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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 raceredos.com unmatched supplements, Firepower parts, Grandstone boots and fly racing. Welcome to the Industry Seating podcast. My name is Jason Thomas and I am driving across the French countryside so I apologize if the background noise is pretty rough. I can't really tell if it's going to be bad or not, so I'm just going to wing it. I had an opportunity to get the podcast in today and I'm going to take it. So again, apologies if the audio quality is not 10 out of 10, but we're going to do it anyway. And I just got done watching and commentating the the French MXGP round La Capel Maribal, which is probably sounds like I'm just making up a name likely if you've never heard of it because I had never heard of it until it just happened to be on an off weekend and around that I could attend. I really didn't know much about it. I then learned that they had had a GP at that racetrack in 2021 so that gave me a little bit of research to do. But I really have never been to that area of France. I've been to France many, many times. I've raced Paris Supercross, you know, which you to be called Bursy many times. Been to Sebastian Tortelli's wedding in France. I've been to Motocross of Nations in France twice. I've written, you know, I've just been here a lot. But this area was new for me. Flying into Toulouse was new. Driving up into honestly kind of the middle of nowhere. It's in between like a. If you made a triangle from Toulouse, Bordeaux and Wakapel Marvel that would be a perfect triangle. But really beautiful area honestly not a lot there, you know, a lot of small villages and you know, if you like convenience, you like modern hotels, you like modern restaurants, not really the GP for you, just say that. So you take what you get and I'm happy I went. You know I am pretty jet lagged. I am feeling a little burnt out but in the same breath I am very aware of the opportunity and how blessed and fortunate I am to get to go. So I try to take it all in stride and I wanted to give a little report on that and also want to give a short preview on the pro Motocross opener less than a week away next Saturday in Pahua, California. Paula Indian Reservation There before we get into all that, thank the sponsors of this podcast. Guts Racing the the name in graphics and seat covers. Mountain bikes. They have full seats for stuff like Surrons, all the E bike stuff. Seat covers for dirt bikes of course, full seats for dirt bikes, custom graphics. Check out gutsracing.com utsracing on Instagram works connection they are the name I like. Yeah, it's cool that I have these sponsors that are really like the go to like the number one name in certain categories. So if you have whatever it is, pro on start device is the best start device in the game. There's a ton of like accessory stuff. Brake reservoir caps, skid plates, frame guards, a bunch of stuff to kind of change the rider triangle. They've been dabbling in that. I would say dabbling kind of owning that category to you know, improve or change the ergonomics of your motorcycle. The rider triangle means kind of between you, the bike, your arms and your legs, how you all are positioned in that, all sorts of cool stuff. And they've been in the game for I don't know, I start. I first heard of them in like 1991. They were a big supporter of Steve Lamson before he went to factory Honda and I, I think he was probably instrumental in getting them on board with factory Honda and they never look back. So, so I use this phrase and reference a lot because if a factory team chooses to use an aftermarket product, you know that you are the best basically because they would just make their own. They have endless engineering capabilities and they would just make their own. So monster Yamaha star racing and factory Honda both use this one for a reason. And guess who gets all the starts. Shockingly enough it's those two teams. Thank you to works connection. Eric Phipps and his team do a great job. Race- rentals.com really cool program there. You can can learn how to drive trophy trucks. They have side by side tours. It's really a one of a kind kind of place. You can fly into Arizona and they can take care of the rest. So check out race dash and hyphen, I don't know hyphen-whatever. Race- rentals.com unmatched supplements. It's my go to for all the things that I use to try to get more fit. Protein creatine. They're really kind of taking this whole peptide world head on. So there's stuff like pepticides which is brand new. There's a brand new stem cell formula that just came out. So in my mind it may be, may not be one you've heard of. But as far as like the most innovative and forward thinking supplement company out there, Unmatched is the one I would choose and I do choose it, but it is my friend's company. Full disclosure, but that guy knows more about fitness, nutrition, biohacking, body transformation, anybody. I didn't even know it was possible to be that knowledgeable. So very thankful to be a part of the Unmatched family. What else? Grandstone boots, Firepower parts, fly racing. They are all on board and have been for a very long time. So thank you to all of them. Let's do this thing. So the racing, you know, the MXGP format, it's a two day format these days and Saturday is the qualifying race, which they do get points for. That is a new thing as of like 2023 maybe, something like that. But it does affect the championships. You know, if you look at the points and you add in or subtract the Saturday aspect, it really changes the face of these championships. So, you know, Saturday was kind of a weird day. I think a lot of riders are struggling with the track and this track is very unique. It's really condensed, it's, it's smaller than Muddy Creek, but I think the dirt, the conditions, the narrowness of it all remind me a lot of Muddy Creek. Maybe it's a little bit slower than Muddy Creek is, but I was bouncing that idea off a few people today. I was like, man, it just gives me Muddy Creek vibes a lot. And it's not, I don't know that that's good or bad. It just, it just is. But I think it was, it was a really tough race for the riders. I don't think that many riders enjoyed this race. And, and I try to be really careful when I'm on the broadcast about talking poorly about the track or talking poorly about the event. Like that's not, that's not helping anybody, that's not benefiting anyone. But in full transparency, I don't think that the riders were, they weren't having a good time like they were. This is not a racetrack that they would want to visit year in, year out. In my mind anyway, maybe I'm wrong. I didn't ask, I didn't ask go around asking with a survey or anything, but I feel very confident in that answer just from watching it, from walking the track, from watching the riders ride around it, how careful they were having to be, how quickly it could catch them out, how, how many big crashes there were. All those things are very, very intuit like, indicative, you know, very clear signals that the riders were not enjoying their experience. But such as mxgp, a lot of the tracks are less than ideal. You know, they have these flyaway events where some of them are man made, not great racetracks. It is not something that is foreign to these riders, for lack of a better term. They're kind of used to it, doesn't make it any easier, but they're kind of used to it because you think about the races in Indonesia, tracks in China, like, they're okay, but they're not like top tier world class tracks by any means. And, and I don't think that anybody would argue that they're a very different business model. They're trying to expand the sport, they're trying to go to these countries that are emerging in the motocross scene and you're gonna get, you're, you're not gonna get the best tracks in the world when you do that. It's just not how it's gonna work. And this was a different, you know, it's in the heart of motocross country in France, but it is just in my mind, not a top tier, elite MXGP facility and so be it. So I didn't have to ride it, thankfully. But that was just my overarching kind of opinion of it. There were some huge crashes and all and a lot of near misses on the weekend. You know, Langenfelder had a big one there. Late V's crash was gigantic on the start of race two that claimed Tim Geisser. And you could, you could argue that Tim Geisser's chances at the championship, while you never want to count someone out fully, that was a big blow. Like, that was a huge, huge moment in Tim Geyser's championship chances in and it's also fair to say, like he wasn't really close at the moment anyway, but man, there's so much racing left to go there, you know, whatever, 13, 14 races left, three per weekend, you know, three individual races per weekend. There's just no way you could say that, you know, with 40 points paying races left on the schedule that anybody's out of it at this point. But losing 25 and 22 points respectively to the, to the leaders is, that's a, that's a tough pill to swallow for, for Tim Geyser. So there, there was, you know, this race had a profound impact and you could say like the racing didn't so much because if you look at Sasha Kunin and Simon Langenfelder in an MX2 class, they really didn't mix it up too much. They both had bad weekends. You know, Guillen Fez, he had a really good weekend. And for those that watch the races closely, his podium interview, he talked about how the podcast all counted him out. I don't know if that was Paul and I probably. I haven't watched it or listened to it, but maybe Louis Phillips and, you know, the vital MX Crew were saying the same thing. I'm not sure. But clearly he was not happy about being counted out of this championship. And after today, I mean, rightfully so, that was really impressive. You know, he had a. He had a hell of a weekend. So congratulations to Guillain Ferris. But my point about the championship not being changed a whole lot in both classes. The guys that were at the front remained at the front, and they either had terrible weekends or great weekends, respectively. So you just didn't get this huge point swing in either class at the very front. I don't really know what was going on with Langenfelder. He just didn't look great all weekend. What I would surmise is that the track wasn't great and he didn't feel very comfortable. That's, that's what I would guess. You know, for Sasha, it's really simple. He just makes too many mistakes. And, you know, I, I don't take any joy in saying that, you know, that he crashes too much and the mistakes are, are too often he wears fight racing. So of course I'm partial to him, but I also have to be honest with my analysis, and it's pretty clear what his issues are. You know, he ends up on the ground and I think he overrides, Overrides the track and overrides the situation most of the time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it works, but a lot of the time it doesn't. And he pays a hefty price for it at times. So, you know, MX2 was pretty straightforward. Strange weekend for, for Sasha and Wengenfelder. You know, I would say honestly that that type of racetrack does not work for Sasha because he, he takes too much risk. He overrides the track. And that track, if you override, it would punish you immediately. Like it. You know, there was not a lot of room for pushing the envelope on that racetrack. And that's, that's Sasha's mo. That's how he goes about his business all the time. So that didn't surprise me at all. The 450, I thought, was pretty predictable too. You know, the best two guys are Kunin and Hurlings and they were the best two on paper going in. And they were the best two throughout the weekend. They were the best two on the way out. They had a really great battle. And Moto2, you know, Lucas really never. Never really showed him a wheel. He was trying to pressure him, trying to get there. But, you know, that racetrack was really difficult to pass. And if you didn't. Cause if you didn't have your own mistake or you didn't leave the door open, you almost had to kind of blow the door off the hinges to make a pass. And Jeffrey's too smart for that. And I don't think Lucas was going to go in and make heavy contact with Jeffrey. He has too much respect for him, and I just don't think that was necessarily in the cards. Now, would he agree. Would he make a block pass or something? Sure. But I don't think that Jeffrey was going to give him an angle to. To make a clean pass, especially late in the moto. And you know, I mentioned on the broadcast, if you watched it a few times, that I just couldn't. I couldn't game out a way for Lucas to make a move. Like, I was racking my brain trying to figure out a place to do it. And unless Jeffrey opened the door with a mistake or just let him get too close, I couldn't think of one. And, you know, I. Not saying I called it or anything like that, you know, I'm wrong way too often to do that, but it would kind of went the way I thought it would, where there just was no real opening. And Lucas was trying and trying and trying, and I think he just kind of ran out of time and options. You know, you could see him with three laps to go, uncork it, and like, I'm gonna go for it here. But still, even then, you know, both Jeffrey was able to respond, and they were putting in 138s at the end, which is ridiculous. And there was nowhere to make a move. And Jeffrey. I think Jeffrey knew, as long as I protect certain areas and I push in certain areas, the other areas I don't have to really worry about, because there's no way you can make a pass. So a little. A little underwhelming, a little anticlimactic in the 450 class, nonetheless entertaining was. Was still a great way race to watch. It was just. The track didn't allow for the battle that everybody wanted to happen. And yeah, it's unfortunate, but. But when you really step. Take a step back and you look at the track Itself, it pencils out like that. That definitely lines up with what we saw. The track was a limiting factor on what kind of racing we were going to get in the end. And I, I think that played out throughout the, the course of the weekend every time bikes were on track. I think that was, that was that the track sometimes is a, a storyline in and of itself, you know, for good or for bad or for different reasons. I think this weekend it definitely was and it just was very punitive for riders and also a limiting factor on what kind of racing you were going to get. It just wasn't. There weren't enough passing opportunities to really get a lot of mixing up battles. The mistakes, the mistakes the track caused did help some passing, but on a just pure head to head dogfight type battle, the track wasn't, wasn't suitable for that. And the ruts, you know, you hear riders in America talk about this all the time. I don't know if I agree with it or not. I get their point though. They talk about when there's ruts, endless ruts like that. You can't battle because you're locked into your line. You can't move out of your line. How the hell are you going to go around anybody because you're stuck in this groove for the next, you know, 50 yards and there's just no way to pass you. You can't move around, you can't change your line. Mid corner, can't do anything. And I do think that was kind of the case this weekend. So overall, solid weekend, but I just don't think there was a lot of, a lot of movement in the championship. Like, I don't think there's like going to be shocking headlines coming out about a trend change or a narrative change. I think it was, for lack of a better term, just the status quo. It's still the same. The best guys were the best guys and are the best guys and, and until further notice, I don't see a whole lot changing at the front. Really. The only thing I would, you know, be mindful of is watch, watch Gam Fez. Can he, can he claw back the points to make this thing interesting? I don't know. My gut tells me no, because I do think that Sasha and Simon are better than him. But this was a banner weekend for gm so maybe I'm wrong. That's fine. I'm no problem. Refer to, back to my comment about 3 minutes ago about being wrong a lot. I don't know that he's better than either of them. Kim I'm talking about. And he's got to make up like 30 points on. That's. That's a really tough ask. When you're not significantly better than somebody, making up 30 points is a tough thing to do. So we shall see. They're off to Germany next weekend. Touchenthal is track's been around forever. Hosted the motocross nations in 2013. Not a track I would want to race. It's really slippery. Hard packed, not so much. Well, it is different than what we saw this weekend, but it does have some similarities. Also it gets ruddy when they water it. It gets super slippery. It's not quite as deep in sections as we saw in France. It's more hard packed when they watered it kind of. The water kind of pulls up and creates puddles. But it is not, it's just not a track that I think I would ride very well. Really slippery, really tricky. They don't do a lot of track work. So better them than me. I, I would have been terrible at mxgp. I was already bad enough, but I would have been awful at mxgp. I can just tell you that on the front end. I've never looked at an MXGP race and thought, you know what? I would be good at this. Never ever have I ever considered that. The only track I've ever thought that maybe I would be able to ride halfway competitively was a Guada, which is in Portugal. I will be visiting there next month. It's a lot like Butts Creek kind of orange clay doesn't get the crazy ruts like this, this track does. Or like Matterly Wood. That's about it, man. I don't know. A lot of tracks. Maybe Turkey, I don't know. Not maybe not Australia, maybe. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's not about me. But they, they have a, they have a long slog ahead of them. They're. They had a five weekend break and now they're about to get down to some serious business. They have I think four triple headers in a row. Well, they triple header weekend off triple header, weakened off triple header, weakened off, triple header. That's. That's asking a lot. And then they get into the Flyaways at the end of the season and then motocross nations back. Back here at Renee in October. And I'm telling you right now, I've told a bunch of my friends this. They've all, you know, I feel like I'm the go to, for what race is to go to. Where should I visit, what should I do. If you're wanting to go to a motocross of nations in Europe, France is the one next year in Assen. I would not recommend. Maybe I would get in trouble for saying that, but I still would not recommend that one. Listen, if you're a die hard like me, sure I'm going no matter what. But if you're going to spend your hard earned dollars and looking for this other worldly experience, next year is not it. This year France will be all time as long as the weather cooperates. And then I believe we're back to the US in 28 and then 29. I don't know where we're going. I can't remember where we're going in 29. Someone told me and I forget. But anyway this year's the one. So yeah, book your, book your travel now and then this coming weekend is. Yeah man, pro motocross. It's on less than a week by the time you hear this. Maybe you'll hear it on Sunday but likely on Monday. We'll be in race week and I'll be back to my routine flying back to the US but I'll be back in race mode doing all my prep work, getting ready for our our calls and all this stuff and, and I think there's going to be an Arab excitement. I'm mean if you look at the lineup in the 450 class, how could you not be excited? Like you might want to check your pulse if you're not excited for this race this weekend. It's the best lineup we've ever had. Truly it is the best lineup in the 450 class we've ever had. And I know there's going to be someone out there listening, thinking no way man. Mid 90s like Warocco and Kadrowski and McGrath and Guy Cooper and Bradshaw and like all right, like I'm not saying you're definitely wrong. Like I'm not. That was a great roster also the early 2000s with the Villmans and Ricky's and Pastranas and that was a really deep class too. Windom and go. You need to go down the list. Ezra Lusk McGrath was still out there not racing outdoors anyway deep too but when I look at it now you've got a multi time MXGP champ who's going to be back on form. You've got the second winningest rider ever in Eli Tomac. You've got Hayden Deegan who is the next coming of the sport in his pro debut. You've got Jet Lawrence who's one of the best riders I've ever seen who has, if he could stay healthy, has a chance to break a lot of records. You've got Hunter Lawrence, who's the best he's ever been. I mean, I just don't know what more you'd be looking for than this. And it's not an argument I'm trying to have like I'm not gonna die on this hill of like this is the best. I don't really care. I'm just, you know, gonna just take it for what it is and be excited about it because this is truly amazing. Like this roster, this lineup in the 450 class is truly amazing and we should all be incredibly thankful for it. I didn't even mention Chase Sexton. You know, I'm sure that with Justin Cooper, like there's a lot of guys that are just insanely good and we are all going to be the benefactors. Then you throw in the Kunin brothers, who, you know, Lucas Koonin. If you watch today in France, you, you know what that kid's capable of. They're gonna be at three races. It sounds like Thunderbolly, Southwick and Iron Man. It is just, it's a great time to be, you know, SMX fan and I know everybody hates the smoke. SMX is not whatever SMX is the term we're using now. So just deal with it. It's a great time to be a fan though, I can tell you that. And you know, like in the 250 class it's a great lineup. It just, I think it's lacking a little bit of star power and I don't mean that in a negative way, but it's still probably true. You know, like it can be a, both a blessing and a curse because yes, you're lacking some star power if you don't have the digs or, or the jet Lawrence or whoever you think is, you know, the top tier superstar. But that also makes it really wide open at the front. It means that we can have a lot of parity and multi race winners and a lot of unexpected results where the gate drops and you have no idea what's going to happen. Like that's, that's a net positive. So I think both things can be mutually exclusive and both things can be true that it is the weakest like headline names class we've had in a while, but it's also the most opportunity we've had for just a crazy, chaotic, unpredictable 250 pro motocross championship. So choose your fighter you know, I, I don't. You don't have to, I guess you don't have to choose. But I do believe both are true and I'm just going to take it in stride and be happy for the unpredictability in racing. And, and I say that on the front end, maybe, maybe Shimoda gets hot, just runs away. Maybe kitchen catches fire finally, maybe Joe Shimota, maybe Chance Jaime finally breaks out. Because I do think Chance Himis is going to win Motos. It doesn't, you know, just because it feels wide open on the front end. A lot of times it doesn't go that way. Somebody, you know, kind of breaks out and takes charge and it doesn't matter if we didn't see it coming, it's just their year. That could definitely happen. Like if I had to choose one guy that was going to do that, I would say Shimoda. Shimoda would be the most likely in my opinion. But it doesn't mean that it's a certainty. So we shall see what the Future brings that to 50 class now, the 450 class again, I, I don't think it can get much better. The Deegan Jet factor alone is enough to get you off the couch. Like that is. There are very few instances in the sport where riders truly don't like each other. Like there is a real distaste for each other and that's what we have. I'm telling you, that's what we have in this 450 class jet. Lawrence and Hayden Deegan do not like each other. Throw Hunter Lawrence in there too. There is j. Genuine. I don't want to use the word hate because I don't think that's productive, but distaste, dislike, not fans of each other. And when you have feelings like that towards each other amongst the best guys, I'm not talking about mid tier guys where maybe we get them on camera. I'm talking about the best guys. That's when you get the best rivalries in the sport. That's when you get legendary eras of the Sport. Think about McGrath and Emig, right, where there's a documentary that just came out about it from 30 years ago. That's how much those guys disliked each other. Think about Ricky and James and Chad Reed, like, yeah, they're all cool now and they're. It's all kumbaya on the broadcast and everybody's like, oh, the guy was so good and I love him and loved racing. Those guys couldn't stand each other back then. I'm here to tell you it makes me sick. Well, maybe overstating it. I call BS on them so, so much when we're in meetings, sometimes on the air, a lot of times off the air, when they're just like, yeah, man, I love that. And I'm like, you got. You guys got to shut up. That is not true. You guys could not stand each other. You couldn't stand to be in the same room. You couldn't even stand to look at each other. And now you guys all want to say that you're best friends. It's like when Stanton and Jeff. Stanton and J. Sean, Michelle Bale. We're on Steve Matthew's podcast together, just hamming it up, talking about how much. How fond of memories they have. Like, those guys couldn't stand each other. Could not stand each other. And this. It was no different for James and Ricky and Chad. And, you know, time and distance have a way of softening people's hearts. There's no question about that. And you take away the competitiveness, you take away the money, you add in a ton of experience and maturity and care kids and understanding that it's not life and death. The, you know, like, the revisionist history comes in. But I was there. I. I was right in the midst of it. Not as a. You know, I wasn't the main character. I wasn't directly involved, but I was. I was right there in the midst of it, racing against them. There would chat all the time, listening to things they said to each other and about each other, to other people. It was, again, I don't want to use the word hate, but however close you want to get to hate, you can. That's where it was. That's where it was. That's where Jet, Lawrence and Hunter and Deeks are. Make no mistake about that. That enough. That is enough. Now, AD and Prado, who. Hunter and Prado really don't like each other. That's another great aspect to this for. For racing. Like, I don't want people to hate each other, but, like, on an entertainment value, hell, yeah. Like, I'll take that every time because it's gonna make these guys go at it. AD in Tomac, who, from what I hear, is absolutely ripping in motocross. I know that doesn't come as a shock, but I heard he's. He's riding extremely well on the ktm, so, you know, he's going to be a factor. I have no idea what Chase Sexton's gonna do. Not even a guess as to what Jason Sexton is going to do. And we're talking about a pro motocross champion. I couldn't tell you if he's going to get seventh or third or win or pull out of the series altogether. All of those, all of those are on the table. Truly. 7th, 3rd, 1st exits the series because of poor performance. All of those are capable. I would say the least likely of those, sadly, is him getting first. I know that's crazy, and I know that's probably blasphemy. Maybe it's not even fair. But I do think it's fair. It's my opinion. I don't think he's going to win. Even though he just won the last Supercross. He didn't have Tomac out there, he didn't have Jet out there, he didn't have Deegs out there. And if Hunter doesn't crash, Sexton doesn't win that race in Salt Lake. If Hunter doesn't crash, no way, no shot does he go up and pass Hunter. In my opinion, Chase has just not been the same guy on the cowie. He hasn't. He won two races. I get it. Like, that's fair to say. And I am a big believer in Chase Sexton when all things are good. But things are not all good right now. And if you think they are, then you're not paying attention. And I also, I don't know that he's going to be on that team next year. I know that's probably unfair to speculate upon because I have friends at Cali. I respect those guys. A of ton hun. I don't want to see that relationship dismantle. There's no upside in it for me. I don't really care. But if you want my opinion, I don't think he's going to be there next year because I think this summer is not going to go very well. And I think he's going to look at the situation and go, so I'm gonna. I'm just gonna continue on for two more years in my prime of this. And I think the answer is going to be no. And I think he likely goes to see Star. That's. That's what I believe. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that's pie in the sky, crazy talk, conspiracy theory nonsense. Maybe, maybe. But I don't think it is. I do not think it is. I think there's a. An extremely strong chance that he's not on that team next year. And the most likely landing spot for him would be Star are. So let's see. Let's just see what happens? I'm not, I'm not saying it's happening for sure. I'm saying it's what I think is the most likely path and which is crazy. He has two more years on a contract that pays him millions of dollars, millions of dollars on the team he's on, and he's contracted there for two more years. And I think that the most likely scenario is him to be on another team in 27. That is crazy. But crazy is the world we live in. Look around if you want to see crazy. Doesn't take long. Jump on Twitter for about 45 seconds. You'll find all the crazy you could ever look for. So, again, you know, this pro motocross thing, I love every. I love all the entire setup. I do have questions. I don't know where Hunter Lawrence's head and heart are going to be at. Ability. I'm, I'm fine. Ability. He's a podium guy, win motos, you know, in the fight all the time. But can he summon himself emotionally? Can he, you know, get back to normal, kind of wash that championship hangover off, not be thinking about it all the time, not let it be a huge drag on his emotional well being all summer? I don't know. I think he can know. The guy's so freaking resilient. I think he can, but it's, it's. The question I have is, you know, can he have fire all summer long after giving so much to the Supercross Championship? That is, that is a very common theme for pro motocross contenders and champions is it takes them a while to recover, regroup, and put their best foot forward again. And winning or losing, you know, it's a pretty common thing. If it goes down to the wire and it takes everything you've got, every ounce of your emotional well being, and you just your entire mental capacity to fight for that championship. There's usually, for lack of a better word, a hangover. There's usually just a delayed effect of you being your best self. We've seen it from Ryan, Bill Podo, seen it from, from several guys. You know, it's. It's all from Ryan Dungey in 2012. No, 2015. What year was that? Maybe 11. 11 sounds right. Yeah, it was 2011. No, gosh, I'm sorry, it's 2010. I apologize. 20, 2010. I'll get there eventually. I'm driving and trying to go through years. Dungey wins Supercross championship. After Vilipoto gets hurt in St. Louis, we go to Hangtown for the opener and Chad Reed wins somehow he wins on the cowie, wins a moto. I think Michael Lesi may have won the overall. I don't remember. I'm going off memory, but I remember Michael Essie and Chad Reed battling. Michael Essie was on the 3, 350, if you remember. Chad wins on the Cowboys, like his only good results of the year on the cowie. And then Ryan Dungy goes like seven, eight or something crazy. Just not even close. Not even close to competitive. And you're like, what in the hell was that, Dunge? Well, that's the supercross hangover that we're talking about. No question, no doubt in my mind. That's exactly what we saw. And it's, it's kind of the norm now. You fast forward to the following weekend. We are in Freestone, Texas, and it's about, I don't know, 110 degrees, something like that. I actually didn't race it. I was watching, but it was, I raced there many times and it's so brutally hot. Well, Dungy is 25 seconds ahead and his bike runs out of gas. Not his fault, but it was like, oh, there he is. It only took one week. But the point is he went from like a seventh place guy at Hangtown, which Ryan Dungey's never been a seventh place guy in his career on a 450, but he was that opening round. And then the next weekend he's winning by close to 30 seconds. That's how much of a drag it can be. That's how much of an effect it can have. So we shall see. See if that is a factor for. I don't know if that the directions were in the audio or not. I hope not. If they were, I apologize, but I was getting directions on my. In my headset. But we shall see what that does to Hunter. I don't have a strong opinion on it. I don't really know. But the upside is having two weekends off. That's the longest gap from supercross to motocross that I, I can remember. I don't like speaking in certainties because sometimes I don't remember. But I mean, we've gone straight into motocross, you know, from supercross to motocross the next weekend. At times, many times there have been a weekend off. Two full weekends off means almost three full weeks before you got to go racing again. Maybe that's enough time to square for Hunter. I don't know. Nobody knows. I don't even know that Hunter knows, because until he gets out there and asks hard Questions of his mind and body and adrenaline and intensity and sense of urgency and all the things it takes to perform. He's not going to know whether his body can. Can respond or not. He'll know after Saturday, he'll know. Mid Moto, I would say, on Saturday, about halfway mark, he'll know, like, oh, yeah, we're good. Or, yeah, I'm not feeling this. Like, I'm not. I'm not back to 100% yet. And it'll be evident to us, too, I think, you know, if he's anywhere near the podium, that's all you really need to know. If he's like six or seventh, uninspired, kind of riding around, unable to fight at the front, then you get your answer, too. So it's something to, to watch for. You know, I want to see what Chase Sexton brings to the opener. You know, this was a track where he used to be really good. I think he got his first ever moto win at Paulus. If I, if I can. Can recall that, maybe the end of 21, I think he won the final moto of the year. I don't know. Going off memory again. So don't, don't, don't kill the messenger. But it has been a good track for him over the years, except for last year. Last year was absolutely terrible. He pulled his goggles off on the first lap, and then 10 minutes in, he crashes his brains out. And then he's, you know, quote unquote, banged up for several weeks because of that crash. So last year was a train wreck. But historically, this track's been pretty good to him, so he needs to start off on the right foot. I cannot stress enough how important it is for him to get off to a fast start if he has a horrible opening weekend. Godspeed to that program and his. And him. I cannot. I say that under the strongest terms possible. If the first weekend goes terribly, it's a, That's a really, really bad sign for the, for the way this is going to go. Because Chase feeds off of momentum. He feeds off of the things going on around him. So if the results are bad, immediately he's going to feed on very, very strongly. Like, he is very subject to external input and influence, for lack of a better term. If things are going really well and he's feeling it, you're gonna have a really hard time beating him like that. That is just how he works. But if things are going poorly, he responds poorly also. And I'm not, like, I'm not trying to, like, insult him. Or say it negatively. It's just what I've noticed. Like, everybody. Well, I say everybody. A lot of people have noticed. If he has a really bad qualifying session in the afternoon in Supercross, people kind of write him off because he's not going to be able to recover from it, you know, and even at. At Salt Lake, I think even. I think even he mentioned it on the podium. He said, yeah, I qualified really badly, and I think I may have just got a speeding ticket. But he. He responded in the night show. And yeah, I mean, he. He did the thing. Like he bounced back big time and won the race even after having a really tough afternoon. So I just know how important it is for him to get off to a really fast start. And, yeah, time will tell. Time will tell. I. I think that he and that program are in a precarious spot. I really do. So let's see. Let's see what the future holds for. For Chase and that team. I think, dude, guys can be pretty good. You know, I don't know what that means podium or anything, but I think they'll be all right. They'll be top 10, both of them. You know, I. I think the bike is better in motocross than Supercross, but if you watch mxgp, they are. They're struggling mightily in MXGP right now. Neither Valandrin or Jeremy Sewer can do much of any. Anything on the Ducati at the moment, so I'm not gonna say that portends anything. But, yeah, it's just something to keep an eye on those guys. Barsha and Ferrandis can't be watching MXGP and getting any sort of confidence from it. Like, I'm sure they're like, well, it's up to us, you know, like, we. We're gonna have to deliver or not. But there's just absolutely no way that MXGP is inspiring any confidence for them. I think that's probably it. You know, I guess I could talk about Jet. I mean, Jet's going to do Jet things. Oh, Prado. I should talk about Prado. Prado. Listen, I expected a lot last year. I expect a lot this year. I. I hold the guy in a high regard. I do. I think the guy can be on the podium most of the time. I think he can win motos. He's that good. He really is that good. But I'm not gonna go all in or, or say anything crazy because of how bad he was last year. Like, he doesn't deserve. He doesn't deserve that after last year. And he's gonna have, it's gonna be a show me story, especially early on. But once he shows me, I'm like, yeah, that's the same guy. There he is. But I think, I think he deserves to be forced to prove it on the racetrack after such a horrific summer of 2025. I think that's almost only fair. So let's see, let's see what's, See what happens. You know, Jed, I mentioned Jet's gonna be fine. Does it mean he wins the opener? No, and I don't. You know, I think a lot of people are expecting him doing the opener. He's never lost at Paula. I know he, that's something he is thinking about that he's never lost there and he's not going to want to lose. But you also have to, like, if you're Jet, you have to be realistic and understanding that you just came off a really gnarly injury and going out and just winning right away. Yes, you've been able to do it in the past, but it's. I don't think that's fair to expect. You know, you can want it and you can like, be like pushing for it with everything you have, but to expect it, I don't think it's fair to yourself. So I'm, I'm just going to take it as it comes for Jed. I'm not going to over overreact to a fourth or a third or a sixth. I'm just not gonna overreact. I'm going to let him get back up to speed at his own pace. And if that means he's, he's on the podium in the first round, so be it. I, I kind of expect him to be. Point being, I'm just not gonna freak out if he's not there. And I think a lot of people will. I think, I think a lot of people will, but I'm not going to be one of them. Deegs is the last guy I'm going to talk about and, and I think Deeks is going to come out to swinging. I think Deeks is going to be awesome right off the bat. I think he is going to. Yeah. Again, if you can hear the directions in your, your ear, I apologize. Anyway, I don't know that Deeks is going to win the opener, but I do think he's going to be in the fight. The question I have about Diggs is starts on the 450. We haven't seen him really do much. We had never seen him do a promoter cross start on the 450. His starts in Australia were so, so at best and in Argentina so so at best. So I don't know like where we're gonna land. Like I think they'll improve. Like they proved on the 250 that they will continue working on it till they get it right. But if he gets a mid pack start, I don't know that he's getting to the front. I would say under unlikely in this field to get to the front. What can happen though is he like say you know he's going to qualify. Well, he's fast. So say he starts next to Hunter, he starts next to Jet, he starts next to Prado. What if they squeeze him out? What if they move over on him off the start and he gets cut off and now he's 14th or 23rd on the start. What does the result look like if that's what the start looks like? Like that's the question I can't answer for you. I simply don't know and I don't know that anybody knows. In the 250 class he was able to catch up. He was able to overcome that by fitness and just being a lot better than most of the guys. Well this is the 450 class. These guys are all past champions. They're all fit, they're all capable. It's going to be a lot harder to just blow through the field in the last 10 minutes the, the way he did on the 280, that is. I'm not saying it's impossible, we've seen it. I'm just saying it's going to be a lot harder to do. Which means the starts are going to be more important than they were on the 250. So you know, maybe it's, maybe it's worried about nothing. Maybe he crushes the start on the 450 and it's one of his strengths. I don't know, you know, like time will tell. But it's the only question I have. I don't question his fitness, I don't question his speed, I don't question anything. Mental capability like he's crazy mentally strong and confident. So I don't have any questions about anything other than if he puts himself in a tough position early, is that really punitive for him down the stretch? And yeah, only the racing will answer that question. But it's, it's the one question I have. So that's it for this week. Thank you again to the sponsors. Guts Racing works connection racedash rentals.com unmatched supplements, Grantstone boots firepower parts, fly racing. Thank you to all of them. And I'm going to continue my drive along here and headed toward Toulouse, France, get on a plane tomorrow, be back and start race week for pro motocross. Thanks everybody and we'll talk to you soon. See you.