeffrey Herlings: “We’re looking good. I can do everything aside from ride the bike. I can cycle, swim, cross train – and it should only be a few weeks until we are back to the normal plan. 2024 wasn’t a great season but it was decent; we’d made a lot of races, came close to the MXGP championship, won a few GPs and had something like 15 podiums at the end. I wanted to be strong coming into this year so having this setback was not good but what I can hope for now is a successful second part of the championship. It was a weird injury because there was not much pain after surgery but it takes time to recover. I want to ride as soon as possible and join the rest of my Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team… but we just need to wait a little longer. I really want to race again.”
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Grand Prix winners, Lucas and Sacha Coenen, will transfer from MXGP FIM World Championship competition to AMA SuperMotocross for 2027 and onwards.
Round 10 of the 2026 AMA Pro Motocross Championship proved to be another successful outing for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing at Budds Creek, with Jorge Prado claiming second overall in 450MX, while Julien Beaumer earned a top-five finish in 250MX. Following his second-place result at Unadilla last weekend, Prado qualified sixth aboard his KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION at the rain-affected Budds Creek National, posting a 1:56.300 lap time before racing to P3 in Moto 1. The four-time world champion started Moto 2 from second and remained firmly in contention for the victory throughout the race. He ultimately settled for a spirited third position, securing second overall and his fourth podium of the season outdoors. With one round remaining in the 2026 Pro Motocross season at next weekend's Ironman National, Prado sits fourth in the 450MX standings and is currently third in the wider SMX World Championship rankings. Jorge Prado: "My riding was pretty good today and a podium is always nice. I need to get better at dealing with traffic in those last 10 minutes, so we’ll work on that, and it will help a lot with my results. Hopefully we can get a moto win or an overall at Ironman – I like that track and am feeling really good on the bike." Four-time 450MX champion Eli Tomac set the fifth-fastest time on the combined 450MX timesheets in qualifying, before featuring toward the front of the pack from the outset in Moto 1 aboard his KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION. The 33-year-old finished a solid fourth in the opening race, before a difficult start in Moto 2 left him to recover to 13th, with Tomac completing the weekend ninth overall as his late-season momentum continues to build. Eli Tomac: "We had a much better weekend, even though the overall results may not show that – I was happier with my riding. I was battling for a podium position almost the whole first moto, and then in the second moto, I just put myself in too bad of a position off the start to really get to the front. At this point, I’m just getting stronger and stronger, and I feel like I’ll be in the podium fight for Ironman and for the SMX series." Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Aaron Plessinger continued his return to Pro Motocross competition at Budds Creek, with ‘The Cowboy’ converting a strong start in Moto 1 into a 10th-place result. Plessinger completed the opening lap of Moto 2 in sixth on board his KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION and eventually claimed seventh, taking P7 overall for the round in his second race back since injuring his tailbone at RedBud. Aaron Plessinger: "Budds Creek went pretty good, I'd say! It was a lot better than my last few weeks at the track – practice was alright, then it started raining, and I got excited, but it stopped just in time for the track to kind of dry out a little bit before Moto 1. We got 10th in that one, which was decent given I am racing myself back into form, and then the second one I got a really good start, before being shuffled back early. From there, I battled around seventh and stayed there the whole moto to earn seventh overall. This is solid, it's good momentum, and we'll take the positives into Ironman!" Equipped with the KTM 250 SX-F FACTORY EDITION in the 250MX Class, Beaumer qualified 10th quickest on combined times, before racing to an eighth-place finish in Moto 1 amid technical, drying track conditions. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider charged forward from outside the top 10 in Moto 2 to take an impressive fourth-place finish. His 8-4 moto scorecard earned fourth overall for the weekend, maintaining third in the 250MX standings with one round remaining. Julien Beaumer: "P4 at Budds Creek. I struggled a little bit in Moto 1, but rode more like myself in Moto 2. I had to fight from around 15th to fourth in that second moto, so happy with the progress, and we will keep building. Let's finish this thing off strong at Ironman!" Next Race: August 29 – Crawfordsville, Indiana Results 450MX Class – Budds Creek National 1. Hunter Lawrence (Honda) 2. Jorge Prado (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) 3. Haiden Deegan (Yamaha) 7. Aaron Plessinger (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) 9. Eli Tomac (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) 10. RJ Hampshire (Husqvarna) 13. Malcolm Stewart (Husqvarna) Standings 450MX Class 2026 after 10 of 11 rounds 1. Hunter Lawrence, 442 points 2. Jett Lawrence, 441 3. Haiden Deegan, 376 4. Jorge Prado, 351 5. RJ Hampshire, 308 12. Aaron Plessinger, 129 17. Eli Tomac, 89 23. Lucas Coenen, 44 28. Malcolm Stewart, 31 Results 250MX Class – Budds Creek National 1. Chance Hymas (Honda) 2. Cole Davies (Yamaha) 3. Landen Gordon (Yamaha) 4. Julien Beaumer (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) 9. Daxton Bennick (Husqvarna) 12. Landon Gibson (Husqvarna) 15. Ryder DiFrancesco (Husqvarna) Standings 250MX Class 2026 after 10 of 11 rounds 1. Cole Davies, 378 points 2. Levi Kitchen, 364 3. Julien Beaumer, 322 5. Ryder DiFrancesco, 291 13. Casey Cochran, 146 18. Daxton Bennick, 118 20. Sacha Coenen, 83
Sacha Coenen tied on points for 3rd position at the sandy Motorsportpark Gelderland Midden circuit for the Grand Prix of the Netherlands today. The Belgian ranked 4th overall and was the top Red Bull KTM rider at a busy and sunny sixteenth round of the FIM Motocross World Championship.
