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Jason Thomas
Of Pulp MX Network production. A cerebral and experienced look into the racing action from the week that was. This is Industry Seating with Jason Thomas. Presented by Pirelli Tires, GUTS Racing, Plum Creek Funding, Pro Bowl, Wash Works, Connection, Bass Foundry, TL Speed Shop Concept, COD Design Company, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing. Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. My name, as always, hasn't changed. It's strange, right? My name is Jason Thomas and this week we're going to talk about all the things that went on at Feld's Media days. And if you're unfamiliar with that term, it's probably because you don't see it all that often. But what happens is all of the riders, most of the riders, some of the team personnel, of course, all of the broadcast team, race Day Live, a lot of the production team, the staff, like Feld staff, AMA staff, There's a lot of people that all converge upon Angel Stadium in Anaheim for. I was there Monday through Friday, Monday till Friday. I flew out Friday morning. Everybody kind of has a different schedule. Some people are there longer or shorter. Of course, just me. I'm there for the duration. I think I was the second. The person that was there the second longest behind our producer, which is just. I don't know, it's just my M.O. right? I. I always feel like I'm. I always feel like I'm the. The one with the least to offer, so got to be there earlier, stay later and work harder than everybody else. I don't know, it's just kind of a. I don't know if it's a flaw, just a personality thing. I think it was just from not being good enough at racing and always having to outwork everybody else. Just kind of do the same thing now. But it seems to work. So it's not a bad thing. It just. It takes a lot out of you and takes a toll. But we were not digging ditches. I mean, you're getting to talk to factory riders and privateers on the last day. I mean, that's not a bad thing, right? People pay lots of money to be able to do things like that. Before we jump immediately into what went on there, thank the sponsors of this podcast. Pirelli Tires, Guts Racing, Plum Creek Funding, Concept Coatings Design Co. Works Connection Pro Glow Wash, TL Speed Shop, Grantstone Boots and Fly Racing. We're gonna have some changes for the 2025 season as far as sponsors go, but I like to give people as much value as possible, let things run their due course. And when 2025 gets here, I will roll out New graphics, new sponsors. And I know that's super important to all of you. Right? Kidding. But yeah, there will be some changes for 2025, but excited to be continuing the podcast and I'm excited for some racing to actually talk about instead of these other events which I'm sure are just not as exciting for all of you. But it's that time of year. This is what we have to offer. I will talk about Abu Dhabi a little bit, the World Supercross rounds. Of course, I was not there, but I did watch, so I'll cover that a bit at the end. But let's just jump straight into this thing. So we arrived Monday, Weege and I did anyway, and we filmed SMX Insider, which is out now. That came out on Thursday, a couple days ago. I'm filming this, or excuse me, I'm recording this on a Sunday. And there's a lot of info there to kind of COVID Not as much as this podcast will have because it was filmed before we got to talk to anybody, but it was just kind of a preview. We talked about the addition of the French broadcast team for the SMX video pass, which is really cool, especially like if you don't have to be from France. There's a lot of French speaking countries around the world that will benefit from this. So that's, that's exciting news to have the broadcast in their native language from legends of the sport. You think about what they went from, which was the English broadcast team, which a lot of them are probably missing words like didn't catch all the, you know, they're trying to translate it in their head as quickly as possible. But just like any second language, you're gonna miss some stuff. Well, now you're getting it in your language, you're going to get every bit of it. Plus you're getting insight and analysis from Marvin Muscan, David Villeman, Sebastian Tortelli, and then Maxim Martin, who is the kind of French broadcast guy that's been around forever. So I think that's a huge addition and kudos to Feld for putting that together. I know from the inside how much that takes, how much effort, how much investment it is to put something like that together. You're coordinating broadcast teams on different continents because these guys are going to be remote. You know, if it's Marvin or if it's David Villman, they'll be coming from California. If it's Sebastian Tortelli, it'll be coming from Barcelona. And for Maximartan, he's going to be in his home, which is a couple hours away from Paris. So there's. That's all. Think about how much that takes to put together the bandwidth, the technology. So great job to them for not only executing the Spanish side so well, which is done in studio at Feld headquarters, but this French side is taking it to a whole new level. And I do think there will be more languages added over time. Right. You just have to prove out the concept and get these things in place before you can continue expanding. But having French and Spanish editions are really cool. So this week, I think the first guest we had right away, we got Jet and Hunter. So I will start there as well. And most of these are in kind of random order. I did keep the 450s and 250 separated. But let's go straight to Jet. I know that is. He's the biggest name in the sport and there's a lot. There's a lot of controversy around Jet right now with the Australia stuff. And he feels like he's pretty. I don't want to use the word hated, but he's taking a lot of grief on everywhere. That shouldn't matter if I'm being completely honest. Like social media, YouTube comments. I mean, he's. It's pretty rough out there and just. I'll just put it out there. I'm a pretty big fan of Jet and Hunter. You know, I understand that people choose who they cheer for. You know, it's a sport. It's like saying that I'm a big fan of, I don't know, Patrick Mahomes or someone. You're going to have people that hate Patrick Mahomes. Right? Well, I would challenge you to find a lot that Patrick Mahomes has done wrong. Now you want to say his brother's a jackass and you want to say his wife Brittany does some annoying things. Okay, okay, I can buy that. But find some things that were Patrick Mahomes has really done wrong, where he's just been an embarrassment. He's really stepped out. He said something egregiously inappropriate. He doesn't do any of those things. So that's kind of where I am with jet. I am a fan because he doesn't do all the wrong things. He's not a bad role model for kids. And his ability, his talent, his work ethic, you know, before all this kind of happened, his happy, go lucky, playful personality was evident for everybody to see. Now he's getting that ripped out of his soul. Right. Like you can see it. It was so apparent this week that he is Simply changing. He is unwilling to share that part of his personality publicly anymore because he doesn't want to deal with the backlash. He doesn't want to deal with all the hate and nasty comments and all the things that, you know, unfortunately, that is the world in 2024. Anonymity, as far as, you know, really knowing the person. And you would never say those things face to face, ever, Right? Well, anonymity brings out the worst in people a lot of the time, I found anyway, especially YouTube and social media. You know, Instagram comments are probably the worst offenders of that, and it's taken a toll on him, and I hate it for him. But I thought that David Billman had some. Some great comments to him about, hey, you are putting value on kind of the scourge of society with this stuff. Like, you are. You are listening and you're allowing your mood and your temperament and your outlook on life and the sport to be affected by these people that you would otherwise never. You wouldn't care what they said if it wasn't for you putting value on social media. And part of that is being 21 years old, right? And I'm much older and I just have more life experience, as does David Villeman. And many of you listening will as well. And you'll be like, yeah, you just can't listen to all that. You just have to block all that out and know who you are and what you're doing and really lean into what matters. And that is the people around you. That is your team, that's your family. That's. I don't know, I would guess, say true fans like that are kind of have your back no matter what. And if you really start to think about it, I've heard some great quotes over time and read things, and even, you know, people are not always kind to the things that we do. I've talked to Ricky Carmichael about this because he takes a lot of heat for broadcast stuff. And I read something a while back that I thought was really insightful here, and it goes something like, never place value on someone's opinion that you would not seek out for advice. Okay, so what does that mean? Pretty simple. I don't know if I'm stating it clearly, and that's why I'll explain it. Unless it's someone that you would value their advice. Like, you would go say, hey, this is what I'm dealing with. What do you think about this situation? If that's someone you would do that with or listen to, if it's not someone like that, and they're talking a bunch of crap and hate, then why do you care? If it's not someone's advice you would value in the first place, then why are you giving any importance to the nastiness that they're saying? And I think there's a lot of truth in that, especially for someone like Jet, who is. He's taking it bad right now. All the Deegan fans, anybody who had a reason to dislike Jet is really, really laying it on right now. And he's. He's not pumped and Hunter's not pumped and Dazzy's not pumped. And I get it. I would just say to them, and I know this isn't their personality, like, they, you know, there's a saying, it's popular, the kids right now is they keep receipts. And if you talk crap, like, give you an example, the San Diego thing a year ago, Jason Anderson puts that post out, right, About Jet and those two going at it. And everybody that kind of commented there every, like, Jet didn't. Jet and Hunter and Dazzle, they did not forget that. I'm just, I'm telling you, it has nothing to do with me. I did. I certainly didn't like it or post because I know, I know their tendencies. I know how they approach these things. And they don't forget. They do not forget when you take cheap shots or when you make comments. And I had to deal with them one on one and kind of speak to them privately about, hey, this is why I said certain things. This is my opinion. I wasn't taking cheap shots. This was my opinion, and I'll tell you why, and if you disagree, cool. But I was not trying to be disrespectful. I was not trying to, you know, insult you, but part of my job, and this isn't about me, but this is. I'm just telling you the challenges I had to face when they don't forget things like this is the Daytona incident with Hunter and Nate Thrasher, like, I believe, and I would stick by now, Hunter went for the takeout, right? And you could say that he didn't or whatever, but I'm. I think he did. There was a lot there. There was a lot of backstory to it. They were both riding aggressively with each other. Hunter got aggressive back. I don't think that's. There's anything wrong with that. That's the nature of the sport sometimes. It wasn't a Vince Freezey, go for the kill type move, but it was an aggressive block pass that ended up knocking Nate Thrasher down. That's fine. I'm not. I'm not condemning Hunter for that. But to be transparent, I think they're hypersensitive to any sort of criticism or any sort of analysis that's not positive. That's my opinion. And I understand that it's hard to take criticism or read negative comments and not react negatively. That's a really difficult thing to do. So when you are hypersensitive to something, which I believe they have a tendency to be, and people really go hard like they are in social media and YouTube right now, that's going to be really tough to deal with. So what's the advice? What did David Villeman say? Stop reading all of it. Like, forget it. Social media doesn't matter. YouTube doesn't matter. Stop paying attention to it. Get off social media because you're. It's going to be nearly impossible to win that game. There are going to be people in this world, and I know this from a business side, too, there are going to be people in this world that simply do not like you because of how good you are at something. Right? I hate that I just said the word right. When Jet wins all these races and he is redefining expectations, he goes 220 and outdoors, he wins all these titles right off the bat. He comes back off an injury and wins the SMX title again. He is doing the damn thing like he is making it happen in ways that we have not seen in a very long time. When you are that good and you have so much success, guess what? People are going to not like you because of that success. That's just how the world works. People are going to cheer for someone else simply because they're sick of seeing you win. That's how it is in anything that doesn't matter. It could be Tom Brady, a business example that I was referring to. Okay. Fox Racing is Fly Racing's biggest competitor globally. Okay? They have done a fantastic job since 1974 and they have had changes in ownership. It's not even the same team really there anymore. Yes, some people are left over, but it's. It's really a completely different group of people. There are some great people still there, as I mentioned. Guys like Mark Finley and some of these people that are. They have a small core that are still there, but for the most part it's a completely different staff. Designers, marketing, corporate, everybody's different. But it's the same brand and they are still doing a great job. You know, it's my job to compete against them, but I recognize you know a job well done when I see it. And they create great products, they continue to innovate, they do a fantastic job of marketing. All those things ring true. But there are people that do not like them and will not buy their products simply because it is what everybody has worn for so long. It has been too popular for so. For too long. And people don't want to be a part of it just because of that. They didn't do anything wrong. They just don't want to be there because it is the mainstream standard choice and it has been for a very long time. That's where opportunity comes for other brands. Fly Racing, Thor, whoever. Tld take your pick. That's how the world works. So if you are Hayden Deegan, if you are Chase Sexton, if you're Eli Tomac, if you're whoever, Cooper Webb, that's opportunity to really connect with that fan base. And I think that Hayden Deegan is doing a damn good job of that. Now, I don't agree with everything that Hayden Deegan says. I would say it's probably less than 50%. I agree with the way he approaches outward comments and those things. But that's just a. That's a style difference. Okay. But I do understand and I think it's important for Jet and Hunter and Dazzy to come to terms with the fact that there are going to be people that you're never going to win over. It's just never going to happen by. That's just how life works. You didn't do anything to deserve their vitriol. I would say vitriol is strong. You didn't do anything to deserve the fact that they don't like you. That's just how. Look at any other. Look at wwe. People want to cheer for the heel, the villain. That's how it works. Like, that's sports, that's entertainment. It's always going to be that way. People cheer for the bad guy in movies simply because that's what they like. They like the bad guy. Right. And Jet said it again. Jet is not the bad guy. Okay. I'm just gonna. I'm here to tell you he is not the bad guy. Some people are going to try to paint him as the bad guy. He's not. Nor is Hunter. So anyway, speaking with Jet, that stuff is weighing on him really hard and I hope he can find a way to cope with that or block it out or stop paying attention to it because it's not doing him a disservice. And that kid is. He is not in a Good place mentally with people not liking him. That's just my opinion. I don't know. He says it drives him to work harder because the more people hate on him, he just wants to shut him up. So maybe that's true, maybe that is factual and it's going to help him be his best self and drive him. But I can't imagine it's doing a lot for his psyche down deep, you know what I mean? Like the your day to day happiness. This kid's a multimillionaire, the ultimate success story. Crazy talented, super good looking kid. The whole world's in front of him. He could do literally anything he wants. He could quit right now and be financially set forever if he did the right things and he didn't have to do all the right things. Just not be an idiot. He's done it. He lived the American dream, the Australian dream to whatever dream you want to talk about, he has done it at 21 and for him to be wearing that, I see it in his face. I can see it, hear it in his tone. It's weighing heavily on him and I hate it for him. So that's just something to watch for, you know, I don't have a dog in a fight. In the end, it doesn't affect my life. I just want to see him be happy and enjoy the things that life has given him, these gifts and all the success that God has granted him. I want to see him recognize and enjoy that for what it is. Because it is so uncommon and it would be an absolute tragedy if all of these great things happen in his life and he goes to sleep at night sad because a crappy group of people can't keep their mouth shut or their comments to themselves. That would suck. So anyway, I'm gonna get off Jet. Let's jump to Hunter. Hunter was not a lot different, to be fair. He spent a lot of time kind of defending Jet and he's upset about people going after his little brother. To be really straightforward about it. He is in a defense, defensive mode about his little brother and he is not happy with people going after him. And you know, Hunter is in a good place with his racing. You know, when we got off that talk and talked about Hunter himself, he's in a great place, he is improving, he's living the dream. He's. He's gone farther than I think anybody expected him to be able to. I think he's far exceeded any expectation, far exceeded his talent. I think just through perseverance, hard work and unwillingness to say no Those are all the things that Hunter has in spades. And kudos to Hunter Lawrence because I was a doubter, not of him as a person. I didn't care nor know him well enough to have that. I just didn't think he was going to be able to get here where he can win races, he can battle for titles. I didn't think that was going to happen for Hunter. Just didn't see it. And he has surpassed all of that and proved me wrong. And I will be the first to admit when I, when my analysis is wrong or just things don't go a certain way that I expect them to. And Hunter has been that guy in all the best ways. So great job to Hunter. It brings me joy to see him succeeding and getting rich and living the life that he deserves. He's worked for it. Let's go into Chase Sexton now. A year ago, I would have left this meeting talking about man. I am not super hopeful for Sexton here. He does not seem confident. He does not talking really well about the motorcycle. This is a little worrisome. I felt very strongly that way leaving this exact meeting a year ago. Now this year, I'm not over the moon about Sexton. That is, that's not what happened. But I feel better because he is more grounded. He's. He is kind of like, yeah, I know what the bike can do. I know what the bike can't do. We're still working to be better. I know where I'm weak, right? The sprint speed and the starts have to be better for me to win in 2025. So he has a really good diagnosis. Or, you know, it's funny I say a really good diagnosis, but it's just what I believe. So shows you, I guess, where my head's at. If it's what I think, it's really good that, you know, that's. I don't know what it is, but it. I guess it's just bias, maybe. But anyway, we agree on what he needs to work on is get off the line better and find that sprint speed that he had in 2023, that, that are the key. Those are the keys to him going out and straight up beating Jet or Web or Hunter or Tomac or whoever, whoever you think is going to be super strong in 25. Those are the things that he really needs to work on. And he was very matter of fact about it. He didn't seem very uncertain because I think he knows those. That's the struggle. So when you know where the problems lie, you can attack them last year. I don't. I think he was so spun around by not knowing what the bike was going to do. He was really in a bad place because he didn't even know what to work on. He didn't even know where he was with the bike. He didn't know where to move forward. He didn't know how to fix it. It wasn't that way this year. Doesn't mean they have the answers, but at least they know exactly, exactly what the problems are and that's a step forward. Is it perfect? No. But I would also tell you that Jet and Hunter are not in a great place with their motorcycle right now. They're trying to sort that motorcycle out so it's not all hunky dory for everybody. I think they'll get there, but I don't think that they're trying to not go backwards here. But Jet and Hunter are not in as good of a place with the motorcycle as they were a year ago. So that has to be a little bit reassuring for Chase Sexton too. It's like, hey, at least somebody else is fighting this motorcycle thing. At least everybody else isn't just 100% raring to go in December. So we'll see what kind of progress Chase Sexton can make. What have they worked on? And he mentioned they had tried a bunch of different engine packages and they're still working towards that. And we all know KTM has a lot going on behind the scenes, corporate wise, it's not great by any means, but that shouldn't affect what the engine department and those things are working on. Unless they had to have some sort of massive investment to, on a parts level or anything, which I don't foresee a lot of. It's like ecu, map innovation and things like that, which aren't crazy cost intensive. Right. It's not going to take a lot of spend to get there. It's just finding what works and it's catching up to the other teams through trial and error and trying engines and trying every possible thing, leaving no one's turn, no stone unturned. That's what's going to get there. So I think Sexton is in a better place. I just don't know. And time will tell is a better place enough to go out and, and win the Supercross side of this Super Motocross World Championship? Cooper Webb. Webb was the first one there. He's coming back from Australia, but he was the first one there on Tuesday morning. And I really like this version of Cooper Webb. He's very comfortable in his own skin. I've gotten to know him a lot better because of the fly racing side. And you know, it's funny, we're like DMing each other now, like, and you know, flipping each other. It's just fun. It's fun to get to know him this way. And my job is to stay unbiased. I'm not going to cheer for him, you know, more or less on TV because he wears piracy. That's not going to happen. But it is, it is fun to get to know him. And he's, he's kind of allowed me to be more on the inside with him, you know, share things, whatever. And there's trust that goes along with that, of course. But I, more than anything, I just like where he is. I think he's comfortable with the situation. He knows he's on a really good bike. He knows financially he's set, he's a two time champ. But he wants more and it's not going to be a failure if he doesn't get more. I think he proved a lot of people to a lot of people last year, he can still be relevant and he's embracing that. He's embracing the fact that, hey, it's all house money from here. Whatever I win or don't win is only adding to what I've already done, which is enough. 1, well, 250 motocross championship. 1, 2, 2, 2, 50 supercross championships. Like he's done it now he wants to win the Super Motocross World Championship. That is, that is definitely a thing. And he wants more success because he doesn't feel like he's anywhere near done yet. I think he's 28 now, but he's got time. So he is in a place where he doesn't, he doesn't have all the stress of. I've got, I haven't won these titles, I haven't done it. Like that is a thing for a lot of guys that, that weighs on guys in their legacy of they haven't checked these boxes. I don't think Webb is living in that world and that's a positive thing. You know, he's going to have to have it. Second child. I can't remember if they, if Mariah had it, I think she's still prego. But don't, don't quote me on that. But it's just a great thing for, for Cooper Webb in his racing mentality to kind of be enjoying the moment, if that makes sense. I spent so much time talking about Riders who are not enjoying the moment where I think Jed is not enjoying it, I believe Cooper Webb is enjoying it and that, that's kind of fun to see. And I think he's going to be ready in 2025. He's much further along in November and December than he was last year, which should bode well for where he comes out in 2025. He's more comfortable on the bike, he knows what to do with his fitness. They got his diet sorted out. He was allergic to something that basically was not allowing him to lose weight. And there's. I don't remember exactly what he told me, but they figured out a lot of things in 2024, beginning of 2024, that should help him. I think it was even December of 23. But all those things are behind him now and you can really prepare much better and much more easily and you can avoid doing the wrong things motorcycle and health wise, having learned those things. Another rider that I think is in that same spot is Eli Tomac. He is in a place where he is enjoying the moment. He is smiling at the races. He. Look at him winning around the world. He won in Australia. He won. He didn't win the, I guess the overall or whatever in Abu Dhabi, but he won the Super Final. He won the WSX World Championship. He is in a good place and I think he knows that it is all coming to an end and if you are not enjoying it at the end, you're probably going to regret that. And he's healthy, he's fast, he's coming in with a little bit different mindset. So he's going to be dangerous. Now the questions for Tomac, he wasn't at this meeting, by the way. He was in Abu Dhabi and Ken Roxanne wasn't there. He was in Abu Dhabi. But the questions for Tomac are going to be can he start fast enough and can he win races and can he avoid. This is where Weege and especially Weeds and a little bit of Mathis come in and say, as you get older, you can't harness your best level all the time. Sporadically. Yes, you're going to be lights out and you're going to, you're going to win or you're going to be in a fight. And that's the, that's the guy we all remember and that's your best self. But as you get older, I think he's 32 now, you can't bring that every single weekend. And over the course of a season, there are too many weekends where your best self doesn't show up and you lose points prohibitively to the championship and you're on the outside looking in. Now that is what Tomac is facing. There are going to be weekends where he wins. He will win races in 2025, in my opinion. But can he be top three all the time and win four, five, six races? That'll put him in the championship fight. That's up for him to decide. But that is the quintessential ask when you're talking about eli Tomac in 2025, in his final season. That'll be where the rubber hits the road. As far as winning this championship or not, it'll be. It's going to be fun to watch I watching him practice, watching him race around the world. He's ready. He is ready. If he can stay healthy and maintain this form, he's he's going to bring it. He's going to be able to go with those guys. It doesn't mean he's going to be able to run away from anybody. Or if jets quote unquote on it doesn't mean he can beat Jet. But it won't be this 12th place, 9th place, Eli Tomac that we've seen especially early on in 2024. And randomly here and there, I just think he's in a better place than that. I think he's closer to the 2023 EY Tomac than we've seen in a long time, two years even. So watch for that. I'm going to skip through a little bit. We've gone long already. We're already 30 minutes in. So I'm going to skip through a few of these guys and kind of make a note on each one. Jason Anderson was there. He is just looking to get back to where he was. They've worked on the motorcycle a lot. He mentioned in 2024 they had things to sort out. The bike was not everything he hoped it would be. And they're trying to get back to that 2022 version of himself and the motorcycle. That was a really strong force. And he mentioned that the level is simply higher than it was in 2022. He thinks he's better than he was then. And if he was himself right now in 2022, he would go out and win a lot of races again. But everybody has gotten better. Sexton and Tomac raised the bar. Then Jet took it to another level again in 23 and 24. So that was interesting comments to hear, interesting commentary from him. I didn't really know that that was necessarily the thing. I didn't think it had taken a huge jump, but he was very adamant that it had. So I had to kind of recalibrate my thoughts about Anderson because I kind of thought he took a step backwards, but he's like, no, no, I'm doing all the things. I'm working harder than ever. I. You know, we have lap times at these tracks and I'm as good or better, but everybody else has gotten better. That. That is his take. So that was. That was interesting to see. And now his challenge is to take that next step with him or even another step. And that's a really hard thing to do. That was his perspective on things. Aaron Plessinger, that guy's. He's loving it. He is. He is enjoying all the things that are going on. He's enjoying being this guy, that guy that had a red plate in Supercross and really thriving. He's on a factory team. He is the guy that. It's got a smile on his face all the time. He understands how privileged he is and how fleeting this success can be. And he's just a joy to be around. He really is. He has such a great perspective on racing and on life. So kudos to Aaron Plessinger for just adding a lot of joy to racing. Even in the interviews, he's just smiling and laughing. That's who AP is. And it's really hard not to cheer for that guy. But not a lot of change for him. Different mechanic, but same bike, same everything. I think he's just looking to continue momentum. That's it, continue getting better. I don't think he had a lot to kind of work out, or it wasn't a lot of variation or it wasn't that type of offseason for him, which is, I'm sure, comforting for him. Now the question is going to be what does he do for contract in 25? Because it will be a contract year and there's going to be a lot of change. The Koonin brothers are supposedly coming over. What do they do with Bomar? What do they do with Vial? What does KTM racing look like? Red Bull, KTM Racing, they have a lot of problems financially to sort out. So that is going to be probably the stressor for AP, if there is one. But yeah, he's. He's a few months out. They'll start worrying about that. January, February, March, April, they'll. They'll start reaching out and finding out if he can stay. If not, then where does he go? But just something to keep an eye on with AP Barsha switching over to, you know, switching things around, right? Switching trucks, switching staff. The bike's the same, gear's the same, but all new staff. So that was kind of what we talked about as new engine guy, new suspension guy. A lot of change on that end, but that's kind of it. You know, everything else is static and he feels like he's in a good place. He feels at home with things and he wants to win races again. That is his big thing, is get back to where he was. He was hurt a lot in 2024. Just getting back to the guy that is a threat to win. And remember, this is the guy that went. Won Anaheim, won over and over and over. And he's. He's like, I'm. I'm the same guy, you know, I just need to. I need to get the starts and allow myself to show what I can do. So we'll see if he can kind of do that. Christian Craig has made the move to monster Yamaha Star Racing. He just started riding again. So I don't think we're going to see a Christian Craig that comes out of day one ready to take on the world. But he is there to help the team. He's there to help Hayden Deegan, and he's just excited to be on a motorcycle that he likes. That is a big thing for Christian Craig is he likes that bike. He's on a team that he believes he can be successful on, and that's really helped improve his mood and he feels like himself again. So I will be watching just to see if we see the flashes again from Christian at some point. Like that crazy fast qualifying speed. Can he blitz the whoops in the way that we used to see? But with only nine whoops, that opportunity is kind of not there anymore. But I just want to see a happy, fast Christian Craig again. And we haven't seen that for a while. I haven't seen that on a Husky, really. Malcolm Stewart is still on that Husky, but he rode really well in Paris and you could see that. He's like, man, I was fast. You know, I just want to show what I can do, get good starts and battle with the guys that I'm supposed to be battling with. Because it's just been so. So for Malcolm for a long time now. He's. He has this huge personality and he doesn't really get to show it because we don't have the opportunity to really interview him. We don't get to show him on TV because he's not In a battle where the programming is going to go to him. And he knows that. He knows he hasn't been doing exactly what everybody thinks he's capable of. And he said he's been fighting the bike, fighting to get his best self out of that situation. So it'll be his last year there. I don't foresee him resigning with Husky. Maybe I'm wrong. It's just my opinion. I don't foresee him resigning there. If Husky even has a program for 450s in 2026, I don't, I don't know what happens there. RJ Hampshire will be on that program somewhere, but I don't know if Malcolm will be there again. I guess 2025 will tell. Now let's jump to the 250s. And Hayden Deegan was he, he's the biggest name in the two pity class worldwide, of course. And Hayden, you know, he, he's not scared to put it out there. He, he wants to go at people. He wants engagement. He, he's not scared to talk trash, and he's not scared for people to talk trash back. And I, one part of me really likes it because there are so many people in this world that, me included, I just don't do it that way. I don't want to disrespect people. I don't want to insult anyone. I don't like when people are mad at me or don't like me. It's just not my thing. It's not my way of going about life. But Hayden is here for it. If you want to talk trash to him, he will come right back at you and even harder. And it, it drives him. I think he thrives off of that conflict. And I don't think it's going to be something you ever see him go away from. Now what will be interesting is when the talent level ramps and he's got to deal with, you know, these Sextons and Jets hunter again. You know, we got to think Tomac will be gone. Webb might still be around. Some of these guys are going to age out, but he will have stiffer competition than he does now. There is no doubt about that. Facing RJ and kitchen is not going to be the toughest test he faces. And he knows it. But that's where it's going to be really interesting. But for now, if you're paying attention, you see him and Kitchen jawing back and forth at each other on social media. He loves it. He's not going to back away from the podium. Stuff going at people. He's, you know, if Jaime is fast at some point in 2024, he's going to go at him. He's going to go at kitchen right away. Whoever he faces, he's going to go right at. He's already kind of committed to that, and I think Brian loves it. I think Hayden wants to bring a little bit more of controversy to smx and he's doing a damn good job of it. Now, the one thing you can't say about Hayden is that he doesn't back it up. And honestly, that's what I love most. If you're going to talk trash, which I, again, I don't do, I don't like it. The one thing I'm going to ask of you is freaking. Back it up. Put in the work. Work harder than everybody else, Go out and win races, Be the strongest guy at the end of every moto. When everybody else is tired and hot, you show that you have more in the gas tank than everybody else. I can't really. I can't really give you any grief for talking crap. If you're going to do it, you've got to be able to back up every single ounce of that. And to Hayden's credit, he does it. He backs it up every single time. And that's going to be interesting again to watch as it gets tougher. Can he continue to back it up? When you deal with guys that are just as fit and just as strong and willing to do whatever, Absolutely whatever it takes, can you still be the toughest guy or the fittest guy? Those are. Those are going to be the questions that he has to take on as he improves. But for 2025, he knows what the challenges are. Get better in the Whoops and get your. Your starts more consistent in Supercross. Those are the two things. And I would say the whoops being more important. If he can sort out the Whoops, which is, make no mistake, that is a big reason why Christian Craig is on that team, is to help Hayden in the Whoops improve his ability to be elite. Not just passable, not just really good and good enough to win. I'm talking elite. Think about how Jet and Sexton, when things are right with him, the best guys that you see in the Whoops, Christian Craig, when. When he was on a 250, if he can get to that level, which I don't know if he can or not, but that's what he's trying to get to. If he does, look out, everything's in front of him. Battle with Jet battling with whoever, whoever wants to bring it. Hayden will be capable of that if he can get the whoops figured out. And it's a tough ask. It's. Everybody wants to be incredibly good in the whoops. Like newsflash, everybody wants to be that good. But it takes a lot of talent, an elite bike, elite technique and a lot of courage to hit whoops that fast. Because when things go wrong, they happen wrong really quickly and almost too fast for you to kind of catch up to. And you know, it's a, it's an interesting dynamic because you are going so fast that you get out of the loop before things can go really wrong and you also stay on the very top of them. But if you miss one and your front end drops, you're going over the bars before you can even you, before you even realize what happened. So those are the kind of risks. But that's the thing with Hayden. He was cool with us, you know, and very engaging. I don't know that anybody's going to really have a lot for him in 25. That doesn't mean he's going to win the Supercross Championship. Things can happen. Think about what happened in Birmingham and the crash in the first turn in Detroit. Like racing is still racing. There's no guarantees of any of that. But I do think that Hayden is the best 250 rider in America and probably the world. And I think he is bound and determined to remind Everybody again in 2025. Just watching him prepare, when I was in Florida, I know the work's being done. Like they are all in on him doing this and yeah, just, I think he's doing the right things now. I do. I think he's saying the right things. Eh, maybe not. But he's doing the right things, that's for damn sure. Levi Kitchen is, I think he's kind of the heir apparent, right. RJ is there but RJ's hurt right now and he's, he's only racing Supercross so he's going to be out of this class in six months. He's not going to be a 250 rider anymore. But I think Kitchen is really doing the things that it's going to take to win in this class. And I don't know if Hayden and Levi are going to race each other. That time will tell on that front. That'll be, that would be a really, really interesting head to head to watch. They, they don't care for each other and we straight up ask them, you guys hate each other and they're like, nah, we don't hate each other. Like, I don't think they're huge fans of each other anymore. But there's not any hate there. There's a lot of trash talk, which I think is just a generational. They're both young and kind of aren't scared to talk crap to each other, but they don't. They don't hate each other. But if they get out there in Supercross and are going at it, that'll be fun. It'll be fun to watch the podium interviews and the press conferences because Hayden's going to jaw at him 100%. Hayden already knows that he has won those verbal battles, and he's going to lean into that. When you. Hey. I believe Hayden and Brian's approach is when you have somebody down, you kick them while they're down, and you stand on their throat to make sure that they don't get back up. And there's. I mean, that's killer mentality. There's nothing wrong with that. That's just sport. That's how people become dominant champions. They remove any risk of you getting any confidence. That is how they roll. So I think kitchens in a good spot. He just needs to. He needs to take that step. He's got to believe in himself more. He's got to find the guy that can overcome any adversity. I think that's been a challenge for him is when things are kind of going wrong. He has not developed the mindset of, like, well, s. That I'm going to. None of that matters. I'm too good and too strong and too fast and too fit for any of that to matter. And I think that's the next step for Kitchen is on the mental side and just confidence that nothing is going to hold you back. There is nothing that can go wrong throughout the day or night that's going to keep you from getting the result that you deserve. And once he realizes that, if he ever does, he's going to be really difficult to deal with. Chance Highness was there, and Jaime is not riding yet. He probably won't ride until the end of December, so that'll put him for sure on the East Coast. And he's not even a guarantee to race Tampa yet. So I found it interesting. He did media interviews, not with ours. They did a whole separate room with media. And he said, like, he wants to win titles in 25, but, like, I don't even know if he's going to race Tampa, you know? So I would say pump the brakes on the Highness hype. Because if you can't, even if you're not even sure you're going to race the first round and you, you're talking about winning tight, like that's just not a great setup. So maybe he's talking outdoors, maybe he's talking smx, I don't know. But I just found that, you know, it's a headline, right? It's someone grabbing one comment and running with it, which I just don't think is fair because I know Jaime is ready yet. He's, he's not even really thinking about riding for a couple more weeks and all these guys that he's going to have to race in 250East are raring to go. Like they are ripping right now. Now, RJ's not, RJ's not riding either. But, you know, let's say Hayden ends up on the East. I don't know if he will or not. Viall is definitely going to be on the East. All these guys are in form right now. Like they've been going through boot camp. They're just motoing down. So those guys have a lot of ground to cover, a lot of work to do to catch back up. And in a short series, it's going to be, it's going to be challenging. But I do like where Jaime's mindset is. He has a two year deal now with Honda, so that stresses off of him. And I think he took a, took big steps as far as confidence and what he now knows that he's capable of. He, it was a learning process for him last year. He had a lot of walls to knock down, confidence wise. Every time he kind of got up front, he would fade. And part of that was his diet that they figured out. But now when he gets up front, he's going to believe that he belongs up there. And that was not a thing last season. And that just, it's just a big hurdle that he's not going to have to face anymore. When he gets up, he's not going to be like, you know, his heart rate's going to be five beats lower. And that sounds crazy, but that's true. The mental anxiousness and nervousness of I'm in the lead, I'm in the lead, right? That's all that's going through your head. That's going to be gone from his mind. He's just going to be wanting to execute because it's not old hat, that's for sure. But it's, it's more familiar. That's the better Way to put it is the surroundings, the situation, the anxiety of weeding is going to be more familiar to him from winning outdoor races last year and all those things that, that all that all matters. Winning the heat race at. Where was that? Philly? Denver somewhere. The hell did he ride? Did he ride west? I don't even remember. But one of the races he won the heat race and it was a huge step forward. He rode east. So it was. I think it was Philly. The main event didn't go well at all. But that, that heat race was a big thing for him. But I know he was really let down in the main event there. And yeah, it's just, it's a part of it. But I do think if he can get back to 100, stay healthy in 2025, there, there are great things in his future. Now some of the other of these guys, Ryder D, masterpool, Romano, Bomar did have a lot to share. Bomer talked a lot about. He is after smx, he's way more confident and he thinks he can bring that every time now. So we'll see if that shows up. But he, he was damn good in SMX that, make no mistake. But his take was that that's how he rides every day at home and he finally was able to bring that to the races and he doesn't. Wasn't really sure why it just finally showed up and now he's has that every day at home and he's like, I'm not nervous anymore. Like, I know that I can do that on Saturdays. What I. The same thing I do on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So I'll be interested to see if that comes to fruition or not. Ryder D. Just trying to continue improving. You know, he's transitioned with teams and there's a lot of noise around him, but he just needs to show what he's capable of, get the starts. His technique is so good. I think his ceiling is really high. But he needs to make good on that because he's going to run out of opportunities, I think. I'm not saying he's not going to have a factory ride, but if you've only ever had a factory ride and you're not getting on the podium consistently or showing that you can win these races, at some point guys are going to be like, well, he's been on pro circuit, he's been on factory gas, he's not doing it. What is it going to take? Those are the questions that start to show up for these kids that start to get older. They're going to start looking at kids younger than you for opportunity. That is. That's always the risk. I didn't talk on Shimoda but he was there as well and he just wants to kind of be himself and start faster and allow himself to show what he can do. And always the questions come of why don't you start fast at the beginning of the season? Why does it take so long for you to get going? And I don't think he really knows. The big change for him is he's going to be. He's now in Florida. He's training at the Sandbox and it's interesting that he didn't go to the Warrens compound but he did want to go there. But he's not. He's in Florida at the Sandbox. Who he's riding with Rocks and Sexton, some of those guys. But I do think it's a good change. I hate to see him separate from Nick Way. I just know how much Nick brings to the puzzle mentally and confidence wise and detail wise. But sometimes change is important. You can get stuck in a rut. You can. It can really feel monotonous and change can be a positive. I just, I'm bummed for Nick because I know he was, he was so in Shimoda's corner. I haven't talked to Nick about it. Maybe Nick's totally fine with it. But yeah, it will be interesting and I'll be curious to see how that change just shows up in Shimoda's racing and riding now that he's not on the same program. He's not in California. He's not riding at the Honda track or was Kawasaki track. He's not with Nick Way every single day. What does that change bring good or bad for Shimoda? Ty Masterpool. He thinks he's going to do it. He thinks that this bike and this team are the difference that he needs. He doesn't think there's a problem with riding Supercross or anything like that. So we'll see. I don't know. I would say it's been pretty challenging. But the bike does really matter. The 250 having a factory 250 does matter. So I will reserve my judgment. But my judgment in the past has been he just hasn't have Supercross figured out. It's not his forte. He has just not been able to bridge the gap. I'm cheering for him. I really like the kid. If you've ever talked to him, if you ever talked to his parents, it's hard to Find him saying or doing the wrong thing. But Supercross has not been his best friend to this point. Now he has, he has a two year deal, I think, and every opportunity that you could ever want to succeed. So it's, it's now or never for Master Pool. And that doesn't have to be a bad thing. This is the opportunity he's been begging for. So let's see what he can do with it. That's really, I'm open minded to it. It's just going to have to, you're going to have to break down the walls of what's happened and that's not always easy. You know, he's not done well and that has to be remembered. But it doesn't dictate what he will do in the future either. Nick Romano is the last rider I wanted to mention here and the only reason I bring him up is it was really interesting to kind of hear his story and the struggles. I know he's been hurt so, so much and he really hasn't shown the potential that he had as an amateur. And this kid was phenomenal coming out of Loretta's and all these things and he just never really did it, you know, and injuries were the key factor there. But the most important aspect of all of that, he's 19 years old, which is crazy. If you told Me he was 19 last week before I talked to him, I'd be like, you're out of your mind. There's no way he's been around for too long, but that he's 19, it's, it just goes to show that nothing in his career is, has been defined yet. He has a lot of time to kind of sort this out. And Adam Cicarillo was, was making sure he understood that. I was like, don't let what's happened dictate what's going to happen moving forward. Because you're only 19 and yes, you've been racing a long time and a lot of people are familiar with your work now and all those things are true. But at 19 you can still decide your fate, no question. I don't. Justin Brayton said his first Supercross was not till he was 21 or something like that, he said, so just let that sink in. Think of the career Justin Brayton had and he wasn't even racing Supercross yet, where Nick Romano's had all this experience and a lot of it negative experiences. But it's not over for Romano. And there's a, there's a lesson in that for a lot of people is Whatever has happened in the past does not have to define what that means for you moving forward. So that was kind of the media days, long days, though. You know, those conversations, I surmised in 45 minutes or so, those took days and days, all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday and all day Thursday. And I mean all day. I mean, from 8am to 5pm in the same room, just talking to these guys and working through small talk and really getting down to kind of what matters and parsing through jovial, laughing and really important aspects of this type of stuff, too. And it was fun. It's important, and I'm glad I got to be there because we're going to be able to look back on these conversations and be like, hey, he told us in December the things he was facing and the things he was working on. If we see a big jump. Well, he told us he was working on that. He told us that that was something that he had to fix in 2025. And we can reference that and really add to the show and ask them about it. And what did you find? You know, you said this was a big challenge for Sexton. You needed to find Sprint speed. You need to find a better, better start. How did you get there? What was the key? What was the unlock there? And that's, that's our job on the analyst side, is to remember that, reference it and get to the bottom of it and share that, because that's the, that's the depth that I believe really adds to the broadcast. As a fan, that's. Those are the things that I would really want to know now quickly on Abu Dhabi. I don't know. This WSX thing, to me, doesn't really have a future. You know, I know they're going on in 2025. They added Buenos Aires and London. Cool. Like, I don't care. Doesn't matter to me. It doesn't affect my life in any way, shape or form. But when I look at the attendance, when I look at the money that they're spending is the key thing. Some of the money they're spending is just absolutely wild. I don't know what their television package is, but I can't imagine it's anything to write home about. I am speculating there, so that's probably not super responsible, but I don't think it's millions and millions and millions or tens of millions of dollars. But let's just look at the facts. They paid Eli Tomac and Ken Rockson alone, like 1.5 million or more for those races. I Would say probably more like 2 million plus for those races. Then you think about travel for business class tickets for their people. Now you're talking about 2.2 million. Two point. I'm just talking about two riders. I'm not talking about sabachis and the purse. That is crazy to these teams. Just take a look at what WSX is, exposure is or liabilities are to teams and riders and travel. They pay the broadcast team crazy amounts of money. Their expenses for flights are crazy amounts of money. It's just a, I just look at it, I'm like, I'm glad these guys are making a lot of money. There's no downside to me. I do not care. But when I think about sustainability, it looks impossible on a financial level. And that's why you saw a change in ownership. That's what you saw. Adam Bailey leave. Just the numbers don't pencil out. They have not penciled out from the jump. And I don't know what it will take to change that. It has nothing to do with me. It's not my job to make it pencil out. But I just don't see how it's ever going to work long term. And they're continuing to try to expand. They're adding more races, which I guess that's maybe you grow your way out of it, but if you can't get your expenses under control, if the money going out per round is so high, you're only digging a deeper hole, you know, that's not a way out of it. You know, people say, well, growth will get you out of it, but growth will only get you out of it. If there's profitability in growth. If growth causes you to lose more money than you are now, that's not a win, that's, that's not a step forward. So I don't know, it'll be interesting to see how that all plays out. But it was great racing. You know, they're battling and the super final, having 250s and 450s is pretty fun. You know, I don't have a bone to pick with, with it at all. You know, I just, I'm so business minded when it comes to this stuff is show me how it works financially, show me how you're going to make this profitable and where is the EBITDA come from and all those things. I can't find it right now. And point being, it doesn't matter if it's a race team, it doesn't matter if it's a series. Any business enterprise, if it operates for too long without showing a profit. Someone's going to get tired of investing in it, someone's going to get tired of spending money are just lighting money on fire always, you know and I think the only case I've ever seen where it that hasn't happened yet is Moto Concepts. Genova will just continue to throw money at this thing endlessly and kudos to him. You know, I don't always agree with him. I would say I probably don't agree with him often I don't, I definitely don't agree with Vince Freezy but to Genova's credit he will just continue throwing money at this thing until forever I guess. You know, I don't know, I haven't asked him that but it seems that way because the team is definitely not making money nor has it ever made money. I can promise you it's never made money but he doesn't seem to care and it's great. He's given a lot of people jobs, he's given people a lot of financial security. Justin Brayton, Vince, these, they're making a ton of money over there and I'm happy for them. I like, I like that these guys are able to make a great living thanks to Mike Genova. It's just shocking to me that he continues to be willing to do it because that is not a common thing almost in any walk of life someone's going to be like yeah, this just doesn't work. And I'm sick, I'm sick of blowing money on this never ending hole. So I don't know. Time will tell. It's early days, right? We're only in what year? Three of it but there's been a lot of money burnt just absolutely set on fire that I don't think they're ever getting back. And where does that end? At what end does that change? I don't know. Doesn't matter. I don't have to be the person that finds that answer but it's just something to keep an eye on. And then I was really surprised to see them for next, I guess they're adding rounds. Maybe they're, maybe they're supplanting rounds. Maybe they don't do Vancouver or something, I don't know. I just saw the announcement that Buenos Aires in London so I don't know. It'd be fun to watch again. More racing is better, no question about it. Especially when they're, when the series don't have to compete for the same dates. That's certainly going to be a, that's a better change right when they were going on the same weekends as promoter Cross or SMX or Supercross. That's not good. That's not good for anybody. Competing against each other is you're just going to eliminate eliminate one or the other. That's not good. But Tomax on form Roczen looked pretty good. You know that Albuquerque like a glorified arena cross so don't take too much away from that. But congrats to you. I told my congrats to Shane McElrath on their championships and let's go racing in 2025 shall we? Thank you again to the sponsors Pirelli Guts Racing Check out all their stuff. They have so many cool aspects over there. Seats, seat covers, graphics. Gutsracing.com Plum Creek funding rates are going to eventually come down. It's taken longer than I think everybody was hoping for. There's a lot of pent up demand on housing but Plum Creek funding Zach Morris is the man over there. He can absolutely answer questions and give you the best advice for definitely buying. I don't think refi is necessarily in the cards right this second but reach out to Zach. Concept coatings design company works connection promo code jt23 is still in effect. Lots of great items over there that chain gauge tool Yamaha footpeg mounts were have been out for quite a while but they have a lot they have new colors for their pro launch start device which is what Honda and Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha use. And if you ever notice who gets all the hole shots those guys do for good reason. So they have some cool new colors at work. Connection.com TL Speed Shop Grant Stone Boots Fly Racing Pro Glow Wash thank you to all of them. And it's that time for TL Speed Shop. If you want to go have a great vacation and go drive your side by side, this is the time I don't know when you could ever get a better time than right now because the weather, temperatures are down, the humidity is down, everything's perfect. So fly down to Arizona. They're based in Wickenburg. They can pick you up at the airport. They can dial everything in but I think that's a great experience and now is the time for something like that. So thanks again. Appreciate everybody listening. We'll talk to you soon. See you.