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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, Works Connection, TL Speed Shop, Unmatched supplements, Firepower parts, Grandstone Boots and fly racing. Welcome to another episode of the Industry Seating podcast. My name is Jason Thomas and I am recording this on December 27, 2025. I trust all of you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to making 2026 a great year for yourselves. And you know, there's a lot of talk everywhere you see the new year, new me and all the resolution stuff and I think a lot of that's pretty hollow. You know, it's everybody sets out with the best of intentions but it's really about following through. And yeah, I spent a lot of time today prior to this episode kind of thinking about that and I'm going to try to weave that into some of this podcast today. Before we jump into it, I want to thank the sponsors of this podcast. Thank you to guts racing. Go to gutsracing.com and utsracing on Instagram. Works connection works connection.com they have some of the best aftermarket products and accessories. Check out all the things they have. They've been in the sport for a very long time. Pro Pro launch start device is probably their I think best product right now, like the most that's going to make the biggest impact and they really kind of own the sport as far as teams and riders choosing that product. TL Speedshop and Race Rentals.com you can jump into a side by side or trophy truck just on a rental basis. They're based in Arizona but you can go to Baja, Nevada, Sedona, wherever you decide to go. Really cool program they have there. Unmatched supplements. These are the best supplements in the game. I've tried a lot of different things in my years and I'll tell you the biggest reason why is because of the quality and the no compromises way they approach this stuff. Because if you know anything about supplements or any kind of health products, there's a lot of corners cut in this stuff. It's not FDA regulated so there are no real rules as far as people can cheat and they can basically say one thing and then create a product that does nothing. This could be, couldn't be any further from the truth, from unmatched and I feel like I'm living proof. Go back and look at video or pictures of me from five or six years ago and look at anything recent and unmatched supplements has been a part of that process. Now there's a lot of hard work to. But these things do make you healthier. They do reinforce and really improve. They take the hard work that you're doing and they allow that to kind of take hold and make the changes happen inside your body. So check those guys out. Great products, great company. Grandstone Boots. Best shoes in the game. Best products. Listen, I've been with them since 2015 when they started and they had basically one pair of shoes, like one pair of low cut boots. Now they have endless stuff. They have like more like not like running shoe sneakers but a sneaker portfolio. They have women's boots now. They have, I don't know, 30 different types of men's boots and colors to go with all of those as well. So it's been really fun for me to watch Grandstone Boots kind of grow up in front of me. And you can go to Grantstone Shoes to see more firepower. And you're going to see a lot of firepower in the game in 2026 with Western power Sports. One of my roles is to direct resources for firepower and you're going to see it in a lot of new places. And I have been, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but this is just how things happen is I've been instrumental in making sure that you're going to see firepower a lot and you can go to firepower parts.com to see the array of items and that brand is literally exploding and it's, it's really fun to be a part of. And Fire racing couldn't do it without them. It's, I don't know, the only real job I've ever had. You know, I don't want to say that that's not true because I do the TV thing and these other things now, but it was the first real job I ever had. How about that? And I'm still there, still a big part of all things fly racing and could not be more proud of the team. Okay, thank you for listening through those. I know that's not why you're here, but we're going to jump in into a little 2026 preview. And yes, I know there are previews everywhere. We've done one for Racer X. There's a nationally televised one on NBC that's going to come on later today. It's not as in depth as some of these other as this one's going to be or some of the others, but there are previews everywhere. All the competing media outlets are doing them. Mine. I like to be a little bit different and give you one what I believe is more insightful takes and just a different approach and different outlook than these other preview shows. And that's not always easy because if you have 20 or 30 of these shows, and I'm sure there probably are 20 or 30, not that I'm listening or watching them, but I'm sure they're out there. So how can I differentiate those? And I'm going to try to give you some wisdom or some sort of insight or an angle that maybe other people haven't thought of or simply just they're not around enough or haven't done this at a high level to maybe discern the angle that I'm going to have. That's my goal. Maybe I get it, maybe I don't. But that's what I'm going to try to get out of today's podcast. So the biggest news, and it's not even news anymore because everybody knows at this point, but when Jet went down to injury, broke that talus, I don't know. I've heard some people say talus. I don't know which is correct. It doesn't really matter. But it is a problematic bone in your foot slash ankle that is going to keep him out, which sounds like two to three months. And we know with Jet Lawrence, he comes back fast and he comes back as good as ever. That's we just have a track record to know that's what happens with him. He's young, he's crazy fit, he has the best resources that money can buy, he has incredibly smart people all around him. And modern medicine is truly miraculous for how quickly these guys can get turned around. So whatever the, the typical return time is, just shorten that. Now the question is, does he come back to racing sooner or do they hold him back and let him be over the top prepared for pro motocross? I don't know. I haven't been told. And I'm not holding out on you. I don't know that they have an answer for that yet. I think walking through how the decision would be made, it will probably be decided on when he is good to go. And what I mean is let's say he's riding in February and I don't know if that's realistic or not, but let's say he's riding in February, puts a few weeks in. Now you're talking like the middle of March and he's like ripping like he, he's looking pretty damn good I think they would have a very hard time holding him out another two full months. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. It's just my opinion. Knowing Jet Lawrence wants to go racing, knowing he missed the majority of the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross Championship, that's going to be a tough ask to keep him out. Even if guys like Lars Lindstrom and Brandon Wilson and these people are like, hey, that championship's done and dusted. We're, we're. You're out of that one. Focus on pro motocross. Focus on the Super Motocross World Championship playoffs. It's going to be tough to tell a 22 year old to sit on the sidelines and practice for two more months and just watch the races go on on the weekend. I mean, even if it's the smart play, even if it's, you know, against conventional wisdom, I don't know that they'll win that argument with him like that. That's what I, I'm not worried about it. I don't care. I would love to see him come back to racing. Now the other side of that argument is you have to prepare for Supercross at that point. Right. Because when it comes back to riding and for those of you who haven't gone through this and you've never injured yourself racing or done these things at a high level the first few weeks, and I'll give you an example, a guy that's going through it right now is Seth Haymaker. He just got on the motorcycle in the middle of December. So what's he doing right now? He's just, and he's at the same facility, he's at the Dog Pound where Jet Lawrence will be doing these things. He's just going to be riding on what they call a turn track. And a turn track is just like it sounds, it would be typically sandy because where they ride in Florida that's all sand based. So. Yes. Could they add some clay to it? Sure. But a lot of times it's just sand and they would make it, you know, it's not rough at all. And that's the point. You're just making it where you're working on fundamentals and getting kind of working through the rust without making big mistakes or putting yourself in harm's way. Yet you're just working the kinks out of not riding for multiple months. And given the time to do that is really important because I've had injuries and it's always been such a panic and such a rush to get back to Racing, it's really hard to be patient and allow yourself to take the time to slowly work yourself back to 100%. I was never really given that leeway because I didn't have this big salary and I needed to go racing to make money. So it's a different situation than a guy like Jet would be, knowing that the series that he's been training for, the supercross series is gone. Like championship wise, it's gone. So now you can truly take your time and make smart decisions. So he's just going to ride like literally doing corners, going really slowly. And they'll do drills, they'll practice different things. Like I don't know their specific routine, but a lot of guys like take the clutch off the motorcycle and you just work on form standing up. You could, you could do this drill without sitting down at all. You would just stand up through all the corners and work on flowing, getting back into the, the feel and getting all your reflexes back in tune. Working on what you would call like motorcycle muscles. Because yeah, you can be super fit and look at yourself in the mirror and be like, yeah, man, I'm ripped. That's not going to help you on a motorcycle, right? Like, I really try to get myself to be fit and I work out a lot and I exercise a lot. But if I went riding right now, none of those muscles that I have currently in shape are motorcycle muscles like my core and my back and my legs and all these things would be dying after a day or two of riding because I don't work those out. Like, motorcycle muscles are very specific. You use portions of your body riding a motorcycle at speed that you simply don't do anywhere else. And it's really important to rehabilitate and get those back to full strength before you try to go fast or try to get back to racing or try to compete at a high level. So that's what Jet is going to be working through. Once he does that for a few weeks, he's. He's going to start riding something hard, right? Like he's going to be going fast on something. That is where I'm kind of coming back to. Sorry, we got a little off path there. But what I'm. The point I was trying to make is he's going to have to decide am I going to steer towards motocross that I'm going to be riding really fast or am I going to be riding supercross that I'm going to be riding. And where does that, where are his efforts directed towards in like, let's say the end of February and March. So that's going to be. They're going to have to make a decision sometime in February and lay out a pathway. So right now I don't know that they know. Maybe they have an idea of how they want to handle this. I have not been told that. I'm sure it's been discussed. Of course you would discuss it right away, try to make a plan. But maybe it's a tentative plan with a couple of different directions that they haven't fully decided on based on the timeline. The timeline will arguably be the biggest variable in that discussion. But for sure, in February, I think they have to kind of know where they want to go with this thing. If he's able to start riding in February. So we'll, we'll circle back to Jet, but for now he's on the sideline and he won't be getting all the attention or the headlines or the, the narrative on this very podcast. Okay, so now we turn to who I think are the championship contenders. Now that jets out, and I think you have to start with the defending champion. You have to start with Cooper Webb. I'm not saying that Cooper Webb is the favorite in this championship. That's not what I mean. But he has the number one on his bike. He's the defending champion. So I think he deserves to be the next person talked about. That's as simple as it gets. Now, for this, for, for Jett Lawrence going out, this is a game changer for Cooper Webb. And I'm not saying that he couldn't win the championship with Jet there. That's not the same thing. It simply means the job got easier. And is it easy? Of course not. Winning a championship is brutally hard. And look at the emotional roller coaster Cooper Webb went through last year with Jet out of the equation to get the job done. It came down to the last race. It was a two point differential. And Cooper Webb, I don't want to say he barely hung onto it. That's not fair. But he lost four out of the last five. And Chase Sexton seemed like he was the best rider the last several races, you know, and you can add in who's chasing and who's being chased and championship pressure and Sexton didn't have anything to lose. That's all fair. Like those all matter. But the point of it is that Cooper Webb had Jet Lawrence out and it was still like fighting, just grasping your fingernails onto the edge to hold on to this championship. So I do think this is a big deal for Cooper Webb. And I think if you asked him candidly and off the record, what does this mean, he would say, this is a very, very big deal. That Jet Lawrence is out. And the likelihood of me winning a fourth championship, it may not be likely, but the likelihood went up, if that makes sense. Like, on a mathematical basis, the odds have improved for Cooper Webb. And he knows this stuff. Like, he is acutely aware of that type of thing. And he probably won't say it. You won't catch him saying in an interview or anything yet, because that's a disservice to other people. But I know him and I know his thought process and I know how he approaches these series. And I can almost guarantee you with 99% certainty that when he saw news, his first reaction was, man, that's a bummer, because he truly does like the Lawrence family. And then the second thought was, the door's open. That that's what I believe went through the mind of Cooper Webb. Now let's jump to Chase Sexton. And Sexton is the most talented guy of this group of anybody we're going to talk about next. I believe that Chase Sexton is the most talented and the most capable. Does that mean he's going to win the championship? No, it doesn't. Physically, he is the guy to beat. And I think if you asked everybody else, they would say the same thing. They would say that Chase Sexton is going to be the toughest guy to beat on a week in and week out basis because of his skill set, where he's at in his career. Like he's in the prime of his career physically and mentally. So he's going to be really hard to beat. Now, the mental aspect I just mentioned, that's a different story. I think if you ask Cooper Webb, is Chase Sexton as tough to beat mentally as he is physically? Webb would say no. The mental aspect is really what I'm counting on to beat him. And that, you know, Sexton probably would hate to hear that. But I'm just giving you the honest, real world view of how these guys size each other up, because they are everybody. Any competition, you size each other up, you. You look at their strengths and weaknesses, you're trying to devise ways to beat the other guy. And you're also defending against where they're going to come at you. And I don't. I think Sexton knows where his strengths and weaknesses are. He knows that he's probably let some things get away from him through, you know, what he would probably say it's been through the motorcycle and team things. But guess what? The motorcycle and team things have a cumulative effect on your mental capacity. So when you get really frustrated, when you're unhappy with the bike, when you go to show up in the race, you don't. Don't want to be there, guess what suffers? Your mental ability to focus on the job at hand and be your best self. And I think these other guys know that, and they're going to try to exploit that. In a nutshell, this whole 20, 26 monster new supercross championship is going to be Chase Sexton versus Chase Sexton. I can't put it any more simply than that. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if that's good or bad for Chase. Only he can decide that. But that's, that's as easy as I can put it, is this is going to be Chase versus Chase. And we're going to see, we're going to see how he handles it. That's it. Because I think if he is his best self and he is not, you know, argumentative with settings and he's, he thinks things are going well and he believes this is where he's supposed to be, and he believes the bike is working, truly, I believe it's good luck to everybody else. That's kind of where I come down on it. Now, Eli Tomac, he's a similar. I think it's a similar story. And if Eli were five years younger, I think this would. Eli would be the guy to beat in this championship, bar none. Maybe even with Jet in there. But Jet or, excuse me, Tomax, not five years younger. Eli Tomac is in the twilight of his career, and that is not a slight against Eli Tomac. That's just age. That's just the nature of the sport and that's the nature of getting older. You know, like so cliche, you know, Father Time is undefeated. But it's true. It's cliche by definition, because it is true. Now, we haven't really seen a severe drop off from Tomac, but what we do see is an inability to bring his best stuff every single time. And that is where he can get exploited. Because even when Eli was his best self, you'd see weird rides, you'd see weekends where he'd open the door to the competition. And he, you know, as great as Eli is, he has 50, what, 52 wins in Supercross, second most ever. It's, it's incredible number. But the reason I don't, I think he doesn't have more Supercross championships. Right? He has two versus Web's three. The reason I think that is, is because he has not shown an ability to just absolutely put the nail in the coffin on these guys. When the door, when it's, when it's available to do it. A guy like Carmichael and you could even say James Stewart at times for sure. McGrath for sure. Villapoto, when they felt like they had the guys on the run, they would just go on a streak of wins and, and just close them out. He would just beat them. They would. These guys would just beat their competition to a place where they knew it was over. And that is where I feel like Tomac has not been able to have that same level of relentlessness at times. The nights where it's feeling it, yeah, man, he's the best guy and you're not going to beat him. But it's those other weekends where things just aren't necessarily perfect that get in the way of being a four or five time champion. Because look, look at the track record. There is no reason you can convince me that he shouldn't have won the championship in 18 over Jason Anderson. If it weren't for those weirdo rounds early in the series. 2017 weirdo rounds. He should have been the champion over Ryan Dungy. Dungy even had to kind of get help at New Jersey from Musquan. Remember there was a bunching round at Vegas, but that's two more championships where there is absolutely no argument that I would hear out to say he wasn't the best rider where he didn't win the championship. So instead of two titles, he could have four titles. Now fast forward to 2023, his Achilles. That's not his fault. Okay, so now you're talking about a five time Supercross champion. In all reality should have happened and ifs and buts, we know nobody. No championships are not handed out. You have to go get them. But I'm just telling you there are three more championships there that I believe he should have won. And the difference between a guy like Villapoto and a guy like Carmichael I believe is in the ability to close things out and leave just. They just suck all the air out of the room and leave nothing for anybody else. And I don't mean that to be any sort of negative against Tomac. I'm just trying to explain how you get from two championships to five and you can't. Let's not even count 23 because that was such a freak accident. I don't. There's no way you can blame Tomac for his Achilles giving out on such a small mistake. That was nothing. So I'm not even going to count 23, but 17 and 18, those were on Tomac. Those, the New Jersey crash where he just seemed paralyzed by the moment. And then 18, just his own mistakes. He gave up 50 points in January. Those, those were on him. Those are absolutely on him. And that could be four titles or let's say two more, because 23, he should have won. I don't think that Villapota and Carmichael would have made that type of mistake. That, that's just where I come down on it. That's. That's his son. I want to see if Tomac can look at the situation, understand jets out, understand that Sexton's on a new team, understand that Webb has never been really that dominant the year after his title. He's always had kind of a next year type slump. Understand the situation for what it is and go get it. That's what I want to see from Eli Tomak. I want to see, week in and week out, the guy that just leaves nothing for anybody else. Can he. I don't know, but we're going to find out together. Ken Roczen, those are, those were the top three for me. Those are the championship contenders. These other guys have a shot, but it's. It's less likely than the other three. And I don't. I'm not going to put percentage numbers on it, but I think you have the three and then you have this second tier. And for Roczen, he's going to start strong. He's going to be really good in January and February, and there's going to be a lot of talk about Roczen, and he's probably going to have the red plate at some point. It's going to be the same questions, though. In March, April and May. Is, does the performance start to drop off? You know, all the travel, all the riding. Don't forget he raced all these WSX rounds, which adds to the toll that it took, you know, in the off season. Does the performance level start to deteriorate in the second half of the Supercross Championship? Because it always has. Like, that is what the story has been. And we know the story with Rox and the injuries and the surgeries and, you know, he deals with health, things that seem to accumulate throughout the course of a run like this. So again, I don't see a reason why it will be anything other than the same story. Great races, really strong start, and then the questions will start to Loom down the stretch. That is just what we've come to know from Ken Roczon. Hunter Lawrence is an interesting one because he's still kind of on the rise, where, like, guys like Roczen Tomac, it seems like they're over the hill and maybe not deteriorating, but it's hard to think they're going to take a step from here, right? Like they're over 30 years old. It's hard to think that they're going to get better from here, where I think Hunter is still improving. Like his. His career arc is still on the upslope. So that's good news for Hunter Lawrence. Now, for those people who are talking about a championship, I don't know that he's there now. Pro motocross, if this was the same situation and Jet was out of pro motocross, you would hear a different tone from me. But in Supercross, he hasn't won a race yet. So I think it's really hard to say that Hunter Lawrence is a favorite to win a championship or likely to win a championship when you haven't won a race in that series and you've raced it for. This would be the fourth year of racing it. So that, to me, that's challenging. That's a challenging thing to ask of anyone. And I don't think it's fair to Hunter. So what am I looking for from Hunter? I'm looking for him to get that first win. I'm looking for him to be a podium mainstay and take the series deep and be in contention and see how things shake out. That's what my game plan would be if I was Hunter Lawrence or Johnny o' Meara or anybody that he trusts to build a game plan is don't take yourself out of it in January. Think about, like, 2024. Was it 23? Maybe 23? It was 23. He didn't qualify at Anaheim. That's what, 23? I don't know. I'm getting my years mixed up. But he didn't qualify at Anaheim in his first ever 450 Supercross. Don't take yourself out of it. Don't have a horrific opening round. Stay in it, establish yourself. And also don't have a horrific 2025 opening round where you are barely inside the top 10 and you look like all of your testing and the motorcycle is not working and it looks like a catastrophe. Just have a solid opening round, build points, put yourself on the podium and stay there. Get that win and establish yourself as a title contender amongst the other guys. You Want them thinking about you going into these weekends as who they're going to have to fight for this championship, because so far in his 450 Supercross career, they haven't. That has not been a thing. He hasn't even been in the discussion. So you need to first establish that then you can take steps from there. So we will see if he can kind of take that step. I think he will, but he's got to stay off the ground. And he's gotta. He's gotta just become the guy in Supercross that he's been in motocross and that he's been in the playoffs. So watch for that and let's see if he can do it. I'm a big Hunter fan, so I'm cheering for him to take that step. Ap, AP is an interesting story because he can win races, but I also don't know where he is now. Think about. Think about how 2025, the end of 2025, went for Aaron Plessinger. He. His body kind of broke down on him. He got really sick and he couldn't finish races. And no one really knew what was going on. No one really knew why these things were happening to Aaron Plessinger. So you go into the playoffs, you can't race. You go into the off season, and they still don't necessarily know what went wrong. And to me, that's problematic. If you go into an offseason with some sort of sickness and you haven't pinpointed what was wrong, but now you think that everything's good to go logically, that doesn't add up in my brain. Like, I really struggle with that. Now. There is a possibility that they do know and they just have decided to not talk about it. They don't want to really share what the issue was, but they know what was wrong and they have fixed it and now they're moving forward, that is certainly a possibility. And if that's the case, then fine, no problem. But all I've heard from them is interviewing him directly and watching other interviews with him is that they don't really know what the cause of the issue was. And by default, like just drawing lines from A to B, if you don't know what a problem is, you can't fix it. You can't. You cannot fix a problem that you're unaware of. I just will never back away from that problem or, excuse me, from kind of that resolution. So we will see. And I'm going to be watching AP really closely at the end of these main events. In January to see how he's feeling. How's he looking if he's struggling late, I'm going to be posing the question like, hey, man, are you good? Because I know you're fit. The workload that you guys take on, I know you're going to be fit, but this doesn't look good. You were sick, you couldn't finish, and now you're laboring late again. What's going on here? And I don't know that we'll get an answer, but I just think it's something that we need to watch. And for me, for ap, it's the only story going into Anaheim. Because if that's not fixed and if he's not all the way, well, the rest doesn't matter. It's that simple. Justin Cooper, he was the Racer X rider of the year, which we had some fun with and we were kind of joking. But when you don't win a race all season, it, to me, it's, it's funny that you're the rider of the year, racer of the year, and we just was the one that decided it and whatever, there's no metrics for it. It's not like he takes it super serious, but it is, it is pretty funny. And I think the other guys were probably like, you know, like he did have the red plate going into Charlotte. He was one of the only guy, I think, Malcolm, also the only guys that raced all the races. So it's fine. But for Justin Cooper, I think he's in a situation where he needs to take a step also and he needs to kind of break out in Supercross. And he's been really good. Like being really good, though, I don't think is necessarily his goal. I don't think that's the end point for where Justin Cooper wants to be because he doesn't get paid like the other guys do. He gets paid well compared to the average person, sure, but he doesn't get paid the way that the guys in front of him do. He doesn't get paid the way that I would even say that, like Hunter Lawrence does. But he's not winning. That's the difference. If, if you want to get the big paychecks, you have to win races. You have to establish yourself as one of the top tier guys that deserves that big paycheck. And for, for context, you know, the guys like Roczen, jets in a whole nother world now, but Roczen, Tomac, Sexton, Hunters, probably a tick off those guys. Cooper Webb, you know, they're all probably in the 3.5 to $4 million salary range, all in. And that's a $2 million OEM check, maybe 3 million for some of them, but, but 2 plus million for OEM salary, anywhere from 400,000 to a million for apparel. And then I'll add in all the other small stuff that they have, you know, 50 here, 75 there, like goggles and all these different things outside sponsors. So they're easily in the threes for a lot of these guys. A guy like Justin Cooper is probably more in the 800, 700, not, not more than a million range to all in. Right. So that's a big jump. Right. A guy like Hunter Lawrence is probably more like 2 million all in. So there is a big disparance or like a gap. Right. That Justin Cooper, if he can take a step in his results and take a step being a week in and week out podium guy and winning, he's going to take a huge step in salary. So there is a big incentive for him to do that. And all those numbers I just said are roundabout numbers. I don't know, I don't know many of their contracts. I know some of them, but I'm guessing on some of them. I don't know what Hunter Orens gets paid. If you know, like I was forced to guess, I would say his Honda salary is probably something like 800 and gears probably something like 4 to 500. So you start to do the math. You know, you get to 1, 5, 2 million pretty easy. It's just, that's just the market for the sport and I've never seen a contract with Hunter Lawrence's name on it. But I do know the market somewhat and I think it's something probably like that. Okay, so I kind of went through the last note I'll make on Justin Cooper is to take the step that he wants to make. The whoops are the biggest part of it. And we asked him about it in media days and of course he's sick of talking about it, he's sick of hearing about it, but that's fine. But if you want to go win, it's the thing that's holding you back. And I struggle in the whoops too. I know what, I know what that life's like. I know how hard it is. But everybody that knows anything about this sport would tell you it's the number one thing holding Justin Cooper back. It's the number one liability in his racing. So of course it's going to get talked about as it should. Your number one skill Set or your number one deficiency is always going to attract headlines, it's always going to attract attention. And so people aren't going to stop talking about it unless you improve it. And they have to stop talking about it. It's just that simple. Okay. Malcolm Stewart, first win in 2025. Tampa is a race I don't think anybody will ever forget. Paris was such a breakout ride. It was really an eye opener for me. It's the best I've ever seen him ride, full stop. I've never seen him ride that well in my life, period. I say that with eyes wide open. If Malcolm Stewart wants to win more races or he wants to be a legitimate championship contender, and I'll just say it on the front end, I don't think that's going to happen. I think he has too many races where he's 5, 6, 7, 8. But if he wants to break out of that shell and he wants to jump up, he's got to, he's got to be more consistent. He can't have the weekends where he just looks uninspired. And I don't mean that he is uninspired. It's just what he looks like on the racetrack. You don't see the sprint speed, you don't see him moving through the pack, you don't see him blitzing the loops faster than everybody else. And to be your best to run at the front, you have to exploit the things that you do best. If you can't utilize the things that you do best in this game, you really have no chance of winning. And that rings true for everybody. Sexton has to be have his sprint speed and be really good in the whoops. Cooper Webb has to put himself in good position and outwit everybody else. Eli Tomac has to be relentless in the late laps and make up for any sort of poor start with speed and fitness. Like these are all just their intangibles that they have. So for Malcolm, he's got to use his, he's got to use sprint speed, like be a really fast qualifier. He's got to blitz the whoops and make passes there and he's got to find innovative lines like he was in Paris and be aggressive enough to pull them off first. Like be willing to be on the front end of by combination, innovation, stuff like that. Like Malcolm has that in him and if he wants to be that guy, then he's got to be willing to do those things or be able to do those things. Jason Anderson, really strong wsx and I'm going To speed through a few of these guys because there's just less talking points. But Jason Anderson, he rode really well in WSX, but this is also a former champion, you know, 20, 2018, that title he won. I'm not trying to take it away from him, but I don't. I think if you were having a beer with ey tomac, he would probably tell you like that one burns him. 17 and 18 burn a hole through him because he knows he should have been champ. I believe it. And if he think about how much more he would think about it than I think I never. I don't think about it really at all. But if I do think about it, I think about how Eli Tomac should have been champ. That's immediately what I think about. So I'm sure that is a burning just regret that he has. He was just so had such a rough January that he put himself in such a hole he couldn't dig himself out of it. So for Jason Anderson, what I would love to see is him be that. That type of racer again. The 2022, the 2018 racer, where there are times when he is the absolute best guy at the track. We haven't seen that from him in a long time. We've seen it at a few triple crowns, Anaheim, two triple crown in 2024, I think he was the best guy. He was unable to kind of close on the final race three, but race two, he won. I think he was probably the best guy that night, but I want to see that same fire from him. I want to see him bring it on the weekends and be willing to take chances and push. Because what I've seen the last year or two is kind of a uninspired riding for the paycheck just circulating. Jason Anderson, and I know he's had health issues, so I'm not trying to say this is all an effort thing, but I think some of it is an effort thing. I don't think he's been as all in on this racing thing as he used to be. And I might be wrong. I'm not there with him training every day. Okay. I'm just telling you what I see from the outside and what I believe to be true and what I see from him on the weekends and. And typically what you see from someone on the weekends is a direct reflection of what you see from them during the week. Hard work and dedication and then that all in attitude typically shows up on Saturday nights. And I haven't seen that from Jason Anderson. That's really the point. So let's see, let's see if he can be that, that 2022. Jason Anderson, RJ Hampshire is going to be making his first, well, second 450 Supercross. You raced Daytona a few years ago, but I think for RJ it's really important to stay within yourself, ride within your means and let these races unfold much like you did in pro motocross. Don't force things, don't ride over your head, don't take chances. Just gotta hate this cliche, but I'm using it anyway. Trust the process of improvement and get better and better and better and better and let people get hurt and let the series unfold. And you will find yourself near the front later in the championship. I believe that's really, really important for RJ Hampshire to fully embrace that approach. And don't try to rush things, let them happen on their own time frame. And that doesn't mean you're not trying, right? It means you're not over trying and pushing the envelope and taking too many chances. Because in 450 Supercross, if you take too many chances, you will pay the penalty. You might get away with it for a little while, but I promise you that the odds and the math will catch up. And if you continue to override the racetrack and ride over your head, you will pay the price and you will be upside down and you'll probably be at the Alpine Stars mobile medical unit. That's just how the, that's just how this works. I've been around this my entire life. I did it for 16 years. I know this to be true. So for RJ, who has a tendency to do that, especially on a 250, he will get caught up in the moment and try too hard. You have to fight against that with everything you have and understand that you're good enough to ride within yourself. Give your best effort, but not too much because you need to have longevity. You got to be there every single Saturday night. So I think that's really, really important for RJ Hampshire to, to remember right before the gate drops every Saturday. Justin Barcia and Dylan Ferrandis, I kind of put them, lump them into a group, you know, this, this Ducati thing is a development process for Barsha. He's hurt, he's coming in. He's barely going to have ridden before Anaheim won. So don't expect a lot. He's not healthy and he's on a brand new motorcycle. So I think it's just logging laps, you know, giving them data, giving them feedback, improving the motorcycle and healing along the way, getting your bike, your body back up to race fitness levels and optimal fit. You know, all the, all the things like get. Just get yourself back into race shape as well as developing this Ducati motorcycle that's never raced supercross before. So Barcia is going to be a work in progress. And for Dylan Ferrandis, I don't expect a lot, but he was raving about this motorcycle and the chassis at the media days. I mean, just over the moon about this chassis. So I want to see that. I want to see that show up on Saturdays. I don't. It was funny. Like Steve Mathis, these guys are all kind of making fun of it, whatever. Not like in a. Not in a vicious or not like, in a mean way. There's no, like, they're not like, attacking Dylan for doing it. It was just kind of funny. It was humorous the way he was just so enchanted with this chassis. So I want to see what that looks like on the racetrack and see if he kind of has to walk that back a little bit or if it's just reinforced. And he just loves everything about it because he can go out there and get sixth and still love the bike. The field's that deep. These guys are that good. But I just really kind of want to see how that all shakes out for Fernandez. The last guy I have. I mean, I have Jorge Prado on here and two words, just stay healthy. Now, listening to him, he's talked about he needs results and he's going to go for it. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Stop, stop. Stop with that. Just try to get result. No, that's not. Just try to stay healthy. Sorry. Just try to stay healthy and get through monstrous supercross and get to pro motocross in one piece. So you have momentum and, and you have continuity and you're fit and you have the bike sorted out and you're mentally where you need to be. That is the goal. And I'm not his coach. He doesn't have to listen to me. But I, I believe that with all my heart. If he goes into these supercross races thinking, this is my time, I gotta, I gotta be in there and I gotta prove to everybody that I can do this. I think he's missing the plot. I. I think that is the wrong approach. And that doesn't mean you can't try. It doesn't mean you can't go out there and, like, put, you know, put effort into it. It just means that your, your emphasis, like, what is going to define a successful 2026, in my mind, is not Monster Energy Supercross. It is just not what matters. And what everybody is going to judge Jorge Prado off of this year starts in May. It starts at Fox Raceway in late May. I'm just telling you, nobody cares about supercross. No one's going to give him a hard time if he's 12. They're not going to care. I just. That's what. That's what I truly believe, because no one is expecting him to be a factor in Supercross. So don't take risks to prove to people something they don't care about. What they do care about, and what they will judge him off of, including me, is if you are not prepared again for pro motocross and you go out there uninspired and you go out there and don't perform because you've done a lot of talking about how good you're going to be and how good this bike is. And now everything is going to be fixed and it's not going to matter if you're hurt and not ready. No one's going to give you the benefit of the doubt. So what I would tell you is make sure you're not hurt. Make sure that you are ready to go in pro motocross. And if you had told me, this is. This is crazy, and it would have never happened. But if you had told me or anybody had told me that, hey, I've spoken with KTM brass in Austria and in America. We're only going to race the first five races of Supercross, similar to what he did in 2024. No, 2023. 2024. On the gas. Gas. He's only going to race five rounds, and then we're going to. We're going to back it down and we're going to go practice motocross. And maybe he's going to race two GPs to get some bike time and some race laps, and then we're going to hunker down and we're going to travel around and he's going to spend some time at all these motocross tracks and log some laps and they're going to do some testing and. And they're going to throw everything at the Pro Motocross championship. If he told me that, I'd be like, hey, man, that is really unorthodox. But I am so here for it. That is a really cool plan, and I'm here. I would. I would give him a lot of credit for that plan. Now. It's never going to happen. And I know Red Bull, KTM wants him on the racetrack and they want him out there in front of the crowd and he wants to race supercross and he wants to develop supercross skill set. I get all that. I got it. But I don't think there's ever going to be a time in his supercross career where he's a week in and week out race winning guy. It doesn't mean he can't win a race because we've seen crazy things happen. Sebastian Tortelli won a race in 1998. Like that is not impossible. I'm saying for him to be a championship guy in monster Supercross, I don't believe is ever going to happen. And maybe he makes me eat my words one day. I'll happily do so if that day comes. I just don't believe it is ever going to come. I do believe he can be pro Motocross champion if he does all the right things and things go his way. So with that in mind, what would you do? I'm not saying that the five race plan and then racing a couple of GPS and practicing is the smartest or the best plan. I'm just saying it's not the craziest plan. I don't know. But you would be sacrificing supercross. Like you would kind of be saying you're not all the way in on Supercross, but maybe you do that this year, establish yourself in pro motocross, get everybody else kind of back on the same wavelength where they're not questioning this entire thing as a concept, like Jorge Prado in America as a concept. If he went out and did that and he, and he raced and was winning pro motocross races and battling Jet and battling Hunter and battling, battling TOMAC week in and week out and in the fight, all that would go away. That entire conversation would go away. No one would care about what happened on Cowie in 2025. I'm just telling you it would go away that fast. People have short memories. That's how racing works, that's how sports work. But he's got to do the hard thing first. He's got to wipe away that memory of 2025 first. And I would be doing everything humanly possible to do exactly that. So let's see, let's see if he can do it. But I, I think there's some merit into focusing on what matters first. So that's it for this week. Thank you again to all the sponsors. Couldn't do it without them. Probably wouldn't do I don't know. Maybe I would do it, but probably wouldn't do it without them. I just said probably on both. But anyway, thank you again. Guts Racing, Works Connection, TL Speed Shop and Race- rentals.com unmatched supplements say Works connection. I did Grantstone Boots, Firepower Parts and Fly Racing. Thank you to all of them. And that's it for this week. We will check you out on the next one. See you.