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A pulp MX Network production.

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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 Works Connection, TL Speed Shop, Unmatched Supplements, Firepower Parts, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing.

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Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. My name is Jason Thomas. As you probably already know, we're going to talk about the motocross of nations that we saw last weekend. We're going to talk about some silly season news that we got this week and I think more, more importantly, strangely, it's probably a better word, news we haven't gotten quite yet. Maybe with a why some of the. Some of them I truly don't know. But we will dive into all of those things. So buckle up and before we do, thank the sponsors of this podcast, Guts Racing Works Connection, TL Speed Shop and their new website, race-rentals.com unmatched supplements, Grantstone boots and Fly Racing. Thank you to all of them for being a part of this podcast. And I did want to make an announcement. I am going to be adding a YouTube version of this podcast coming soon. I don't have the specific date yet. I'm kind of working on learning the learning side of how to do it, how to execute it, and my prediction is it's going to be a little rough at the beginning. I don't know that I'm going to have like the graphics I want and all the screen sharing things that I want to eventually learn how to do, but I do want to start the process anyway, if you notice, we. I say we. I have joined with Paul Malan to have an official MXGP podcast which is available on YouTube. Also, we have had two episodes so far. I don't know that we'll do anything. Maybe we'll do something after Paris. Maybe we'll do some sort of like season preview, but that will be in full force in 2026. Something I pushed very hard to kind of get off the ground and I believe in it and I'm excited for it. It's going to be fun. I think it's kind of been lacking and there are some other things out there. I think that Lewis Phillips and Adam Wheeler do a great job, but you just compare the coverage of the like Super Motocross World Championship in the US versus what MXGP is and there, there's a, I think a big vacancy there. So we're going to try to do the best job we can to fill it. So let's talk about what happened at the motocross nations and My thoughts are I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go country by country, why not? And the first few will be kind of based on results. And I'm just going to give you kind of my thoughts, some of the things I saw behind the scenes, being there for nearly a week and just kind of thoughts for the future of each country too. Because there are, there are a lot of. There's a lot of fluidity in these situations and countries that were great might not be in countries that have not been great lately. I think maybe will be in the near future. And it's a, it's a subject I'm passionate about. I know not everybody feels the same way I do about the motocross nations. I've heard some, I don't know, you just talk to different people and everybody is entitled to their own opinion. But there is just kind of like some shoulder shrug from some people and that's never been the case for me with this race. I've just always, I've always loved it. You know, I. Before I was in the position that I'm in now and the, I would say, fortunate position I'm in now, I would, I paid my own way. I would pay to go to Europe and you know, all the things that the average person, you know, a fan, if they're going, would have to do. I did all those things for years. Flights, hotels, food, car, all those things. Like I. Because I wanted to be there and I love this race and I was willing to spend my own money if need be, just to be there. I wasn't working, you know, other than like maybe some pulp stuff or maybe riding for Racer X a few times. I was just there to soak it all in because I wanted to be there. Now certainly my perspective on, on it has changed a lot. You know, from the fly racing side was the first part where fly racing and Western Power Sports decided that it was a necessity or a good idea, let's say, for me to be there to represent the brand, represent the company. So they kind of, they basically just agreed to pay for it is all that happened. That was several years ago that has transitioned into this television role. That is something I'm very proud of. I went to great lengths in like the 20, you know, let's just say the COVID era to make it happen and for me to be on site at these events. You know, you think about like Covid tests, endless Covid tests, before, after, during really difficult process to get into these countries, especially in like late 2020 and 2021, it was just really challenging to do GPS and in motocross nations and I would go through the painstaking processes to do it and I've been told, and I believe that the in front crew, you know, namely David Luongo and others have tried to reward me for that and they've given me opportunities to continue being in the booth, which is like the highest honor at these races for the motocross nations. Right. And if you look at my credentials, my racing resume, I, I understand that I don't have the racing resume to maybe warrant that honor. I, I would be the first one to tell you, but they have decided that I, they would say deserve. Like, I don't, I'm not saying deserve, but that, you know, like I, I showed effort that they were willing to reward with this opportunity and I cannot thank them enough for that. And I try in every way possible to reward them with good performance and every possible benefit that I can add to the show, add value to them. I try to do. And it's a, it's a two way street, right. It's a symbiotic relationship that way that I think works. And I'm, you know, this MXGP podcast was just another step towards, you know, another step forward in that relationship. And I am way off topic right now. But anyway, let's jump into these countries and of course Team Australia, I said it was going to start in results based way. Team Australia won the race and that was a sip of coffee. So if you heard it, I apologize, but I needed it. Team Australia came in as the favorites. They on paper had the best team and I don't think it was like a far and away favorite. I actually had it 50, 50 before all of the USA chaos, you know, the Las Vegas injuries that caused all the chaos. I had it close to 50, 50. Once that changed, I had Australia as prohibitive favorites. I really did. And I'll tell you why. This is my podcast and I can do that. So before the injuries, this is how I kind of gained it out, right? If I was doing on a whiteboard and I had to make a pitch deck of how it was going to go, I don't know why I would have to do that. But if I did, you know, I have Jet and Hunter as being arguably the best two guys, right? So Jet was going to go up against Sexton. Sexton has beaten Jet. I'm sorry, Jet has beaten Sexton most of the time. It doesn't mean that Sexton can't beat Jet. That's that's not the point. You're talking about probabilities. What's the most likely scenario? Well, the most likely scenario is that Jet beats Sexton. That's just the reality of it. You don't have to like doesn't matter. This is purely a numbers basis and I don't, I'm not, I'm not applying any opinion. This is an objective take based on the results and the math and the percentage results that we've seen when they've gone head to head. That's it. Period. You can't argue that. You cannot argue what probabilities are. They are not opinion based. So the numbers say that Jet would likely beat Sexton. Okay, so that's, I don't know, a couple of points, a few points. However that played out Advantage Australia. Now let's jump into the MX Open class. That was, was going to be Hunter versus Tomac. Well we saw that, we saw that Hunter would beat Tomac and I had that on paper being the same, I thought it was close. I thought Tomac would be in the fight with Hunter. He really wasn't. Even though he finished second to him in the final moto. They were, they really never battled at any point throughout the weekend. Like they never, I don't want to say saw each other because, because Eli could see Hunter but, but like there was never any sort of wheel to wheel battling between the two. Like it was domination by Hunter as far as a purely binary result based thing. So I had that more even than it ended up. But I did have Hunter a little bit ahead like 51:49 going in. The real game changer class OR division was MX2 because Hayden Deegan is significantly better than Kyle Webster especially in the 250 class on a track that Hayden has won on multiple times. That is a big edge going in for Team usa. That was the setup. So the math really gets interesting because okay, Jet beats Sexton. Let's assume that Hunter beats Tomac. We maybe didn't assume it, but that's what we got. So now the math comes down to can Deegan put enough points into Webster to even that back out or take the advantage? And you have to figure in a drop score too which would be in all likelihood Webster score. So you figure Webster maybe drops like a 10, 12, 14 assuming you didn't crash in the first turn. Like that's not something you can assume going in. Right. And this is all the math stuff I'm working through beforehand. So thinking Webster's upsides probably like 10 let's say he drops a 12. I think Deegan would go like 6. 6. That's kind of where I had it. Something like that. Now was his ceiling higher? Yes, it was. Could he have gotten third or fourth in Moto? Absolutely. But I was trying to be what is the most likely scenario? Deegan Wykley gets a bad start. He's going to have to work forward against 450s. 6. 6 felt fair. So he makes up four points in the non drop score. Is that enough? And what is Team USA's drop score? Right. So there's no way like if I was Clinton Fowler and it was great with statistics you could make a bunch of different formulations and simulations of what that would be. I'm not going to go that far into it. I, I just felt like it was really close and I had it 50, 50 going in is the point. And that's how I got to that conclusion. Now when the team all changed, the math all changed accordingly because the likelihood of results changed bigly in my opinion. Now you think RJ versus Hunter. That is big time advantage. Hunter. Look at the results all year. It's impossible to not see that on paper that Hunter has a big advantage on the results scale going into the event and he did that. That bore out. Now I wasn't even counting on all the RJ crashes. He hasn't been crashing going in. So I didn't. That wasn't a part of my math. I just knew. Well, I assumed that Hunter would beat RJ by a few positions each. Moto. So that's a few points. Let's say five to six points. Jet has beaten Tomac pretty much. I don't say every time because it wasn't every time. High point, second Moto Hangtown first Moto. Most of the time though Jet has beaten tomac. That's a fair assumption. Especially late in the year. Jet was significantly better than TOMAC when Jet got back to full strength. Now let's, let's factor that in. When Jet got back to full strength he was beating Tomac significantly often. So I give that advantage Jet. And if you're a TOMAC fan, if you think that's not fair, that's okay. I'm just telling you what if I was an odds maker in Vegas it would, it would not even be an argument. That's just what it would be like. Take your subjectivity out of it and look at it on a purely math basis. Jet would be a favorite over Tomac to gain more points. So now let's Say he gains five points over two motos. Let's say it's four. I'll be even a little bit more conservative and say it's four. Now you're up to nine. Just on a hypothetical basis between the two. Now you go to MX2 and Justin Cooper is a better rider than Kyle Webster. But is he good enough to make up nine points? I don't know. Like, you know, like the math or the results basically said no. And. And that's factoring in two crashes from Kyle Webster on the start. So I just didn't feel like there was enough horsepower there on Team USA with that lineup to make up for the excellence that we were going to get from the Lawrence brothers. That's. That's it. That's as. As clear and as easy as I can make it. And I kind of covered both teams there. I just felt like the math really leaned into the Australians. As long as Jet and Hunter did what Jet and Hunter do, and they did, they executed, they didn't have, like, otherworldly days. Hunter crashed twice in one moto. We haven't seen Hunter crash at all. Jet got third. He crashed in the first moto or in the second moto with gifting. We haven't really seen that from Jet. So it wasn't even like a perfect day from Jet and Hunter. They're just riding so well that, man, they can just cover up a lot. Like, they're. They are just that good right now. Their starts, their pace, everything's. Everything's clicking for brothers. Brothers Lawrence. And you saw that. Like, you just saw how powerful having the two best guys on your team is. It can make up for a lot. And in the end, they made up 14 points over everybody else. With all the craziness, like two crashes from Hunter, one crash from Jet, two first turn crashes from Webster, and they still win by 14. That should tell you how great they were on Sunday. So just to briefly touch on Team usa, I give a lot of credit to Tomac because Saturday wasn't very good. Like, it was just a bad day. He said the bike wasn't right. I was worried, truly. I was worried about Tomac after Saturday because he did not look good. He. He really didn't. And he stepped up to the plate. He delivered in the face of, I'm sure what was some doubt about pace and the bike and pressure, but he did great. I have nothing but kudos to give Eli Tomac. RJ Hampshire. Listen, it was a tough day. I really felt like things were going incredibly well until that Crash with Joe Shimoto. And that wasn't. I don't think it was either guy's fault the lines came together. That's the same, almost identical crash to Jet and Gifting. In the final moto. What happens is the line that RJ's in goes deep and then it hooks really hard in a straight line to descend off that big hill, which was Godzilla. Used to be Godzilla. Joe was on the very inside, which is very common line, and it drifts wide before finally they straighten up and drop down. Well, they don't drop down with any speed at all. So it's a shorter distance. And they kind of like arc through it and then drop, like straighten up and drop down RJ's line, they carry more momentum and it allows them to like, shoot down the hill with a lot of speed. Well, if you, if you line those up at the same time, the inside line crosses into the outside line and it's okay. If you wanted to take somebody out there, you could. This just wasn't that Joe wasn't trying to tee up rj. He like actually checks up at the last second, like, oh, crap. And it just kind of went that way. Same thing with Jet and Gifting. Their lines just cross and if you have the wrong timing there, you're going to make contact. And at first glance, I thought Joe was being too aggressive. And after reviewing it, he wasn't. He wasn't trying. And if anything, RJ kind of bounced off the rut and bounced back. Right. Which is what you kind of can't do. And RJ is just pushing. But that was the catalyst for everything that you saw after the urgency, the panic. All those crashes came because he was overriding the racetrack. Race two, same thing, overriding the racetrack. And that's what RJ hasn't done this summer. Like, he's allowed the races to unfold. So he really needs to get back to that form. I'm sure he learned a lesson. I'm sure he knows exactly, like he kind of, you know, let the cat out of the cage a little bit. As far as reverting back to old habits, you don't want to do that. But in the in crisis moment, which that's what he was feeling was a crisis, it's like panic. Oh, my God, I'm going to let the team down. Oh, my God. We have a chance to win and I'm going to blow it. In crisis, you go back, you can fall easily into old trappings and old habits. And I just very much believe that's what Happened to RJ Hampshire. Now, for Justin Cooper, this is a tough ask. You drop down to a 250. He only wrote it a few days, you know, like he's, he's got to relearn or really quickly figure out how to battle the best guys in the world on 250s again. And it's not hard to like go fast for one lap, but like keeping that intensity and all the muscle memory, like over multiple days when you're racing against guys like the Wolf and Valan and Sasha Kunin and Langenfelder, these guys are in, they're on form. Like, they have been racing and racing and racing and racing the 250 and they raced motocross right up until two weeks before the race in Australia. So they're just, it's just another gate drop for them and they are ready to go where Justin, not that he hasn't been racing, but it's a completely different dynamic for him on the 250. I thought he did fine and I'm not making excuses for him, he did really well. It's just, I think it's a really tough ask for him to say. And this, this happened. People even on the team and off were like, hey, man, to, to. For Team USA to win, you're going to probably have to win your division convincingly. Like, I don't, I don't think that's fair. Is it what reality was? Yeah. Yes, that's. That's what I believe reality was. And if you're of the mind that Toughen up Buttercup, like, nobody cares if it's fair or not. Sure, I agree. Like, this is, you know, like, this is grown man stuff. And if you are not up for it and you're worried about what's fair, for one in life, if you're worried about what's fair or not, it's gonna be a rough time. Like, fair, nobody cares about fair. Like, fair will get you in a lot of trouble and you will wallow in your own misery. If you're worried about what fair is, what you have to be worried about is what is the expectation and what can you possibly do about it. Forget fair. Like leave fair, you know, to somebody for somebody else to worry about because it's so cliche. But life isn't fair. It's never going to be fair. Nor does anybody care if you think it's fair or not. So for Justin Cooper, he probably was like, oh, God, like, really? Like, that's what I have to do. I have to go win the race. For us to do it. But he probably knew like, well, okay, I don't really have a choice in that. I don't know if I can anyway, but I'm a damn sure try. And I thought he performed pretty well, you know, like, great job on Saturday, solid effort on Sunday. Would I have liked for him to beat Valain in the first race? I would. I didn't love and I'm trying to be careful here because again, this was a difficult ask, but I think that Justin Cooper is a superior rider to Matisse Velan. I just believe that, firmly believe that. And I would have liked to see him either pass or, and pull away from, or at least stay with Matisse in that first race and he wasn't able to like Villen pulled away from him. That wasn't my favorite thing about the day, just being transparent. But overall, I thought Justin Cooper stepped up and delivered and he gave results that we needed. We used both of his results to get second overall. I don't need to say more than that. That's it. If I just had one sentence to say, it would be we needed both of his results and both of those results factored into second place overall. Period. Full stop. So kudos Justin Cooper. Even though I said all. Lots of other things that maybe weren't as forgiving, but that's how I truly feel. So great job to Team USA and Justin Cooper. As I left off with the French team, I touched on with Matisse Falan but I thought it was okay. I didn't have them as a strong team going in. So this podium in that white, pretty solid, right? Mermaid Febre is a three time world champion. I think three hasn't won one in a decade. He's on great form right now. I don't think this was his best effort ever, but we see this type of thing. It's like a championship hangover type feel. Jorge Prado definitely had it last year. We've seen it at times. I think Febro was kind of middling in that conversation. Not great, not terrible. Okay is probably the grade I would give him, but good enough to get them on the podium. Matisse Filan I thought was, was the star of the team. Not necessarily like on the results basis, but expectation versus results versus first time ever racing in America, first time ever motocross nations. Nothing but kudos to give that guy like great, great job. To Matisse Van. I don't know that I've ever even spoken to him. Maybe I have, I don't know, on TV or something. Interview studio Show. I don't know, maybe I've spoken to him, maybe I haven't, but I don't know him. I was just very impressed by his effort. I truly was. And I have to say, I have to say this, I have to apologize to his girlfriend because she was cheering when RJ crashed and they were in the, like, booth next to us in the. In pit lane and I stared a hole through her. I didn't say anything to her. I just stared at her because I was really mad that she was cheering at RJ on the ground. I don't think that's great sportsmanship. I don't think that's classy, let's say. I would never do that. And yeah, it was everything in my power to not say something. So I just stared literally through her soul. And I think she noticed that, very clearly noticed that. So apologies. I let my competitiveness probably get the best of me there. But again, don't cheer when people are on the ground, especially when you're in their home country. Probably not a great move. You're probably going to get some looks from anybody. She probably just knew who I was from TV stuff and noticed and immediately stop clapping. But anyway, like, I'm laughing. I. I do feel bad now. I did not feel bad in the moment. I was very angry in the moment. But, yeah, that's just me being competitive at this event. Finally for France was Maxime Renault. And it's been a rough year for Renault. It's been a rough year, honestly, for anybody on a monster Yamaha MXGP bike. Team MX2. I don't care if you race to Yamaha and you race for Yamaha Europe, you've had a tough year. That's just how it has been. Full stop. So Renault did enough now. Did the last lap pass by gifting cost them second overall? It did. And I'm not going to sugarcoat that and say that it didn't matter, because it did matter and Renault certainly knows, he certainly feels it. There is no question about whether Renault is regretting not being able to hold back gifting. Like, I don't think that's out of bounds to say, but that's just part of racing like that, that all that stuff was happening in real time. Like February was doing his damnedest to move forward. Renault lost that spot like every. It was all fluid over the last 10 minutes. And, you know, thankfully for gifting like, he. If I ever see him out, I'll buy him a drink for that because it got America into second place. But I'm sure Renault Was a little bummed on, on his effort there. But, you know, Renault's mxgp career has been really tough so far. Like really bright moments, brilliance at times, and then other moments where it's really just been injuries. The injuries have been the catalyst for underperformance. And it's not that Renault doesn't know how to ride. If anybody was at Red Button 22, you saw what he's capable of. If you watched Argentina, the opening round of MXGP in 2025, you saw what he's capable of. He just cannot stay healthy. This was a former MX2 world champion. He knows what to do. But if he cannot find a way to stay healthy, it really doesn't matter. It does not matter. If you are incredibly good at your job, but are incapable of, of showing up like you just aren't available all the time, you don't need me to tell you what's going to happen long term. So for Renault, the focus has to be on finding a way to eliminate these crashes and injuries. And I'm sure that's easier said than done. I'm sure he would love to do that. But in the end, none of that matters. It's a black and white thing. You either can be available and race the whole series and be a factor in championships, or you can't. You know, it doesn't take more than that, that sentence alone. Team Belgium, if you're looking for a team that is going to be the bright spot of this event and they're not being talked about enough, it is Team Belgium. Those guys are coming for this, this race win. I'm telling you right now, if you were, you know, like, you were investing, like, if, if Team Belgium was a stock, you would want to be buying Team Belgium, anytime it's on sale. I'm just telling you that right now. When you have Sasha Kunin, who, yes, he crashes a lot, he does. But the speed he has in the MX2 class, you have Lucas Koonin, his twin brother, who is about 6 inches taller than him, that can win MXGP events. That was his first time in America. He was not that far off a jet Lawrence, and really showed what he's capable of already. He's only going to get better. He's 18 years old. And you have Liam Everts, who was really young and just put in one of the best performances we've seen from him on a 450. That team has the potential to get red hot for the next decade. Truly, it does. So I cannot say enough good things about what's coming for team Belgium. Now, injuries are a concern, you know, like you don't know. It's always who's healthy when this race comes around, right? If they're missing one of those guys because of an injury and they can't go at this race, well, yeah, the math all changes. I'm just telling you that team or if they have some other, you know, rider that's an upstart, it would have probably been Jago Geertz a few years ago, but he really hasn't. That hasn't panned out at all. But I think their ceiling is, well, for lack of a better term, through the roof. They are the team to watch. We already know these other teams. They're great and they're going to be great. Belgium is on the come up though. Just, just write it down. Just remember, remember these words. Mark this post. Whatever cliche you want to use. The Netherlands, man, you want to talk about a controversial team situation, politics being involved, man, this, this is Netherlands in a nutshell. You know, their team that they brought was Glenn Coldenoff from XGP, Kaida Wolf, your 2024 MX2 World Champ and the winner of this event in the MX2 division, and Calvin Vanderen, who is a factory Yamaha MXGP rider and a top 10, top five all the time guy, he's a great rider. But when you have Jeffrey Hurlings, who is one of the most successful MXGP riders in the history of the sport that has won multiple GPs down the stretch and seem to be peaking coming into this event for the year, he's finally healthy, everything's clicking again and you don't have him on your team, that's really hard to square, truly. That's really hard to kind of wrap your head around not having him on the team. So I don't know the full story. I just know if you listen to like Calvin Vladern's interviews, you listen to people that were involved. There was a lot of shaking their head at how this team was chosen and how things came together. It sounded like there was a lot of nonsense going on behind the scenes. I did hear that Jeffrey initially didn't want to go race and get beaten really bad because he wasn't healthy. That was an initial thing. Then I heard that with him leaving Red Bull ktm, he didn't want or he basically wasn't up for going. There was some injury clause nonsense in there. I heard he wanted to race the Westin beach race, which I think that didn't go to plan either. A lot of this hinged on his relationship ending with Red Bull. Ktm. That's a factor. So there was a lot of ins and outs and a lot of in my opinion, kind of BS as to why Jeffrey Hurlings wasn't on the team. I have to think if Jeffrey Hurlings is on the team, this picture looks a lot different. You have arguably the best MX2 guy there is. I don't know if he could beat Hayden Deegan. I don't know where they would have come out on each other. We would have found out. It would have been a great race. But they probably have the best MX2 guy they have whether cold enough or Voander and got picked. They have a solid guy for MX Open and then they have one of the best MXGP guys in the world. Would he have beat Jet or Hunter? I don't know. It doesn't matter. He would have been in the top three in both motos. I do believe that. So you just start thinking about the scores. Top 10 scores from DeWolf, top 3 scores from Hurlings. Then what does the other guy do? Top tens from Vanderen or Coldenhoff if he stays healthy. Like that's a podium team all day. Is it good enough to win? Probably not. But it's a podium team. It is a podium team. Look at the results, do the math. It's a podium team. So it was the most controversial team there was. Not that they did anything wrong, not that the rider, riders had nothing to do with it. It was just a team choice. I still think there are questions to be answered on that and you're not going to get answers. Like they said, hey, this is our team, this is what we're going with. We're not looking back but I would almost guarantee you there were some really pissed off Dutchman about how this all came together and I would bet there are going to be some meetings behind the scenes to make sure this doesn't happen again. Regardless of who the team is, it can't be a political exercise the way it was this year. Team Spain, what could have been right if you have a healthy good to go Prado, they could have been in the mix. Also you have to factor in Fernandez big crash in the last one that eliminated them but they have, they have talent and I think they're a team that is going to be good moving forward. Think about the race in France next year. That track should favor their skill set. Ferrez, Prado, Fernandez are all great hard packed riders so I like, I like their chances in France next year. Does it Mean they're on the podium or win, I don't know. But if you told me on the podium, I shrug my shoulders like that is not a surprise to me at all. With those three riders, if they show up and show out. Just telling you right now, don't be shocked if Spain is on the podium in 2026. Now, I'm not calling it, I'm not saying like this is going to happen. I'm just saying don't be surprised if it does. The Italian team kind of knew this was going to be like a tough one, right? Adamo is a top tier MX2 guy. He did not have a banner day by any means at all. Cairoli's 40 years old, can't expect a ton from him. I thought he was fine, it was okay, like, but you can't expect him to be in the mix. He's just old. He's not a full time racer anymore. That is not a fair ask of Cairoli. And then Bonacours, he's super young on the, on the 450. I thought bonacours, he rode really well. I don't like the swerving that I saw from him, like moving around, blocking people. That's, that's not my favorite thing in the world. Don't love that by any means. But he is a good rider and I think they will be good moving forward. The question is Cairoli can't keep doing this. So is Ferrado, is it Guadagnini who's going to step up as the next Italian guy that's going to lead this team or at least give them solid results so they can be a factor again? I don't know the answer to that. We'll just kind of wait and see. But you know they won this race in 2021 in Italy. I was there. I don't know that they have the horsepower to win it again for quite a while. So just something to keep an eye on there. But good team. Just maybe not the top, in the top tier for a bit. The German team, what a horrific weekend that was. Not so much Saturday, but Sunday. I don't know how it can get much worse. You lose your MX2 world champion in the first corner of the first Moto. He's gone. So your team is now done. Ken Rockson crashed on this first lap twice, effectively ruining any first like two corners, ruining his chances. And then your third guy, Max Spees is brand new. He's not like a top tier MXGP rider anyway. Like he's like a top 20 guy. It would Be like, if I was out there, maybe I was a little better than that. I'm not trying to insert myself. I'm just saying there was no way Max Pease was going to be top 10 in either Moto period. Like that just was not going to happen. So the German team was up against it anyway. And then you lose both. You lose your MX2 world champ and then your. Your ringer, Ken Roczen crashes on the start twice. Like, what a. An absolute disaster for Team Germany. And yeah, whatever, they'll just turn the page and move on. Langenfelder, Felder will heal up. He has a broken scapula. Roczen's fine. And then Max Spees. We'll see if he gets another chance next year in France. Right? They'll have some decisions to make about who the rider is for 2026. The last team I wanted to touch on here was the Slovenian team. And I thought that Tim Geysser was good like that last moto or, excuse me, the first moto he held off Tomac solid. I don't exactly remember how the second one was, but I know he was in the fight with Febra a lot. But, you know, it was a good weekend. Is it the weekend he had last year in Matterly? No, but also this season wasn't the season he had leading up to that in Matterly. So he's still working his way back from injury. He's healthy, but it takes a long time to get to your best form. Unless you're a freak show like Jet. He's his own world. Most guys, it takes time to get back there. You just don't step back in and you're like, oh, yeah, I'm as good as I was, you know, right away. I thought it was an okay effort. It was fine. February is moving over or. Excuse me, Geyser is moving over to Factory Yamaha for 2026. I would expect that news to drop very soon. Hurlings is moving over to factory Honda with Tom Vial. That. I would expect that news to drop very soon. But I thought Geyser did his part, was good. Jan Poncer, he rode really well. Now, I'm not thrilled with the cat and mouse stuff. Break check stuff with rj. I. I didn't like that. I don't think that stuff belongs at this race. There's too much on the line. It's. It's a huge event and I just don't think that stuff is really. Especially if your team's not in the. In contention to win the thing. I don't know, just kind of stay in your lane a little bit and maybe that's. Maybe I'm being really unfair or like maybe I shouldn't say that's a young Panther, but I'm saying it anyways. Like, Guy, you're. You have to understand you're in the usa. USA is trying to win the thing. Your team is not going to win. You're not. Like, I know you're running up front. I know you're trying for your best ever effort for the your nation. Like, I get that. But break checking RJ Hampshire is not it. Like, that is not the way to like looking over, trying to time when he's going to cut back under you to make sure that he runs into you. I don't like that. It's just not. And some people are fine with that kind of racing. I appreciate that take also some people are like, no, it's racing whatever. There's gamesmanship and it's contact. For me, it's not. That is just not how I view it. And especially when read the room a little bit, you want to do that to someone you race against all the time, that they're also not really in the fight, go for it. You want to do that to Team USA on American soil where everybody there is living and dying with each pass. Probably not your best move. Probably not your best move is all I'm going to say. And he may, I may see him at a GP and he tells me to F off. That's fine. I would just say I don't. I stand by it. Like that was. That was bush league type stuff. And you're riding your progression to where you're probably going to be on a factory team soon is better than that. Like be better. Simply be better. And in the end it didn't matter. Didn't change your results. Team USA would have still got second. So thankfully for that. I just want to be very clear that I didn't love the move from Panther and if I knew him or had his. If I talked to him regularly, I would tell him like, come on, be. Be better than that. Like you either can beat him or you can't. That type of crap is not. It's not really indicative of the kind of impressions you've made. And you're only like, you probably lost fans in that moment and you've done a lot of good to build your fan base, is it? So I'll leave it there. I just again, as you can tell, I didn't love it. Overall, great effort from Slovenia. Like that was the best they've ever done. And they're improving. Right? Like, you're talking about a country of 2 million people. To put a team together like that is impressive. And now I guess the next question is, can Pantser get a factory ride and can they get, like, peclage if he stays on the team? Can they continue to improve where they're legitimate contenders? Like, they're really in the podium fight? I don't know. I'm not a Slovenian motocross expert, but that was a. That was a good job by them. Other than the. The aforementioned stuff that I didn't like from Panzer. So that's it for this week. I kind of touched on some silly season stuff and I will mention it here before we sign off. We still have no news on Shimoda. We still have no Tomac pr. We still have no Sexton pr. We finally got news that Prado was released from Kawi. So assume that the KTM news is upcoming. We haven't seen the PR for Febra or, excuse me, for Geyser. I've done that twice now. Geist are going to Yamaha. We haven't seen it for vl. Go into Honda. We haven't seen it for Hurling's going to Honda. All those things are happening. So there's a lot of. There's a lot of press releases to come out. Anderson going to Hep Suzuki, which we kind of knew was happening, but a lot of news to drop, really. The one question I think we all know, well, I see some crazy stuff online. Just ignore all that. The question we have is who's going to get the second Cowie spot? That. That's the question. Seriously, like, if you want any sort of uncertainty, really, where is the story? If you were trying to be an investigative journalist, which I'm really not. That's. That's the one. The second seat at Monster Energy Cowie in the US is the story. So your guess is as good as mine. At this point, I truly have no idea. It's going to be fascinating to watch unfold, though. So thank you again to all the sponsors and we will talk to you soon. See ya.