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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, racerattos.com unmatched supplements, firepower Parts, Grandstone Boots and Fly Racing. This is the Industry Seating podcast. My name is Jason Thomas and we have finished the 2026 Monster Indie Supercross Series. I can't believe it. It feels like truly yesterday and I know that's one of the biggest cliches of all time, but it really does. I can't believe it's already through 17 rounds. I can remember being in Anaheim, one at the press conference and being like, man, here we go, here we go. And just like that, it's over and there's a lot to look forward to. Like, you know, things keep rolling on. We have this 31 round championship now, so it's not going to slow down anytime soon, especially for me, which I'll get into kind of my plans. But I just can't believe that we're already, we're already through the 2026 Supercross series. Man, time. I've said this many times in this podcast. It feels like time is speeding up and I know again, like king of cliches right now, but man, it really feels that way. I want to thank the sponsors of this podcast. Thanks for being so patient. I haven't been able to do as many as I would like. Guts racing works connection, race-rentals.com unmatched supplements and the brand new Nova Prime Labs Peptide company is now launched, which is a sister company to Unmatched Supplements, Grantstone Boots, Firepower Parts and Fly Racing. I'll touch on each of those sponsors and try to do a good job for them since I haven't been around a whole lot lately. Try to take care of them in the upcoming minutes here. But we're going to talk about what we saw in Salt Lake and I'll do certainly another one of these when I am either in Europe or back from Europe previewing the Pro Motocross Championship. I go to France on May 20 for the French MXGP round, which would be a great time. I'm not excited about it at the moment, if I'm being completely honest, but I will be. I just need a weekend at home and get my life together and then I will be ready for it. I know how these things go right now I just want to be in my home and not do much. But that quickly fades and I'll be ready to rip again very shortly. But let's talk some Salt Lake City and we'll talk about the two video class first and then we'll jump into the 450 class as we always do. And I'll give you my final power rankings of Supercross for 2026. But man, that 250 class, we talked a lot, whether it's on this show or others. And I'm sure all of you have bench race with yourself or your friends or whoever, maybe your wife that'd be cool about Could Cole Davies bring anything to the fight against Hayden Deegan? And I didn't know if he could. Truly, I didn't know. If you guys listen to my Patreon podcast, I talked about this on Saturday and I do this every Saturday morning of race day if you want to join. It's patreon.com industry seeding and yeah, it's like a dollar you can pay. You know, typically people pay between three and five dollars a month. Don't want to do it, completely understand, but it is a different kind of content avenue versus this podcast specifically. But I talked a little bit there on Saturday morning about the only way I thought it could be possible is if the woofs were super brutal. And they were. I kind of already knew that from Friday and if Davies was just otherworldly in them and that's how it went. I'm not claiming that I was like a, you know, ahead of the game or anything there. I just strongly felt that that was the only way he would have a chance because Deegs is too good in the corners, he's too fit mentally, he's too strong for just a normal racetrack. Davies isn't going to beat him, so he would need some sort of outsized edge in the whoops and he got exactly that. Now, at the same time, I want to give Cole Davies a lot of credit. Excuse me. I want to give Hayden Deegan a lot of credit because he responded. And this is not something that Hayden Deegan would have been able to do a year ago. And it's one of the reasons why Hayden was not happy with me at times in the past is because I was. I don't even know if it was critical. I was just being honest about his strengths and his perceived weaknesses. And he has done such a fantastic job of shoring up those weaknesses. That's what gave him a chance to get back in the fight. Because if this was a year ago with those whoops, the way they were in the way Davies was hitting them, I think Davies would have ridden off into the sunset and Hayden would have either crashed in them or simply just made mistakes and Davies would have been long gone. That's what I truly believe. But Hayden's ability to improve this year starts and whoops allowed him to just be like, no, no, I'm going to reel him right back in and then we'll sort this thing out later on. It didn't go his way anyway. But again, I like calling balls and strikes. I like calling things as I see them, not necessarily trying to protect people's feelings or wonder what they're going to think of it. Be fair, be honest and give my best possible analysis. Like that is what I believe I should be doing here and on the television broadcast as well. And in this case, Deags has made big strides. So that's what we got. We got to race between those two because Davies was really good everywhere else and then he was just lights out in the loops and Diggs is amazing everywhere else and is wasn't quite as good as Davies, but was really good in the whoops also. And had Hayden not rushed it and make no mistake, he rushed it in this scenario. He went in there and was pissed off that Cole Davies went for that aggressive pass. And his emotion is putting it as simply as I can, his emotion got the best of him and he rushed the pass back. If he had relaxed, taken a deep breath and let things unfold, I think he would have been able to get Cole Davies back. I really do. And I think Deegan would have won the race. I don't want to say easily, but I think he would have won it without any sort of last lap heroics. That's my personal belief. Doesn't mean that you have to agree with it or Cole Davies has to agree with it. That's okay. It's all opinion. And I'm not like, I don't take it personally if people don't agree with my opinion. I don't really care all that much, but that's what I think would have happened because Deegs is really strong late in races. We've seen that how many times. What did he do with Levi Kitchen? What has he done to people? A million times in outdoors. That's where he shines. And I think he would have shined if he could have taken a deep breath. And I'll go so far as I spoke to his mechanic Brent on Sunday morning at, at the airport and Brent was like, man, I was trying. I put on the pitboard like three laps in a row to stay calm and calm down and, you know, like he Was he knew that Hayden was 10 out of 10 fired up and the one thing that could derail the rest of the race was him overreacting out of emotion. And that's exactly how it went. It's. I only saw that coming or can because I've seen it a million times with younger racers and it doesn't have to be younger guys. It can be. It can be older veterans, too. Emotion can be your best friend with racing and it can also be a huge liability in racing if you don't know how to channel it the right way. Most of the time, Hayden channels it the right way and he uses it against other people to get them rattled and out of their comfort zone and off their game. He has been a master of that over the years. Truly he has. And this time it worked against him. I think he rushed a move he did not need to rush out of just pure rage because he, like, because davies caught him and Davies hit him and he was like, you're not gonna do that to me. Like, you know, I'm kind of putting myself in hayden's shoes. He's like, you're ain't. You're not doing that to me, kid. And he went in there with nowhere near the appropriate angle to make that pass. So just how it goes, man. Dee gonna be fine. He's champion. Moving up to 450 class has, you know, everything going for him in the world. What? It's. No, nobody's gonna care. Long term, it's fine. We all saw how fast he was going. It's not like he got blown off the track or something. As far as speed, it just was a mistake. It was a mistake. He will learn from moving forward and. And it could end up being a valuable lesson for him, you know, because he's going to get. He's going to be in that spot again. These guys in the 450 class don't mess around. You know, they're not going to just take his nonsense if that's what the way he plays it. I don't know what his approach will be. But if he goes in there and starts running his mouth to these guys, they're not going to just take it the way a lot of the 250 guys have. I feel very strongly about that. So this lesson of controlling his emotion, if he learns it well, might serve him very well down the road. That's just kind of how I thought about it. On the back end of it, Levi kitchen was, you know, he's there. He rode really well. He was there to pick up the pieces with all that drama. And he wasn't very far behind Cole Davies at the end. You know, I don't. I'm not saying he was going to go win the race, but he was back there. He was riding a lot better than I think everybody was paying attention to because the drama at the front was so, so crazy. Kitsch was actually riding really well. My biggest question for now is, can he. Can he figure this thing out for pro motocross? Can he go win the championship? That feels very available. And I know there's going to be a lot of good guys. Jaime is coming in hot, we know that. Seth Hammaker, he's going to be great. There's a lot of guys that all think they're going to win this championship. I just think Kitchen is right at the. Near the top of that list of guys that think they're going to win this championship. And I'm worried, you know, is his back going to hold up? Can he get decent starts that will allow him to show his best stuff? Like, those are all questions he's going to have to answer. But his last few Supercross races were. Yeah, better. They were better, for lack of a better word. So good job. Kitsch. You know, Max Anstie, I talked him into bringing his kid up there, which was cool. You know, Mathis is like, get out of here with that. Like, him being up there with his. His son is something that neither of them will ever forget. And it's a cool moment. Like, that's what we're here for, his experiences. And I have no regrets of him bringing his kid up there and telling it, you know, telling us about his son's name is Finn, about his superpowers. And that's. That's. That stuff's awesome. Like, that is ridiculous for Steve to not like that stuff. Whatever, man. Like, Steve is super smart guy, but that is a terrible take. And it was good to see Max back on the podium. He's had a really, really rough season from how it started to kind of how it went in the middle, and he's. You won't find a nicer guy than Max Anstey. So, yeah, I like to see the guy do well. You know, that McAdoo hammmaker crash was. Was insane for McAdoo. We got to figure this thing out. These crashes are not sustainable. They're simply not going to work in the long term. You can't continue to just stack it up violently the way he is and have any longevity in the sport or have any Relevancy in championships, you just can't, can't do it. And how long have we been saying this with McAdoo now? I don't know anymore what the answer is. I don't know that he could tell you. You know, like, I'm sure people around him are like, hey man, we got, we got to figure this out because we can't keep, we can't keep getting hurt. We can't keep having these huge crashes. Like, falling over is one thing. He's not falling over. He's having huge crashes. And I don't want to see him like severely injure himself, you know, his career. That's up to him, whatever. But, like, I just know you crash like this over and over and over, you're tempting fate to have something like, like a big, big injury. And that's what I'm really worried about with him. But, you know, Seth, it's impossible to say how much McAdoo's crash impacted Seth. You know, Seth took a different line, which oftentimes can be the reason you crash in and of itself. Seth is not, he's not immune from crashing either. You know, he's calmed it down a lot this year, but we've seen him have big ones over his career and, you know, as soon as he kind of said, I'm going to take some more risk, it seems like the crashing kind of came with that, which is not a net positive. So both of them got some soul searching to do as we, as we head to pro motocross about figuring this thing out. You know, the, the best guys in the sport. If you look at guys like Dungey or, I don't know, take your pick, Roxanne, whoever, Jet Lawrence, they have figured out how to go extremely fast and not take outsized risk. And I know that's, I know that's a lot easier than it sounds. I get it. But to truly make it on the long term, that's what you have to do. Either that or you just have to accept that you're not going to go win the race and you're going to be like a third place guy and finish the race. That's just kind of how I see it. I don't think you can just consistently go over the edge, over the limit, and just maybe you crash spectacularly or maybe you don't. I don't think that's a sustainable game plan. I can't put it any more simply than that. And I think you're seeing what the result is with McAdoo is if you just continue to take risk and risk and risk and over the right over your head, over and over and over. You're going to just stack it up over and over and over. And I don't like saying that about McAdoo. I really like that guy. He is, like the nicest dude, and I like what he's about and I like what he stands for. And it's kind of why I'm saying is I don't want to see him get hurt. And you keep doing this, keep taking this approach. Yeah. You're on a pathway to more injuries, and, yeah, no one wants to see that. So, anyway, that's kind of how I saw the 250 class. Let's do our power rankings. I'm trying not to drag this podcast out too long, but let's jump into our power rankings top 10. And this is going to shift dramatically because we're getting a bunch of guys different in for pro motocross. So this will be the last time it probably looks like this, but that's okay. It's okay. We haven't done it in a few weeks, so I have number 10 at Justin Barsha, and Barcia went down early, which ruined any chance at his race in Salt Lake City. But he's been riding really well. If you look at, you know, he came back in Philly. Philly. Right. Cleveland or Philly? Philly. And immediately almost wins a heat race, much to Joey Savage's dismay and attacking people, which he likes to do. I'm not a huge fan of that, but his riding was remarkably good right out of the box. Almost wins a heat race in Denver. So I have a lot of credit. I give a lot of credit. A lot of time off, big injury, and comes out swinging. So I think the Ducati is going to be better in motocross than it is in Supercross, and I think that's going to help him. So good for Ducati, good for Barsha. And that rolls us into number nine. Who is Ferrandis? A lot of the same things. I think Supercross was better than advertised. I had very low expectations because I knew the team wasn't necessarily ready. This was a team that they weren't even at one point going to race Supercross because they didn't have enough parts, they had not done enough testing, and they just weren't in a place to really be comfortable with the way they were going into the series. Then they come out and they're doing pretty well. They're getting top tens, they're running top five in Heat races, like, I think that they just, you know, they have kind of overperformed the expectation, and I think they will be better in motocross than they were supercross. The only question is the field is deeper. So do the results improve or not is a great question to ask, because deeper field, by definition, is going to maybe equal worse results. I don't know, maybe. Maybe they're so good that they just offset that. But it is a. It's a challenging setup just to say, well, they were getting seventh here, they're going to be better motocross, they should get like fourth. Well, I don't know. You add Deegan and Jet, that's two guys that I think will beat both of them often. So, you know, you understand the math I'm working towards. I just won't let the results steer the conversation about whether they're doing well or not. I'm going to try to look past that and really analyze it fairly, just because I know the field is going to be deeper than it is right now. Number eight is Malcolm Stewart. And we all heard the news about Husky changing direction. And, you know, Phil was on the Pulp show Monday, kind of. He's trying to paint a pretty picture for it, which is fine. He's. He is an ambassador for them. So what else are you going to do? I would be doing the same thing, but it's not great. It's not ideal for anybody. You know, no matter what those guys, even if they found a team with Husky support, they're going to make less money. You know, Husky's not. They're not doing this and then going to offer the same levels of support and money for everybody. That's not going to happen. They're doing this for a reason, to downsize cost. Make no mistake, end of story. They're doing it to reduce cost, so. To reduce cost? Yeah, man, there's going to be less support. That's just how it goes. It doesn't mean that they're going to be left out to dry or they're not going to get a salary in 2027 or any factory parts from someone or a factory ride from someone. It's just, in the end, it is a net reduction period. And that's really the only point I was trying to make. If you happen to listen to the conversation with Phil, he was like, well, it could open up other avenues. And team like, yeah, man, that's all can be true. But in the end, I stand by my take that this is a net negative for the Husky brand. And Husky team. I don't know how else it could be argued that financially they need to take a step back from their effort there. Look at the restructuring. Anybody that knows anything about a restructuring at a big company, what do you do? You downsize spending, you raise profitability, you narrow your focus on what really works, and you reduce exposure to what doesn't work. It's. It's very basic. And that's what exactly what they're doing. Leaning into the KTM side, reducing exposure to gas. Gas and Husky. It's really simple. And I don't. It's not a. It's not an attack or some sort of, like, harsh criticism. That's just. We're just being honest. We're just being transparent about what's going on here. No big deal. I lived through it at WPS to live through it with fly racing. It's just a part of business sometimes. And you hope in the end that restructuring, refocusing, getting back to what works allows you to reinvest down the road and be stronger for it. That's what you hope. You know, you get your ducks in a row. You really work on getting aligned to where the numbers make sense, and then you can reinvest into things that do make sense and allow your brands to grow. So let's hope that that's what is in the cards for the KTM group proper, which includes all these race teams around the world, off road, MotoGP, Supercross, all those things. But anyway, it's still a bummer for Malcolm and he's an eighth. We'll see what this summer brings. I don't think, you know, pro motocross is going to be like some standout series for him, but I could see him. I could see him at Cali for sure. I could. I could see RJ at Cali. I could see them keeping March banks because it's crazy cheap. I could see Jacob going to Cali. There's a lot of guys that go over there. The worst thing I would say tied with Malcolm and RJ is this is really bad for. For marchbanks because he went from, like, I think he was in an okay spot to maybe stay now, Man, I. I don't have any inside info. I'm not a decision maker. I know literally zero. But I think it's going to be very difficult for him to stay now because they have a menu of riders to choose from that are all getting better results than he is. That's a hard thing to go up against other than, hey, man, I'll ride for basically nothing like, that's. That's your best ammunition, you know what I mean? And that's not a. That's not a very. That's not a highly leveraged position to be in for March Banks. I don't have him in the top 10, by the way. I don't feel bad about it. I don't think it was a stellar season. I think motocross has a chance to be better and we'll see. But I don't have him in this top 10. Number seven is Jorge Prado. He's the most improved rider of 20, 26. I don't think that's a stretch. I think that's a deserving reward. He has shut a lot of people up, including myself, about his supercross skills. He is fantastically talented in the. Whoops. Some of the results weren't great. Let's be real. Some of the great. The results. I was like, shaking my head going, how the hell did you go from third to 13th? Like, how did that happen? But in any case, it is a lot better than what it was and what I expected. That's plenty. And now, now he's going to show people what he's got in motocross. And I promise you, it's a lot. I'm not saying he's going to win the championship. I'm not. I'm not saying he's not going to win it, but. But I don't. I'm not saying he's going to go out and beat Jet and Hunter and Tomac and these guys. I don't know. I don't know. I wouldn't claim to know, but what I am claiming to know is the guy is really good at motocross. And now that he's figured things out, it's go time for him. And I think he has a lot of people to prove wrong in a discipline where he excels. He is no joke outdoors man. I'm telling you. Mark these words down. He is no joke if he goes out and sets the fastest lap time at the opener. I don't know. Jet jets so good, so good at that. But I'm telling you, he is going to be in this fight and people are going to be like, holy cow, I didn't know he had that. You do. If you're listening to me, this guy's. This guy's the real deal, man. Just. Just take my word for it and we'll see. We'll see what that ends up being. But I don't want people to go in like, thinking it's going to be a lot of, like, 7/5 and/7. It's not. It's not going to be that. Number six is Jacob, and he got stronger at the end, which he typically does. He didn't get, you know, that elusive overall Supercross win, main event win. He won Triple Crown stuff. This is a big summer for Jacob, though. I don't know that he's going to stay at Star, because I think they're all in on Davies and Deegs for the long term in the 450 class, so maybe they keep him. What do they do with Webb? What do they do with Jacob? Those are two really timely questions right now that I don't think there's an answer to. I think he's tested with Ducati. I think he has or will test with Qawi. I think he's looking around a lot of places and seeing what's available. The guy's really good, and for a lot of teams, he would be an upgrade over what they have on their roster right now. So, you know, I don't think he's just sitting there twiddling his thumbs, going, oh, woe is me. If Starr doesn't keep me, what do I do? I think some of these other teams would love to have him. You know, it's just going to come down to what kind of money. Does he like the motorcycles? Because I think he's on a great motorcycle right now. You know, does he feel like the bike is a big step down if he goes somewhere else? There's a lot of questions to be answered on both sides. But I do hold Justin Cooper in a high regard, and I think he'll be, you know, he'll be on the podium sometimes in motocross, just like he was in Supercross. So I don't expect him to be on the outside looking in when all is said and done for a ride. He's still young, he's really talented. He's pretty easy to work with. No real ego. He's been wildly underpaid his whole career. Those are. Those are a lot of attractive qualities for a team. Not expensive. No ego, great results. It's tough to beat that man. Number five is Chase Sexton, and I know five. He won the race. I get it. But it has not been a good 20, 26. This is where it gets interesting, because I don't know that motocross is going to be better than Supercross was in any way. I. I don't know that he's going to win two Races, I would say probably won't win two races in motocross. So does he. It all comes down to, does it go so poorly that he's not on the team in 27? That is it like, that is really where I'm at because I really believe that there was a real chance that he was going to be elsewhere for pro motocross. And if you heard Dan Fahey kind of stumble around, the question that was posed to him about, can you guarantee that Chase was going to be on the team and outdoors, I don't think he even meant to say, like, there's a chance he won't. But stumbling at all is a little bit of a signal. And I think there was a real chance he was going elsewhere for pro motocross. That didn't come to fruition. There wasn't. The opportunity didn't happen. But I do think there is a real chance that it happens in 27. If this summer doesn't go well, I can't imagine he's just going to take all of this in stride and be like, yeah, you know what, that's fine. Two more years. I'm just going to get my teeth kicked in and be unhappy and not like the bike and not be happy where I'm at and just blow my prime years in an unhappy place. I don't think that's going to happen. I don't. So I'm not going to go so far as to say, hey, he's out in 27. But I'm telling you, if it doesn't go well this summer, I'm coming around. I'm coming around to it. So this, much like Justin Cooper, this, this summer is really, really important for the future of Chase Sexton and Monster Energy Kawasaki collectively together. And you start to wonder, if Chase leaves, how does that team stay intact the way it is, staff wise? Listen, I don't want anybody to lose their job, nor my. I don't want to lose my job for sure. And I don't want anybody else to lose their job. I want to make sure that's crystal clear. But in the same breath, you ask yourself, listening from the outside, the way it went with Prado, the way it's going with Sexton, in any other industry, you don't think there would be changes made somewhere? I do. And that brings me no joy to say in any way, shape or form, but that is where we're headed. I really believe that. So I hope the best. I hope Sexton comes out and is ripping on the cow, but I've also talked to people that saying it's not as good. Prada was very adamant about the bike not being as good at motocross as it is in Supercross. And Sexton's not happy with it in Supercross. So what does that mean? We're all going to find out together. But I'm just telling you there it's a precarious, it's a precarious situation right now with Chase over there and I don't know that it's going to get any better. All that to say? I don't have any answers either. So I'm more speculating than I am informing. But I can inform you that it's dicey. It's dicey. At the moment. Number four is Cooper Webb and I don't know that Webb's going to be on that team either. I think they would be foolish to let him go at least like sign a one year deal while Davies is still, he still has another year in the little bite class. Webb can still win races. He's still a three time champ. He's still plenty young enough to do this thing. I think they would be foolish to let him go, but I know he's expensive, he's a, he's a $2 million guy. So maybe they're like, we need to, we need to cut that budget or maybe there's another guy they want to bring in. I, I don't know. I don't know. But I think they're looking at all their options. I do believe that. I do believe they're looking at all their options right now between Justin Cooper, Cooper Webb, maybe even Chase Sexton if he's available. They've been after him before. When he went to Red Bull KTM at the end of 2023, he almost went to star for 24 and 25. Almost. I'm telling you, almost. So you don't think that they're sniffing around right now while there's blood in the water? Don't kid yourself. Do not kid yourself about them being like asking around if he's available. So time will tell, but they have some decisions to make and they have like, they have all the cards, right? Like to steal some, a line from Donald Trump. Maybe you hate Trump, maybe you don't. But that was a line he, everybody, you know, he kept saying over and over to, in the Ukraine situation was, you know, we have all the cards. Well, I, I think Star has all the cards right now. And they could sign Webb, they could sign Justin Cooper, they could sign Chase, they They could sign Davies to a long term extension and just go racing with Deegs 450 next year, which they won't do. But they have a lot of leverage right now and they're going to, I think they're going to wheel, you know, kind of wield that weapon the best way they can and position themselves in the best spot possible. Could you imagine if they had, if it went a certain way and they had either Webb or Sexton Deegan all on 450s next year. Then in 27, sorry, 28 they had Davies, Deegs and Sexton. That would be, that'd be a hell of a lineup. So I don't know, I could just see it going that way. Number three is Ey Tomac and I fully expect him to be back. I do. KTM wants him. I think he really enjoys racing. He makes a ton of money. I don't think he wants to pack it in. The only real risk is these crashes and injuries. That's it. That's the only thing I'm worried about is that these crashes are putting a fear in him. Like I don't know how much more I can take of this and maybe his wife going, hey, we'd like you a healthy dad around sometimes. That's my only worry is the more he crashes, the less likely it becomes that he's going to race more. But as of right now, I firmly believe that he's going to be racing And I wouldn't be shocked at all if they announce it sometime between now and Fox Raceway that he has signed a new, a new one year deal right now. Like what's the urgency to sign a two year deal? Like I don't think KTM's urgent. I don't think Eli's urgent. Everybody, you know, like Eli Tomac is in high demand. The guy can win races. So I don't think he feels like pressure like I got to get a two year deal done. I need that security. He's so financially well off and legacy set. He doesn't, he doesn't care about that stuff. And ktm, they get more flexibility for an aging superstar that for a one year deal. So I, I think most of the time I think two year deals are the way to go for everybody. This one, I think a one year deal kind of makes more sense for everybody which is a rare thing for me. I, I very rarely ever think that, but I kind of do in this one and I do expect to see him back in 2027, very much so. Hunter Lawrence, I think his Deal is up. Or maybe he's. He's not going anywhere into the end of the story. He's either getting a big raise at Honda or he's already locked in. I don't know. I think he's up, though. But he's not going anywhere. I promise you, he's not going anywhere. He will be at Honda HRC for 27 and beyond. They love him. He loves them. And why wouldn't they both? The only question I have for Hunter is, what does this. What does this summer look like after that Supercross series? Because it could go one of two ways. And I talked a little bit about this earlier this week of I could see it fueling him, and he is just so fired up because it is just a burning, you know, the burning desire to kill that pain. And he's like, just riding like his heart's on fire every weekend. Or he is so flat and just mentally checked out and emotionally just nothing to give because his heart got ripped out again. I don't know. It could go both ways. And I give it 50. 50 of how much he's able to bring to the table this summer. His talent and ability are beyond reproach. I'm not worried about that. It's more of. I think it's going to take all of him to win this outdoor championship, to beat Deags, to beat his brother, to beat Tomac, to beat whoever, Prado, whoever you think is going to be really good. I think it's going to take a rejuvenated all in, eyes wide open. Hunter Lawrence, not one that's on the back foot and kind of going through the motions. And we're going to. I don't know that the opener is going to tell the tale. He's never been really good at the opener at this. This round. I've never seen him ride really well at Fox Raceway, so I'm not going to judge off that one. And you're going to hear me after the first one, go like, everybody chill. If he's. If he's not great, I'm saying, everybody chill. But by Thunder Valley, I think we should know. I do. If he's not very good by Thunder Valley, I'm gonna say, hey, man, he's probably. His heart's probably not in this thing, and it may take him a while to kind of come around. But, yeah, don't overreact at the opening round. The Supercross hangover is a real thing. It is a real thing, I'm telling you. And maybe having two weekends off dampens That a little bit that's possible, but it is a real thing, and it. It can play a big role. Go back and look at, like, the 2011 Pro Motocross opener. Go look at the 2012 Pro Motocross opener and you'll. You'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Ryan Vilpota and Ryan Dungy, both horrifically bad at the opening round because their. Their hearts were so. In the supercross thing. They wrapped that up. They weren't practicing motocross there. It took. It took those guys a while. I think it was 11 and 12, but I know the race. Bill Poto got beat by, like, 45 seconds at Hangtown. His mechanic was, like, putting question marks on the pitboard. Same thing happened to Dungy the next year. I think it was the next year. And if I'm getting my years mixed up, I'm sorry. But Dungy went like, 8, 7 at the opener. Like what? Like what? And then snapped out of it, went to Freestone and smashed everybody into a million pieces. That's kind of. That's kind of how it goes. And I know his bike broke and. And Chad won. Whatever, but, like, Dungey was 20 seconds ahead of everybody at the second round when his bike broke. That's the point. So don't overreact to the first round. If Hunter is not quite all there. It's all is all I'm saying. Number one. I have Roczen, and he ain't going to be number one after this race. I put him here for a reason. He won the damn championship. He's been trying forever. I didn't think it was ever going to happen. He did it. He deserves to be the top. I don't know that he's ever been the top. I don't think he's ever been the top of this list, but I have him there now. And great job, Kenny Rockson, like, if you weren't happy for Roczen, then shame on you. And I was heartbroken for. For Hunter. I was. But I was also. I was also thrilled for Kenny. I was a roller coaster of emotions also while trying to do my job, and I really didn't know how to feel about it. I felt so great for Kenny, and we all did. But also, man, Hunter getting his heart ripped out again and having to go. I didn't even know what to ask him. I didn't even know what to say to him. I didn't even want to look at him because I felt so awful. But in true Hunter Lawrence form, he handled it like a Man, and like the classy guy he is. But it was. That was one of the hardest championships for me to process. Not that anybody cares what I think, but it was hard for me to process the joy for Roczen and the despair for Hunter Lawrence. I really struggle with that. I still am kind of. I. I don't want to be, like, so over the top happy because I know what the other guy, the pain he is feeling and just the. The sadness that is probably still there, you know, and in the quiet moments when there's nothing to distract him, how bummed out he probably still is. But right now, this is Ken Rockson's moment, and he should soak it in. Man. Can never take it away from you. The one thing he probably never thought he would accomplish in this sport, he just got done. And it is very. Man. It's like poetic justice. It really is. You know, if you ever wonder if there's any good in this world, well, Ken Roczon finally won this championship. After so long of trying and so much pain and surgery and suffering, he finally won. 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Firepower parts go to firepowerparts.com batteries, wheels, clutch, perches, bars, ramps, fuel jugs, stands, you name it. Firepower parts has it. And fire racing you already know. I talked a little bit about Go. Well you probably can't learn about it yet but blueprint protection is about to come out. I'm going to be talking about that a lot and our patrol elite, like high end off road gear is about to drop as well. So that's it for this week. Thanks. Thanks to all of you for being a part of this thing. I'm going to hit you all up from Europe. I'm going to do a Europe specific podcast. I'm going to be in France in a little over a week and I will do another show from there. Thank you all and we will talk to you soon. See you.