transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] A PulpMX Network Production. Welcome to The Troy Lee Designs Race Tech Suspension and Engines, Blair Matthes Project.

Speaker 2:
[00:16] Yeah, welcome everybody to another edition of The Troy Lee Designs Race Tech Blair Matthes Project. I'm The Matthes, he's The Blair. We got Kellen Brower, The Fraud, producing this thing. Thank you for watching and listening. Lots to get into. Philadelphia this weekend, one point between the top two riders with three rounds to go. It couldn't get any better than this really. Feld guys just loving it, hoping that ticket sales are going to rain down money on them. So we'll get into that and much more. We got a few categories to talk about here on The Troy Lee Designs Race Tech Blair Matthes Show. Thank you to Troy Lee Designs. I got that sweet ass custom helmet a little while ago. They still do helmets for you people, and you know they're going to look bitching. Of course, big news with The Troy Lee Designs Ducati team with Justin Barsha coming back. We'll touch on that in this show. Dylan Ferrandes is riding really good right now. Low key under the radar, pretty good. Wearing Troy Lee Designs gear. Since 1981, they've been there for you, and now they make mountain bike gear. Ernie looked good too back in the day in his TLD gear, I have to say. Use the contact form on pulpmx.com to email us to get a discount code at TLD, and it works on mountain bike gear. It works on moto gear. Their helmets, they're really proud of as well. troyleedesigns.com for more information on that. And Race Tech, Rob Checkers and of course Paul Thede himself, doing great things over the years. Privateer proven with Race Tech. They've got suspension service centers all across America. Go to their website. It's really informative. You can punch in your year, make and model, get what you need. Springs, bushing, seals, and revals, oil changes, motor work as well now at racetech.com. And they've been doing great things since the early 80s there in Corona, California. So Race Tech, Troy Lee Designs, we're super stoked to have them on board with us. Also, Zools Seat Concepts, Firepower, Maxxis, ASV Inventions, Numeira and Stumpgrip all on board with us as well to talk about this, to support this show and more. First up, it's I'm Steve Matthes and that is The Daniel Blair. What's up, DB?

Speaker 3:
[02:15] And Justin Barsha wins the Philadelphia Supercross. Steve and the crowd goes wild.

Speaker 2:
[02:22] Dude, can you imagine Bam making his return? It is, they are calling for some weather, but as we record this Wednesday afternoon, I'm one of those guys on Team Weege where I don't freak out about the weather three days before. But I mean, he's not going to win, but he could, if it's buddy and it's Bam, it could be good.

Speaker 3:
[02:43] There could be moments of gray and I'm with you. The weather thing is always like, Ooh, and then, and then Saturday is when you really zero in on it. But right now it's saying 95%. It covers the entire day. Not a great look going in. And yeah, Barsha, man, he is just a mud crusher. Remember, I think back to Anaheim one that year.

Speaker 2:
[03:04] New York.

Speaker 3:
[03:04] New York. I mean, he's so good. But this series has been so weird. There's so many like, wow moments. Like if we went back to December and I made both of you, Kellan, I want your thought on this too. If I said, hey, pick the two guys that at the end of this thing, it will be a one on one. I don't think anyone picks Hunter and Kenny and that's what we got. And there's a lot of things that have happened to lead to that. So for Barca to come right out in the mud and win just because like it would just, the odds aren't there, but it just, I wouldn't be shocked because this season has been a lot of like, wow. So but what do you think, Steve, if you had to pick in December, you're one on one in the month of April, who would you have picked?

Speaker 2:
[03:45] Is this post jet injury?

Speaker 3:
[03:47] Post jet, because pre jets not the same.

Speaker 2:
[03:49] Well, I'm picking Chase Sexton and I'm probably picking Hunter Lawrence. Yeah, I'm probably picking Hunter and Chase. I thought Hunter would emerge this year and win some races. He's so damn consistent. He's a total package. There's not a lot of weakness there. So I would probably pick Chase. I picked Chase for the title. So if you had told me that, I would have went Chase, Sexton, Hunter Lawrence.

Speaker 3:
[04:07] Kellan?

Speaker 4:
[04:08] I think I would have picked Chase, Sexton, Cooper Webb just because at the very beginning of the year, the closest history we had was those two going at each other. And we had plenty of question marks for Tomac. Although Hunter was good, he wasn't established as a race winner yet. And so I would have just probably fallen back on what I knew at that point in time.

Speaker 3:
[04:26] I would have gone... Chase, Eli and Cooper would have been the three. And if you would have forced me, I'd probably take Chase out and go Eli and Cooper, just the way Eli looked coming in and the way Cooper just always seems to be there, which he's actually weirdly there. He's still sitting right there lurking. A mud race would do him well if something happened to the other two, but never would have picked Kenny and Hunter as the two. Like maybe one of them, maybe, but no way the two. And that's pretty rad to be one point separating with three races to go, two guys who have never won the championship and two that nobody would have picked as the two. So it's sick, man. What a setup.

Speaker 2:
[05:04] No, I agree. No one would have picked these guys. Yeah, it's really, really cool. Good job for the Feld guys. We got to be stoked on this. We are going down to the wire to have these two guys. And either one's a worthy champion. They're both great. They're looking for their first Supercross title too. You never know how things are going to turn out. So even if say Kenny wins, you're like, hey, Hunter, you're young, you're up and coming. He's not that young, but you're up and coming. You just never really know how these things are going to turn out. This could be the last, absolute last chance for both these guys to get this title that is massive. It's the biggest off-road title in the world, including MXGP, the Supercross title is it. So yeah, man, it's going to be good. Obviously, look, Hunter Lawrence has to bounce back a little bit, but I have no qualms to thinking that he will do that, that he will bounce back. I don't think JT on the review, and look, all jokes aside with me and JT, he's really smart about racing. He knows what he's doing. He had a great career. He gets into these narratives, and I think it's a TV thing where they're on these calls, and they want to push things or look at things to get narratives going. To me, he didn't say it was going to happen. People think it is, of course. He talked about Roxanne's late season slump, quote unquote, after Nashville, and then now it's the hunter thing. I don't buy that. These guys have had poor races and then emerged the very next week on top of their game. I think each and every week at this point is a brand new game for these guys. By the way, Cooper Webb moved into third in the points with Eli's DNS, and I hit coop up because I know Tim Ferry had a third place championship bonus money deal. First places will use you a million bucks from the OEM and it goes down from there. So I hit coop up and said, hey man, you're in third in the points, do you get anything? He said, nope, not at all. I guess when you're a three-time champ, Daniel, they really don't, they're really de-gap about you getting to third.

Speaker 3:
[07:05] Your standards are so high that it's like third is a fail for you three-time champ. I will defend JT. I think the storytelling in him is obviously he lives in that mode all the time and you're always looking for these things to rely on history, odds, Matt, as you're building up the story. So I don't think his Kenny take was crazy. I mean, Kenny's history is real and he at least questioned the fact that, hey, maybe this is time. Hunter, the same thing. These guys, do they bounce back? Now, last time Hunter had a bad one, he bounced back pretty solid. It took him a week or two to get back to the top of the box. But when I listen to JT, I hear the TV in him where he is presenting options for the story based on all the variables. But I know what you're saying. You're still JT. You guys still got a butt heads.

Speaker 2:
[07:55] I just think it's a brand new week and these two are champions, right? And they're not going to let this opportunity. No one's fading or anything else.

Speaker 3:
[08:03] No, they're locked. It is all in, all the way in for both. Both seem to be peeking too because Hunter, as bad as his night went, that first race was incredible. See you later.

Speaker 2:
[08:15] So Kenny was right there.

Speaker 3:
[08:16] Then in the third race, Kenny was incredible. So I bet you right now on this Wednesday, they're both just ready to go. Let's go.

Speaker 2:
[08:23] Yeah. Even the fraud will be in Philadelphia. Can you believe it?

Speaker 3:
[08:26] Yeah. I'll be there on Friday. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[08:28] That's right. Friday.

Speaker 3:
[08:29] So come out to PBR on Friday and hang out with me and Aaron Plesinger. He'll be on site. Steve, he's not racing, but we'll be hanging out Friday at the PBR place.

Speaker 2:
[08:38] Hey, his dad got the Legends and Heroes thing in Cleveland. That was cool. Scott is a hero and a legend.

Speaker 3:
[08:43] So he is a legend.

Speaker 2:
[08:44] So all right. So Barsha is back. Good job for the Troy Lee Decati team to have BamBam back, sports better for it. One point back for these guys. I want to talk about Jay Koop a little bit. One again, one of Main Event again, still looking for someone somehow to quantify Triple Crown mains somewhere in some stat package for the love of God. Can we at least just have something, anything at all? No, nothing. Anyway, Jay Koop is getting hot at the right time. I talked to somebody who basically boiled it down like this, and we've been saying this, but I got like a little further confirmation, DV. He can stay at Star for low money. There's a spot there. But this person doesn't think he will because he wants to make money. He is older than you think he is, as we've covered as well. So you look at Triumph, you look at Ducati, and that's a natural home for Jay Koop moving on. But look, he's doing nothing right now, Daniel, than increasing his value.

Speaker 3:
[09:47] Totally. Two things. Number one, isn't he married to a girl whose grandpa owns like chicken?

Speaker 2:
[09:53] Something? Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[09:54] All of chicken. I think all the chickens or something like that. So I guess I don't want to get into the personal side. I don't know if that matters. It doesn't. He's a man. He's wanting to be a man and do his own thing and get what he deserves because he is borderline elite. That's where I'm going to go with this. He is so close to being one of the elite guys. There's a little bit of a consistency issue. And then there's a whoop issue. Those are the two things that I think are really holding him back from taking the leap into elite territory and it's the big question mark around him, which is Nashville. He wins his Heat Race, beats Hunter Lawrence straight up, looks phenomenal. Then in the main, he gets seventh, gets beat by Justin Hill and Dylan Ferrandes. Then you come around this week and he wins that Triple Crown main. So sick, he's got bad dudes behind him that he just walks away from. Then the third race has the nose pick, save, crash over the berm, whatever catches up. So it's like he can't get a run going where it's like banger after banger. It's like it's good and then it's kind of like not. Good, then not. And then the whoop thing, everyone is well aware that it's a liability. So it's keeping him in this category of like, well, you're like the best of the rest of the guys, but you're not really elite, which keeps him like, yeah, star, great team, we'll give you a little money, but maybe another team will give you more. Like he's in this limbo period, but it's on him. You gotta get better at the whoops and you've gotta start sticking two or three things together or you're always going to be seen as the almost guy. And that's just that's where he's at. That's where the perception is with him.

Speaker 2:
[11:22] I'm sure Kellan saw this also when the whoops early on. I mean, they were soft, right? Wet dirt and all of that. The guys were blasting through those whoops before they got hammered up and grooved and everything else. There was nothing for these guys to go through and Jacob was jumping. I'm like, what? Wait, what? Kellan, chime in here. I don't know if you mentioned that, if you saw that too early on. I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 4:
[11:46] Oh yeah, 100%. I had probably two, three laps into Q1. He was already jumping through them.

Speaker 2:
[11:52] And the other guys are just pulling the front end up and going Mach 5 down them. It's such a thing he's got to work on for sure. But hey, also look, he gets another brand. Maybe he feels better blitz and whoops on another brand. I don't know. I don't think so, but you never know. So yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what Jacob does. Good job for him for winning again. I think he had LitKid on the weekend, by the way. He looked pretty good in that. I had someone tell me that he could never have LitKid as long as he wears that helmet, which I agree isn't a great looking helmet. But yeah, anyways, hey, by the way, thank you to firepowerparts.com. They've been along the name and lightweight lithium batteries. A lot of teams tuck these things underneath, including the ClubMX guys. But they're adding parts to their line all the time. Exchange sprockets, bars, levers and more. firepowerparts.com at firepower.global on social media. Firepower guys really, really produces some good looking stuff lately. And of course, ClubMX choosing firepower, Maxxis Tires as well. Jeremy McGrath using the Maxxis Tires. Vince Freeze, Maxxis Tires. He got Doc some license points again. Old Vince, the next one he gets, he's going to be getting the last gate pick for a main event.

Speaker 3:
[13:04] And he'll pull a whole shot from the far outside.

Speaker 2:
[13:06] Yeah, yeah, yeah. He'll be like, watch this. Right, right. Watch this, guys. maxxis.com for more information. Great mountain bike tires, of course, and more folks at Maxxis are doing really cool things. Side-by-side stuff is absolutely crushing it. So that's awesome to see those guys doing well with that on his board. Of course, Troy Lee Designs and Race Tech. All right. WSX. Oh, no, that's such Sexton real quick. So look, it's not going well. He rode well in mains two and three. Almost got on the box until J. Coop made some passes late to bump him off a third overall. Lots of talk in the pits about him and Cowie not getting along and him not liking the bike. He's got a three-year deal there, just like we saw with the Spaniard last year. I don't know, Daniel. I was in the camp of like, look, it's factory Cowie. They'll make it work. We know how hard they're all pushing. We know those guys are good. They went like, if you want to look at Cowie saying they're stuck in their ways, there's no team stuck in their ways that's going to get Kyle Chisholm and pay him to do what Chisholm has been doing. When they have Brock Tickle on payroll, they're flexible, but it ain't working. It ain't working. I'd heard like, hey, Chase may be getting out of his deal here at the end of the year, or there's really no way he's going to finish his three years. Daniel, the whole time, I'm like, come on, man. I just don't, I know it's not good, but it's going to turn around. It's going to turn around. It's going to turn around. With Prado, he was quitting, right? Like Prado was legitimately just giving up. So different story, I felt like. I was early on with the Prado thing saying, this ain't going to work. But not with Chase. Well, Daniel, I wrote about this in my column on Racer X also, like, dude, I'm not saying it's going to happen. Do not radio me and put this on social, I'm not saying this is going to happen.

Speaker 3:
[15:01] Steve Mathis just said.

Speaker 2:
[15:03] Yeah. Look, if he got out of his deal for outdoors before outdoors start and we're talking a month, I would not be surprised. Is it going to happen? I don't know. I'm not saying that. But it's that bad. From what I hear, the whispers that he is maybe leaving. Which if he gets out of this cowy thing, and I like those guys there. But if he leaves half a year into a three-year deal, someone in Japan has to make some drastic changes over there.

Speaker 3:
[15:39] Okay. So where do I go with it? First off, Chase, if you're listening and you really want out of your deal, it's pretty easy. Get 41st in qualifying this weekend in Philly. It's your way out. I mean, that was the final straw for Jorge, right? Don't qualify and then you could have a serious conversation. Maybe that's when they'll consider it. Now, this is wild if it was to happen because Cowie set a new precedent which is that they will allow it. I mean, think about it. When those two parted ways, Jorge and Cowie, that set a whole new allowable standard, I guess you could say, where you could really dive into a deal and just divorce before it's over. I don't remember that happening. If it ever has, it's definitely not a thing.

Speaker 2:
[16:20] That's for sure. Mike Craig got out of a factory contract.

Speaker 3:
[16:23] That's what I'm saying though. When was that? When was that? And it was Mike Craig. So I mean, just okay.

Speaker 2:
[16:30] Jeff Emmett was fired, but he got arrested.

Speaker 3:
[16:33] Okay. Again, you're going way back. I'm talking when has that happened where a three year deal gets broken and these guys go separate ways. So there's a new precedent that has been set that it's allowable. So if you're Chase, you sign this big three year deal, three years, probably specifically so that you don't let this happen. But then you find out that you don't maybe want to be there anymore. And now it's like, does those conversations go anywhere? If you're Cowie, you've already done it. So yeah, do it again. Or don't do that again because you don't want to set the precedent that anyone that goes to your team and is unhappy can just find their way out of it. So like, are they going to hold the line? And now Chase is going to be just miserable and they're going to be miserable for the next couple of years? Or do you let it happen again? And if that was to happen, like you said, then Mr. Japan Kawasaki comes in and there has to be a complete like remaking and rethinking of everything because that's just the worst thing that you could set as a standard. So but at the same time, I mean, if you're Callie, you're probably sick of Chase. If you're Chase, you're probably sick of them. And maybe this was something we all should have saw coming. I mean, man, I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[17:41] You know, one of the holdups of the Prado deal was Callie wanted some money back from the team Jorge because of marketing expenses they've put into it. You know, things like that, that they've already, and it's all written in the contract. It's not like Callie just said, hey, we want to do this. This is all in subtext of contracts. So that could hold things up. I don't know. Maybe Chase writes a check. I don't know if Monster stays with them. I don't know where he goes. I don't know what he does and I don't know, man. I don't know, man.

Speaker 3:
[18:10] Okay. All right. Let's walk through these really quickly. We don't need to make the whole episode about this because it's so crazy. But you're not going back to Honda. They're full and that ain't happening. You ain't going back to KTM or the KTM group. That obviously ain't happening. You're probably not even welcome in the building. Yamaha. Are they the ones that would say, yeah, let's move on from Justin Cooper and Cooper Webb and bring in Chase Sexton and put him next to Hayden Deegan. Like that's what he would want. That's what Chase would want, obviously.

Speaker 2:
[18:37] Yeah. So I think if you could draw it up for Keir and Chase, they'd say, let's go to Yamaha.

Speaker 3:
[18:43] Of course.

Speaker 2:
[18:43] But yes, Deegs would have a say, clearly, he's the future. Also they train in Tallahassee with Swanapole. I don't see Chase doing that. So now we got another option. They have Cooper Webb. He wants to re-sign there, although he has not yet. I don't see that working, but I see that as the landing place because also Bobby Regan, as we know, is Deegaf. So there's some of that, but there's also corporate Yamaha has a say in the 450 side. So there's some of that. So dude, you can't, if you're Chase, I don't think you can possibly go to Triumph or Ducati.

Speaker 3:
[19:23] Well, Ducati is not in a place yet financially to take a leap like that. That's not where they're at. And then what you're going to go to a Triumph, a brand new bike that Jordan's raced a couple of times, like that's the answer to your problems, Chase.

Speaker 2:
[19:37] And it's wearing purple gear. I don't know, I don't know, Ben. I don't know. I think if you're Chase, you're not at this point getting out of another contract. You are not looking for money salary wise. You know that you're at it all time. So.

Speaker 3:
[19:55] Okay, well then I'm going to text Brandon and maybe we'll.

Speaker 2:
[19:58] There you go.

Speaker 3:
[19:59] Bring him out to club. Chase, if you're listening, it's nice out here in South Carolina.

Speaker 2:
[20:03] So stay tuned, everybody. I don't see it happening, but there's more fire there than I ever would have thought. And I don't know, fraud. Have you heard much? I don't know if you're.

Speaker 4:
[20:15] No, I haven't heard anything like along those specific lines, just the same kind of narrative. It's been the last few weeks where it's not a lot of happiness over there.

Speaker 3:
[20:24] Yeah, crazy.

Speaker 2:
[20:26] That would be something for the sport, for sure, if that were to go down. So stay tuned and we'll see. Troy Lee Designs Race Tech, of course, the Namiro since 2001. Namiro has been supporting riders with engine components for motocross, ATV, UTV and personal watercraft, full engine rebuilds, the performance upgrades. Namiro delivers precision engineered pistons, rods, gaskets, valves and now cylinders, complete cylinder kits. So those big boards that Clubmx is running, they're now available from Namiro. I've tested to handle real riding conditions exclusively through their authorized partners, namiro.com to learn more on those guys. Speaking of Clubmx, Daniel, this Simonson shockstuff, they are finding each other and it is intense, man. It is intense with those two guys.

Speaker 3:
[21:09] Yep. And then today, I believe there might have been a Simonson yoder issue on the practice track today even. And then there are buddies all after, but it is tense around here because old Devin is just getting after it right now and thriving. But yeah, those two find each other every single race that they are in together now.

Speaker 2:
[21:29] It is just automatic.

Speaker 3:
[21:31] They love to train together, so they just want to be together.

Speaker 2:
[21:34] I pictured Devin walking into the race shop like that Vince McMahon gif. That is what I pictured Devin doing every single day, just strutting down there. He is just, you know, he is the media darling. You know, there is lots of things going on with Devin Simons right now, but he is doing a great job. So yeah.

Speaker 3:
[21:53] And if we pull off Chase Sexton, then Chase, watch out, because Devin is trying to make his place in the locker room. So watch out, Chase, if you show up. Devin is coming after you on the practice track.

Speaker 2:
[22:02] Any Phil sidings at all? He mentioned doing a 30 last week.

Speaker 3:
[22:06] Yeah, actually, Phil rode outdoor this week with Cody. Cody rode some outdoor this week and I think was actually moving pretty good. The word on the streets from the people who are watching said it's like maybe one of the best Phil's looked in a while.

Speaker 2:
[22:18] Oh, wow. OK, good to know.

Speaker 3:
[22:19] Compliments from our guys watching Phil.

Speaker 2:
[22:22] Yeah, he's got an area qualifier coming up there. So you know he's going to be grinding it out at club. By the way, we got our fantasy results coming into later on in this podcast slash YouTube show. Stay tuned, Daniel and I are on fire with that.

Speaker 3:
[22:35] We're really good at this.

Speaker 2:
[22:36] It's pretty amazing, actually. OK, Nate Thrasher won again six years in a row. With one win, he won two the first year, I think, of his career, then won one for the next five. He pulled off his yearly Nate Thrasher win in Cleveland, rode really well. It's remarkable, phenomenal to see this guy do this because he started year badly, his shoulder was jacked up a little bit, and he started practicing less during the week from what I understand. And now he's been better since he started doing that. And I had heard that Nate Thrasher and Michael Mosman were told to go shop for rides, they weren't coming back. But then I'd spoke to someone at Star on Friday, shortly after my VO2 test. So perhaps I was a bit delusional, who said, dude, you don't know, you know, Bobby, if he wins tomorrow, he can get a three-year deal. And I'm like, yep, you're right. And sure enough, the Nate Thrasher pulls out another win.

Speaker 3:
[23:33] Yeah, cool, cool timing to like, again, that sometimes the story writes itself, but he comes out on press day and he's like, yep, looking for a ride. I'm a free agent. I haven't had any discussions and then goes out and wins the race. And to me, there's two parts of this. There's the Nate Thrasher part, which is, bro, like he is the most consistently inconsistent, consistent human being of all time. Like it can be all over the place, but he's going to get that win no matter what. And that leads me into asking back to you guys, and I want to break this down a little bit, what does Star, what do they do here, for real? Because if you look at history, they had this sick era, right? The Ferandus, Justin Cooper, Colton Nichols, Christian Craig, Little Run, where they kind of went on this little mini run. And Steve, I'll even go back further, but Mitch Payton had his crazy run. Geico Honda had their crazy run. Star had this mini one right there. But then come the Lawrence's. They come in and disrupt the whole thing, and Honda gets their little piece. Vial and Hampshire, so the KTM group, gets their little mini run right there for two years. And Hayden Deegan kind of drives into that thing, wins the title. Now they got Deegan and Davies. So it's like the start of another little star run. They've won every single race this year except for one. Like they're in a position maybe to go on a little bit of a run here. But what do they do with that roster when you have a guy like Thrasher? You have a guy like Pierce Brown, who can win the opener, and now he's back to, you know, out. You got ANSI, who's won the opener two years in a row and then kind of fades off. Now you got these kids coming in and like, they're in a weird spot when it comes to trying to piece together what would maybe be a little Star Yamaha run. And I'm just curious what they're going to do with this. Thrasher just weirded it up for them.

Speaker 2:
[25:08] Okay. So let me ask you guys, is just Carson Wood doing Loretta's this year? Any of the other guys going back to the ranch? I don't even know. I don't know what they're under.

Speaker 3:
[25:18] I don't believe so.

Speaker 2:
[25:20] So when you look at Manir, Gordon, who just got second, good job on Gordon. Obviously Davies and then Dudney, who's this motocross phenom, according to my guy, Daniel Blair.

Speaker 3:
[25:31] You'll see.

Speaker 2:
[25:32] So they're all going pro. So how in the world do they keep Michael Mosman, Nate Thrasher and Max Zanste?

Speaker 3:
[25:41] Well, how do they get through the summer? I believe they have eight official riders that have raised pro and they have Manir who hasn't even done it yet this year, but raised some last year and was good last summer.

Speaker 2:
[25:53] I don't know how they even do it. To me, the locks are the kids, right? The locks are the kids. Davies, Gordon, Manir, Dudney. That's four.

Speaker 3:
[26:05] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[26:05] Then how are you picking Brown, Mosman, Thrasher, Max? There's no way.

Speaker 3:
[26:10] That's what I'm saying is if you're trying to build this thing, you have your guy in Davies and now you'd, what do you go young and say, all right, let's just bring the next wave in and develop them and allow Will Hawn, because again, I'm a big Will Hawn fan. You allow him to develop these young guys and move them in, and you move on from these guys that haven't been able to get it done, like Anstie, Brown, Thrasher, Mosman, or do you take a combination of the two because you still need to be competitive. The kids might not be ready to win in Supercross yet. We're going to put it all on Davies. So who do you pick? Do you go Anstie, Brown, Thrasher, Mosman? What order do you put them in and who do you keep while you're letting these young kids develop and hope that they come in and take over the class in a couple of years? I mean, they've awesomely put themselves in a really tough position when it comes to making decisions. That's what comes with success. That's what comes with success is decisions.

Speaker 2:
[27:00] So you never know because it's Bobby Reagan and Star and Brad and their DGaff. So you never quite know. But to me, you say farewell to Max and Thrasher. Like we know what you're going to do. We've got plenty of evidence that you guys can win the odd race and then, you know, outdoors Max and Thrasher I don't think are going to be factors. In indoors, they are what they are. They're going to win a race here or there. Mosman, yep, see you later. And you keep Pierce Brown, I think, because there is something there with Pierce and it's unrealized potential, right? And he's younger. But I think you got to turn over to the kids. I don't know how else you could do this because, you know, you've invested so much in these kids, you've spent so much time at the ranch where they barely raced, right? They've just poked their heads out here and there in Futures and Loretta's or whatever. You've invested in them. It's like growing a startup business where you would pour all this money and do it. And then within six months, close it because you don't quite like that month sales. Like you are all in to me with these kids because you've done all this for them by plucking them off of other OEM rosters. So to me, I'll take that over the veterans that I know what I'm going to get. Kellen, what do you think?

Speaker 4:
[28:13] I mean, if I were in this position, the way I would do it is you got six spots basically to fill, in my opinion, you got three East, three West, six outdoors. And I would do it, lock down Davies, Gordon, Manir, Dudney, Pierce full season, Anstey Supercross only, Carson Wood outdoors only in 27. So let Wood race another season of SMX Next indoors, get his feet wet a little bit more in Supercross, race outdoors in 27, and then you can figure out whether or not you want Brown or Anstey back for 28, but Carson Wood would be ready to go by then.

Speaker 3:
[28:51] So you're moving on from Thrasher, the guy who does win every single year, and keeping Pierce instead, who has only won one time ever, and it was this year, but also has a multi-year trend of, I mean, he's out a lot. So I'm just saying Thrasher just cleared this whole thing up because-

Speaker 2:
[29:09] Do you value Supercross that much more than Motocross? Like how much do you, Daniel Blair, at Clubmx slash Yamaha slash Energy Drink, put yourself in all those shoes, how much do you value Supercross?

Speaker 3:
[29:22] More, for sure. Now SMX plays a role because you want to be good at the end, and now these SMX rounds are turning into little Supercrosses. So, kind of both, but that's what I'm saying. I love what Kellan just did, 100%, and it's what I would do too. I would say Davies will hold down the fort. I'm good there. I feel like I can get another coast out of him next year. But I got to build around the future, and Davies is going to be gone too, because if he wins his title, he's out in a year to the 450 class. So I kind of got to start building around the future. So I do the same thing that he just said. I guess the debate comes down to what do you do with those? Like Kellan took Anstey over Thrasher, and Pierce Brown over both of them. So there's your triangle. I feel bad for Mosman in this, but it's like he hasn't won the race yet. So maybe he's the odd man out in the easier one out. But that triangle of the three is the harder decision. And Pierce Brown is not a great outdoor guy either. He doesn't have super duper outdoor results. So essentially you have three super cross winners in Thrasher, Anstey and Brown to hold down the fort while the kids come up. It's pretty wild.

Speaker 2:
[30:25] I mean, without checking, maybe the fraud can check. Brown is a lot younger than Thrasher and Max in my eyes.

Speaker 3:
[30:32] So Thrasher is younger than Brown.

Speaker 2:
[30:34] What?

Speaker 3:
[30:36] Brown is in the the Swole, Mumford, I believe maybe Marchbanks. Thrasher is one year older than Bolton.

Speaker 2:
[30:44] Brown has been pro for a while for sure.

Speaker 3:
[30:46] Yeah, no, Thrasher, I believe, is maybe one year younger than one to two years younger than Brown.

Speaker 4:
[30:50] Okay, well, they're both 23. Thrasher was born on December 9th, 02, Brown was born on June 3rd.

Speaker 2:
[30:57] Oh, wow. So Nate's younger than I thought. Just seems like he's been there forever, right?

Speaker 3:
[31:02] Kellan's move with Anstey is because it could be used as an indoor guy only, and then you can bring Wood in. Yeah, but that's why you chose him.

Speaker 2:
[31:11] You can also throw in the WSX, which we'll get to in a second. There's rumors that Bobby wants to do a WSX thing, which would also make sense.

Speaker 3:
[31:19] So somewhere to put these guys.

Speaker 2:
[31:21] Well, Max would be your guy for that. Would Max Anstey really sign though a Supercross only regional deal? Like what's that really worth base salary? Yes, he can win races. I get it. But what's that really worth? Like, let's say the world's.

Speaker 3:
[31:33] Yes.

Speaker 2:
[31:34] Would you say? Yeah, with world's sure. Would you say Max is somewhere around 250, 300 right now?

Speaker 3:
[31:40] Fair.

Speaker 2:
[31:40] That's full season. So is he really signing a 150 a year deal?

Speaker 3:
[31:45] I mean, maybe if the world's part is pretty big too, and he doesn't have to go race the outdoors. I mean, he's probably at the point where he wouldn't want to, I would guess. Anyways, it's a really cool conversation again. I'm a plotting star, which is very hard for me to do. They have done a really good job. I mean, they have smashed it this year and with between Hayden and Cole, they nailed it this year. But now Hayden's gone and you only get one more year left to Cole, which means you got to make some big decisions. Otherwise, you could be in for another little valley, which they were in. And so they've got big decisions to make with a very weird roster, a bunch of guys who can win your race, and then a bunch of kids who are looking pretty good.

Speaker 2:
[32:22] Well, speaking of kids, they got to restock this little koi pond that they have. So who do they steal to restock all these kids going? I mean, would you guys say would is going to stay down and ride some amateurs some more and under Kellan's plan, he would ride Loretta's in 27. Hashtag Kellan's plan asterisk. They're going to want to get other amateurs, you know, to get the next wave going. Who are they stealing from? Orange Brigade and Team Green and all of that.

Speaker 3:
[32:52] I made sure Wyatt Thurman signed a two-year deal with KTM, so this wouldn't happen, even though I don't even work for KTM anymore. But I like the Thurman. So anyways, he would be the one age wise that you would want to put in the pipeline. But with the new rule going to pro at 18 and even SMX next going to 16 next year, the whole thing is about to shift a little bit. And you're going to have to start digging a little bit deeper in the age and plan way further ahead. I already know who they're going after. I'm well aware of who they're going after for the long term.

Speaker 2:
[33:21] I was just going to mention this. There's this kid in Australia that is crushing it. I just turned into super minis, I think.

Speaker 3:
[33:28] Oh, he's way young. Way young if you're talking about, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[33:33] But Bobby's already called him. I know family friends that reached out to me.

Speaker 3:
[33:38] I'm curious of which one you're talking about. I don't want to say his name over the air just in case. But no, there's some international talent out there, but they're younger. They're actually way younger.

Speaker 2:
[33:48] Well, if this kid's on a super mini, he's 14.

Speaker 3:
[33:52] I know the kid that they want right now is a super mini here. I believe they're going to get him, but he's young. He's not going to be going pro for a long time. Anyway, the amateur pond is interesting right now. There are some good kids out there. It just depends on if they pull the right ones, and they have a history of pulling from other programs. So we'll see what they do there.

Speaker 2:
[34:12] Bottom line, to top this conversation off, Bobby's nuts. Maybe he keeps everyone.

Speaker 3:
[34:21] I mean, that's a lot of clutches. That's all I'm saying, but they're pulling it off right now. This summer is going to be, I'm more curious about the summer, really, because how are they going to do this?

Speaker 2:
[34:29] I don't know, man. Yeah. I mean, obviously, they got Jensen over there, much better than Will, so Jensen will keep things straight. Hey, I want to ask you two guys. So Landon Gordon got second in Cleveland Road, great. They took him from Team Green last year. So I was thinking, I saw this kid, he was really good in Nashville too. He just crashed, but he qualified well, looked really good. So I'm like, holy shit, Landon Gordon, looking good. Now, I did watch Landon Gordon when I was on my own Road to Loretta's last year. He was in Aidan's class, Aidan Kiefer. So I watched him a lot and all of that stuff. So anyways, so my theme for my column was going to be, wow, Team Green lost another kid and Drew Adams just came back and now he's broke, got landed on. So you could make a case that Drew Adams has not worked out so far. Nothing, no judgments made long way ahead of him, but you could make a case that that's not working out. Team Green lost another kid in Landon Gordon. And holy shit, sound the alarm a little bit, was what I was going with, okay? Yeah. So I made a call to another guy we know that's more plugged into amateurs than I was. And I'll ask you two guys about this on the TLD Race Tech Blair Matthes Project. This person is like, I guarantee you Team Green doesn't care about Landon Gordon that they lost him. He, yes, he rode well, but there's no like he's not going to be the next kid. And that this is not, this is not a coup for Star to get Landon Gordon.

Speaker 3:
[36:06] It was the less of the steals that they made. They made the Davies pull, the Manier pull, the Dudney pull. That was the big one. When I heard that, I couldn't believe Cali would be so blowing it. The Gordon one was the least of a steal.

Speaker 2:
[36:22] Yeah, so this person was right, then.

Speaker 3:
[36:24] Yeah, Team Green was kind of like, he was just kind of going off a cliff to nowhere, because here's some more history for you again, because KTM gets a bad rap for losing these guys, but KTM has this weird model where they only have two KTM 250s because it's in-house with the 450 guys. The Rockstar Gas Gas program was changing as Gas Gas was going away, which is why Davies was gone, because Gas Gas went away. If that would have stayed intact, Davies would have stayed Gas Gas. He would have never went. But PC has actually been way more missing lately, and it's because I think they're sour over Jet Reynolds years ago. That's why Ryder D, they just went, never mind Ryder D, they took Drew, Landon Gordon, they're just letting these kids go. Because when you're a team that is desperate to win a title and you haven't won one indoor since Justin Hill, you don't want to develop these young kids because they take too long. So that's why you go after McAdoo and you go and grab Kitchin. You do these things because you're trying to win a title. So you keep going after the veteran pool and you don't develop, and you're letting these kids go and dude, Gordon getting second has to sting whether they like it or not. And Ryder D is in position to maybe get second in 250 West if he closes out pretty strong these last two rounds. Those are going to sting at the end of this thing. And that was decisions more than like their hands were tied. KTM's hands were tied a little bit where Team Green and Kawasaki, they got to figure out their formula because those were decisions gone wrong in my opinion.

Speaker 2:
[37:46] And then remember Drew had to do a private ride day for Mitch before we let him ride and all this stuff.

Speaker 3:
[37:53] He had to do so much to get that deal. Do everything right and dominate to get that deal. And it was still hard for them to pull the trigger.

Speaker 2:
[38:01] What do you think, Fraud? I don't want to turn this into like hey, this person or I am shitting on Gordon second. That's awesome. You look great. I just was like is Gordon going to be amazing? And this person was like, nah, not really. The team green will not regret this.

Speaker 4:
[38:19] I mean, I don't know that I would have thought that just because I thought that he showed plenty of potential Supercross wise with SMX next last year to, if you're Cali, not want to let that go at some point. So I feel like this has to sting even more that you saw it, let it happen, and then it's turned into this, like you could have found a way to stop it, but they just chose not to.

Speaker 3:
[38:42] So Gordon's 19 years old, so they didn't see the shininess in him because they thought he was older and maybe all the way developed and maybe he didn't have as high of a ceiling. You know, Steve, my favorite word ceiling. So if you're them, you didn't think this was going to happen. You did not think this would happen if you were Cali. And now you're going, wow, oops.

Speaker 2:
[39:03] No, this person says Cali is not saying that. Team Green is not saying that. They're not. Wow, they are fine.

Speaker 3:
[39:08] They're not. While they have two dudes, like, out laying in the dirt, and they have the other one, their title favorite, getting beat by him? Like, that's crazy pride if you're not feeling stung by the fact that Lennon Gordon goes to star and gets second. That's crazy, crazy if they would actually feel like it's no big deal. There's no way.

Speaker 2:
[39:30] All right. Well, I'm just telling you what I'm not saying that. I'm telling you that someone said that to me. Some amateur motorcross expert, quote unquote. That's all. By the way, thank you to Seat Concepts, Pulpmx 26, All Caps, Factory Beta, Mudo, the legend that is Mudo, was in on Monday working for Beta, Fenix Racing, Ampro, Yamaha, SLR, Honda. Seat Concepts ride the world with them. Pulpmx 26, All Caps, they've been saving assets since 2009. Their go-to brand for all things seat. From the Race 2.0 to the Comfort Series, their proprietary foam and handcrafted seat shapes are made in the USA. Max Anstey, Max Steffens down there. Maybe Anstey, I don't know. I don't think he works at Seat Concepts, but maybe. Max Steffens will dial you in with the Seat Concepts worthy for your touring bike or dirt bike or whatever. And Zools Bag Co, Pulp26 code to save at Zools Bag Co. 30% off with that code. 30% is no joke. Listen, if I told Pookie, you know, 30% more, she'd probably be into that. So 30% is quite a quite a big number. Zools Bag Co, Trey Cunard, Zach Osborne, using Zools Bag Co, the Phoenix Honda guys as well. Backpacks, roller travel bags, gear bags and more high quality real world use, whether it's taking your kids to sporting events or motoring. Fantastic, zoolsbagco.com. These guys are really, really good and their quality is great. So thank you to them. ASV Inventions, StompGrip, Maxxis Firepower, Zools Seat Concepts, of course, Troy Lee Designs and Race Tech all on board with us, of course as well. So, all right, World Supercross Schedule dropped. The Daniel Blair here is a shill for these guys, but I did think this would be interesting to talk about a little bit strange, Daniel, that they said one round to be announced. It's five right now and one of the five is just in South Africa, man, don't worry about it, will be in South Africa. But they're going back to the UK. They got Calgary the opener and then yeah, they're back to Buenos Aires as well. So let's start with Kellan because he's not bought and paid for. Kellan Brower, World Supercross Schedule Thoughts, the dates, what they did and all that?

Speaker 4:
[41:42] To me, it's just like, it feels really weird that they start and then there's a huge break. I feel like in-

Speaker 2:
[41:47] Yeah, August to October, right?

Speaker 4:
[41:49] Yeah, continuity wise. I feel like that's a bit odd, but I think that's the only car they had available to pull to still be able to get teams and riders to come amidst internationals, if you will.

Speaker 2:
[42:01] They said, right, no SMX, they don't want to conflict with SMX. That month of September and as nations is blocked, right?

Speaker 4:
[42:09] I don't know, to me, I still wish that they would try to operate in their little window that they have, which is after nations until the start of Supercross try to get five, six races in there. But I get what they're trying to do. Maybe it works, but I'm still cautious about it.

Speaker 2:
[42:23] Yeah, me too, but it is great to have these guys, in all seriousness, I'm making fun of Daniel, but it's great to have this series. Riders are making money, teams are making money. It's a little loose. I don't know how it's going to work long term, but yeah, cool, Daniel. What are your thoughts? Are you back? Are you back with the TV crew?

Speaker 3:
[42:42] Yeah, I haven't signed my contract or anything yet, but I mean, we're already having discussions. I mean, I think I said this a while back, maybe when I was in studio with you, but 99%, I mean, it's just, we have to just close down the deal, but no, so the schedule, yeah, I don't really understand the scheduling part of that. I haven't had any conversations with them on that. That's just not my lane, so I don't really go in lanes that aren't mine. But as far as what I do know, the South Africa race is being decided between a couple locations. It's just not decided yet, but they know that the date is going to work, so they put it out there. Then that sixth round, I actually think this is smart, and I thought about this when I heard this is what they were doing. They want to have the sixth one. They want to do it, but they don't have the ability to confirm it yet. Instead of just going, I think we're good, and going with it, and then having to walk it back, and then have another year where we have to pull one, I think they're putting it out there as like a, yeah, this could be it, but it makes it to where if it doesn't work out, it doesn't actually, it's not as dramatic. So to me-

Speaker 2:
[43:41] Well, I guess, Daniel, but I mean, like with MXGP, I hammer the MXGP guys too, because they make a lot of schedule changes. I just feel like we should have it locked in.

Speaker 3:
[43:50] I agree with you, but then if you zoom out, we're talking about the world. We're dealing with different governments, different nations, different continents. This thing is really hard to piece together. And I think we're spoiled because the US Supercross Series is so pretty much automatic because of the relationship that Feld has with Monster Jam. I mean, they're so far in advance planning these things out in markets they've been forever that they work with all the time. This is a crazy project to try to go around the world and pull this thing off. So I think you got to give them a little bit of credit here for what they do pull off. And if they're going to put out a schedule that's got some gaps in spaces so it's not so crammed like last year and then put a date out there that's like, hey, we're nowhere going to be in Africa. We just don't know exactly where yet. And here's another round we're trying to pull off. We're not going to go and just say it yet. I think you got to give them a little leeway because what they're trying to do and how difficult it is to do it. And this gives them the ability to not have to walk back a confirmed race like they did last year, which really stunk things up. So to me, it's a smart play when they're trying to put together a crazy, crazy puzzle.

Speaker 2:
[44:51] Yeah, listen, in the order of preference, I think, for a World Series, A, first preference, name all your six rounds, all the cities and the dates. Boom. B, do what they did. C, pull back a race and not have it and all of that. For sure, this is better than that. Absolutely. South Africa was a hit though, Daniel. I find it odd they're not going back last to the same place because yes, it didn't sell out, but it was a huge stadium. It still had good attendance. It seemed like everyone bought into it. I'm surprised they're not going back to the same spot.

Speaker 3:
[45:24] Yeah, I haven't had the internal discussions on why. All I will say is it was awesome. I went in a little suspect on that one too. Just like, I mean, you hear things on the news and you're like, I don't know. Then I went there and it was by far outside of Australia. It was my favorite race of the year. I would love if they went right back. The place was awesome. It was a great finale. But I'm not on those sides of the conversations when it comes to that part of the business. I don't know. It was a hit. Buenos Aires was like, remember that was the weird one where they had to create the stadium. They didn't really know how many tickets were going to come in. They ended up selling it out in like five seconds. The fans showed up before practice and never left. The seats were full. I have to imagine this year, they'll go a little bigger now that they know the market. But that market was the most fired up by far. England, I don't know much about the England spot. Then the Australian one is like, that's automatic. That place crushed it. You were there. That was a bad start.

Speaker 2:
[46:13] Yeah. Going all the way to Australia, Kellan and don't even see Daniel. Yep. Literally all the way there. Never saw the dude. Saw a bunch of other people. Never saw Daniel Blair at all. So sad.

Speaker 3:
[46:22] Accomplished on my part.

Speaker 2:
[46:24] I'm still in negotiations for Pipes Motorsports PR man for WSX. So stay tuned everybody for that.

Speaker 3:
[46:31] You serious?

Speaker 2:
[46:33] I mean, I'm serious. I don't think Dustin is.

Speaker 3:
[46:38] All right.

Speaker 2:
[46:40] And also, I'm count me as very surprised. They're going back to the Gold Coast. That round was great. Don't get me wrong. Stadium was cool. Fans were cool. But there were some really been out of shape people from Motorcycle Australia that that round happened because they have their own supercar series that it was going up against. And obviously you want to support that and everything else. So I was pretty surprised when that one came back. That's for sure.

Speaker 3:
[47:07] Yeah. Again, I don't know that. I know what you're talking about. I just don't know what the details are. Other than the Gold Coast is like a destination spot. I think you're going to get travelers that fly into there. With the schedule coming out this early, maybe that allows the other series to build around it. So there is no conflict this year and would make it even more successful because it was successful because of the location. The Gold Coast, dude, everybody loves the Gold Coast.

Speaker 2:
[47:31] But you're getting money from the government, right? All these places, the South Africa, Canadian, Buenos Aires, all the governments are stepping up and helping to get WSX there as part of a tourism thing. So count me as surprised that the Australian government went against Motorcycle Australia in doing this. But hey, whatever, that's out of my hands. That's politics.

Speaker 3:
[47:52] Hey, how's Calgary? I've never been to Calgary.

Speaker 2:
[47:55] Calgary is awesome, but my Canadian fellow podcasters, the gentleman at CMXU, have you heard of these two?

Speaker 3:
[48:04] The Ryans.

Speaker 2:
[48:05] The Ryans. Have you heard of them?

Speaker 3:
[48:06] I've heard of them.

Speaker 2:
[48:07] Well, the one Ryan and you were arena cost buddies.

Speaker 3:
[48:10] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[48:12] Possibly, Mayer-Madoff consumed some beverages together after some of these arena costs.

Speaker 3:
[48:19] I heard rumors of that happening.

Speaker 2:
[48:20] Yes. So they think, look, it's an old stadium, it's a CFL stadium. It's not. It's very, very old. They're replacing it at some point. They don't know about it because of the dirt will be as hard-packed as you can get in August. The temperature will be hot. It's an outdoor stadium. They're not stoked on it as far as the potential of it. But again, listen, the BC races exceeded mine and the Ryan's expectations, as far as crowd and the coolness factor. So let's hope Calgary does that way. Neither one of the Ryan's are thinking this is going to be awesome.

Speaker 3:
[48:59] I loved Vancouver. And then the questions I've asked to fellow Canadian friends of mine is that Calgary itself is a really cool place. So hoping that maybe that draws to you because the whole experience matters. So I don't hate hard-packed races, man. I thought Australia and South Africa last year were the two best rounds, and it was as hard-packed blue groove as it gets. So I'm not afraid of a hard-packed race.

Speaker 2:
[49:20] Yeah, it's Los Banos. It's Los Banos all over the place.

Speaker 3:
[49:23] Dude, Los Banos. I mean, I might race.

Speaker 2:
[49:27] No, I don't think so because we saw you at the Helmet Cam at Vancouver.

Speaker 3:
[49:30] Yeah, but that was ruddy. That was the issue. It was ruddy.

Speaker 2:
[49:35] Thank you to StompGrip, Pulpmx 26 code to save at stompgrid.com. Manufactured in design and everything proudly in the USA, down there at Huntington Beach, California. These are grip tape specific to your bike and model. They help you reduce arm pump, through body positioning, protect your plastic and frame from wear and tear. I've got this on my own bike. This stuff, it's really, really firm. It works well, multiple washes, and the stuff sticks like glue. 3D grip tape available, Pulpmx 26 code to save, and they have their own cut to fit stuff as well if they don't have your year make and model or if you just want some more for different spots. Please use the code pulpmx26 to save at stompgrid.com. And then our guy Bob at ASV Inventions, doing big things with Ken Roxxon right now, Daniel.

Speaker 3:
[50:19] Oh yeah, four wins. Shout out to ASV Inventions and congrats to Ken Roxxon and Team Suzuki for another premier class win last weekend in Cleveland on his ASV equipped Arm Z450. Four wins this season. Nice. ASV is pumped to introduce the new S1 series single pivot OEM style motocross racing levers. S1 levers are forged aluminum, CNC machine, single pivot with dial adjust reach. They also include a stainless steel bushing at the pivot for years of precision feel. And they have a one year unbreakable guarantee. Check out the new ASV S1 series lever. It's the most affordable lever ever offered by ASV. Now available for KTMs, Huskies, Gas Gas, Triumph, and Justin Barsha's Ducati this weekend that he's gonna win. Available at your local dealer or at asvinventions.com. Use the code pulpmx in all caps for 20% off.

Speaker 2:
[51:12] Think about this, so Darren Lawrence, all those years ago, the reason the Lawrence brothers run their levers in was because Darren was tired of having them fall and having to replace them when they broke. Think if Darren early on would have gone on the ASV one year unbreakable warranty, and then the Lawrence brothers whole body positioning slash lever placements would have changed forever. Think about that.

Speaker 3:
[51:34] That's true. The body position did change around their single finger pull in this kind of way. Yep, that's very well. All because of the levers that just broke off every time you fell, man. I've broken off 100 of those.

Speaker 2:
[51:45] Oh, I know, right? Listen, email us in the contact form of Pulpmx to get a discount from Troy Lee Designs, and we'll pass that discount code on to you. I sent out a bunch of these every single week, people. So I hope you guys are using it. Race Tech as well. racetech.com mentioned Pulpmx, mentioned Blair, mentioned Los Banos, anything to get a discount from racetech.com from those guys as well. All right. Question of the week for you two jerkeys and myself. Favorite lit kit of all time. Now, I'm hesitant to do this because do we just say not McGrath and No Fear? Or is that like the category and then we got to pick a second guy? Like, how do we do that, right? So go ahead, Kellen. We'll start with you.

Speaker 4:
[52:33] Well, can I pick a No Fear rider that's not McGrath?

Speaker 2:
[52:37] Yes. Yeah, you can. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[52:40] I'm super fond of a lot of things that Pastrana wore when he was No Fear and Race Pro. People don't like a lot of colorful things, but when Pastrana would wear yellow and green or yellow and red together, and then he had that cool spiral helmet, like all of those looks are just super iconic to me. And I put them at the top of my list, but maybe others don't.

Speaker 2:
[53:04] Anybody who listens to Re-Raceables knows about Seth Rarick and his love of No Fear McGrath era.

Speaker 3:
[53:10] Dude.

Speaker 2:
[53:11] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[53:12] And how about Roxanne this weekend? That yellow green thing, that's what it reminded me of, Kellan. That brought back Travis, the night when Travis and K-Dub were going off the triple and messing with each other at Anaheim. That's where my mind went, Kellan.

Speaker 4:
[53:28] Yeah, I was at the race.

Speaker 2:
[53:30] So Daniel, is yours a No Fear guy?

Speaker 3:
[53:32] No, mine's different. McGrath is involved in this. And I feel like my brain has gone a little bit for a second. And I think it might be Lammy too. But is it McGrath and Henry and one other one that had the Fox look and they just had that one year where they all look the same. And I had some really like the maroon color combo was in there. I've ever been a little kid and I ended up getting that gear.

Speaker 2:
[53:57] That wasn't McGrath. That was more Henry running the green, the bronze, the bronze and black, and then the green that was more Doug. I don't think Jeremy wore much of that.

Speaker 3:
[54:07] I thought they all did one year like in the outdoors. No, and me too. I remember being a kid and that look was so unbelievable. I used to stare at the catalog forever and I actually switched gear companies just because of that gear when I was a little kid. So that little era and then also I feel like anything Kevin Windham wore, always looked cool but it's probably more of a Kevin thing. I don't know if it was the gear as much as I just thought Kevin always looked sick because he was just he was iconic looking to me.

Speaker 2:
[54:35] So, Kellen, Nod, No Fear Rider.

Speaker 4:
[54:39] Okay, if it's that, if it's not No Fear Rider, it's 100% 2012 Chad Reid shift Fox combo. He had like a white, red and light blue look that was one of the ones that I really liked. But he also had one that was like red and yellow, but it kind of like flowed down towards white boots. And so that one as well was really, really clean.

Speaker 2:
[55:02] No company went from shit kit to lit kit like shift. They had skulls and Brock Hepler to the cleanest Chad Reid look ever. Like in one year, like just amazing, right? I will go McGrath Yamaha because of course, just absolutely insane how good that stuff looked. Hate to admit Rarek was right, but he really is. But if I gotta go non No Fear, I'm going back, man. I'm going back to Ron Lachine, JT in 85 or Bailey 85, either one. Bailey's Flow Orange in 86 was good too, but red, white and blue, JT ALS-1 helmet, the V1000 chest protector, blue boots, white and blue pants. It just doesn't get any better.

Speaker 3:
[55:50] I don't know. My LBZ Axo boot, Utopia goggle look was pretty strong too, Steve, in 04.

Speaker 2:
[55:58] You were third on my list. Yeah, you were third.

Speaker 3:
[56:01] I'll take the podium.

Speaker 2:
[56:02] Yeah. Some good stuff though, for sure. Do you guys have any thoughts on that JT era? I know you're both way too young, but I mean, Kellan would at least have seen photos and appreciated it.

Speaker 3:
[56:14] I did too. I've always told you, Steve, 90 for me was when it really began. But in 90, there was a lot of that as the most recent history. So I remember that look too. And I always thought Ron Lesheen was like a Wyndham type to me. He, no matter what, he looked cool. He was always the coolest looking dude.

Speaker 2:
[56:29] You can't find a bad photo of Dogger, even when the jerseys are like 4XL back in the day, you know, like you can't find a bad photo of Dogger. Bradshaw, also Zebra Stripe stuff. Just, yeah.

Speaker 3:
[56:42] 80, 89 Bradshaw, number 45, 125E, that race in the sand that night. That's just a forever memory in my brain. He looks so sick that night.

Speaker 2:
[56:50] All right. Well, we got to do a non-No Fear edition. I didn't realize that when I first asked you guys that.

Speaker 3:
[56:57] Dude, they were so, dude, it was so unbelievably iconic, though. They had a good run.

Speaker 2:
[57:02] Fantasy time here. Pick the finish. We are coming down to the wire. We got three rounds to go. Cleveland, the fraud tried hard, tried his best to jack us up, Daniel, but we overcome that. Justin Hill asked me, I said 11th, he got 8th. That was three off. Not great, but Justin Hill, one got on the box, I should say, got on the box the last race, of course, because he's Justin Hill. Cody Shock, I said 6th, he got 6th. Luke Clout, I said 13th, he got 13th. Come on, people. Come on, people. Clout and Shock, just randomly, I'm picking the exact places.

Speaker 4:
[57:42] God, I'm good.

Speaker 3:
[57:44] Lick Hit for Hill?

Speaker 4:
[57:45] No?

Speaker 2:
[57:46] No, man. Colt looks good in his Liat stuff a lot of the times, but I don't know what's going on with Hill. I like the Liat guys. Robert Liat is awesome. They sponsor the LVK show. Thank you, Liat. Can we do something there? All right, Daniel Blair, Fantasy Picks. You had a good week too, Daniel. I was three off total just on the One Rider, but you were one off on Dylan Ferrandes, one off on Dax Benwick and one off on Kyle Peters. Again, random Kyle Peters and you were three, so we tied for the week. I am up though 28 points with three rounds to go. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[58:27] This is one of those weeks where I'm bummed that I didn't make up ground, but then I'm like, we are good. I could take one week off of being bitter and go, we as a unit are really good at this because a triple crown with that weather, I mean, that's a lot of variables. And to be that good is ridiculous. But I am still bitter to be 28 down. And I'm ready to go for it, though. I'm ready to lock the wrist for three weeks and get this thing back.

Speaker 2:
[58:54] Imagine how mad the fraud was when he started adding these up and realizing that he could not trip us up, could not.

Speaker 3:
[59:02] But this week, we're doing three SMX Next Riders. So let's rock and roll. Let's go, Kellen.

Speaker 2:
[59:07] We are not doing SMX Riders. Who is racing SMX? Is anybody like who's going to win SMX this weekend? Like for reals?

Speaker 3:
[59:15] Probably either Ryder Malinowski or Jessen Turner, probably. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:
[59:18] Here we go.

Speaker 3:
[59:19] And that is not coming from a place of pure homerism.

Speaker 2:
[59:22] Not at all.

Speaker 3:
[59:23] Not even one percent.

Speaker 2:
[59:23] Kellen, who's in this thing? Who's winning?

Speaker 4:
[59:26] I mean, honestly, DV might be on it. But Vincent Way obviously should be like a good shout. I think he'll do well. I still feel like Cade Johnson's like underperforming results wise for what he actually should be doing.

Speaker 2:
[59:36] So Cade's going to Canada, I saw. It's one of the Canadian sites said that.

Speaker 4:
[59:39] That's cool.

Speaker 3:
[59:40] Cade, Vincent Way and Malinowski. So smart. That is where these kids need to go. It is such a good move. But hey, good call on Cade. He won the Mudder last year in this class. Kellen. So if this one is a full blown swamper, Cade won it last year when it was like this. And then near, I believe, right?

Speaker 4:
[60:01] Isn't this?

Speaker 2:
[60:03] Speaking of SMX next, look for a Phoenix Honda rider announcement next week, I think. So stay tuned. Kellen knows what I'm talking about.

Speaker 4:
[60:13] I do know. Stay tuned. All right.

Speaker 2:
[60:18] What?

Speaker 4:
[60:18] So pick the finish in terms of me being nervous when I was looking at the results being mad about it. I was actually way more nervous as you know, Steve, Saturday.

Speaker 2:
[60:28] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[60:28] I thought I gave one of you guys both Marshall Weldon and Luke Clouton. They were both in the LCQ.

Speaker 2:
[60:34] But yeah, he was concerned in the press box, Daniel, I will say. The fraud was worried because he got a tweet that said something about giving us a rider that didn't qualify. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[60:44] The good thing is, Kellen, no matter what, you'll never have both of us mad at you. So you're always going to be fine overall on the same week is what I'm saying.

Speaker 4:
[60:53] Well, if you guys both have riders that missed the mains, I feel like there's going to be a bit of a vitriol.

Speaker 2:
[60:59] Tune into the fraud in the Hack Show, by the way, the fraud in the Hack Show weekly.

Speaker 3:
[61:04] Hey, did the hack get after Eli a little bit on your show? Did he get after him a little bit, Kellen?

Speaker 4:
[61:11] On LVK? Not really, I mean, there's a J-Law post.

Speaker 3:
[61:15] Held his ground though, pretty hard.

Speaker 4:
[61:18] I feel like so, yeah. There's a J-Law post that was pulled from our show the week before that I think people are probably referencing.

Speaker 3:
[61:24] Okay.

Speaker 4:
[61:25] Anyway.

Speaker 2:
[61:27] Congrats on Show 100, by the way, Kellen, for that. Phil Nicoletti dropped in as a guest appearance. And so congrats on that. And also startyoursystems.com if you're into that stuff, check it out, Kellen Brower.

Speaker 4:
[61:40] Thanks, man. All right. On to pick the finish. Steve for Philadelphia. How about Chase Sexton?

Speaker 3:
[61:48] Forty-first, Steve. Calling it right now, dude. Couldn't qualify.

Speaker 2:
[61:55] I'll go fourth. Yeah, fourth.

Speaker 4:
[61:58] Fourth for Chase. Christian Craig.

Speaker 2:
[62:04] Man. 12th.

Speaker 4:
[62:07] 12th for Craig and Derek Kelly.

Speaker 2:
[62:13] Derek Kelly is volatile. He's a gamer. That's why Kellan picked him. Can I do a research real quick?

Speaker 4:
[62:23] Yeah. Do you want me to play the Jeopardy music?

Speaker 2:
[62:27] Derek Kelly.

Speaker 3:
[62:30] Hey, he is. He is so like you would think when you see him the way he rides, you would think that he's so solid. But he is send E, man.

Speaker 2:
[62:37] We got a 12th. We got a 17th. We got a 32nd. We got a 19th. We got an 8th. I mean, Derek Kelly, everybody. So I'm going to just cut her down the middle.

Speaker 4:
[62:47] 10th.

Speaker 2:
[62:49] I'm going to lose some points on that, but I'll be I'll be good either. No, wait, sorry. 12th, 12th, 12th.

Speaker 4:
[62:54] Okay. 12th for DK. Let me make sure I cut down. All right. DB, Justin Cooper.

Speaker 3:
[63:03] Three.

Speaker 4:
[63:05] Third for Jacob, Shane McElrath.

Speaker 3:
[63:12] You got to risk it for the biscuit at this point, right? I mean, I can't play it safe. I got to go for it. And he's low key really good in mud. And I got to swing hard. I'm going sixth.

Speaker 4:
[63:24] Oh, I like it.

Speaker 3:
[63:25] I have to. I have no choice.

Speaker 2:
[63:26] That is a mistake, everyone, right there. What you just witnessed on camera was Daniel Blair melting down.

Speaker 3:
[63:32] Now, this is called swinging for the fences, like Roxanne was doing this last weekend. And what did it get him? A win. Did you watch Race 3? Did you see Shane in Race 3?

Speaker 4:
[63:41] No?

Speaker 2:
[63:41] Fifth. Yeah, fifth.

Speaker 3:
[63:42] Yeah, so sixth.

Speaker 4:
[63:45] All right. And your last pick, Henry Miller.

Speaker 3:
[63:51] Henry.

Speaker 2:
[63:52] Henry Miller is like Morocco compared to like Derek Kelly.

Speaker 4:
[63:56] I gave you Henry Miller this year, Steve, and he burned you. So.

Speaker 2:
[63:59] Yeah, he did.

Speaker 3:
[64:00] That's right. He did. Seven.

Speaker 4:
[64:07] Seventh for Henry Miller. There we go.

Speaker 3:
[64:09] Yeah, this is a week at all. You're going to be sweating in Denver when this comeback starts this weekend, dude. You watch when Shane gets sixth and Chase gets 41st. You watch.

Speaker 2:
[64:20] Well, maybe on Friday, I can reconvene with you, Daniel, to talk about this.

Speaker 3:
[64:24] Yeah. Come hang out. What are you doing in Philly? Come hang out. Five to seven at the PBR.

Speaker 2:
[64:29] I think we got, I think the fraud and I and a few other people are going to do a nice dinner.

Speaker 3:
[64:34] Oh, romantic and romantic getaway. All right.

Speaker 2:
[64:37] My dear friend, Nick.

Speaker 3:
[64:39] Well, then never mind.

Speaker 2:
[64:41] Okay. Screw both of you. I do like Aaron Plesinger though. Not you so much, but I do like AP. He's a beauty. Absolutely.

Speaker 3:
[64:47] He is a beauty.

Speaker 2:
[64:48] He is a beauty. All right. Troy Lee Designs Race Tech, Zools Seed Concepts, Firepower, Maxxis, ASV Inventions, Stompgrip, Namira, all on board with us, as well as the fraud and Daniel Blair. We're on to Philadelphia this week. Looking forward to it. Like I said, Kellan, we will see you there this weekend too. And Daniel, we probably will not see you there, but enjoy Philly on Friday. And then, yeah, we could meet next week for Denver.

Speaker 3:
[65:13] This is payback for me not seeing you in Australia. You can get me back this Friday in Philly.

Speaker 2:
[65:18] Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3:
[65:18] And we're even, and you never bring, and then you never bring me up again.

Speaker 2:
[65:20] I even texted him. I even texted him, Kellan, hey, where are you at? Where are you gonna be? And just like, nothing.

Speaker 3:
[65:25] No, you text me because you were outside and couldn't get your pass to get in. And I was like, good luck, buddy.

Speaker 2:
[65:31] And it was that part too. Me standing there for like 30 minutes while they were like, nope, we don't have you on the list. Oh, wait, we have it by last name first. So when I said Steve Matthes, they couldn't find me, but they had a Matthes Steve. Cool, man.

Speaker 3:
[65:48] They drive on the other side of the road. They use liters instead of gallons. I mean, what do you expect?

Speaker 2:
[65:53] I get it. Thanks for watching and listening, everybody. We appreciate it. Stats are in for the first quarter of 2026. And it's the second biggest show we have on the Pulpmx network, man. That's pretty cool, mostly due to me. Very little to do with the fraud and Daniel. And yeah, man. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, guys.