Jason Thomas (0:00)

A 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 Blow, Wash Works connection, Bass Foundry, TL Speed Shop Concept, Cod Design Co. Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing. Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. It is January 4, 2025 and one week from today. We will be in an. Well, I will be in Anaheim. Most of you will probably be at home, but the sport will be back. We'll be racing again. And you know, you think after so many years of doing this racing, watching now on the broadcast team, whatever, that I would kind of understand the time frame that it's gonna feel like it's a long time, you know, in October, come back from motocross nations, like, oh man, it's gonna be forever until A1's here again. And it's really not. It goes really quickly. I would say November is probably the longest month just because there's not a ton going on, but December, between meetings and the holidays, it just, it happens really, really quickly. And here we are. And I'm excited. I think everybody views it a little bit differently. I'm sure there are some that are like, kind of dreading it because of the grind and the travel and it is, it's a long year. 31 races plus motocross, the nations plus I'll do MXGPs, so you figure I'll probably do 35 races, if not more. I don't know if I'll go to Australia or other things. It is a lot, but for me it's what I want to do. And being on the broadcast team, it really is exactly what I want to be doing. So it doesn't feel like a lot. The flights wear on everybody, but I was more bummed when Vegas kind of came. Had we been given like two weekends off, I would have been ready to go again, seriously. So I am more than excited to, to kick this thing and off in Anaheim. I think we have a fantastic setup for 2025, which is. Is going to be the. The subject of today's podcast. It's going to be a little bit of a preview, won't be super long, but I'm going to touch on every rider that is, you know, the factory, 450 guys, and where I see them coming into the series, what I think they need to really do to find success in 2025 and, and possibly some of the. The worry points as to how their season could come unravel because let's be honest, everybody in, you know, well, maybe not everybody, but most of these guys will see that. They'll see things that they don't want to see. They'll face the things that they probably knew were going to be really tough things to work through or if, if things were going to go wrong myself. And they certainly could probably point to why. And every racer's nuances, challenges, whether it's the bike, whether it's their age, whether it's injuries, whether it can be anything. It's unique. That's a unique dynamic for everyone. But they likely know what those are going to be before the season starts. And that's where I really try to lean into, is trying to pinpoint those things. Not only because I think it helps you predict what's to come, but it also adds to, adds to the show, it adds to this podcast, it adds to other things. It's like, hey, watch for this. If you see this, then we can probably anticipate X, Y and Z happening on the backside of that because this turns into that, right? It's almost an if then scenario of if this happens or doesn't happen, you're likely going to see this happen or not happen correspondingly to that. And that's, that's what today's podcast is going to be about. I do want to thank the sponsors. Going into 2025, we have a few shakeups. Pirelli is no longer a sponsor of the podcast. They have exited racing in North America for 2025. So no hard feelings. Josh Whitmire and their team have been great supporters. They supported this podcast from the very beginning. But for them, they're not going to be racing in 2025. They're not taking their rig to the races. They're not supporting teams in 2025. So to sponsor a podcast that revolves around racing doesn't make a ton of sense. So I certainly understand that and I want to thank them for their years of being involved with this. Guts Racing, however, is back. Thank you to Andy, Greg and the team from Guts Racing for, for being long time supporters of this podcast. Worst connection. They've been on board since the very beginning. Thank you to Eric Phipps and their team for, for being on board TL Speed Shop Jason Cobb and his team down in Wickenburg, Arizona. This is prime time to go visit Arizona, go riding side by side. They've been in Baja a lot in November and December, so I'm sure they've been getting some nice R and R time in Arizona for the holidays. But it's, it's prime time for, for that season right now in the winter when the temperatures aren't a million degrees down there. Grandstone Boots. Thank you to them for make keeping me looking good all the time. Their product is fantastic. Pro Glow Wash. Thank you to Ryan and his team. Had a great conversation with him this week about their future and the things they're working on. And just thank you to Pro Glo for, for being on board. And last but not least, Fly Racing. Couldn't do it without them. It's where I spend most of my time and I'll be updating sponsors as we go. I'm talking to people now. A lot of it. You know, the industry's in a tough spot. You know, there, there was this huge boom that came out of COVID Everybody had an insane amount of marketing dollars to work with and that's what happens. They're able to spend on podcasts like mine and really explore new avenues. But when the industry and the market pulls back pretty hard, which it has on the backside of that boom in 23 and 24 and certainly 25, those marketing dollars are tougher to come by. And I certainly understand it. I deal with it on a marketing basis for Western Power Sports. That's my day to day to day job is allocating spend for brands that Western Powersports owns. So I know that dynamic and situation better than most, I would say. So I'm sure it will be a fluid situation. I'm sure I'll bring sponsors on. I'm sure things will change over the years. That's all part of it. But I do want to thank all of them for being on board for the 2025 season. So let's jump into this thing. What are we going to see at A1? I think there is a danger of overreacting to what you see at A one, both positively and negatively. For most riders, you don't get their best stuff at a 1. There's too much pressure, there's too much anticipation, there's too much rust. The what they think from the bike in the off season doesn't pan out at the race and they're uncomfortable, they're nervous, they get arm pump, they put too much emphasis on an excellent performance at the first round and they ride tight. It happens all the time. But there are others that it's the inverse. I think guys like Ken Rockson, guys like Aaron Plessinger, they have found that A one works for them. They don't get super nervous. They're able to kind of bring their best stuff at the first round because of that. So I don't want to say you get a false representation of what they're going to be able to show all year, but sometimes it works in their favor and maybe they can maintain that. You know, it's a, it's a weird thing because I definitely think some of the best guys won't have their best stuff at the first round. But just because we see some guys ride really well at A one doesn't mean they can't continue to ride really well. Does that make sense? It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be complete opposites. Just because maybe Kenny comes out and kills it at a 1 or we've seen Barcia kill it at a 1. AP, I think has a real chance to be good at A one. It doesn't mean they're going to suck the rest of the year. They just typically don't fall into the trap of the nervousness and the riding tight that many will. And then that's, that's been a, a narrative that's as true as this race has ever happened. McGrath didn't seem to really care. I think his confidence level was always so high that he was kind of like, yeah, I don't, I'm not even worried about these guys. Like, I'm not nervous because I know I'm a lot better than these guys. That's where I think McGrath was. That's where, that's where he lived most of his career. And that, that had to be a nice place to be is just like he, he truly wasn't worried about the rest of the competition until really maybe Carmichael showed up. That was a unique dynamic for McGrath specifically. But I think you could look back at like Philip Hodo. He had just monumental blow ups at Anaheim before when he was clearly the best rider in the world, in my opinion. And he just fell apart. And Anaheim won because of too much expectation, too much pressure. Everybody expecting you to win and if you don't win, it's a colossal failure. And oh no, is everything going to. No, it's, it's one race. It's the same amount of points as all the others. It doesn't really matter all that much other than the pressure that everybody puts on it and on themselves. That. That's really the only difference. Everything else is static. It's the same damn thing. So we have to talk about Jet first. He is the favorite. He won last year and that's important. He, he answered the question last year of how would he show up at the first round, he went out and he won. Now, he didn't dominate, he had like a 3 second lead most of the race, but he was pretty much unchallenged. You know, if he'd run off and won by 15 seconds, that would have been like, oh boy. But that's not really what Jeff does. He's not been a guy that wins by those gigantic margins. That's never really been his thing. We've seen it every once in a great while we'll see him have a big win. But it's rare. It's not his M.O. and I think he's been raised to just do enough. You don't need to do more than what is necessary. He doesn't do the Carmichael Stewart thing where he wants to win by 30 or 40 seconds. Maybe in motocross that's more appropriate. But in Supercross, that 15 second gap where the guy in second doesn't even know where the leader is, you don't really see that often from Jet. Maybe it keeps him out of trouble though. You know, he doesn't go into some warp speed, that risk is outweighing the reward. You don't see that from Jet. And it often keeps him from making that critical mistake or the crash or the tip over. Because I think he's riding well within his own limits. So that's what I'll be looking for again from Jet. And I do think if he gets the whole shot, that's probably what's going to happen. If they let him get out front and put himself in that comfort zone, that two and a half plus second gap range, they're going to have a tough time doing much with that. I don't want to say the race is over two laps in if he's got a two and a half second lead. But you almost think it might be because we've seen that so many times where once he gets that lead, he just raises the level up and down to manage that. And if someone has a spot on the track where they're closing down, he'll, he'll just, he'll just go a little faster. Like he, he has that incredible ability to manage those gaps and it really comes down to he has more speed than everybody else. And if you have more speed that you can utilize as a weapon, guess what you get to do? You get to utilize it as a weapon. And when the gap comes down, someone puts in a heater lap, well, guess what? He's going to respond with a lap that no one else can. Can Manage and he's done that time and time again throughout his career. Now what will be interesting for Jet is if he doesn't get the start and he has all this expectation, he's. I think there's a really strong chance he gets booed in opening ceremonies for A1. I hope he doesn't, but I think he, I think he will. My only question is how loud is it and does it overwhelm the cheers? I don't know. That's going to be interesting to, to watch play out. There's going to be music and all that, but is there an overtone of booing? Is going to be, you know, it's not even racing, but I think it's going to be a really interesting aspect of the race itself. But if Jet doesn't get the start in the main event, I think this is a critical aspect of the race and I don't want to say the series, maybe that's too, too big of a statement. But can he stay calm if he starts like eighth? Because he can. You know, we haven't, he hasn't raced this 25 in Supercross yet. They've been struggling with it. We don't know if everything's going to be the same. They're switching ecus. There's a lot of changes there that I know Honda's been non stop working on from talking to Lars and people behind the scenes. They've been working overtime to get this right. If he doesn't and he starts eight, can he chill out and understand that he doesn't have to win? The world's not going to end. Even though it's going to feel like it. It's not going to end if he doesn't win the opener. And even if he gets a bad start, can he methodically work through the pack and not freak out? That's going to be what I'm watching for in the face of Anaheim. If it was round four, I'd be like, yeah, whatever. He, he knows he can get like a second or a third or a fourth from anywhere. He's not going to do anything stupid. But can he calm down at a 1? In that moment will be another test. It's all, these are tests for a 21 year old that is trying to become the biggest star the sports ever known that, make no mistake, that's what he's going for. So that will be a test on the stage of A1. Under that spotlight, if he gets a bad start, can he keep his composure and methodically move through the pack with the, the skill set that he has because there's no doubt that he can. If he allows himself mentally to slow down and just execute the game plan, just do what you do, don't force it, don't do anything erratic. Don't get crazy because you're so, you can't like manage the emotion in your head of oh my God, I'm going to lose the opener. He almost like needs to press pause on that first lap or two. If he finds himself there, if he finds himself seventh, eighth, 12th, whatever. If he's fourth, I don't think you'll see that. I think he'll understand, like, okay, the weeds right there. But if he's further back and he allows those thoughts of, oh my God, these guys are going to run away and I'm not going to be able to get to the front, can he slow down the thought process? That, that's going to be a very interesting thing. So that's, that's really where my thoughts are with Jet. We know what he is, we know what he can do. He's the favorite for the race, he's the favorite for the championship. If he gets a start, I feel very confident about what's going to happen. If he doesn't get the start. I will be locked in watching his body language. How does he approach those opening laps? Is he forcing passes? Is he putting himself into vulnerable positions? And when I, when I say that, I mean going to the outside trying to pass Barshire, Anderson, that's a no, no. You can, you have to pick your spots with guys like that because they're going to be looking for places to get aggressive with you, especially Anderson. If you try to take him on the outside at a 1, I'm not going to say you're going to end up on the ground, but you're going to lose time because he's going to press you to the tough blocks and you'll probably lose positions. So it's those decision making moments that I'll be watching him very, very closely. For next up, Cooper Webb. And Webb knows this game very well. I don't think he's going into A one going, I got to win where Jet is. I think jets has that mindset. Even though he's being told probably not, like, don't think that way, deep down he is thinking that way. I don't think Webb feels that he's just going to want to come out, prove that he's ready. Back up what we saw at A1 a year ago where he was in the mix he's better than we expected. He's going to be a championship contender, and if he can end up on the podium, that will be a success. And you move on to San Diego for round two. That's to me. Cooper Webb's game plan coming in is qualify well, get a good heat race finish to get a good gay pick, get a good start, execute a good main event. That's it. It's not. It's not all the pressure and all the craziness that Jed is probably feeling. He's not going to deal with the retirement stuff that Tomac's dealing. He's not going to deal with any of that. He's a little under the radar. He shouldn't be, but I think he's a little bit under the radar as far as everyone talking about him, which he likes, and that's going to allow him to just do what he does. You don't have to. You don't have to be the star of every interview or any of those things. Just go out and do what Cooper Webb does. And if he can, that's going to be a really nice opening round. Solid points, and you start the season off on the right foot. Now, Chase Sexton. I have more questions and things that I need to see from him. Sexton was a guy, if you go back to 20, 23, he was the fastest qualifier 13 out of 17 times. And when he wasn't the fastest qualifier, I think he was second every time or close. What that means is he was the fastest rider in the field. Now, he didn't win the champ, sorry, he did win the championship, but we also know that he was not in position to win it. Cooper Webb, and certainly why Tomac were ahead of him. Tomac. It was Tomac's championship to lose, but Sexton to me, had the most speed of anybody. If you were, you know what trend was Transport back to 20, 23 in the middle of the season and you're watching these qualifying laps go off and if somebody has a gun to your head and said, you better pick the fastest qualifier, who's the fastest guy? You'd be a fool to not pick Chase Sexton in that, in that time, okay, I need to see that guy show back up. I need to see the guy where week in and week out, you could count on him to have speed to burn. Raw speed like a card in his wallet that he would hand out in the pits and say, I'm a badass, I have raw speed. I can go faster than anybody. That's what I That's the Chase Sexton that I want to see back here in 2025. Now, I don't know if he has it on the ktm. I haven't seen it yet in a one lap scenario. I've seen it outdoors over the course of a moto, those types of things. But I haven't seen him where my jaw is on the floor at how fast he just went on the ktm. I don't think I've seen it once. I truly, I don't think that I've seen that moment on the Honda. I did see it. So it doesn't mean he's a better racer on the Honda than he was at ktm. Maybe he is, maybe he's not. But, but the raw speed, there's no doubt that he was faster on the Honda than he is KTM. So I want to see that speed in 2025 after a year on the bike, I want to see that back in the fray. And we absolutely have to see better starts. We have to. If he wants to be in the championship fight, if he wants to be the guy where everybody's saying, yep, he and Jet Lawrence, the future belongs to them. You've got to get good starts. You can, you simply cannot be Jet Lawrence from seventh and Supercrosser or fifth or ninth or what. You can't because Jet starts are too good and jets too fast and his mistakes are too rare. It's, it's simply that, that easy. And you throw in Tomac, who it's okay, it's one more year. You throw in Webb, who is back to form, he looks ready to go. You throw in Roxanne, you throw in Hunter, who has really stepped up. There's, there are too many guys and I'm not saying he can't pass most of them and get to second or third. He can, we've seen him do it. But if he wants to win the title, which is what he, his expectation is, he's paid to win championships. His expectation is championships. If he doesn't win the title, there's a part of them that's going to feel like he let everyone down. That's just the reality of it. That's a great place to be because you get rich. He's going to be financially secure for the rest of his life and go down as a hero of the sport. But the, the other side of that, the nasty side of that, is the relentless expectation. And if you don't win the championship, you are considered a letdown and a failure. That's the Nasty side of it, and it's not fair. No one said it's fair. But with huge paychecks come huge expectations. That is how this game works. And it's no different than, you know, the guys that are getting the biggest NFL contracts. Guess what? If you don't win football games, you're going to get a lot of hate and a lot of bad press and fans are going to be pissed like that. That's what comes with the territory. And to me, it's a great trade off. If you can block all that crap out or if you just win, that's the other side of it. Just win and everybody's going to love you. But if you don't, so what everybody that knows, like, I don't want to say I know, but the people, the people's opinion that he values, and I'm not saying that that's me either. Family, friends, you know, guys that have been there and done it, they're not going to be there blasting and they're going to say, it's really hard to win. That's why there's only. That's why it's called the winners. It's only one guy. And if you didn't win, so what? He's got two championships already. He's got a supercross championship, got his motocross championship. He could quit now and his career would be considered a huge success. That's the, that's the beautiful part of it. If you can look at it through that lens, if you can maintain that perspective on it. I don't know that Chase can all the time, though. He allows his emotions to run rampant, both negatively is the most important part. Sometimes I think he gains confidence from it, like he did this summer, but I think it's more impactful to the downside for him. He allows it to affect his confidence. If he has a bad qualifying session, it really weighs on him throughout the afternoon and the night, and he's got to get better at managing that. I don't know how. I struggled with it myself, and I wasn't in championship situations, but I struggled with it too. And it's really hard to reset, block it out and start over. And I did find that, like taking a nap, which a lot of writers do after, after qualifying, and they eat, they'll take a nap. That helps a lot because it's kind of a reset button and you wake up and you just like, okay, none of that mattered. None of that happened. I don't care. We're gonna go start over right now. So Maybe that's. If he doesn't do that. I would suggest that. Not that he cares what I suggest, but that really worked for me as just like pressing a reset button on a bad afternoon to make sure that a bad afternoon doesn't turn into a bad night just because of one being the other. So, again, two things with Sexton get the speed back. I want to see some qualifying sessions that he's faster than Jet. I want to send that message, set the tone for what's to come from him. And then he's got to figure the starts out. Think about how many hole shots he got on the Honda. Think about it. He. He whole shot it a lot. A lot. And if you don't remember, go back and watch. It wasn't every time, but it was pretty damn solid on the starting. Starting effort from him. And you can't just simply tell me that the KTM can't get good starts. I don't believe that Plessinger got good starts. I don't believe that the KTM is incapable. Now, is the Honda a little better? Probably. It probably is better on the starts. I think that's hard to argue from what we've seen from Jet and Hunter. But Sexton starts were atrocious. I know it's better than that, and he has to be better than that. So the two of them have to sort those things out. And that's. That's what I'll be watching for from Chase Sexton. Now Eli Tomac is back. He's on form. He will be one of his best versions, I believe, in 2025. The question is, and I talked about this on the NBC preseason show. I talked about it on the Racer X preview video. So if you watched those, you're going to hear this again. Is 2025 Eli Tomac, that version that he was in 2023 is his best version. Doesn't matter. Pick a year. Is his best version good enough to beat Jet Lawrence at his best? I don't know. I want to say no, that it's hard for me to say that. It feels disrespectful to Eli to say that, but it's. It's not. It's just analysis. It's just fact. There's no, you know, it's not a insulting comment. One of them has to be better than the other, right? They. You can't just say, well, they're both awesome, right? Like, one of them has to be better than the other. And I think that jets best is better than Tomax best. I really do. And that's just evolution of the sport. That's just, you know, people, the sport continues to go in the right way and Jet is an enigma. I think he is really in a world and a league of its own of his own. He's got to prove that out. But I do believe that he is. So Tomac could win this year. He really could. But I think if we get jets best, then it's going to be really difficult for Tomac to be champion. He will win a race or multiple races. I do believe that will happen. Jet won't be on his game every single time. If, if Tomac is at his best, which I think he is, we're going to see beast mode, right. St. Louis 2024. He was fantastic. Now you could argue Jet would have won if it wasn't for, for the red flag and then Barcia cleaning him out and all those things. Okay, well that's racing, man. Like Tomac won the overall and Tomac was great all night long. And I think there are situations where that will happen again. You think about races like Glendale where he is just lights out. Good. There are going to be moments like that for Tomac where he, he can make it happen in a scenario like that. So it's his last full year and it's going to be, there's going to be a lot of emotion tied to it. There's going to be a lot of celebration and come. You know, I'm trying to think of the right word, a lot of serenading for Tomac, which he deserves, all of it. The one thing I will say is if Tomac performs well at A one like podium, a win, leading laps, you see flashes of him and he maintains it. That is a fantastic sign because historically he's been a little rocky at A one and if he isn't, if he shows his best stuff at A one. I really, really like how that forebodes for tomac season in 2025. If he doesn't do it, there's, it's not a death knell. It doesn't mean it's all over with. I think it's only a one way street. If, if he doesn't do well there, I kind of shrug it off because that's what we've typically seen. But if he does do well, then I think it really does mean something. I don't know if that's fair or not. I don't know if that's logical or not. But that's, that's how I view it. Ken Rockson, Kenny's a wild card, and I think he has an opportunity to surprise everyone at A1, but I don't think if. If he comes out and wins A one, which he. I think he's capable of, I don't think it's like, oh, my God, here we go. This is Rocks in season. I don't think that's going to be the case. I don't know that he can maintain that level for 17 rounds. That. That's. That's not breaking news. We've seen that time and time again. Kenny's had health issues from all the surgeries. He has a propensity to get sick because of all the surgeries, and his. His immune system is not as strong as it once was. And he's also getting older. Father Time is undefeated, so it's hard to believe that that same thing's not going to wear on Kenny the same way it does on Tomac and Anderson and everybody else. That's just how it is. So the one thing I would say with Kenny is he falls into that very small group of guys that don't get too nervous at A one that prohibits their ability to ride their best, and that gives him a unique opportunity. If everyone's struggling and. And mentally having difficulties harnessing their best form, I think that opens the door for Rocks. And we've seen, in the past, we've seen him win A one multiple times. And it was, I think in those moments where he was just like, no, I'm good. Like, let's go. Everybody else is freaking out. I'm not. And that. That's a nice feather in Kenny's cap. So we'll see if. If that plays out. If he gets the holeshot, the door is open. I think Kenny feels very comfortable getting the holeshot and trying to check out at a race like A one where he knows. He knows as well as I do and everybody else that mentally people are struggling with the pressure that comes with the opening round anticipation. They haven't raced in a long time. There's a lot to deal with at a 1. And Kenny, if he gets a hole shot, that's going to be his first thought. It's like, I got to go right now. I got to. I got a sprint, which he's amazing at. He's probably the best sprinter in the world, and he could get a gap that he could then maintain. So just something to. To watch for with. With Rocks. And if he comes around that first corner first and he builds a gap on the first two laps, like, say, like, I Don't know. Hunter or somebody second. And Rockson's able to put in crazy good laps for three laps and he's got a five second lead. Watch out. Just telling you, watch out. Speaking of Hunter, I think Hunter just needs to do his thing. Really like that's it. Just do your thing. You don't have to try to do anything over the top. Just execute almost like Cooper Webb. Just execute the plan, qualify well, get a good gate pick, get a good start, which we've seen, we know he can do, and then just put in solid laps. And if you do that, there's. The result will come. Now, does that mean the result is sixth or second? I don't know. But I, I know Hunter is going to be in shape and I know that he kind of understands what it takes to race at this level now. He's a year deep. He gained a ton of confidence at the end of last season. I don't think he fears these guys anymore. And I just think you just have to, you know, it's cliche, but just do what you do. Don't worry about everybody else, don't think about what they're doing or any of the things championship. Forget all that. Just do what you do well and the rest will take care of itself. That's really all it takes. Jason Anderson, you know, he's in a weird spot. He's in a contract year and he wants to continue racing. So what does that mean? He's got to show up, he has to do the things that he used to be able to do. It doesn't mean win seven races like he did in 2022. That would be nice, but he doesn't have to. It just means he's got to be a consistent podium guy. He's got to win a couple races that will get him a factory contract. I don't know if it'll be a Cali. I don't know if it where it'll be. But he will get a factory contract somewhere if he wins races and shows that he can still do it. Because right now I believe there is a question there. If you're cowie and you're writing checks and you're building out your team for the future and you're looking at, okay, who are we going to sign? We gotta win. We got, you know, they're have won Supercross titles for years, Tomac and Bill Poto and Carmichael and on and on. They need somebody that can win in Supercross. And if Anderson doesn't show that he can still do it this year, I think they're gonna feel like they have to move on. And I'm speculating. Maybe it's out of place for me to do, but that's what this podcast is. I don't know how. If you're cow, you can look at and go, yep, we're going to sign Anderson up for two more years. If he has a bad year this year, if he doesn't win any races, if he maybe gets like one podium sporadically. But he's a. There's a lot of fifths and sixths in there. I don't think that's necessarily what you want to sign up for two more years. At his age, if he was 23, no problem, but he's not. He's like 30, 31. Whatever he is. That's a very, very different setup for Anderson and his future. So it's a contract year. It's a very, very important year for him. And I don't mean financial future. He said he's made a ton of money. He's incredibly smart with his money. He doesn't spend on stupid things. So I don't think that really matters. But he wants to race more, he wants to make more money, he wants to stay on a factory team. It is incredibly important in that aspect for him to get off to a fast start, show everybody what he's got, and remind everybody of what he's capable of. That's. That's the thing you've got to remind everybody. Oh, snap. Like, we should have been talking about Anderson more, and I would argue we probably shouldn't be, but that's what's going to be in our head, is like, why weren't we talking about Anderson? And there's. There's reason. There are reasons, because he hasn't been that guy. He just hasn't. But I think he needs to put that thought back in Everybody's mind. And A1 is a great opportunity to do that, because no one's really talking about him. No one's putting pressure on him. No one, you know, he's putting pressure on himself, but no one's talking about him. He's not going to be doing 12 million interviews going into the first race where everybody's talking about championships, like, he's going to have none of that, which is probably, in the end, a good thing. Now, API, I think, is also in a great spot, speaking of great spots, because he doesn't fall into the trappings of this pressure thing. I spoke about it a little bit earlier, but I couldn't Believe how loose he was last year, like, during opening ceremonies. Like, I. Looking around, I can see it on people's faces. I can see all of the feelings that I had in their faces. I know what they're feeling. I can see it a mile away. The tension around, you know, on their forehead, like the grimaces, all that. Like, they're. They're. Everybody's in agony during opening ceremonies because they don't know what's to come. They know how much work they put in, the team has put in. Everybody's expectation is on them. Everybody's like, just. They have to deliver, you know, like, in the end, the result on the racetrack is what all these people, including themselves, have been working towards. And if they don't produce that result, then they feel like they let everybody down. That's where the pressure comes from. The money. For me, it wasn't really the money because I wasn't getting paid like these guys are, but that's a big thing for a lot of these guys. I'm getting paid a ton of money to produce results for this giant team. Not just the 10 people you see at the races, but the hundreds of employees that are at headquarters and all, you know, in Japan and all these places, they're all depending on you to produce the result. I didn't see any of that with ap. I saw smiles, I saw laughing, which bodes well. Like, that sets him up nicely to ride his best at A one. And he could deliver a result that most people aren't expecting because he can ride so loosely at this race where most people won't be able to. So it won't shock me if we see plusing around the podium. I know there's a lot of guys that are all going to be buying for it. I get it. Right. Do I think he's the third best guy in the sport? No, I don't. But at this race specifically, I think there's an opportunity there because of the way this race goes, because of all those race dynamics that I talked about, the mental aspects that I talked about. It gives him a great chance. Now, Justin Barsha, almost kind of the same thing. I just don't think he's kind of got the momentum that AP does. Like, AP was on the podium a lot last year. He won a race. He had the red plate. Barsha had one of his worst years ever last year. So it's a little bit of a different setup coming in now. You could argue that he was not healthy, and he is healthy now. So that will change the equation. That's fair. That's. That's a fair argument to make and I'm not going to push back on it. But I'm going to need to see Barsha be that guy that he used to be. Now remember, he won A one three years in a row. That's incredible. That is insane. So to count him out, it's probably foolish for a good A1 result simply because he's won the damn thing three times and he won it three years in a row. So we'll see. I'm kind of a show me situation on Justin Barcia. I kind of just come down if he could get a top five, that's a good start to the year. You know, he's been missing that extra gear on the speed factor. I just haven't been able to see him or I haven't seen him be able to go as fast as the top guys go. Like when they all get in their hyper mode of like we're putting in sprint laps, he just doesn't seem to be able to match that. And that's what I'm going to need to see. I'm going to need to see a reversion from him on back to where he can go with them when that happens. So I don't know. I don't have a strong opinion on Barcia's year, but I'm just telling you what I've seen doesn't typically set up well as you're a year older. Justin Cooper is, I think he has a very nice opportunity. He doesn't have the expectation of winning. He doesn't come in with the pressure of like Cooper Webb or Jet or these other guys and everything in front of him is more of an opportunity than. Than it is an expectation. Does that make sense where if he does great, everybody's going to be stoked, but if he doesn't do that well, no one's going to be like, oh my God, what are you doing? Like, you know what I mean? That that's a nice thing to have. Now he's got not getting the paycheck that like Tomac's getting. You know, just for speculation sake, let's say Tomac's getting from Yamaha 1.5 to 2 million. That's probably fair. I'm going to say it's like 1 9ish. That would be my guess from hearing things. You know, Justin Cooper's probably like 300 grand from Yamaha and a lot of that's probably Bobby Reagan stepping in to help. So that's where the expectation Changes. And you could say, well, I would rather have the expectation and have that extra money. Of course, totally understandable. But that Justin Cooper doesn't get to choose, it doesn't get to decide that somewhere. So he's got to live with what he's got. And the only way to get that 2 million dollar paycheck is to go out and get podiums and win races. So that's the opportunity. If you go out and do it. Guess what? Everybody's smiling. Yamaha is going to be talking to you early about replacing Tomac. Okay, man, we're going to get you some more money. We'll get you up into that like $800,000 range. Like you're killing it. We love it. But if he doesn't, Yamaha's gonna be like, well, he's kind of an insurance policy for us. He does all the right things, he says all the right things, he qualifies well. The results aren't bad, you know, like, it's not the worst place ever to live either. So I don't think it's an awful situation for Justin Cooper to be in, because the future is the opportunity, right? If he wants to go out and get it, he can go get it. And he doesn't have to live with all the pressure that some of the other guys have now. The one note on Justin Cooper is to execute that he's got to start from the front. He is not a charge from the back, work through the pack guy. He's never been, nor will he be in a stacked 450 class. So if you don't see Justin Cooper on the front on the first lap, you're likely not going to see him on the front on the last lap. That is just, I didn't want to say a harsh reality. That's just reality for Justin Cooper and it's been reality since the first day I started watching him race. Professionally, he's been the same guy. Two more guys to cover. Jorge Prado. Jorge Prado, however you want to say it. Everybody says it differently. Spanish guys say Jorge, British guys say Jorge. I don't know what the hell this say, but I don't think you should be expecting the world from him in Supercross this year. Doesn't mean he can't flash. Sometimes I do think he'll get good starts. The biggest key will just be to learn. Don't do anything stupid. Keep yourself in really good situations and stay healthy. I wrote in all caps in my notes, stay healthy at all costs. Don't. If you're in a Bad situation, hit the brakes, go off the track, don't crash yourself out and injure yourself taking big risks in Supercross. In your first year of this Kawasaki deal, did they hire him? It's an interesting question. Did they hire him to win Supercross races? Now, Callie might say, hell yeah, we did. I would say, if you did, you're foolish. If he ever gets there, if he ever gets to a position where he can win Supercross races, that is amazing. Kudos to everybody involved. Kudos to Cali, kudos to Prado. But if that was the expectation that he's become, going to become a Supercross champion, I think that's asking too much, in my opinion. This is not a guy that grew up racing Supercross, nor has any Supercross experience prior to, I don't know, 14 or 15 months ago. Like, none. Seriously, none. So to think he's going to go beat Jet and Sexton and these guys that have been doing it, you know, for a decade. Well, not yet, but a lot of these guys have been racing Supercross for a very long time, and the talent differences are negligible. I don't think that's a fair ask of Prado. They did hire him to win motocross races and battle for the championship. That is absolutely factual. So what's the number one way to exclude yourself from being a factor to win the motocross championship? Get hurt. That's not. It's not complicated. That's really easy to put together, is that if he gets hurt, if he has setbacks, if he's not 100% coming into Fox Raceway. Yeah, you. You've done yourself a gigantic disservice because you injured yourself in something that wasn't the priority. That's as simple as I can make it. Supercross is an afterthought, in my opinion, for Prado in 2025. Now, it's hard to see it that way when we're staring Anaheim one in the face. I understand that. But you've got to have the foresight and the understanding and the maturity and the guidance to understand that is exactly what this is. We're going to go racing for 17 rounds, and we're going to do the best we can and minimize risk. And if that means getting eighth every weekend, guess what that means? Getting eighth every weekend. But guess what also that means? It means in March and April, he's going to be hammering down motocross motos, and he's going to come into Fox Raceway with a ton of momentum, a ton of preparation, and he has the ability to win this, this first year, I, I truly think he could win the pro motocross championship. I don't think he's going to. I think Jet will win it, but I think he could. But the only way to do that is to make sure he's 100 ready. And so that, that's just where I'm at. Don't do anything stupid. Don't hurt yourself. But you already had a huge get off. He had to miss our failed media days in California because he had a gigantic get off and didn't want to do a bunch of interviews with a black guy. Like, that's fine. I don't care. I understand he didn't want to do photos and video interviews with this gigantic black guy. I get it. But it just goes to my point of you can't have those type of setbacks in the middle of Supercross because it's going to hurt your chances in motocross. One thing that is not the priority can't reduce your chances of doing well in the thing that is the prior is the priorities. That, that makes perfect sense in my mind. It's just a really hard thing to wrap your head around and some things are out of your control. Crash in the first turn, somebody crashes in front of him, somebody crashes into them. Crap happens. I get it. But I do know that it's going to take every possible bit of his talent to beat Jet in this motocross season. So he's, he's got to be prepared for that. Last rider is Malcolm Stewart. And you know, he's in the last year of his husky deal. I don't think he'll probably be there in 26. I don't know that to be fact, but I don't think he will be. But the only way he's going to find himself on a factory team is he's got to reestablish himself as a front runner in this club class, period. End of story. It doesn't get any easier in that he's got to show that he's got speed. He's got to get good starts to put himself in a good position. He's got to show that he can win or win heats or poke get on the podium and be that guy again. Because getting 8th and 9th and 10th and 11th, that's not going to get it done at his age, with the declining momentum that he has in results. If you look on his results on a chart, they're, they're regressing. The only way you're going to get A factory ride in that scenario where your results are getting worse as you're getting older is to have a breakout year. He's got to go show he can do it again. And I don't know if he can or can't. Doesn't matter to me. Such a nice guy. He's always been nice to me. I think he's very easy to cheer for, but I'm just being realistic about what these teams look at and where they're going to allocate resources towards. It's not going to be in an older rider whose results are getting worse, period. That's. That's as easy as it gets. Now, could he go to a satellite team? Sure. Sure, he could. But he doesn't want to do that. He wants to be on a factory team, factory bike and make a lot of money. The ask is pretty clear. You've got to. You've got to be the guy you used to be. And I don't know if he can or can't. I don't know if he will or won't. We'll see. But what it takes is pretty clear. So that's it. That is the. That's my preview of these guys. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you again to Guts Racing. Thank you again to Works Connection. Thank you again to TL Speed Shop, Grandstone, Boots Fly Racing Pro Glow Wash. Thank you to all of them for being a part of this podcast. If you want to be a sponsor of the podcast, please reach out to me. You can DM me, you can email me, get a hold of me, however possible, social media, whatever. I'd love to have a conversation. It's pretty reasonable to be a part of it. I don't, you know, I'm going to do it if I have no sponsors. To be 100% honest, I'll continue to do this podcast 100% on my own, sponsored by Jason Thomas. That's fine. But I do think there is an opportunity to, to spread the word about whatever brand you may be representing. So we will talk to you soon. It's almost go time and I could not be more excited about it. See you.