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 Guts Racing Pro, Glow Wash Works Connection, Bass Foundry, TL Speed Shop, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing. Hello everyone, my name is Jason Thomas and this is your Industry Seating podcast. It is June 1st and seriously, I cannot believe that it is already June. I'm sitting in my living room recording this, I have a little studio set up and if you told me that it was like January 5th, I would be like, yeah, that sounds about right. Because I moved into this place that I'm in now January 1st. There's no way that it's been this long. It's shocking to me. So I don't know, there's this theory that time relatively feels like it speeds up as you get older and I am certainly feeling that because we're already through halfway through 2025. Before you know it, we're going to be in the off season again, looking towards the 2026 season. So, man, slow down time a little bit. It's, it's pretty remarkable how, how quickly things go by. Anyway, thank you to all the sponsors of this podcast. We'll certainly talk about them. Thank you to all of you for listening. We're going to get into what we saw yesterday at Hangtown and, you know, these pro motocross races. Honestly, we've been pretty lucky. And when I say that I'm going to go back to my first TV obligations here in the States. I've been doing MXGP in Europe for seven years now, but here in the US that started in 2022, and if you all remember that last round on, I think it was Labor Day weekend at Fox raceway, it was 1:05, something like that, like brutally, brutally hot. And we really haven't had a day where it was this tough and this hard on everyone since then. And that's abnormal to not have one for, you know, almost three years. It feels like a long time and I kept waiting for it, like a really muddy race, a really hot race and it just, we kept getting lucky with the weather and I'm not going to complain, you know, like, we really haven't had a full on all out mud pro motocross race in a while either. So maybe that's, maybe that's on the docket for this summer. Let's hope not. It's not something I would ask for, but it feels like it's been a minute since we've had one of those and you know, you Think about what does that mean for the racers. You know, I write these articles throughout the week, and I get to talk about all the nuance that comes with these extreme days. And it could be any type of weather, but it changes the race, it changes how riders have to prepare, it changes how riders have to handle conditions because for most of their life, throughout the week, on a normal weather weekend, their life is very robotic and very repetitive. And most programs, I'm not as familiar with what Gareth Swanepoel does for, like, the Star guys, but I am familiar with what Alden Baker does. I'm familiar with what, like, Michael Byrne does. I've been in a lot of these programs. I participated in them. Whether I was just in a visiting, in a guest role, or, you know, all the way in. I've seen and done a lot of the same routines that these riders go through. And it's very, very rinse and repeat. It feels like Groundhog's Day most of the time. And that's what they're going for. If you really broke it down for a guy like Eldon Baker, he's trying to create motocross and supercross robots. And that sounds maybe harsher than it is or maybe has a negative context to it, which I don't intend it to have. But that's, in a sense what he wants. He wants these riders programmed to perform on Saturdays, so they go through their routines. Sunday, they would get home today, right? For most of them, it's a really long flight home. If they, if they went to Florida, which I'm sure a lot of them flew red eye flights home to Florida, they would get home this morning or at some point today if they didn't red eye some. Some trainers would never allow a red eye because you can't sacrifice sleep. So they would get up, you know, first flight out, go to bed early, first flight out, get home at 3, 4, 5, something like that. And something that's very important is they need to do some sort of bicycle ride. It could be stationary. You know, after a really hard race like this weekend, that could certainly be a stationary indoor ride. Because the last thing they'd want to do is have a really heavy sweat session on Sunday. They're trying to regain all of their hydration. And, you know, if, if I was advising anyone, the first thing I would have done or at some point yesterday, I would have gotten an IV right away, right? As soon as their press conference, meeting, media obligations are over or even during it, I wouldn't care. They should be getting intravenous hydration, glucose bag for sure, but mostly saline bags just to replace all of the fluids that they expended. That's going to hyper accelerate their recovery process. And I say that because I've done it, I have practiced what I preach here. I know this all too well. They will speed up how quickly they can train again, how quickly they feel near 100% again through that. So that's what they would do last night, fly back today. I would probably recommend getting another one today if they can. You know, some people don't have access to it or the means or resources for it. But if you, if you do, if you're just removing all obstacles from the situation, you would probably get another one today, tonight. Sometimes just to continue that recovery hydration process, you would do that recovery ride that I talked about indoors or out. Some guys are just swear by getting on the bicycle, get outside, you just don't want to overexert yourself. All this is trying to accomplish on a Sunday is lactic acid flush. And for those of you who don't know what that means, lactic acid builds up in your muscles when you go like way past the limit. And when, when riders feel like fatigue or muscle burn, that is lactic acid creation. And the soreness that you feel or muscle fatigue after the day after, that's lactic acid that you want to flush out of your muscles. And how you do that is you get your heart rate up again and you get back into, you want, you don't want to go anaerobic, which means over your threshold. There's an anaerobic and there's aerobic and anaerobic and you want to stay under that. So I'm talking like heart rate of 110, 120 and no higher. Like that would be the highest you'd want to go. That's going to flush all that lactic acid out of the muscles. It gets everything activated again and kind of turns your muscles on, gets your body back into like a, a kind of reactionary mode and it will flush that out. So you're going to reduce and remove soreness. That's why you'll see if you watch, I don't know if our guys would do it, but really high end elite athletes, marathon runners, Tour de France guys, after they would do this brutally hard race session, stage, whatever, they would be back on the bicycle that evening or that night right after sometimes whatever, trying to flush that to, to basically not allow that lactic acid to set in. And sometimes you'll see that like, you'll see. I remember seeing Dylan Ferrandis for years, like after the day the race was over, he would be at the truck even after a really hard day on the bicycle, just spinning out, right? Not like heavy resistance, not putting in this training session. That's not what it is at all. It's not. Letting yourself or your body go into this heavy recovery mode is kind of what trainers would say it is. You don't want your body to completely shut off after this traumatic experience and say the body basically says, I have to now fix everything because this was a traumatic experience. You want to kind of keep it in this active mode because guess what? The hits are going to keep coming. You're going to have to be training again early in the week. So long way of saying Sunday, that's what you want to do. You want to be in that act. You know, everybody in the exercise fitness world would call it active recovery on Sunday. Get back to as close, closer to 100%, get another IV if you can. You'd want to be, you know, onboarding fluids all day long. You know, like, different trainers think different things. Like BCAAs, you can, you can take certain, like, peptides help to help in recovery, like dilucine. There's a lot of things you can take that are all completely above board and, you know, drug test approved to help recovery to get back to 100%. And they, they will also help prevent muscle breakdown. That's one thing you definitely don't want to happen. You go through this, all this stress and trauma is put on your body. You don't want your body to start unwinding all of that muscle because it's putting such a heavy load on it. So you give it these nutrients to prevent all those things. And science has come a long way in helping stuff like that. I mean, even for me, I'm not even competing anymore. Today I had like BCAAs when I was walking on the treadmill and all these things, trying to get myself back to 100%. Because yesterday was hard on me too. I was in 100 plus degree heat for six hours straight. @ one point running around. Like when I did that, the swim tank thing in between motos, I went from full sprint from the podium to the TV trucks to changed clothes, full sprint to Honda. Had to, like, get my breathing in check, got in the water. We did that live. I got out, dried off, sprinted back to the TV trucks, had to change back into my race clothes, put my TV pack back on and then sprint back to the starting Line because if you watch, I do a report on the Hayden and Shimoda gate situation. Like, I don't even know. Not long after, like, it was full sprint. So I'm like, I did nothing compared to the racers. Like, I know what that is. I trust me, I did nothing compared to what they did. But even for me, I don't want to. I want to feel good on Sunday and Monday and I have work to do. So I'm taking these things too. So that's all the things that racers would be doing, trying to get their bodies back to 100%. And then Monday you're back on a relatively normal schedule. And this on Monday is kind of where ideas would differ. Some trainers would be like, nope, same program, no let up, no nothing. We're going hard at it on Monday. There is no adjustment. And I've heard that Alden would be in that category of like, we're not changing anything. I can't say that for sure. I don't know. You know, these programs evolve and there's a lot of science behind it, but I know that other people for sure would be like, okay, we are going to do work on Monday, but it's going to be a lesser load than workload than normal because we are still recovering. Like, we don't want to impede the recovery process and then go back into, like, tearing ourself down. What you want it to be is you want your body to be almost fully recovered or fully recovered and then you go back into, like, your maintenance work on Monday and Tuesday because this is not a week. And there are some weeks like this, but this is not a week where riders would want to be trying to get, like, better or improve their fitness or really work on things that are very taxing physically. You just can't. It is. And you have to know these things. Like, you have to learn your body. You have to learn fitness dynamics and how these things work because if you tried to do that this week, you would do so much more harm than good. And training really hard is important and mandatory, but knowing when to train and knowing when you can really lean into it is, I would say, more important. You know, more is not always better. Just working harder is not always better. And there are some people I have done this. I would just be like, kind of a hammerhead with it and just be like, nope, I suck. I'm just going to do more. And my body, like, when I look back on it, my body was like screaming out at me to chill out. But I was so frustrated That I was like, I'm going to do more and I'm just going to continue to batter my. Like a battering ram against this immovable object until I get my way. And it's just not smart. You have to understand, and Michael Byrne helped me a lot with this. You have to understand when it's time to pull up a little bit and be like, if I do this, like, you want to work more because you're not getting the results you want. And you understand that hard work gives results, but you have to understand that if you just lean into it and go all in, you're going to suck even worse the next Saturday because you're going to be so freaking tired that you can't even ride your best. And. And that's what riders have to think about this week. If they didn't have a good week, like, for example, Hunter Lawrence did not have a great weekend, in my opinion, I don't have the results in front of me. I just know from remembering it wasn't like a banner day for Hunter. It was okay. It wasn't terrible. If I had to guess, I would say he got like fifth, fourth overall. Fifth overall. I don't know, you know, like, it wasn't a fantastic day for Hunter. He really wasn't even a storyline. We weren't talking about him. So he's smart enough to know this. He has. He's smart enough. Johnny Omari is. Johnny Omari is obviously smart enough. He would know. They would know that. You can't just bury yourself this week trying to fix it before Colorado. That. And that's super important for a guy like Hunter to realize. And any will that, like, hey, okay. Wasn't where I wanted to be. I don't think Hunter is like, I don't think heat is necessarily his forte anyway. So you just have to be like, okay, the bike wasn't where I wanted it to be, which I do believe that is a thing. They're fighting this chassis, which is still insane to me because last year it seemed like such an answer. If you remember last summer, like, everybody, Hunter included, was talking about how good the 25 was. And now they're kind of. They've regressed from that feeling. And I don't really know why or how I've asked and really haven't gotten anywhere with that. But this is a week where they would. If I were them, I would be focused on, okay, we need to manage efforts on a exertion level, like energy wise. But let's work on getting the bike better. I'll do my maintenance stuff fitness wise. I'll make sure that no matter what, above all else, I am all systems go come Saturday morning. But let's, let's try to get the bike better. And I think that Lars gave some insight as to their challenge on Saturday in the post race show. If you go back and watch it, I didn't, I didn't really think about it at the time, but I was, I was kind of analyzing. And a lot of this you have to parse through, you know, like a lot of it is just kind of filler. But there are some nuggets of wisdom that really tell the tale. And this is that particular instance. He says it's really hard to replicate race conditions throughout the week. So we're chasing. They use this word comfort. It's not really a word that I used a lot. They use it. That's kind of their lingo for. And Hunter did a great job of explaining this at some point throughout the weekend. I think it was with Haley on Saturday. But. But it's predictability in what the bike's going to do. And that means I can hit any bump, I can hit any scenario. And I already know long before I get there what the bike's going to do. And I've talked about this on other shows, probably my own show here. Predictability is paramount for racers. You have to know what it's going to do before it even happens. And that's how confidence is built. That's how riders go so fast, is because they're coming up to a section and they can look at it and say, yeah, I've already seen this movie. I know how it ends. I know exactly what line I'm going to hit, what that bump is going to do, how my bike's going to react to it, and then how I'm going to enter the next corner. Like all of that is through having done the same thing a million times. And you just trust your motorcycle because you felt it. It's muscle memory, but almost like a brain muscle memory that you're just like, okay, I'm just going to execute this because I already know what's going to happen when that's not there for a rider, it's really hard to be your best because you're always second guessing what's the bike going to do. If it doesn't do what I think it's going to do, I might end up on my head in the worst way. Like I could have a huge crash here because it does something unexpected and that's what. That's what riders battle the most. And if you've ever heard me talk about me hating the 2009 Honda 450, that was one of the biggest reasons I hated it so much, is because I never had a clue what that thing was going to do. It had a mind of its own. And if I didn't know better, I would think it didn't like me very much because it did awful things at awful times to me. And it was just a really. In the end, you know, I know better in the end, it was just a really unstable chassis. That's the. Probably the best way I could put it, is that it just wasn't very connected. The fork and the shock were really unbalanced. The chassis was really front and low, rear end high. And it just did not work very well. On motocross, track, supercross, it was a little better. Motocross, it just. It didn't work well. And this isn't that. But the concept is transferable to what Hunter's feeling. He's trying to get to a place where he's like, I can hit any section wide open, and I know it's just not going to toss me like a rag doll. That's. That's where he's trying to get to. So that's what I would lean into. But what I was talking about with Lars is he was talking about, we can't. We can't find tracks that are like this. The bumps don't form the same way. The lines don't form the same way. Because you go to like they were at Paris Raceway last week, you have a bunch of amateur guys on it that they're simply. They're not riding as fast or in the same manner that pro guys are. It's not drying out the same. It's not 103 degrees. It's just not the same situation. So your testing is not going to have the same results. And that's what you. That's really what I got from it, is we're doing all the work. We're chasing this feeling for them. We're just having a hard time getting there because we don't have the right situation to mimic these conditions so we can test exactly on what we're going to race on. So they're almost in a spot where they're testing at the races, and that's not that uncommon. It's not ideal. You don't want to be doing that. But it's fairly common to test at the races because you're Chasing conditions, you're chasing the feeling that you're looking for. So that's what I see going on with, with Honda and Jet and Hunter on the weekends is they're chasing this thing and to bring it back full circle. That's what I would be trying to do this week. You know, Colorado is, track is, is really challenging to replicate in Florida, which I'm guessing they went back to Florida, maybe they went back to California, but I doubt it. I think they probably went home. There aren't many tracks in Florida, if any, that are going to be similar to Colorado. But you know, they know what Colorado is. It's not like they're completely going to be blindsided by the conditions in Colorado. It's just hard to test during the week and say, okay, we found it, now let's take it to Colorado. That's just, it's a hard thing to do. The one thing that I think will help both of them is as of today, the high in Colorado is like 80, 81. So that's going to be a really nice day. They're not going to have this really heavy climate condition to also be trying to manage. So they'll be able to rely on their starts, rely on their strength. Like they already whole shot everything anyway. But the Hondas are incredibly capable and always have been at altitude. I don't know why it is. I think it's a combination of their ecu. I think they have extra horsepower when they need it, like they have a lot of torque on standby when they need it so they can add it when we go to elevation and they get even more of an advantage. So I think they'll, they'll start, you know, inside the top three, both of them, both motos and that will lead them to, to really strong results. So now it's nice bounce back opportunity there. I just wouldn't lean too much into like, well, we gotta fix this heat problem. This is not the week for that. So that's how kind of like early in the week goes or recovery. Get your work in. You know, you want to stay on the maintenance side of things. So your body's like still in this repetitive mode. It knows what's coming and it's, you know, you never really want to keep, you never really want to have your body surprised. That's really it. You know, there's two different things that work here. When you're trying to get fitter and you're trying to get stronger, you're trying to build muscle, you're always, you want to Keep your body guessing all the time. That's how you get stronger. That's how your body responds to things. It grows and it becomes more reactionary. And you know, like, I'm going way off topic here, but when you're trying to get stronger, your body goes into this like yesterday, okay, Saturday at Hangtown, a lot of guys put their, their bodies under, under a lot of duress. And the whole theory behind muscle building, fitness building is your body's like, wow, we were not prepared for what you just put us through. We better get stronger. We better rebuild muscle, prepare ourselves so the next time we face this workload, we are more prepared for it. That's a very, very simple way of putting this. And I don't have fitness degrees. I'm not a doctor, I don't have any of that. But I've lived this and I know what I know through life experience. That's what's happening. And I've talked to lots of really, really intelligent people about this. So I have education and intelligence by proxy. So it's two. That's what they're trying to do when they're getting stronger. This is not the week for that. You want your body to know exactly what's coming and you just want it to get back into its groove. So when you get there Saturday morning, it feels strong again. And that comes through repetitive motion d bicycling. You know, your, your steady maintenance rides throughout the week. Maybe maybe do motos on Wednesday. Maybe not like this. Could it be a week where you don't. I would always do them just because I was so ingrained too, but I could see them not. I could see them just doing some sprint laps and really keeping the intensity low in lieu of making sure that they're 100% right. Like I. 100 different ways to say. The goal this week is to get back to 100%. And that's not always the case. Like, if it's an easy weekend, you don't have to, you don't have to think about that so much. Your body, these guys bodies are so resilient because they're so fit that they're going to bounce back really fast. Well, then, yeah, you can, you could add some workload and you could work on specific things. You could try to get your fitness a little higher. You just have to. Again, you have to know when to press and know when not to. I don't know how I got on that topic. I just thought it was important. We don't give any opportunities to talk about what These riders kind of go through and what the goals should be and what they really need to be mindful of and stay away from on these extreme weekend situations. So 250 class, what did we see? We saw Hayden Deegan. I mean, it wasn't like he won by a minute. Okay, it wasn't. But there was no doubt who the fastest guy or the fittest guy was. And that was really what I thought would happen. And I honestly thought he would win by more. I thought he'd have like a 22nd lead. He didn't. You know, Shimoda kept him really honest. Shimoda had great speed and great fitness also. And we don't know how much Hayden being sick mattered, you know, because I, I've told you guys on this show, and I shouldn't say you guys, I've talked about it on all these shows, about one of the best barometers that I know of for judging fitness is how do you look when you come off the track and you pull your helmet off under the tent? Like it's within 30 seconds of the finish line. I'm looking right in your eyes. They're not looking at me, but I'm looking in their eyes. I'm looking at their facial expression, their breathing, like chest heaving breathing wise how spent they look like. Just their body language in all forms. I'm telling you, Hayden, especially in the first moto, he didn't look like that was much at all. Like, I, I seriously, like, he didn't look like that was much of much, much of an effort at all. And that speaks volumes on a day like that. Kitchen, when kitchen came in the first moto, he just looked like he had done a marathon and then an Ironman and then a Spartan race in succession. Seriously, like, he. And he, he rode really well. Like, don't. I don't want that to sound like I'm coming down on him at all. He, he really did a great job of bouncing back, but he looked like what the effort should have looked like. Like, if you told me it was going to be 100 degrees, that's what I thought these guys would look like. And honestly, Deegan didn't. He didn't look like that. So kudos to Hayden for really working hard through the week to make Saturdays a little easier. You know, I talked about Joe. He looked phenomenal. He looked pretty spent too, you know, and the second motos were a little different. Hayden looked like he was suffering a bit, but I don't know where the sickness is. Like, he talked about his throat Closing up. He. Well, he sounded terrible on the podium. Honestly, he did. I noticed it before he even said it. I was like, man, your voice doesn't sound good. And then he said, yeah, sick. And what? I was like, oh, all right. I wish I wasn't standing so close to you, but these things happen. But his effort, I think it took more out of him in the second moto. He didn't look nearly as bad as Kitchen or Joe did, I'll tell you that. Joe pulled in, then was puking, and then finally came to the podium later. I have that on good authority that he stopped and was throwing up. Kitchen looked. Seriously. Kitchen looked like he had gone through a severe beating. Like, every effort in the world to cool Levi Kitchen down was being taken. They were pouring water. Seriously. There was probably five or six people dumping water on him all at once. On his face, on his back, on his pants, everywhere they could get water on. Slapping towels on his back like they were. They're trying to get his core body temperature down. That's kind of why I did the. The tub thing. Like, the biggest thing you can do to help somebody in that moment is get their internal body temperature lower because, you know, like, human body typically is 98.6 in that moment. He's over 100. And I'm not a doctor, I don't know, but I know I've read enough and I've studied this enough that you get into where you're basically running a fever is what's happening, and that's really dangerous. Like, you know, everybody knows how dangerous fevers can be. Your brain simply can't tolerate high temperatures like that. Before you start getting brain damage starts to happen. I don't think they're worried about brain damage so much in this scenario, but it is damaging. And the longer you expose yourself to that type of temperature, your internal body temperature, the more damage is going to be done. So get this temperature down. You can immediately see as his temperature comes down, he starts to respond a little bit because he wasn't in a good place. I heard people talking that he was saying things that didn't make sense, which is pretty normal. You just get a little delusional, right? Like, you just. Your brains. Your brain's simply not operating correctly. And I don't. That's not. You know, don't take that as the gospel. I'm not trying to share information that could or could not be true, but that's what I was told, and I have done that myself. I know what that feels like. So it's not a shock to me that he was not, you know, quote unquote, all there when he came in. Like, that's pretty, honestly pretty normal for these extreme conditions. That's why they shorten motos, you know, like that they're trying to keep these guys as safe as they possibly can and also stay true to the heart of the sport also. But yeah, they're just, you know, they're every attempt being made, like dumping ice on them water, wet towels, like the, all the guys were putting their feet, you know, socks on still, like rip their boots off as fast as possible because a lot of heat is stored inside your boots. You, you know, it can't exit, like heat exits your feet and your head in most cases. Rip their boots off. They have big trays of ice water, put their feet in ice water. So they're doing everything humanly possible to get that temperature down as quickly as possible. So kudos to all the team members, the medical personnel, the trainers, everybody. They were really doing Yeoman's work of getting these guys cooled down. And so, yeah, you could tell that these guys suffered a lot. So great bounce back from Levi Kitchen to get on the podium. He really needed that, that that was the type of ride he, he needed to put in. And I'm not saying for a championship, you know, like Deegan would probably have to injure himself for Kitchen to have any chance at this championship, but just for his own career, right, to validate himself as a 250 elite. I'm sure he has 450 aspirations. Like all these things are really important for him because he's had a pretty crappy season thus far. You know, he got injured in supercross, really, really bad opening round of motocross. Like he needs, he needs days like this and more. Just so it's not 2025 isn't just a complete write off. Honestly, like that's kind of where we're at, you know, the other, some of the other guys, like, I don't know, like Master Pool had his moments, wasn't able to kind of sustain it. That Kobush, honestly, that Kobush moment in the Sekimoto was pretty fun. Like we all knew he wasn't going to be able to hang in there or I did anyway, like the hardest day, he's not going to be able to hold on to that. I was hoping though that he would be able to just circulate and maybe hang in there for like a top 15. I thought that would be really cool for him. I don't know if he Crashed. I don't know what happened but I just saw that he DNF'd pretty early. Like he was out, I don't know, six laps in or something. He was all the way at the back but still either way that was super fun for everybody involved to kind of watch, kind of watch all that unfold. Who else? Cochran. Cochran was crazy good. That was really cool by Cochran. He needed that type of day, you know, it's, he hasn't really raced at all, you know and for him to get out there and lead laps and get great starts, that was a feel good moment for Cochran who was still incredibly early in his career. So good job Casey Cochran. Ryder D had a lot going for him and man, just crashes and kind of more of the same from the opening round, you know, not completely awful, but not really good either, you know. And I think Ryder D is in a, in a pivotal time for his career. Like he needs to kind of step up and establish himself as one of these 250 mainstays because he's just in a group with a lot of guys that are all going to be looking for factory bikes and you have to separate yourself. And I don't think he's really doing that right now. So I don't know what his contract situation is. I don't know who's interested and who's not. But I do know how these things work and you can find yourself on the outside looking in really easily because of the desire for so many of so many riders to be on really good equipment. They'll take less money, they don't really care like he. So you have to be better than them so you don't fall into their category and that I don't think he is, he's better than that. But you look at guys like March, Banks and a lot like there's a lot of guys master pool that are, that could all be facing the same situation. Put Cochrane in there too. You have to rise above, you have to flash. So these the decision makers are like, nope, we see what we need to see. There's still too much potential there. We have to keep this kid around. That's, that's when it really comes down to when all is said and done. Tough day for Vial. I mean championship wise it's about as bad as it could go. You know, he rode strong in the second Moto, he fought hard to get some points but that first Moto DNF looms large and now he's so many points down, man, it was just a really really tough afternoon for Tom Baltimore. And that's been the story. Like, Deegan just keeps coming. And everybody else not named Joe Shimoda is kind of spitting the bit here on keeping it close or keeping it relevant, you know, like, it just feels like it's Hayden and Joe and then everybody else. So it's a tough setup for a lot of guys that we thought would be relevant. And I'll throw Seth Hammaker in there, too. You know, it wasn't a great opening round. It was okay. This weekend was a lot worse with the dnf, so now he's on the outside looking into. And it's just like every Moto, we lose another guy that we can really picture in the fight for the championship. And unless Shimoda is going to really stick around and just be this guy. And you'd have to be better than this guy because losing six points a weekend, now he's down 12. That's going to add up. You know, we'll. We'll head east and he'll be down near Moto, you know, assuming Hayden goes 11 and Joe goes 2 2, which we shouldn't. We shouldn't do that. But even getting second, every Moto will add up really quickly over time. So trying to think of anybody else really notable in the 250 class that I wanted to touch on. March Banks is still fast. The starts are just killing him. Jeremy Martin, that was tough. He was moving forward. I picked him on my fantasy team, which was my fantasy team was an abomination. That was a big one. He crashed. And that's the one thing you didn't. You wanted to just see him not do. Was hurt himself. And I think he's okay for the most part. My fantasy team isn't okay, but, you know, I was just like, hang in there, dude. Like, I saw him, he was like 12th, and I had a brief chance to just watch him go by, and I'm like, all you got to do is just. Just do the laps, man. Like, you're fit, you're in a reasonable good spot. You can find yourself in the top 10 if you just hang in there now. And then he went flipping down the racetrack like, literally like the next lap. So, yeah, that was a bummer for J. Mark Thrasher was back. That was good to see. Didn't have any results. That was tough, but good to have him back. I'm sure I'm missing some guys in here. Anyway, we covered most of what really mattered in the 250 class. Do want to thank the sponsors of this podcast. They and they come through for me whenever. Literally anytime I need something they're there for me. And I want to start with Guts Racing. Thank you to Andy. Greg. Great company, great. Honestly Andy's great person. But yeah, custom seat covers, graphics, they have seats, they have E bike seats, all sorts of different things. They're the number one name in seats period. So anything, anytime you need anything like that, check out gutsracing.com go to guts racing on Instagram and check out all the cool things they have works Connection has been on board since the very get go. Eric Phipps. This is a home race for Eric and his I think his first sponsored rider ever was Steve Lampson. And Steve Lampson was the grand marshal for Hangtown which was super cool. So congratulations to Eric. Congratulations to Steve Lampson. And then you couple that with they swept Fox Raceway. You know I talk to you guys all the time about this pro launch start device. Well guess who runs that thing. Factory Honda and monster Yamaha Star Racing. That's, that's really all I need to tell you. I like if you've ever looked for like confirmation of a product working, you don't need to, you don't need to really say more than that. Like they just they, they sweep the podium with their launch device and I Jet Lawrence got I know he missed third gear in the first moto and also didn't run the scoop tire in the first moto every other damn time he hole shots and I would even invite you go back we're going to do this I think on SMX Insider go back and look at the jump. They have it like they have the arrows right pointing down to Jet and Hunter and Prado and it's a really cool graphic so you know where those guys are from the drone shot. Watch Jet watch his jump out of the off the gate like it is phenomenal. And then he gets out and I talked talked about it on the post race show. Lars said that they didn't run the scoop tire and that was the difference. But he got to waiter talk to Jet about it and Jet missed third gear with his heel and he had to let second run longer and these guys just pulled him. So I think it was a combination of both. I think the scoop tire didn't drive him forward as much as he wanted. Plus he also ran second gear way longer than he wanted to and that's what resulted in him starting like sixth or seventh where 99 times out of 100 that jump and please go back and watch it so you can have context for what I'm saying. That jump is a hole shot. Like I was in the tower with both of them and I looked at them out of the gate and they weren't looking at me. But I literally said holeshot to them and they didn't see it because they weren't looking at me. But I just, I know, you know, it's like you look for a thing and then you know it when you see it. That's what it looks like. And then he came around six and I was so puzzled. But that's what it was. So thank you to works connection. Great, great company, great product. If you weren't going to buy anything else from them, I would highly advise that pro launch start device for all you guys out there racing. TL Speed Shop race-rentals.com is their new website. You can get trophy trucks side by sides that just broke in. Some brand new vehicles they have. These things are. These things cost half a million dollars, these trophy trucks and you can go rent them and go rip around Arizona. You can do it. In Baja they race all these races. Baja 500, Baja 1000, the Mint 400. They race all these races a lot of times with people just like you who call them up or go on the website and say, hey, I've always wanted to race the Baja 1000, but I don't have a way to do it. I don't have a crew, I don't have a team, I don't have a truck, I don't have a side by side. They have all that. So it's really plug and play, which is the whole idea. So check out race-rentals.com unmatched supplements. This is what I've been telling you guys about for the last few weeks. My friend Chris Gethin, if you watched my Instagram, that's who I was training with. He is co owner of Unmatched Supplements. These products are amazing. This guy, watch him force me to do more reps on that workout. That's just how he rolls. Like he doesn't cut corners. He. He's the most no BS guy I've ever met in my entire life. And that's saying something because I've been around some pretty tough people, but that speaks volumes for their product. And the one I really want to talk about this week is called Dissonant. It's D I S S I D E N T Dissident and it's a pre workout for those of you who don't work out a lot. Pre workout is something you take before and it basically just gives you a lot of energy. It gives you a lot of motivation. So when you're in the workout, you have energy to really exert. Now you would never want to take this before you race or ride. I've tried that before with mountain biking and it elevates your heart rate too much and you're going to be like hyperventilating when you're. I've done it riding mountain bikes and I thought I was going to die, so I'll never do that again. It wasn't this product, but it was some other pre workout long ago. Don't ever, don't do that. But if you're just going to go lift weights, I would absolutely recommend any sort of pre workout. But especially dissonant. Now, this one doesn't have any stimulant, doesn't have any caffeine. So I didn't know if I would like it because I do respond well to caffeine and I love this stuff. Like it works so damn well. Like I am like a freaking animal in the gym because of dissonance. So highly recommend it. But it's pretty unique in the fact that it doesn't have any, any caffeine or any external stimulant. It just has all the other stuff, like natural naturally occurring stimulants that are going to get you pumped up. It has a lot of B12, has B6, citrulline, beta alanines, lots of things like that. A lot of like proprietary things, a lot of extract stuff. It's all super, you know, very natural. No, you know, chemicals or anything like that. Like, Chris is the complete opposite of anything like that. But Dissident is the product for this week and you can use the code. Chris, what is it? Oh, no, sorry. It's JT10 at checkout to. To save yourself some money. But highly recommend that. Just don't take it when you're going to do like a mountain bike ride or go race. I just want to put a, put that on the front end. Grandstone boots. As you all know, I've been sponsored by them from the jump. It's pretty hot, so I'm gonna have to switch to my sneakers. But I'm over the moon that they have come out with a sneaker. That was like last year. I think it was like the beginning of 24, maybe summer of 23 when the sneakers came out. But it gives me an option to wear when it gets hot outside. You can wear loafers too. They have a great loafer. It's not really my style. But a lot of people wear loafers in the summer. So check out, check out GrantstoneShoes.com to see all those firepower batteries and hard parts. There are so many cool things happening@firepowerparts.com it is a WPS owned company so similar to fly racing. But check that out. Former title sponsor of what is now the Quad Lock Honda team. So that's probably where you've heard it. Their best selling product is a lithium super light battery. So you can put that in anything. Street bike like KTMS were using it exclusively at first but it's incredible product and the reason everybody was using it is because it's so light. That's the huge upside of this lithium battery is the weight savings. So check out firepower parts.com and of course fly racing. Big weekend for fly racing around the globe and yeah, Lucas Koonin continues to crush things in Europe. And yeah, just things are going really, really well everywhere for fly racing. So thank you to all the athletes, you know, the kits that the custom kits that the team is building, like Simon Langenfelder stuff he wore this past weekend in Germany was next level just off the charts. Good. So thank you to all the team for, for making, I say make my job any easier. Same job they're doing. But yeah, it's a great time to be a part of fly racing. So check out flyracing.com all right, 450s, what do we got? We're gonna do the power rankings. They are back in full effect and the honorable mentions this week leading it off as Jorge Prado. And you're going to say what, he went 7, 6 and then 12, 5. How is he not top 10? Well, he's not top 10 because his Supercross season was a complete disaster and then his pro motocross hasn't been good. And that doesn't mean that 7, 6, 12, 5 isn't good. Like it means it's not good for him. You're talking about a guy who has done nothing but win motocross for two years, four years straight. Like that guy was an absolute killer in motocross and he's, and he should be here. That's where that's what I'm struggling with is he is so much better than what we're seeing. I'm not putting him in the top 10. I don't deserve, I don't think he deserves kudos for the rides he's putting in right now. And that doesn't mean it's all his Fault. I don't think the Kawasaki is all that good right now, and the Cowie guys could be pissed at me for saying that. That's fine. I would probably tell it to their faces. Like, I don't think that your bike is on par with other bikes right now. I don't think it's as good as Tomac's bike. I don't think it's as good as Jet and Hunter's bike. I just don't. Maybe I'm wrong. That's okay. But I'm allowed to have an opinion, and that is my opinion. I don't think the bike is all that great at the moment, and I think Prado's results in part, reflect that. So Prado's honorable mention, and then Savage is honorable mention because he's been pretty solid. Like, I didn't even know he's going to race any motocross races, and he's been pretty solid through four Moto. So good job to Savage as well. Number 10 is RJ Hampshire. And I mean, RJ, even racing right now is. It's a freaking medical miracle. It's also a testament to how freaking tough that guy is. He shouldn't. Honestly, like, I don't think he should even be racing on a medical scale. That's not my decision. That's him. But he's doing it, and he's doing it pretty damn well. So kudos to RJ for fighting through pain, as we know he always does, and continuing to put in solid top 10 rides. Good job, RJ Hampshire. It's the first time he's ever been in the power rankings because he was a 250 guy. So welcome to this power ranking list that doesn't mean anything at all. Number nine, Jason Anderson. And, man, you could. You could say Anderson doesn't belong here, and that's fine. But he was a top 10 guy in Supercross all day long before he left the series, and he's been top 10 since he's come back. So I. I can't really find a reason to not have him in this list. You know, he. I don't know. Like, it's not going all that well. It's not like he's having a banner season, but he's beating Prado some of the time. I think he's beaten him in three out of four motos, or at least two out of four. He's battling with Webb. Like, it's. It's been okay. Not great, but okay. And that's why he's ninth. Like, I don't think Anderson has been ninth when he's healthy, probably ever in the power rankings. So that says something in and of itself right now. It's. It's not great, but it's all right. Number eight is Malcolm Stewart, and Malcolm's been quietly solid. You know, the Fox Raceway wasn't ideal dnfing the second moto, but this weekend, like, he showed some heart. He's fighting through it. He was battling with RJ a little bit. It's been fine. Like, I don't think there was anybody out there that was expecting Malcolm to light the world on fire this summer. And if you were, I would say you're probably setting yourself up for disappointment. I just wanted him to stick it out, show improvement, show some fight, show some heart. And if that's what I'm looking for, I think he's delivered. So good job to. To Malcolm for, For just, I don't know, delivering on expectation. There's something to be said for that. Number seven is Hunter. And I struggled with Hunter here. Like, I don't. Part of me doesn't think Hunter should be this far back. And I can understand if you're listening and you're like, how the hell do you have Hunter in seventh? Like, that's, that's not fair. Like. And you might be right. Honestly, you might be right. But I just, I'm looking through the results and remember, he's been hurt. He got hurt in Tampa. He hasn't raced supercross, so that, That's a knock against him. And then motocross is, you know, one really good race. Like, podium at the opener. That's. That's great. But this weekend wasn't quite as great. He just really wasn't in the fight at all. So I don't know. I, you know, I'm factoring in Supercross and the absence of him quite a bit in this, and surely if he continues his top five in podium ways, he'll move up quickly. Like, I'm acutely aware of that. It's totally fine. Number six is Justin Cooper. And kind of the same thing. Like, I don't know that he should be six. Like, it sounds harsh, but also the riders in front of him, I kind of have to put him there, you know, Like, I have to put him six. And he's a guy that could start moving forward if he puts in podium rides. Like, I think he can, you know, like, his second moto at Fox Raceway or, I'm sorry, at Hangtown was really good. Like, that's, That's a really solid effort from him. So I have no problem being fluid with these guys. But it also gets like you're splitting hairs with who's sixth and who's fourth. Like that's also a thing. So if you're a Justin Cooper fan and you're freaking out on Long island right now, don't like it. I'm 100% okay with moving these guys around. I'm just. We're so close from supercross ending. That is still a factor in these power rankings listings like that. You know, it's the body of work that really counts here. Number five is Poissinger, and I think he deserves to be ahead of Cooper because look how good he was. Like, he was. He finished ahead of him overall at the opener. And then this weekend he was amazing, like, just like he was last year. So I think when you factor all those things in, he was about the same as him at the end of Supercross. And then he's been a little bit better than him in motocross so far. A little bit. So I think it's, it's fair to notch him one above. But AP was, was great. You know, he talked about, he misread the, the pit board. He thought he had two laps to go when it was four. And he was devastated when he saw the two lap board come out because he thought the race was over. I don't know what happened. I don't know if he was overheated. I don't know if he just saw something he didn't. He could have. The two could have looked like a four. He could have had a lap time on the board at the same time and saw four there or saw two there and thought that was it. Like, you never know what happened. Remember when I talked about kitchen talking gibberish, your brain not working, not firing on all cylinders. That could be the case here, too. Your mind can play tricks on you and you're just not thinking all that clearly in those moments. So who's to say what went on? But it was a little unfortunate because you just saw, when he saw that two lap board, he just fell apart. That was soul crushing for him because he knew that he had gone flat out for those two laps. And the concept here is that everybody's managing their pace. Like you're not going flat out for 35 minutes when it's 103 degrees. You're just not. Like that's not doable. It's not, it's not possible. So you have to really turn it on when you think it's when your body's telling you you can and then when you can't and you're feeling the heat and you're feeling a little bit tired, you have to back it down and you have to find this sustainable pace. And it's almost like a, think of it like, I don't know, F1 or like a EV car. You have this like battery that's charging and when it's back in the green you can turn it up and then you're going to run out of that charge and you've got to back it back down and go into conservation mode and you just kind of turn it on and turn it off when hopefully when you need it, not necessarily when you have to. So when AP sees whatever he saw and thought that he had two apps to go, he went for it. Like he emptied that reservoir of energy trying to get to the finish line and win. And when he gets there expecting to see the finish like the checkers and he sees two laps, that is devastating. Now you could argue that, well, wouldn't you have seen like a two out board before that? And wouldn't you have seen the white flag, the lap waiter? That's all true. Like those are all extremely valid points. But in the heat of the battle when your brain's not functioning all that well and you're, you're just going as hard as you possibly can, you probably would be like, I don't even care. I didn't see it. Maybe it wasn't there. Maybe it was out of my peripheral. Who cares? I got to go. You know, like there's just a lot happening that he could talk himself out of that doubt. But I, he said it. And I could guarantee you just from having been a racer, when he saw that two lap board, he thought it was over. He just completely fell apart. Like your, your mind and your body are just like, I am, I'm, I'm done. Like I am so cooked because I simply have nothing left to give because I just gave it all right there expecting it to be over. So if you go back and watch, he almost gets passed by Jet on the last corner because he's so smoked that he's just, he's falling apart. Like his body is betraying him on that last lap and he did enough to hold Jet off, but he was, he was on vapors like he had nothing left. If you've ever run out of gas and you're just like cruising along, your engine shuts off and you're just like coasting and that's basically where AP was on that last lap. Number four is Cooper Webb. And remember, supercross looms large here. So I have Webb still in it. He has. He's been better than I think most expected. Certainly me in motocross, he's running around inside the top 10. He is your supercross champ, we know. So I'm leaving him at 4. He'll probably work backwards. It's fair to assume it's all good, but body of work. Five wins in 2025, 13 podiums in 2025. And like some top seven, eight rides. That'll keep you fourth in my book. Like, I'm good with that. Number three is Eli Tomac. And Tomac's probably going to move to two, assuming this continues. But Tomac was. Man, he was so damn good. Like, I. I can just imagine how many people were screaming and yelling and cheering at their TVs when Tomac got into the lead in Moto1. Like, I just know that was happening. And I, I talked to him on the podium and I'm like, man, that was. That was a pretty popular win, I think. And just because we all know how loved Tomac is and for to see him win that moto, I just know, as you all do, that everybody was going crazy around the world cheering for this guy, that we're not. Not going to see him for that much longer. He's going to stick around, thankfully longer than we thought. He's not going to be around forever, and we're cherishing these moments that he's giving us. So the second Moto was a total bummer, you know, like, he. Let's start. First things first, him getting a bad jump is his fault. Okay? Then Valenti Gu, who got a great jump and is a great starter, moved to his left, which was incredibly unfortunate for Tomac, but that's what happens when you don't get a good jump. I've said it 10 million times that the first 10ft is so critically important because you have to get your elbows ahead of the guy next to you. If you're not and you're behind them, you are 100% subject to wherever they go. And like, someone texted me today, we were, we were talking about this and we were in agreement, but we were talking about that dynamic is once you're ahead, like, you don't owe. Like Valentin Guillot doesn't owe that space to Tomac, like, to his left. He absolutely can move over. It happens all the time, whether on purpose or on accident. It happens every start. And unfortunately for Tomac, this happened to him at this time at such a critical juncture, and you could see him, he had to check up, he had to let off and he immediately dropped behind everybody. And you don't want to say his race is over in that moment, but for beating Jet, it's pretty damn close. Like, it's pretty damn close to being over in that moment. It's just Jet with a hole shot and getting out front even at a track he doesn't really excel that much, at, which it's hard to say he's got three wins there. I just didn't think he was going to be able to get to the front. It's just, it's that simple, you know, like, he would have had to put in the ride, the best ride of his entire life. I, I think to catch Jet in that, in that second moto and it was a day where he could have won the overall. I think if he starts with Jet in the second moto, he wins. Like, I do feel very confidently that he would have beaten Jet heads up in the second Moto, but you can't put yourself at a deficit. And I was talking about Jet a lot in the second Moto and I got a lot of people just messaging me ridiculous, crazy, insulting things, which is like, beat it. You know, honestly, like, you know, go f yourself. I shouldn't even say that. Like, I should be better than that. I don't even respond to it. But like, people say the most out of line things I've ever heard in my life to me, because I'm talking positively about Jet. Like, it's, it's literally insane to me. But I guess that's where we are in 2025. But anyway, I was talking good about Jet because not so much about how great Jet was riding. That wasn't really the point. It was what Jet does to everyone else as far as pressure to be perfect. Like, Jet puts you in these spots where you can't screw up, you can't give him points, you can't get a bad start, you can't have a tip over because Jet just keeps coming and he keeps even in his, you know, like, that first Moto was not a good time for him. Like, he was, he was struggling. And you always have to look at it relatively when it comes to Jet, but he was struggling pretty bad in that first moto for Jet. And so when you have him in a vulnerable spot, you have to take advantage of it. Like, you have to pounce when. And that is in any walk of life. Like when you have an opportunity and the situation favors you, you have to make things happen. And I've talked about this. You probably heard me talk about this. You can say it a million different ways. Like when the door is open, you have to walk through it. You absolutely have to walk through it if you want to accomplish what you're setting out to accomplish. Because there are so many opportunities or so many situations in life where the odds are stacked against you that when they're not, when the odds are in your favor, man, you really got to make the most of it. You have to lean into it when you. With everything you have. And this was that moment for Tomac and he, unfortunately, it didn't go that way for him. And I think that just is a very, very punitive moment for Tomac. And it doesn't mean that Jet can't get hurt. We've seen Jet get hurt. It doesn't mean that Tomac can't go on a run and win. It just is a big setback as far as, like what the points look like. So now Tomac's gone 4, 2, 1, 9. I don't even know what he got in the second Moto, something like that. Like, so you lose what, 7, 10 points the first. And I don't have in front of me. So I'm guesstimating 10 points the first round. You make three back, you make five backs, you're down five and then you lose another, let's say nine or 10. So now you're what, down 15. So it feels like those two have been going at it this entire championship. Like, it feels like it's, it's even Steven is like, Jack wins one, Ey wins one. They're back and forth and then you look at the points and again, I'm not looking at it, but it's 14, 15, 16, whatever it is. That's the difficulty here. That, that's the, that's what I'm talking about is Jet put so much pressure on you to be perfect because he, if he's racing and healthy, he doesn't have these moments where he gives you these wide open opportunities. Like, he hasn't done that very often in his entire career. So that's what Tomac's up against, is he's going to have to clean all those things up. Like, he's got to clean the starts up. He can't tip over when he's charged. He's making this iconic charge from the back. You can't crash and, and make it worse. And he knows that it's not like this is groundbreaking information for him, but it is nonetheless wildly important if he wants to win this championship. Number two is Chase Sexton, and I'm leaving him here because I think he's coming back at maybe Southwick, maybe. That's. That's the word on the street. And we'll see. I have no idea. I don't think KTM knows either. Like, I think they're just going off of Chase's lead whenever he says they're coming back. Hey, man, the bike will be ready. We'll be here, so we'll see what happens. But I'm leaving him in for now. Maybe I'll take him out next week. I don't know. I'm just kind of going. I have a lot of respect for Chase Sexton, and I felt like he deserves a week to stay here, but I'm not going to. If he's not coming back anytime soon, I'm going to. I'm going to pull him. Just know that. But this is just a brutal turn of events for Chase. And does he stay at ktm? Does he come back at all this summer? Like, there are a lot of questions that have to be answered here for Chase Sexton. You already know who's number one. It's Jet. And please don't DM me crazy insults about me or, you know, it's just so out of line. Like, I shouldn't even be talking about. I shouldn't even be giving them the time of day. I definitely shouldn't have said a half curse word there. I apologize to anybody listening. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but, yeah, just some things are way, way, way out of line to say to anyone, especially when all I did was talk about how good someone is at riding a dirt bike. But Jet, he should be number one, in my opinion. He's won. He's only lost one pro motocross race that he's entered in his entire career. And this was this race in 2024. I think he would have won the Supercross championship. I don't have any way to prove that. Cooper Webb would probably kick me somewhere in that butt, somewhere else maybe for saying that. But I just think that jets, you know, in a nutshell, I think Jet's the best overall motorcycle motocross racer, supercross racer on the planet. Like, I just do. And it doesn't mean I think he's the best person or gets everything right. Like, he certainly has gone through a lot lately, still is going through a lot. He makes mistakes just like the rest of us, but when it just, you know, in a vacuum and you just look at skill sets, talent, all the keys to racing, racecraft, managing situations, starts, fitness, whatever. Overall, I just think he's the best rider there is, and so that's why I have him, number one. So, anyway, that's the, that's the top 10 for this week, Subject to Change weekly. And I hope everybody enjoyed this podcast. Thank you all for listening. Please send me feedback, just don't make it insanely inappropriate. That would be great. But thank you again for listening and we will talk to you soon, which will be hopefully next Sunday. See you soon.