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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. Welcome to the Industry Seating Podcast. My name is Jason Thomas. It is June 14, 2026 as we're recording this and we are three three rounds into the Pro Motocross Championship and we are going to talk about what we saw at the Thunder Valley National. I'm not going to go back in time. I know didn't cover first two nationals very well. Apologies for you loyal listeners out there, but we are definitely going to cover round three in Colorado and I think we're starting to learn a little bit about both of these championships and if you know anything about kind of the way I approach these things, I really try not to read too much into especially the opening round and I just let the results do the talking over time and the trends become pretty easy to identify. You don't have to jump to conclusions which I know is popular thing to do and everybody wants to do it and world of social media we live in and YouTube, it's what everybody does. But I just think more often than not you end up with a just false idea of what's what and you'll end up going down a road that will make you look foolish in the end. So I try to avoid doing any of that. Before we get too far into this thing, I want to thank the sponsors of this podcast, Guts Racing. Thank you to Andy Greg for having a great company and sponsoring this podcast from the very beginning. Works Connection got to see Eric Phipps and his team at Hangtown and you can use the promo code JT24 at Works Connection to get save some money on the pro launch start device or whatever you may want From Works Connection. Race- rentals.com Jason Cobb and his team down in Wickenburg, Arizona. You can take their course to learn how to drive trophy trucks. They have side by sides. It's a true plug and play business idea to go. Yeah, where else can you go? Rent side by sides or trophy trucks and jump in and go. You can go to Arizona, Baja, Nevada, all the cool places. Sedona, Arizona, just a really, really cool thing that they have going on there. Unmatched supplements and Nova Prime Labs. Thank you to Chris Gethin who's in India at the moment for helping me with all my fitness questions and supplements. He's really made a huge difference in my life. And that cannot be overstated. Just a wealth of knowledge. And I try to share that with people here. If you've just seen my body change over the last five years, that's probably proof enough that, yeah, hard work and discipline and knowing what your body wants and needs to be healthier and improve your physique or look the way you want to look. So thank you. To unmatched supplements, you go to unmatched. Sups.com Grandstone boots, best boots in the game. Go to GrantstoneShoes.com to check those out. Firepower parts and fly racing. Thank you to all of them for being on board. All right, let's do this thing. First up, we're going to talk 250s. And I've been talking on a lot of other shows, not this one, as we probably realize, but on other shows that I felt like Joe Shimoda needed to kind of get this thing in gear. And I know that he had missed a lot of time with injuries. That's all fair. He got hurt in the off season and then he got hurt again in St. Louis. So I'm not judging. I'm not kind of coming down on him or condemning his first couple of rounds more. The point was, if you want to be champagne in this series, you can't leave points on the table. Like, six, five through the first two rounds didn't feel champion ish. And that's probably as succinctly as I can put it. He finally gets a win. And I know it wasn't domination. I know it wasn't moto wins. It wasn't even anything close to that. It was battling through a war of attrition and coming out on top. And that's okay. If you look at how this class has gone, that's how it's been for everybody. And I know that, like, hammakers had really good days and kitchens had really good motos, but it's been lots of ups and downs, and I think that's the way it's going to go. I think if you can look back at the end of the day and say, I got solid points, I put in a high 30s or low 40s type of points day, you continue to rack those up in this class. In this year's dynamic, you're going to be looking pretty good. So Joe has now caught himself back into the championship fight. And I think that spells trouble for everybody else because if you look at Joe's track record historically over the back end of championships, he is phenomenal down the stretch. So the, the More you let him stick around early, the more troubling it is for you late. And yeah, I know Deegan was way too good to let any of that happen. Fair enough. But guess what, Hayden Deegan's not in the 250 class anymore. So now these guys who none of them have any sort of evidence of being crazy consistent, that has been like the opposite of what these guys have done. They have to deal with a guy who really picks up steam and really doesn't allow you to put points into him late in championships. So all of that I think is a really good sign for Joe Shimota for him to get a win in the third round. For him to be this close at this point, I, I like the way that sets up for Joe Shimoda and a chance to win this championship. I think I called him to win it on the front end. I think I said he was the favorite. I could probably go find the shows where I did. So maybe that's my bias. Not a bias of liking him, a bias of my pick. That's fine. That's okay. I still think he's going to win the championship. But in the same breath I will say that I thought he'd be better at the first two. I thought he'd be faster like Levi. Kitchen absolutely dropped him at Hangtown. So that's a little troubling as far as my pick goes. But then I have a win without even him really having his best stuff at round three to kind of push back. And if he does find his best stuff, what is anybody else going to be a built be able to do about that? That is kind of. Yeah, if you're looking for a silver bullet in my pick, that, that would be it. So good job, Joe. He's back. We've got Kitchen overcame, you know, another first turn crash. He overcame, you know, he's overcome bad starts, he's overcome two first turn crashes. But it's, you look at situations like this and I think the same thing will be true for Seth Haymaker. You're leaving a lot of points on the table and it gets, it's going to be late in this championship eventually, you know, time marches on. We're going to get to Ironman and Buds Creek and Unidilla in the, in these final few rounds and we're going to look back and say, okay, where were a lot of points left on the table? Where could I have maximized this situation? And why, why am I behind? Or why is it crazy tight? Like, how did it get here? And it's going to be races like this in. And I know it's not. It's not Seth's fault that he crashed in the first corner last week and this week. That's not it at all. But it is a factor. It is a part of how a championship gets won or lost unquestionably. And it, you know, like, there's a lot of random chance and situational. Situational things and just circumstance in championships. That is always going to be a thing. And the very best of the best overcome those with just crazy adversity. Excuse me, crazy ability to overcome adversity and resilience. Look at Deegs. Like, he didn't always have the best starts. He. But he would just overcome it in the last few laps. He was an absolute Animal in this 250 class. And Seth has done a good job with that. Like, look at his ride at Sakamoto Hangtown. Coming from the back, getting onto the podium overall the last few laps. He did the same thing this weekend, clawed back into the points. I don't know if he's tied. I didn't look at it, but I remember hearing something about that on the broadcast. In the last few laps, he is. He is fighting hard to try to overcome the things that are befallen him. But in the same breath, the door has been wide open and, man, you could have a big points lead right now. So, you know, whatever side of that story you want to choose, have at it. Because it's. It's there for the taking. Right. And perspective is always such. A. Perspective is so important in any situation, any story, any incident, any. Any circumstance at all. Perspective is one of the most important things in how it's portrayed. And I'm going to talk about that more with Hayden Deegan because it's so prevalent this weekend and today. But with. With Hammaker, you could say, well, man, he's overcoming a lot. Like, things are getting thrown at him and he's finding ways to overcome it. Sure. If you are a Hammaker fan or you're, you know, kind of optimistic on Hammaker, that's the way you're going to take it. But if you're not, if you're a Joe fan or Kitchen fan or just don't like Seth, you're going to say, well, yeah, look at all the opportunities. Blowing it. He is blowing a chance here to really gap everybody. Yeah, whatever. That's. That's how the world works, man. Like, I can show you one incident, neutral, neutrally. Like, I can just show you one that I have no perspective on at all. I don't care. And take two different people and they're going to see it completely differently. That's, that's racing in a nutshell. That's, that's how it always is and more on that later. So for both kitsch and hammocker I feel like it's the same thing. They're doing a lot to overcome problems but also those problems are, they're problems like in the same breath the same sentence can be true and looked at two different ways. Romano, listen this is a, this is a feel good story and you don't have to like Nick Romano, you don't have to know anything about Nick Romano. But I will tell you that, you know, Nick was a juggernaut kid. He and Jett Reynolds and Chance Imus all came up kind of together and Jet Reynolds was the alpha amongst them. Romano was like nipping, nipping at his heels all the time trying to best him. But Jet was, he was the guy, he was the Cincirillo, the Michael Lessi, the Carmichael, the James Stewart. Like he was that kid of that era. Huge contracts for multi years out. I heard at one point out like a 10 year monster deal. I don't know how true that is but that was what I was told. He had a, he had a bright future and everybody wanted a piece of it. I know as far as fly racing, we sponsored him at one point and Alpine Stars went in and made him some crazy offer. Like I'm talking like an average 40 year old salary and he was like 10 years old and we're just like yeah, we, we can't justify that. Like we'll, we'll offer you money like we, we think you're going to be the guy and we want to keep you but, but we also know that when you turn 16 you're going to Mitch's team and we're going to lose you. So we're not going to invest some insane amount of money that then is just going to roll over into someone else's brand. Like we don't want to do that. Like that is not a lot of fun. That's not a lot of fun to just chase that. When you see it play out time and time again it's not a lot of fun to buy in on the front end if that makes any sense. So it was Jet Reynolds, it was Romano who was right there like 1a and 1b. He seemed can't miss. That's why he went to Star right out of amateurs left Team Green went to Star, and it just didn't really work. It never really came to fruition. He had a couple of good rides, but nothing really sustainable. You know, he wasn't really a player in Supercross. Had a good couple motos and motocross, but it wasn't happening. Injuries, lack of results finally resulted in Star saying, hey, we love you, but we gotta let you go. He's on his own, he has nothing. And then this Mitch gives him a chance, you know, probably a nod to Levi Kitchen saying, hey, I'm riding with this kid every day and he is ripping. You might want to take a look. And here we are. He gets on the podium overall at Thunder Valley after flashes of brilliance at the end of Supercross. And here. And let's be real, the first few Supercross rounds weren't amazing. He had some good starts and heat races, but the results weren't incredible. And it got better. He won that heat race, wherever the hell we were, Philly maybe, I don't know. Wherever we were, he won that heat race. That was like, oh, wow, that's awesome. And then motocross, it has just gotten better and better and better, and then we get an overall podium here. So I'm here for this story. I don't know Nick all that well. I. But you give me a good comeback story where I can tell that the work is being put in and he was ground down to nothing and he's rebuilding himself. I'm here for that every time. So great job. Nick Romano. This is. This is awesome. I don't, you know, like, if you can't cheer for a kid who had it all taken away from him, maybe, maybe deservedly so. I don't know. I don't know if he got complacent or was full of himself and wasn't doing the work. I don't know that. But I do know that he lost everything as far as, like, his life, racing career, like that all went away and now he's getting a second shot at it. And from what I can tell, he's making the most of it. So, yeah, man, I love to see stuff like that. Sasha Koonin. I've been trying to inform people about these Koonin brothers for a while because I've had an up close and personal look, you know, Fly Racing, sponsors to Carlo Racing, which was my deal, like I say, my deal. It's not like it's my money, but I went out and pursued this. My bosses said, hey, we need more exposure in mxgp. We really need to grow our European Footprint and we want to become a bigger global brand. And like, agreed. I'm all in. Could say less, right? Like, to use the parlance of our time, say less. This is where we need to go. And they're like, who? And what is that? Basically, what is that? When I say decarlo Racing, which is also Red Bull KTM in Europe, Okay. And I said, you have to just trust me. These guys know that, know what they're doing. They've been winning championships since 1995. Look at the track record of Tony Cairoli and Jorge Prado. And I believe in what they do. I don't care necessarily that Jorge Prado's leaving. Yeah, that sucks. I'd love to have Jorge Prado. This is in 2023, summer of 23. But you just gotta trust me because this is all I've ever done my whole life. And I trust them. Right? Like, if anyone's an expert on MXGP and our company of WPS and Fly Racing, it's me. And I don't say that braggadociously. That's just reality. This was the right move at the time and it has paid off in spades. They are winning the MXGP championship and the MX2 championship. It's the first time Fly Racing ever won an MXGP450 overall. It's the first time we've ever had a red plate. It's the first time we've ever had the MX2 red plate. Like a million firsts because of Red Bull KTM factory racing to Carly. And so I'm not saying any of that, like patting myself on the back. I don't care about any of that. It's more of, I've seen this Kunin thing develop up close and behind the scenes a little bit. So when I was talking about Sasha Koonin, I'm like, hey, there's a really good chance that he runs up front all day and there's also a really good chance that he crashes his brains out, because that's what he's been doing. And yes, this year has been better on that front, but it's not been perfect. He's had bad days, not as many, which is the point. That's why he has the points lead by like 37. But it's still in him, it's still his DNA to take risks. And the first Moto, I think, proved that. Not a great start. Mistakes crash. He still has that right. Like, tigers don't change their stripes. Zebras, you know, whatever. Leopards don't change your spots, whatever. Cliche you want to use. He's still the same guy, but when he got out front in Moto2, he did what he knows how to do, which is managed to race, put in good laps and yeah, so that, that was not all that surprising to me. Now the Questions are for 27, do they come full time? My answer to that is yes, I do believe that's reality. They're coming. Red Bull, KTM 2027. What I don't know is what is their schedule look like, what does what for both Lucas and Sasha, Are they full time supercross and motocross? Do they race a limited supercross schedule to get their feet wet and then make a full on go at a motocross championship in 27 outdoors? I don't know. There's gonna be a lot of talk about that here in other places, about how, what's the best plan there? And I want to talk to Ian and some people there. I may even give them my opinion. I hate when people do that. Like people from the outside sharing their opinion on what your business is. But it's not so much that I think that they should do what I think. I would just like to bounce some ideas off them and see if they think I'm stupid or not. They probably say yes, that's okay. I think I'm stupid too, most of the time. But I think there's a lot of different routes they could take. And I think that their success in 27 could be because of a, a wise path, if that makes sense. Right. I think if they go about it the wrong way, they could limit it, limit their success. Or if they, and I'm not claiming that I know what that route is all going to know in hindsight, but I'm mostly concerned with both of them hedging their success in motocross next year by going full at supercross next year also. That's what I'm concerned with mostly. I'll go so far as to say I think if Jorge Prado had really focused on motocross this summer instead of focusing so much on supercross, he would be better right now. I believe that. I firmly believe that. And he may, he may say, I don't care. This is what's right for me. That's, that's fine too. But I think he is not as good at motocross right now because he was so, so dedicated to getting better at supercross. And that may not even be a net negative. Who am I to judge? It's not, it's not my money I'm not Jorge Prado. I'm not the one paying him. I don't necessarily care all that much. It's just an observation that he doesn't look as good at motocross right now. He got. He got dropped at Thunder Valley like he did. He wasn't even close to any of those guys. He got beaten badly by Lucas Koonin, who was coming over in the same series that Jorge Prado left. There's no way you can argue that. There's no way you can argue it. So it's an interesting quandary. And I think. In short, and I guess I've been way too long with this subject to be. In short, can you take the lessons of what's happened the last year or two from Jorge Prado and apply them to the Kunins to make wiser plans moving forward? Can you or can you not? I don't know. But that. That would be the question that I'm posing. Chance Hymas, he got sick. And I know that sounds like an excuse. I'm not. I'm not making an excuse at all because. Because it's not me. Um, but I. I was asking around, like, hey, what. What was that? Because he's been better at that at tracks that he's not as good at. And I was told that, yeah, he just got really sick. Didn't. Wasn't even sure he was going to race Moto2. He did anyway. Didn't go all that well. But I can tell you also, the starts aren't helping. The starts are really problematic. And at a track where I felt like it needed to be a turning point that was anything but a turning point. And he's good at High Point, too, so he's got to figure this thing out. Like, this is really, really important for the future of Chance Imus, like, right now is really important in my mind because Honda has to decide what to do with him. I think they want to keep him, but they all. They also have a job to do, which is produce results. Like, they can't just blindly buy in if it doesn't seem to be working or if there's not a lot of hope on the horizon. And I don't know, like, how would I know what they're going to do or not do? I don't know that they know what they're going to do or not do. I don't know that there's a better kind of prospect on the horizon for them to chase either. That's. That's also a factor, right? Like, I think they, at one point, they wanted Hammocker, like, as a. As an option, but Hammaker signed with Mitch, so that's off the table. So I don't know. I don't know what the. I don't know what the plan is there. I guess if, if nothing else, they just continue investing in Jaime. But I could tell you they'd feel a lot better about it if he would throw some podiums in there. Like, that would make life a lot easier for all the decision makers. Julian Bomera. I have been so impressed with this. I didn't know, and I've said this on the broadcast a few times, I didn't know if he'd ever race again. I was told by really smart people that he's not racing again because of that injury. It was an injury that cannot be overcome. It's too risky, basically, to get back on the motorcycle, is what I was told. And maybe that's true. Maybe he is. He is tempting fate here. That's not for me to decide. I'm not an expert. I'm just telling. I'm just reiterating what I have been told by people who are very smart in this arena. And, yeah, so either way, that all can be true or not. But he's riding incredibly well. And it's been. It's been impressive to watch. It's been really heartwarming to watch. So great job. And I think about, what does this mean, him riding this well? What does that mean for next Supercross season? Because he's better at supercross. He is better at supercross than motocross. And I'm not saying the series is going to be wide open, because it's not. But he could win races. He can win races. Last note I have on 250s is Cole Davies, and that was not a good day for the points for Cole Davies. There are people out there that think that he is going to win this championship, no question. I have not been one of them, to be fair. And it's not that I don't think he can win motos or races. He's already proven that. So that would be silly of me to say. I just. I don't think he's as good at motocross as he is supercross. And I don't even think that's arguable. So if you're having these off days, like you got 15th in the second moto, I'm sure something was up Bike him, something was wrong. You. It's hard for me to just say, yeah, man, I see exactly the same thing, because if that was supercross, he would just completely annihilate people on his way to the front. Like, we've seen that time and time again. He is. He's just much better at supercross. I don't even need to make it complicated. So I. I don't. I don't see him winning this championship. I think he's like 21 points down or something like that. 24. 24 points down. So time will tell. Maybe I'm proven wrong. Maybe he gets hot and maybe there's some injuries that I'll help. But I don't see the same magic in him in motocross than I do Supercross. And I. I don't think that's. I don't think that's an inflammatory statement. It. It just. I think it's just reality. He's. He's good at motocross. He's won motos already like that. That can be true. And also be true that he's not as good as he is a supercross, like, I don't know. Seems pretty straightforward to me. All right, let's talk power rankings, and we're going to start at number 10. I haven't done power ranks in a while, and I kind of broke some of my own rules here, so bear with me on that. And the reason is some of these guys are going to come back. Right now we have some injuries, and usually if you're not racing, I take you out, but I think we're going to get some of these guys back in the short term. And it gets really hard to do these power rankings without having some of the stars in there. Now, if they don't come back in the next couple weeks, to hell with it, I'll just start throwing the privateer guys in here that are. That are doing well. I don't have a problem necessarily with that either, but I'm going to be a little bit optimistic and forgiving that these guys are going to come back. The Justin Cup Coopers and the Chase Sextons and some of those guys like that. I didn't put Tomac in here on the front end just to tell everybody because his. His injury is a little bit more substantial, and I don't think we're going to see him racing for the next month or two. So I left Tomac out simply for that reason is I know what his injury is, and it doesn't seem good. And if Sexton's out for the long term, he's. He's going out too Just to. Just to tell you that right now. Okay. Without all the qualifiers, number 10. Actually, you know what honorable mention is AP, because I saw a little bit of. A little bit of bounce back in him. I know he didn't crush it in the results, but he was. He showed a little flash, a little bit. A little bit this weekend. So honorable to AP and also, I just really like AP, so, yeah, there's that. So AP gets the honorable mention. Number 10 is Cooper Webb. And listen, he's in his, you know, farewell motocross season. He's never going to race a pro motocross championship season again. Well, say never, say never, but doesn't seem that way. He's already announced it and, like, it's hard to say how much his heart is in this thing. He's getting great starts. That's pretty cool to see, but you can just see him moving backwards. He doesn't really have the pace of the guys at the front, and I don't think he's wanting to take a lot of chances to find that pace either. You know, I think it's. It's what it's supposed to be. He's out there, you know, doing the thing, he's doing the work during the week. But I mean, in reality, he could be really going for it. And I don't think the results are going to be a whole lot better than they are. You know, Instead of getting 10th in the Moto, could he get seventh? Maybe, like, maybe that's fair. But he'd have. I think he would have to take a lot of risk. And at this point, three kids, three titles last season. I can tell you what he doesn't want to do is hurt himself this summer because he's trying to waste race world Supercross. He's in the kind of the twilight of this thing. An injury this summer is not something he's interested in. I know that sounds really obvious. I know, but, like, there is a. There's a marked difference in, like, you can get hurt doing anything. You can get hurt in the first turn. You can your bike and break, and you don't have control over that. But there's also a difference in, hey, I'm really pushing here, and I could have a huge crash at any moment. But it's also worth it because I have a real chance at defining my career here, and I need to get a contract and I need to make money because I'm still on the rise of my career. I've got to take these chances. The juice is worth the squeeze. To take this risk, that, that's a real aspect of racing. Coup is on the other side of that. Coup is past all of that. Coop has already done all the things he, he has had a legendary career. If he stopped today, hurting himself is what he is guarding against, especially in motocross and supercross. I think he's still willing to take those chances, but not in motocross. So coop is at 10 and I don't think he nor I would basically push back on any of the things that I've kind of just said. Maybe he would, but I don't think so. Number nine is Dylan Ferrandis. And Dylan's been all right. The starts have, haven't been fantastic, but he's been riding okay. You know, Hangtown was a little better than this week, but yeah, they're building. They're still working on the motorcycle. They're still, you know, it's a first year of racing in the US for that bike and it's going to be this way. It's going to be challenging, it's going to be ups and downs. I just think always with a first year program that's, that's just how things go like that is very, very typical. Think about all the years of development and racing data and experience that all these other teams and bikes have. That's what they're up against. You know, it's, it's not an easy thing. So for Dylan to be, you know, seeing the top five, I think is, that's a win in and of itself. Like, I don't, I don't think you have to make it complicated. You don't have to like, well, but like, I don't think there has to be any but at all. Like, I'm cool. Like I didn't notice him a whole lot at Thunder Valley, but I did, I did a Hangtown. So I'm good with Ferrandis at nine. Number eight is Marchbanks. And Marchbanks only is not higher because of the supercross results. Like motocross has been pretty damn good. He looks like he's improving. If Cali wanted anything to feel good about, it's been the gradual climb of Garrett Marchbanks. And listen, Monster Di Kawasaki is a, is a proud team with crazy amount of accomplishments and championships and accolades on their wall. So they don't need my pity or charity with Marchbanks, like, well, man, they're really doing it. He's getting better. He's, you know, he's trying to push. He got third in the first Moto after the penalties. And good for them. Like, they don't need that. They are. They are far too good and far too accredited to have any of that. Like, they don't. They don't need any of that in their game at all. Trust me on that. So I'm just going to let it be. March Bank's doing well and good for them. Like, they're. They're working incredibly hard. They've been working super hard with Sexton. Like, I have heard. I'll get to Sexton a minute. But I've heard so many things that you know, like how far the links that they've gone this year to help their riders. No one, I don't think any. You'll ever hear anyone ever say, well, you know, like they're in a box and they won't let you change anything. Like that. That is gone now. Like, maybe that was a thing. I do believe that was a thing. If you listen to Bill Pota, you listen to Weimer. They're not lying. They have no reason to lie. Cowie paid them millions of dollars. Like, they. I promise you they're not in the business of like making things up. But Cowie has broken out of that shell because of necessity. So I think that they have gone above and beyond to help. And I think it's showing up with marchbanks like, that's the whole thing. I think it is. You're seeing March Banks get better as a result of all their work, even if it's not showing up a sex. And I think it is with marchbanks. So good job, Garrett. Like, maybe you're going to get to stay there. You keep riding like this. I think they're going to keep them. I do. I think RJ has already found a deal. I think Malcolm is going to end up at Suzuki. I don't know any of these things, but that's what I the way I think it's going to go. And if March Banks keeps riding this way, he is like a no problems, no headache guy who was willing to test everything and do whatever Cowie says. Like, why would they not keep him? Why not? Like, he is being the prototypical team player and that goes a long way. I always say this. Listen, if you're in a situation and in any aspect of life, and I'm not trying to give people life advice, but it's just been true for me. If you're in a situation and you don't have any real competitive edge, you don't have the ace of spades up your sleeve. To pull out where you're like a race winning championship guy, where you're like, well, yeah, we have to have him. He's too good. Like, I don't. He's a pain in the ass. But guess what? We got to have him anyway. That is where like Chad Reed was very much that guy. He was very hard to deal with, very hard to work with. He was very particular about the things he wanted and needed. But he was so good and you could say James Stewart was the same. He was so good that they had to sign him and pay him crazy money and keep him anyway. That's leverage. That is you have the leverage in the situation. That's Kunin's. Kunin's had leverage with KTM right now. That's why they get to race these races. They have the leverage in the situation because their talent demands it. Garrett Marchbanks doesn't have that right. And this Cowie second spot, he doesn't have that. So he needs to do all of the other things. He needs to be easy to work with, he needs to be likable, he needs to bring a lot to the table. He needs to, you know, over deliver on all of the other intangibles that just require effort and require want to. And he's doing that. That's the point. He is. If there's a lot of other riders that they could be considering, but you have this guy who's already acclimated into the program, he wants to be here. He's not super expensive, he'll do anything you ask and the team likes having him around. Guess what, man, you're probably going to get to stay. That's the way this sport works. And I can, I can show you 15 guys over the years that that has been a absolute coup for them. I just mentioned Jake Weimer, perfect example. Justin Brayton, perfect example. There's a lot of guys, Tim Ferry, perfect example. That got paid a lot of money and got on factory teams not because they could win, but because they could get good results. Good, not amazing good results. And everybody wanted them around. That matters. It matters when there's a lot of riders to choose from all in the same bucket. Being wanted and being liked is a huge attribute of that. And I think that's where March Banks is. And another guy that's in that category is RJ, RJ7. And I think he is going to go to Ducati. Don't quote me on that. I'm not trying to break news, but that's what I believe and everybody likes rj. The Husky guys love RJ and I think he's easy to work with. I know he is a try hard guy. He'll give you all of him to accomplish whatever goal you put out in front of him. He'll ride injured, he'll ride sick, he'll test endlessly. You tell him to show up at 6am, he shows up at 5:30. That's just RJ. So that goes a long way. And when your team folds like Husky is, other teams are like, yeah, man, we'd love to have a guy like that. He's still got good years ahead of him and he's never going to give you headaches. That is rj. And I think he, you know, there was a time where he was talking to Cowie. He may still be talking to Cal, but I think that's done. I don't think he's going there, but he had a real chance of going to Cali because of that likability, because he can do well. And again, if it matters, man, you don't think that stuff matters. I promise you it does. I'm not saying that you don't, but some people would probably like, yeah, whatever. Like who cares man? Like it's all matters what place you get. Not necessarily. Not, not really because the difference between 6th and 8th or you know, 7th and, and 10th is not as big as you would think. If they don't like you, if you're a pain in the ass and you are super demanding, you're not, you're not to put it really succinctly, you're not doing well enough to act that way is how I would kind of say it. Number six is J. Coop and he's going to be back at Red Bud. He's going to go home and heal up. And I don't think it's anything that is too dramatic as far as injury. But yeah, I mean he's never missed a 450 race until this weekend. So he's, he deserves a weekend or two off here even though I'm sure he doesn't want it. But him sitting out to heal up. I think after that crash, you know, I'm not a doctor but I'm pretty sure he was knocked out and he probably needs a minute just to get, you know, get himself together here. So I'm leaving him in at 6 and yeah, I think, you know, I'm pretty sure he signed a contract to stay at Star already. He was a guy that was talking to a lot of teams. He was riding a bunch of different bikes. I think he was talking to Cowie, I think he was talking to Ducati, I think he talked to lots of people. And in the end I think he signed a one year deal to stay, to stay at Star. Probably wasn't a ton of money, but that's okay. And I think, I think he will be there one more year and then I think Davies and Deegs will be the 450 guys after that. So it doesn't give him a lot of long term. If it's a one year deal, which I think it might be, doesn't give him a lot of long term stability. But I think he's fine. Like I think he, he is wanted by other teams. So he's probably looking at the situation and said, hey, the best chance of success for me is to stay at Star. And then once Davies moves up and I probably don't have a ride here, I can then make another. I can sign a contract elsewhere, but the best chance of success in 2027 is at Yamaha Star Racing. That's what I think it eventually came down to and that's what I think he based his decision on, is don't put the cart in front of the horse. Don't worry about 28, 29 yet. Let's worry about 2027. What's the best chance of me doing well in 27? It's to stay here. Boom, done. It's as simple as that. That, that's how I think this Jacob thing kind of came down. Number five is Chase Sexton. And let's be real, it's not going well like it is. It's so far from going well, they can't even see doing well from here. I mean, Salt Lake, I know he won the race, but if you told me, seriously, I'm being real right now, if you told me that he never raced the Cowie again, I would not lift my eyebrows. I wouldn't. I think that's a real possibility. I think though, I think there's a real possibility that you saw Chase Sexton ride a Cowie for the last time. I don't know. Like, I always want to qualify these things and say, like, I don't know. I'm not trying to like tell you without telling you. I'm not doing that. I don't know. There's no way that anybody could know unless Chase is just like mentally already made up his mind and he hasn't told anyone publicly. That could be possible, but I don't know. I'm not being coy or Trying to hint, hint, wink, wink at you. I'm not doing that. I'm just looking at the situation. I'm reading the room a little bit, and it was already going terribly behind the scenes. This made it so much worse. So, so, so much worse. Because I don't think he has any confidence in the biker team right now. Right. Rightfully or wrongfully. I. That's not for me to decide, but I believe it to be true. Doesn't have any confidence in the biker team. And now he's got this knee injury, which we don't know how bad it is. I don't know that he knows how bad it is. He'll know more. I'm sure he'll get an MRI tomorrow or Monday or, I'm sorry, today or Monday or Tuesday. And I don't think there's a chance in hell that he's racing High Point. So he'll get his MRI back and he'll find out how bad it is. And maybe he has to have knee surgery. If he has knee surgery, like, let's take it another step. If he has knee surgery, he ain't racing this year. So now we're talking. Is he going to be at Cali in 27, which I. I don't think is looking very good at the moment. If he doesn't have knee surgery, I don't think he's coming back anytime soon. I don't think you'd see him until. I don't. I don't. I don't even want to guess. There's no way for me to have any sort of idea when the next time you'd see him. If his knees. Fine, okay. He gets back, I sit, swelling goes down, MRI comes back clean, and they're like, nah, you're good. You're just bruised up. Like, you know, strain. You're fine for the most part. I mean, maybe he comes back at Red Bud. That's his home race, you know, like, that's conceivable. That's conceivable. I would be willing to say that that could make sense, but I'm very open to this going horribly wrong at this point. It's been really bad behind the scenes, much worse than I think most people believe it to be, or like the public has led on. That's my personal opinion. I'm allowed to have an opinion. I don't think it's been going very well, like, to the point of, like, way worse than most people would believe. That's my. That's my opinion on the matter. It could be wrong. Opinions are often wrong. But it's what I believe. So I don't think that it's going to get better anytime soon. And it makes me wonder what the future holds. Is he going to get out of this contract? Where does he go? What are his options? What. What does he do in 27, 28? I'm open to every possible scenario, which is crazy. It is crazy that we live in a world. Excuse me, we live in a world where Kawi could have two superstars, two past champions, that they're paying over 2 million. I think Chase is closer to three. I don't know what Prada's deal was. I think it was mid twos. Cowie's paying that much money too, and they're going to break their contract after year one of a three year deal. Like that is what we're staring in the face. And again, that doesn't mean it's going to happen. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to project things that haven't happened yet. It's happened once and I think we're on the precipice of it happening twice. That is crazy talk, but it's a real thing that might happen. All right, number four, Jorge Prado. I just mentioned him, but the first round was great. Round two and three. Round two was a absolute disaster. Round three was okay. Starts were not very good. You know, I just think the first gear start is not as, as ideal for him. And he just didn't have quite as much pace as the other guys. That, just putting it simply as possible, he was just a little bit slower than those other guys. He was. Now, I don't have a ton of analysis to give there, but I do want to mention something. They had this open practice on Friday and everybody rode on Friday. That's where Sexton got hurt. Um, even Jet rode a little bit. Jet's injured somewhat and he even rode a little bit, practiced some starts, did a few laps, make sure the bike's good. Check gearing. Jorge Prado decided to not ride. He decided to not be there and not ride. And I know he told the team and he told the media, like, no, I, I didn't want to break my routine. I'm fine. I don't need the extra time. I've ridden the track. I know this track. I don't need to go. I do not agree and it's not my call. He doesn't care what I think. I hope that you care what I think. That's why you're Listening. I just cannot possibly justify this being the right call. And then you look at the results on the back end of it, and you're even more emboldened to say that this was not the right call. And I'm going to tell you why. Okay. Thunder Valley is the most unique race of the year. The elevation wreaks havoc on your motorcycle. You have to change depending on which team you raid for. You basically change a lot. The engine, the ECU map, gearing, suspension. A lot of different things are changed because of this racetrack. So for Jorge Prado. Yeah, cool, man. You raced this race last year. Didn't go very well. You raced it on a Kawasaki. You've never ridden a KTM here. And also, you're going to give an advantage to the other guys. Like, you're going to let them spin laps on Friday when you're not going to make it make sense. You can't. You can't break your routine enough to show up, put the bike through its paces for. I don't care if you ride six laps on Friday. Go out there and say, yeah, gearing's good. Like, we're in a good place. I did a couple starts. First gear was right where I need it to be. ECU map felt good. Try a tire. Try. There's he. I'm so flustered by this. Try a couple different tires. Just practice starts. If nothing else, just go practice your starts. Because the starts are so different than every other race. Like, I don't care what you say. If you tell me that that doesn't matter and it's fine and you don't need to. You're. You're just wrong. Like, you're just wrong. And I don't like to tell people they're wrong, but you are wrong. And I think Jorge Prado got this one wrong. I do. I think that him deciding to not go to the. Not go right on Friday was a really poor decision on him. His part. I do. I don't know if it's arrogance. I don't know if it's stubbornness. I don't. It. Maybe it's all of them. Maybe it's all of them combined. Because I. I was told that he's like, no, I. I don't. I don't need to do that. I don't need. And I don't want to break my routine. That is. That was not the right call in my mind. And. And I don't. I'm not the person that decides these things, clearly. But how could you possibly justify that? And I was saying this on the front end on Friday, to be fair and to be honest. I was saying this on Friday that I don't get this. And I don't think this is. I don't think this is the right thing. And I said it on the broadcast. I'm like, you have this day where it's not quite going all that well and you forfeited an opportunity to work things out on Friday. Like, how does that possibly logical? Again, I'm not going to just keep ranting about the same thing, but I don't think that that was the right call. And I think he paid a little bit of price for it. Maybe he doesn't do a whole lot better. Maybe it's marginal gains, but guess what? Marginal gains are still gains. And when you're getting paid millions of dollars to go racing, like, it's in the margins. It's always in the margins with this stuff, you know, like, being five seconds a lap faster than everybody ain't going to happen. So it's always going to be marginal differences anyway. I just think that that was a, that was a poor decision on Jorge Prado's part and I'll stick to it. If he, if he called me out on it, I would say, I would push right back because I don't think you. He has a leg to stand on. I do not believe. And he could just say, it wouldn't have mattered. I didn't have any issues. I just, you know, like, that's fine. But I would push back and say, I think you would have been better if you had more time to work through whatever you were battling with. Like, okay, tell me, where was the bike? Not good. Why were your starts not good? You're saying that you couldn't have made a 1 or 2% difference by going through that on Friday? I don't believe you. Like, I do not buy that for a second. Anyway. Okay, moving on. Hayden Deegan. This is a big talking point and my DMs and Instagram comments are outta control. People are all up in my face and all up in my business calling me names. That's fine. I don't care. I laugh. It's hilarious to me that these people get so wound up about something that I have nothing to do with now. Deegs cut the track. That's really straightforward. Like, why are you mad at me? For Hayden Deegan cutting the track, it's really clear what he was doing. And if you don't really get it or you couldn't kind of see why it Mattered. It's really simple. Like, that corner where the incident was happening was an off camber. Okay. And when you have an off camber, you don't have anything to pivot upon. You don't have a berm to turn from, so you kind of have to tiptoe around and you really can't accelerate. Right. So that you don't have any speed coming out of the corner. You don't have any speed coming down the hill because you were basically at a standstill just trying to find traction and turn on that off camera corner. Well, when you have a berm that you're not supposed to be using, it is off the track. That is not a part of the usable racetrack. But Hayden was going there and using that as a berm. So he's accelerating hard like you would imagine a berm would allow you to do. So he's ripping out of that corner and then ripping down the hill because of all that extra speed. And you could just see him close right up on Jet. It was probably a one to two second difference. That is an eternity on. On a race. Listen, if they did nothing about it and Hayden didn't crash, he could have won the race because of that one line. Seriously, he could have won the race because of that one line. That's. That's not acceptable. That's not allowed like that. Whether or not it should have been seven positions, I don't care. That is not for me to decide. That is the AMA's call to make. Whether or not it was fair or foul is not even a question in my mind. Like, I posed it to Hayden because that's what my job is. I wanted to hear his perspective on it. I don't agree with his perspective at all. Like, deep down, I think he knew it was cutting the track. Like, it's really hard to argue that he was cutting the track. And I know Deegan fans and like, what, you know the phrase that math is kind of coined? Bedbugs. Listen, they're all over me. They're telling me that it's my fault and I am a rat and a snitch. I'm not. I'm just pointing. I'm an analyst. I'm pointing it out. Like, holy cow, what is going on up there? I didn't even. I didn't even say it was cheating. I just thought, hey, we should probably take a look at that. Like, that is certainly not what I consider to be the right way to go about things because I know I've raced 2, 300 races of these I know what's cutting the track and what's not. So does everybody else. Hunter Lawrence got penalized too, and he was mad as hell that Hayden was doing that every lap under the 10. He was not stoked because he was right behind Hayden watching him do it. He was watching Hayden do it. These guys all know. They know if that's okay or not. Hayden knows that that was not okay. I just think he's. He's always been this guy. He's always going to kind of press the issue. He's always going to take liberties and see if you call him on it. And guess what? He got called on it. He lost seven spots in this scenario. And I'm sure he's mad. I'm sure he's mad at me. I'm sure he's mad at the ama. I'm sure Brian's probably mad at me. I have nothing to do with this. And people are yelling at me in my DMs, like, all caps, you know, cussing me out, saying that I caught. Like, you don't think that the AMA noticed that? Like, it's so obvious. People at fans watching on TV all noticed it. And I'm standing there at the race, Listen, they were already looking at this before we even got it on the broadcast. They had the replay queued up because the AMA needed to see it. That's how this works. Not me saying it on the broadcast in the AMA is like, oh, you know what? JT said it. We should probably look at that. That's so asinine. And it just goes to show the state of social media these days, like, people are that naive to think that I'm driving the decision making. Give me a break. You're giving me way, way too much credit. And that's what makes me laugh. Is that like, you think that I, I carry that much weight to have influenced this decision? Yeah, please give me a break. So anyway, all that to say that it was a wild weekend for Hayden Deegan and I needed to get that out of the way because it is, trust me, if you saw my social media, you'd be like, oh, dear God, it is wild. That's okay. I'm a big boy. I can handle it. I don't really care. I actually push back at some people. I'm like, you are wildly out of line. And this is also hilarious. Um, and how are you a grown man this worked up? Like, how, how is it affecting you this much? But yeah, here we are. Anyway, past all that, Hayden rode incredibly well. Like, Hayden's improvement is very notable, and it should not be, you know, the baby shouldn't be thrown out with bathwater because of the penalty and all that nonsense. He definitely, definitely is getting better. And yes, Jet and Hunter are still better than him, but not. Not by a lot, not right. Not on that track, not this weekend. So if you're Hayden, you're frustrated. You're. He was really pissed off, trust me on that, about crashing and not making the most of it and not capitalizing on where, you know, the situation he had. But he's getting better. Like, you can see the improvements coming. So all you people that think that I am out to get Hayden Deegan, like, listen to me when I tell you that kid is getting a lot and he's already kind of in the fight and he's going to be more in the fight soon. It's happening. Like, all the things that I always say and listen to all you people that are hating on me about Hayden Deegan. He does this systematically. They go to work, they continue to improve. They reduce vulnerabilities methodically, systematically. They attack all of the things that hold him back. That's what they do, and that's what they're doing now. So listen, I don't care if Hayden Deegan gets first or 10th. I do not care. My job is to look at situations, try to share what's happening, because I have a lot of experience in doing this. Hayden's getting better, and he is going to continue to get better because that's what they do. That's what they've always done. That is hard work personified. And there's a lot of other noise around his program. Sure, yes, absolutely true. But there's also a lot of hard work and a lot of improvement right alongside all that, too. So just like everything with Hayden Deegan, you could probably find an angle. If you hate him or love him, you can choose which avenue you want. But I try to. I try to keep it down the middle. And maybe I can't always do that. Maybe I. I'm as guilty as anyone at times, but I really try to not. And if he's out of line and cuts a track, I'm going to call him on it. And if he's really getting better and really making strides, I'm going to call that out, too. And I think that's all I can really do in the end. And you may hate me for it, you may love me for it. That's okay. I'm fine with everything in between. I really am. Number Two is Hunter Lawrence. And not. Not Hunter's best day. He was riding, okay, fine, fastest qualifier, like, all good, but uncharacteristic mistakes, untimely mistakes, and in the end, left points on the table. A significant amount of points on the table. So, you know, he did cut the track the one time that. And I think he was so frustrated with Deegs doing it. He's like, I'm doing it. If he's doing it, I'm doing it. And then I think he realized, like, I'm going to get. This isn't going to work. I'm going to get penalized. And I think he decided to back out of it, and it's probably for the best because he would have gotten penalized a bunch more times. I saw the lap he did it, and I was like, ooh, I need to look at that. Because if he's doing it also, maybe I'm seeing it wrong. And then I saw him immediately revert back to the appropriate line, and I was like, nope, that is definitely out of bounds. And, yeah, so anyway, he loses the red plate and. Yeah, not. I don't think he was, like, overwhelmed with despair, but I. I know he knew. He knows he needs to be better than that. He knows he can't crash. Like, he fought hard to get back around Deegan and then he crashed again. You could just see, if you go back and watch the race, you'll see him, like, tilt his head towards the sky. And that is just frustration. Right? It's like, frustration and like, oh, my God, I can't believe I just did that. Yeah. So anyway, he'll be better this coming weekend. He and Jet are both really good at High Point. Hunter's always been really good at High Point, and I would expect to see both of them go, one, two, this coming weekend at High Point. Like, I just think given the. Where they're at in the sport and given this is one of their better tracks and you could say Southwick also. I have no reason to think that they won't be at the front for the foreseeable future. It's just going to be, can Diggs, can Prado get back in there? And then what does Lucas Koonin have at Southwick? And I'm going to talk about Lucas Koonin here. Last. Jet Lawrence is at the top. It's been a long time since Jet was at the top. For me. He's been hurt a lot, but, I mean, the guy's a freak. He is just so damn good. And. Yeah. Welcome back, Jet Lawrence man, he is. He is something special. He said he didn't feel good all day and I would probably believe that. Like, he wasn't like overwhelmingly dominant or anything, but he's still Jet Lawrence and he still won the race and he's still perfect for overalls at Thunder Valley. And you don't have to look far to realize who the best racer in the world is. Listen to Lucas Koonin. What did he say? Yeah, he's the best guy in the world. So I don't think it's. I don't think I'm taking any liberties in saying jets the best there is. I just don't. And yeah, rightfully so. At the number one spot. Okay, thank you, sponsors again. Guts Racing Works connection race- rentals.com unmatched supplements. Grantstone boots and Grandstone shoes. Firepower parts. Fly Racing. And I want to leave this, this podcast with a little note on Lucas Koonin. I thought that was a crazy good effort from him. You think about all the change and the things they had to go through. Flying over from Latvia, jet lag. They rode Tuesday, Wednesday, which I think was probably too much, but that is their mo. Their dad wants them to ride a lot. Like, I think everybody that knows their program looks at it and says they ride too much. I've heard that a million times. But they. How can you argue with success? I'm certainly not going to they. Then they go to Colorado, they ride again on Friday and different motorcycles. Lucas's chassis was totally different. They've never ridden that track. They've never raced at nearly 6,000ft. Just a million different, million differences. You know, jumping in the series in the middle of another one. They have the red plates to worry about. So they can't like just throw caution in the wind. That would be a terrible idea because they, if they got hurt at Thunder Valley, it would be. They'd never be allowed to ever do anything like that again. And they would never forgive themselves, probably. I know the teams would never forgive them, forgive themselves for letting them do it. I promise you that. But they didn't. They killed it. And Lucas Kunin showed that he is going to be a force in the USA very soon. And I don't know if Supercross is the best idea for him right now because he is a motocross protege and they have zero Supercross experience. I mean, zero. Like, yeah. Do they ride a few days last offseason? Yeah. Cool, man. That's great. I've also driven a race car around date. I've driven my truck around Daytona Speedway. You think that makes me an expert at racing nascar? No, it does not. So I don't know what the future holds for them with Supercross, but I think that Lucas Koonin showed enough to show everyone that he is going to be a championship factor for the long term in American motocross. He's 19 years old. He is 19 years old. He's almost. He's like three and a half years younger than Jet. Think about that. He's younger than Deeks. He is younger than Hayden Deegan. And we all talk about how young Hayden is and he's the future and all that. He's younger than Deeks. So I'm just crazy impressed. The kid is so nice. Both of them are so nice and I just think they have the brightest future ever and they're going to be a lot of fun to watch for a very long time. So great job. Lucas Koonin. I know that this is their dream. They. They had to move heaven and earth and beg and force their way into these races. Nobody wanted them to do this. They. They did it anyway. And I think they rewarded everybody involved. They gave them great results. They didn't take a lot of chances. Lucas really never kind of stepped out or did anything foolish. You know, Sasha did crash, but things happen. But kudos all around. Thank you to Red Bull for making all that happen. They were such an inspiration for the project. Okay, sure. Fly Racing executed well. Not so much me, I was involved. But the team deserves a lot of credit. Fly Racing, but Red Bull, this was really Red Bull's idea with all the gear and the Coster throwbacks. I want to give them a special shout out. Jeremy Moot was the kind of the. The ringleader of this project and he wants no credit, but I'm giving him credit anyway because if you want to be selfless, that's cool. But I'm not going to let you get away with it. So great job. Hammer, as we call him, Jeremy at Red Bull for, for pulling this off. And that's it for this week. Over an hour. Good grief. We will. We'll talk to you next week. See ya.