transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:04] A series of the most exciting action imaginable.

Speaker 2:
[00:18] Welcome to the Fox Racing ReRaceables on polpmx.com. Matthes, Weege and Seth Rarick revisit the instant classics from yesteryear, spotlighting those historic moments that simply never grow old.

Speaker 3:
[00:46] Welcome, everybody, to another edition of the Fox Racing ReRaceables. Thank you for listening, I appreciate it. These are really fun to do. Thanks to Fox Racing, Maxis and Guts for coming on board this show. foxracing.com, of course, been around for a long, long time, and they got Deegs, and Deegs rewarded them with a championship, so thanks to the folks at Fox Racing. Ken Roxton, making it work really well, the Pro Circuit guys, obviously, as well, in Fox Racing. foxracing.com, please check them out. Great mountain bike stuff as well. And again, Maxis and Guts, as I mentioned, we'll have to talk about those guys later. This is 2005 Phoenix Supercross. We'll tell you why we're doing this one in a second. But to join me, as usual, it's Thee, Jason Wigand, what's up, Weege?

Speaker 4:
[01:27] Yeah, it's a really great time for the sport in this episode we're talking about. Going back and watching, this was just the hype, the excitement, the money, the hangars, honors. It was almost a peak time for Supercross.

Speaker 3:
[01:40] Also on the line, from his Palatial Top Gun Raceway, I think. Thee, Seth Rarick. Hi, Seth.

Speaker 5:
[01:48] Very Palatial, yeah. Yep, just like your house, Steve.

Speaker 3:
[01:52] Zach Osborne was just there, he told us, doing a motocross school at Top Gun.

Speaker 5:
[01:56] Dude, Zach loved it too. I was really, really stoked with that. Obviously, he came up mainly because he's a buddy of mine, but he genuinely really enjoyed it. It went a lot better than I expected.

Speaker 3:
[02:10] It was really nice. 2005 Fox Re-Raceables, we were doing the Phoenix Supercross because this is Carmichael's first win on a Suzuki. His mechanic, Mike Gosselaar, will join us. Goose, a legend in mechanic-ing, maybe the guy with the most wins. It's absolutely insane how many wins Goose has over the years. First was Steve Lampson and then with Carmichael and others. And so this is the first race Ricky won on a Suzuki. He did do the world rounds in Toronto and Vancouver. He won, I think, Toronto. James won Vancouver, but AMA, full AMA races.

Speaker 4:
[02:43] No, and this year Ricky was the only one that raced him.

Speaker 3:
[02:46] Oh.

Speaker 4:
[02:46] That was the next year. This is the one.

Speaker 3:
[02:48] Did Ricky win them both?

Speaker 4:
[02:50] Yep.

Speaker 3:
[02:50] Okay. But this is his first with full competition. And this race has Jeremy McGrath and Travis Pastrana in it as well. I guess looking back on it, I didn't realize this. Probably mention this to Goose when we get him on. This is Suzuki's first 450 Supercross win in six years. Larry Ward won Tampa 99. And I mean, it makes sense when you really break it down. But Weege, that stat sort of floored me. Like I was a mechanic then working for Yamaha, Ricky going to Suzuki, all of that. We'll get into that. I was really surprised. Six years.

Speaker 1:
[03:24] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[03:26] It's like it both makes sense and does it because for sure when he signed there in 04, it was like, man, they've really been struggling. They seem cursed. All their guys get hurt all the time. But I still didn't think it had been six years despite that.

Speaker 3:
[03:39] Right. It just that struck me. 1999, the last time they won, right, Seth? Did you take a second? Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[03:49] Yes and no. A little bit of a skewed stat though. Windham 1, Washugal 01. Outside of that, no disrespect, but who did they have?

Speaker 4:
[04:02] I guess it was all geared around Pastrana and we know that didn't work out. So that's probably the whole reason they didn't win.

Speaker 5:
[04:06] Correct. That's what I mean. I think it's a skewed stat a little bit. Pastrana was obviously unreal in the 125 class and then invented CTE. So yeah, I think it's not really that surprising. I mean, we're in 2026 and this guy, Ken Roxton looks pretty good on a Suzuki.

Speaker 3:
[04:25] Yeah, not too bad. Yellow magic. So I'll start with you, Seth, as the youngest one on here. When RC makes the move to Suzuki, again, they haven't won much. Do you think he's just going to keep rolling or are you like, I don't know, it's Suzuki?

Speaker 5:
[04:44] From my memory on it, and I'll get into it, which I'm actually really glad I watched this before we did it, because it did change my memory a little bit. But my memory at the time, a little bit, I mean, honestly, it's Ricky, right? So, and I know it's kind of weird timing that we're doing this right now, because even when Kenny signed with Suzuki a few years ago, yeah, you kind of raise an eyebrow on Suzuki, but then you're like, is Ken Roxton, dude, he can win on a couch. And from my memory in 05, I kind of have the same feelings. Ricky going to Suzuki, wait, you're leaving Honda? Honda's like, in your head is like, wow, that's like the best team you can ride for. Ricky's leaving, that's crazy, you know? Like you said, Suzuki hasn't won much at that time. But it's Ricky Carmichael, man, he's going to figure it out. I will say, going back and watching this, this is going to be probably a really unpopular opinion. I think Ricky wins this title if James stays healthy. I did not remember Ricky being this dialed in. In Supercross, this is the best he ever looked on a Supercross track to me. It's, I don't think a 252 stroke could have ridden that track any faster. Ricky was unbelievable. I think he took a step up. I mean, obviously he missed 04, but 03, yes, he won the title, but what, Reid beat in the last eight rounds in a row. His setup was all funky, bars in his lap, kind of looked goofy. This is the best Ricky ever looked on a Supercross track to me, hands down. I think he took a step up going to Suzuki, I really do.

Speaker 3:
[06:27] Weege, what did you think?

Speaker 4:
[06:30] Honestly, it wasn't the Suzuki thing as much as it was the Chad and James thing. I wasn't too worried about the bike. They still had Roger and Ian, yes, the results have been bad previous years, but I felt like they were okay. Almost to the point Seth was making, it appeared that the Honda was a bit of a problem in its own right. I don't know if I was worried as much about Suzuki bike and team as James and Chad just passed them up. Is this the natural passing of the torch? Because like you just said, Seth, the last time RC raced Supercross, Chad was blowing his doors off, and usually in this sport, you just don't come back from that. Now we've seen it in this era over and over, in this year alone, Eli Tomac and Ken Roxton have done it. But back in the day, it was like once the baton was passed, it was over, and then James Stewart was the most hyped fastest dude ever. I think the worry was more about on any bike, I don't know if he could beat those guys. That's what I think.

Speaker 3:
[07:25] Weege, were you there at this race?

Speaker 4:
[07:27] Yeah. I started the webcast actually at Anaheim 1 this year. So this was the second show that I was the announcer for the webcast.

Speaker 3:
[07:34] We've done a Fox ReRaceables on Anaheim 1. It was the complete mudder that Windham wins and all of that. So we can go back. Who did we do that with? I don't remember. Did we do it with Windham? Ricky? I don't remember. We did it with somebody.

Speaker 4:
[07:46] Who did we do the mud race with?

Speaker 3:
[07:47] I don't know. I'll look it up. But anyways, yeah, this was round two. And so Stu gets hurt in practice. And I've actually told this story before. I've told most of my stories before, but I was a mechanic for Timmy in 05. And watching James absolutely shredding practice out there on the day. And then, but I also, the mechanics area, the way mechanics area was, you went by the mechanics area, you went left and you went on off a section. And James was like scrubbing the on, if it made sense. And then his front tire, it was incredible to watch him do it. He was still turning, still on an angle. And then he would scrub on and scrub off while his front tire gave out. He was probably on the outer edge of his front knobby of the front tire on dry slick Phoenix track. I saw the whole thing in front of me because I just happened to be watching him go by. And like, it was like a video game. He was trying to stay so low and his tire just gave way. And he went off the over, broke his arm, right? Arm? What did he break? Arm.

Speaker 5:
[08:57] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[08:58] Broke his arm. And then that was it. But I remember thinking like, dude, you can't do that. You can't.

Speaker 5:
[09:03] Yeah. That's kind of, I guess I should correct what I said earlier. When I said I don't think you could ride a 252 stroke on this track any faster, well, you can, but then you end up like James.

Speaker 3:
[09:17] Yep. So, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[09:19] I guess for 20 laps is what I meant.

Speaker 3:
[09:20] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[09:21] Ricky was unbelievable.

Speaker 3:
[09:23] Yeah. He was really good. By the way, Weege, Anaheim Supercross 2005 was our first ever Re-Raceables. It was just you and I. I just checked it.

Speaker 4:
[09:31] I remember we did that at your house, I think. So there you go.

Speaker 3:
[09:35] No, I think-

Speaker 4:
[09:35] It was the very first episode. I think I do remember that.

Speaker 3:
[09:37] Yeah. It was just you and I breaking it down. We didn't have a guest. But anyways-

Speaker 4:
[09:41] Are you sure we didn't just call Jim Holley for no reason, but for kicks?

Speaker 3:
[09:44] That was Anaheim 186. We called Jim Holley for no reason. Oh, okay. Then we called Jim Holley about Ultra Cross 2, which is also awesome. Yeah. Anyways, James goes out with a broken arm, and I remember standing mechanics area, just one of those things, and I'm like, you can't do that, dude. You can't scrub the on and then just go sideways off of it. But he was doing things like that and it bit him. So he went broken arm, he came back, I think in Dallas later this year. This was the new aluminum frame Yamaha. I was at Yamaha at the time and nobody liked the bike. Obviously, Chad was the defending champion, but nobody liked that aluminum frame bike. The guys were still fighting it. Ferry's wrist was hurt from 04 still. McGrath was back though. Jeremy wrote.

Speaker 4:
[10:29] Hold on, Steve, I want to ask about the Yamaha.

Speaker 3:
[10:31] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[10:31] Okay. You were there. You worked for the team. You were Timmy's mechanic.

Speaker 3:
[10:36] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[10:36] Did you know in the off season that this aluminum frame was... I know you always tell the story that the engineer said, you will not be able to tell the difference. It is exactly the same. But in the off season, did you guys know?

Speaker 3:
[10:47] Yes. Yeah. Everyone was complaining. We also did this thing. I don't know why. Yes, it was 05. Do you guys remember the KYB bell bottom forks? They flared out at the end.

Speaker 4:
[11:01] Only from your pods talking about them.

Speaker 5:
[11:03] I was going to say only from you talking about them.

Speaker 3:
[11:05] Yeah. So they go to an aluminum frame, which the Japanese say same same, and then Chad says not same same. Well, everyone did, but then they give us some suspension and the forks at the bottom, right where the lower tubes meet the upper tubes, they were flared out. They're called bell bottom forks. A lot of political things go on in race teams. That was too much change. I remember Chad being like, can we just put last year's forks on? No. Why? Because. But it's like, yeah, like no one's going to care that Yamaha is not running the bell bottom forks. I think the KYB guys sell Yamaha, hey, this is the latest, greatest, bell bottom forks, whatever the reasons were. So Yamaha says, yes, we will buy those, right? They buy them from KYB for the race team. And then just stubborn people in charge, not wanting to go back. So I'm looking, you know, now you add an aluminum frame with different characteristics from the steel frame. And now you have a bike with two drastic changes. All three guys thought the same thing about the bike, even though the Japanese said it was the same. So we were a bit of a mess bike-wise going with this season.

Speaker 4:
[12:21] The reason I ask is because I don't know how you, I don't know if you guys have heard this, but a lot of times the riders complain about their bikes. People think they're just making excuses. I don't know if you guys have ever heard this.

Speaker 3:
[12:33] Yeah, just a little bit, yeah.

Speaker 4:
[12:34] So in the off season, the information everybody had was same saying, right? Then Chad doesn't have a good start to the season and then start saying the bike isn't as good as last year's. I feel like the scuttlebutt was, excuses, he's just getting beat. So no, before he got beat, you already knew you had a problem with the bike.

Speaker 3:
[12:52] Yeah, it was not an excuse.

Speaker 4:
[12:54] It was a legitimate problem.

Speaker 3:
[12:55] All three guys were saying, hey, this just doesn't turn as good. This doesn't feel as good, it's not as compliant. But again, we had those bell bottom forks, and I don't think the guys were allowed to change. I don't think anybody ever even tried the other forks, you know, that we had, you know, and Seth knows this, we have 40 sets of forks there, but nope, can't try them. So yeah, there was definitely some problems with the new aluminum frame. They did look bitching though. God, they look good with the aluminum frame, as far as that goes. And we were super light. We had to add weight to our race bikes to meet the minimum weight limit back then. So that was pretty cool that we were like a pound or two under the AMA legal weight limit. So we put, we added a lead skid plate to the bikes. And then we had a lead pivot as well to try to just get to the minimum weight limit. Like that's, nowadays in 2026, that's unheard of to be below the weight limit, but we really were. So the bikes were light, really good motor.

Speaker 4:
[13:49] Hey, last thing on this topic.

Speaker 3:
[13:50] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[13:50] By the end of the year, Chad was really good at winning races. Did Daytona win? He said it was his best win ever. He won straight up at Vegas. Do you feel that they got the bike figured out or was he never as good? Was the 05 never as good as 0304?

Speaker 3:
[14:05] Yeah, never as good. Don't think we got him.

Speaker 4:
[14:07] Really?

Speaker 3:
[14:07] I don't remember any breakthroughs. I don't remember anything.

Speaker 5:
[14:10] So they never gave in at any point throughout the senior, let him go back to last year's fork?

Speaker 3:
[14:15] No, no, I don't believe so. I think he was pissed. Yeah, he was pissed about that. Well, because you got to put everybody back on the fork, right? The other guys aren't going to be like, well, cool, but...

Speaker 5:
[14:25] Well, that's the thing. No, you don't. It's, it's, you don't. That, that kind of bugs me. That, that's just the order of life, dude. It's Chad Reed. No, you want to try it, try it.

Speaker 3:
[14:39] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[14:39] I don't know, that, that, that bugs me. It's like, people say it's not fair. Well, life's not fair, dude. If you're, you're not winning, then fuck off.

Speaker 3:
[14:46] Yeah, but dude, then you got two guys that are, that are be like, well, if I had that fork, I would do better. And they're just going to throw in the towel.

Speaker 5:
[14:53] Okay, but you put it on your, I, yes, I agree, but you put it on your championship guy first. If it's a big improvement, then if someone wants to go from eighth place to sixth place, cool, try it, dude. But right now we don't care. We're trying to get our championship guy to win.

Speaker 3:
[15:08] Well, sure. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. Chad gets to try it and say what he thinks.

Speaker 5:
[15:12] But yes, that's my point. Eventually, I understand what you're saying.

Speaker 3:
[15:16] Yeah, he would go to it. I guarantee you back then, Chad would have ran the old fork. I almost guarantee it from my memory. Then, now you got Villaman and Ferry being like, well, I want to try that because again, no one was happy with their bikes, right? So at some point, I've told this story too, but we had someone at Yamaha in the press box after this round. This is the second round of the year. After this round, they said, hey, the bikes are flexing. They're flexing. I can see it. We're like, okay.

Speaker 4:
[15:44] So you said from the press box, I believe, is where this was seen.

Speaker 3:
[15:47] Yes. So my job the next week, I don't know why I got to sign this, but I had to make little aluminum pieces. If you remember those frames, they were honeycombs. They had openings everywhere. Those 05 Yamahas. They had little webbing on the aluminum. I had to make these aluminum pieces fit on the inside by the pivot and all of the inside of the frame, so you couldn't really see them. Public couldn't see them. I had to make these aluminum pieces to fill the hole. Then we had a welder weld these caps on these holes. Then we went and tried it. Everyone was like, no, man, this is way worse, way worse. Dozens of hours put into these things and we built a whole bike that was completely the same as the guys' bikes with just one frame. We didn't even tell the guys. We didn't even tell the riders. We went to the Yamaha track and it said, ride this, now ride this. Everyone was like, I don't know what you did to this bike, but it's garbage. We're like, yeah, that's the frame that was flexing, quote unquote. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[16:54] A was- Not everything used to be better guy because that is just pure stupidity.

Speaker 3:
[16:59] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[17:00] I think things weren't always smarter and better and smarter back in the day as people remember them.

Speaker 3:
[17:07] No, no.

Speaker 5:
[17:08] Was Voss, this was still Mach 1 for Voss. He went factory in 06, right?

Speaker 3:
[17:13] He went factory in 06. Yeah. That's that they picked them up in 06.

Speaker 4:
[17:17] What happened when he got moved to the factory? What did that result in?

Speaker 3:
[17:22] Well, that resulted in me exiting. Yeah. They were like, hey, you're going to work for Voss. I'm like, no, I think my time here is over. I have a sticker though. I have a sticker. Did I ever show you, Seth? I have a Matthes Voss Yamaha sticker.

Speaker 5:
[17:38] No. Voss was almost your boss.

Speaker 3:
[17:40] He was. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[17:42] But he was factory support though, right? Like he'd be at the track with you guys?

Speaker 3:
[17:46] Yeah. He was all at the track with us. Mach 1 guys were there. Was it Nick? No. I don't know who the other guy was.

Speaker 6:
[17:55] I was trying to think who.

Speaker 5:
[17:56] I think it was just Voss because 04 would have been Yogi in him. I think it might have been just Voss in 05.

Speaker 3:
[18:04] Yeah. It might have been that way. Voss gets a good start. Almost takes out Chad, by the way. Do you guys see that in the background?

Speaker 6:
[18:10] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[18:13] Seth, I'm going to text you this photo right now. Ultra rare sticker available. I will sell it to you Seth for, I don't know, a couple of hundred dollars if you want it. That's a rare, ultra rare sticker. Fox Racing Re-Raceables, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Voss and Matthes.

Speaker 4:
[18:32] Anyway, so was DV done with Yamaha at the end of 05?

Speaker 3:
[18:36] DV went to Buku. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[18:39] And who is his mechanic at 05?

Speaker 3:
[18:41] Gothic J, but Gothic was going to be our test guy. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[18:45] Yes. What I'm getting at is here, this sticker you just sent us, the only two mechanics to survive are you and Rookie. So why you? Was this a sign of approval from Yamaha? Like, no, we cannot let that Matthes guy go.

Speaker 3:
[18:55] I think it was more like, hey, Gothic's smarter than Matthes and he can work machines, like he can do work lades and mills. So Gothic will do that. And then the Monkey, the Monkey Canadian will just, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, I believe. Yeah. But yeah, so that was, that was 05 for us. And it was a tough year for sure, but Chad did win Daytona. That was really cool without a doubt. That was up there for sure. Another thing that we thought of too. So Suzuki kind of had a new bike in 05, a new two-stroke. And Bob Oliver, who was a great guy and really smart guy at Yamaha for decades. I mean, he was RJ's mechanic in the early 80s. Bob, at one point in the season, I don't think early, I don't think before the year, but at some point in the season, Bob pulls a Suzuki out from the R&D side, and Bob's looking at it in the race shop. And he's like, they just fucking copied us. They just copied us, that's all they did. So Suzuki redesigned the power valve, the bore and stroke, I think, all of that. And it was honestly, it was a basic Yamaha motor, which Ricky has confirmed like that was what they wanted to do and it worked great. And so Suzuki really made their RM250, as far as motor wise, look like a Yamaha in almost every way.

Speaker 5:
[20:10] I was gonna say the irony here, and I guess this would be a goose question when we get him on, but you're just saying how, you guys are struggling with a bike in 05, 04, it was dialed, and I'm pretty sure Suzuki basically just copied the 04 Yamaha.

Speaker 3:
[20:27] Yeah, I don't know about the frame, I don't really know exactly the frame, but motor wise, yeah, power valves and there was a patent they had to get around and they did something with that to get around it. But basically it was the Yamaha.

Speaker 5:
[20:40] Hey, and is this, what race was Fuelgate? Was it this race?

Speaker 3:
[20:46] No, Fuelgate was 04.

Speaker 5:
[20:49] No, for Ricky, oh for Ricky.

Speaker 3:
[20:51] I don't know.

Speaker 4:
[20:52] That was 06, I think. Ricky's fuel thing was 06.

Speaker 3:
[20:57] No, it was 05.

Speaker 5:
[20:59] No, it was 05.

Speaker 3:
[21:01] What?

Speaker 4:
[21:02] Really?

Speaker 3:
[21:04] I don't know.

Speaker 5:
[21:04] I thought it was 06. Yeah, we need to ask Goose this. Remind me, because I think this might have been this race.

Speaker 3:
[21:12] Yeah, you know what? This was the first year of the Let It Fuel. I do know that. No, it was 06. Sorry. Weege is right. 2006.

Speaker 4:
[21:19] Yeah, I'm thinking it was 4 stroke.

Speaker 3:
[21:20] For San Diego Supercross.

Speaker 4:
[21:21] Ricky had 450.

Speaker 3:
[21:22] Yeah. So this is a neat race though. Okay, so it's Pastrana. He crashes out, by the way. We'll just get that on the front. He just crashes out, Pastrana. But was this, was he doing the whole season for his own team? Or was this a one-off thing?

Speaker 4:
[21:39] That was his plan. That was the plan, yeah. It was. That was the plan, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[21:45] I was going to ask you guys the same thing because I have no memory, zero memory of Travis in 05 besides, or no, that was the next year, never mind. He died in the whoops at Daytona. That was 06. So yeah, I have zero memory of Travis racing in 05, like zero.

Speaker 3:
[22:01] I thought he was just doing one-off races, but it's also possible he was just showing up at one-offs because he was hurt the other times.

Speaker 4:
[22:07] But it was the second. Yeah, I think he barely raced in 04. He planned a huge comeback. Oddly enough, it was like his own. I think he had a white Suzuki. Is it white?

Speaker 3:
[22:16] Yeah, it's white. Cernyx white thing. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[22:20] He had a Cernyx deal. James Coy, I think, was running it, and then he had Michelin, sticking with FMI P222, still was Michelin. I think this is where he tried to do that road jump at Castile Ranch.

Speaker 5:
[22:35] No, that was like, oh.

Speaker 4:
[22:37] What was that going into 04?

Speaker 5:
[22:39] No, that was going into 03, I think.

Speaker 4:
[22:41] Yeah. No, this was, I think he did a beach race and got his wrist broken at a beach race. Yes. Okay. The road jump was two years earlier. He showed up to Adelheim with a broken wrist. That didn't work, crashes out of this one. He was definitely back at some point midway through the year, but I remember hilariously, I was interviewing him in Adelheim 1 and saying like, hey, you're come back, you didn't race at 04, like what's the goal here? And he's like, be within 10 points of the lead going into the finale. That was the goal.

Speaker 3:
[23:07] Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[23:10] In the hunt.

Speaker 3:
[23:11] As far as this race goes, one of you made a comment that it was a better race than you remember. Ricky hole shots and wins, but Kdub is right there. And those two pull a pretty big lead, but Kdub is, I mean, he's right there, Weege.

Speaker 4:
[23:27] Yeah, I don't remember that. Kdub was good, man.

Speaker 3:
[23:30] Yeah. Yeah. This was, this was, this was, I mean, think about too though, and you know, when it goes back to Doug Henry and all of those guys, this really favored a four stroke, this track.

Speaker 4:
[23:40] No.

Speaker 3:
[23:40] I mean, it did, right?

Speaker 5:
[23:43] I'm not even entertained. I'm not even entertained in that because we're getting Doug Henry fight. But all I'll say is, you know, that's hence why I was so impressed with Ricky. Dude, his corners, his corner speed, like, I just don't remember him cornering like that in Supercross on this style. I should say East Coast tracks, yes, but he was turning on nothing. I don't know, man. Ricky blew my mind at this race. He really, really did. He was unreal.

Speaker 3:
[24:13] Yeah, no, he's really good and he ends up winning. Obviously, this is grainy YouTube footage. It's on YouTube, Phoenix05. Are the whoops just two feet tall or are they just hammering these? What's with the whoops? I don't remember them being like mini moto whoops.

Speaker 5:
[24:33] I mean, I would say a combination of both.

Speaker 3:
[24:36] They're not even there. These guys are going through them so fast.

Speaker 5:
[24:40] Yeah, I would say they look tiny. To me, obviously, they're hardpack, but it reminded me a little bit of this past weekend, how tiny they were, but how easily it would be to screw up.

Speaker 3:
[24:52] Yeah, I did like Windham jumping one in. He jumped one or two in.

Speaker 5:
[24:56] How about the next section, dude? Ricky jumping. He was doing it in what, two jumps?

Speaker 3:
[25:01] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[25:03] That was sick, Joe, because they had the tall wall roller in the middle.

Speaker 3:
[25:07] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[25:08] Yeah, and Ricky would jump four and then jump all the way out, or jump, I don't know what, it was like jumping five or something. It was so sick.

Speaker 3:
[25:16] It was neat to watch for sure. We got the categories coming up too as well. Weege, this is Cameron Steele and Todd Harris. And yeah, I was going to say, Weege, okay, so I like Cameron. He was around a lot in my mechanic days and I had a good relationship with him. Is it just, so he's a non-moto guy doing color. He rode a little bit. Of course he had the helmet cam on all of that. He rode a little bit. But is it just a sign of the time, Weege, that there is no Cameron hate either back then or now? But there was, oh, there was, okay.

Speaker 4:
[25:53] No, this is just a classic thing. Again, again, everything was awesome back then. No, people were just as pissed. So he replaces David Bailey, the icon. And people were super mad, like whatever the forum was back then, Moto News, or I don't think it was vital yet. People were frigging furious that they've replaced a former Supercross champ with people were saying he was a bodyboarder, a boogie boarder, something like that. Now, dude, years later, I'm working with Cam Steel doing Alfred truck races and stuff for Red Bull, and we're just having dinner. And he just casually mentions how close he came to making mains in Supercross. And I'm like, wait, what? And he's like, yeah, I raced in Supercross. And I'm like, did you ever tell anybody this? And he's like, no, I didn't even make mains. I didn't figure. I'm like, bro, you were getting destroyed by people who thought you had never ridden a dirt bike before. I didn't know you had a pro license. And he's like, well, I was doing more freestyle, but I was going for it. I was just trying. Did anybody know this? Did anybody know this?

Speaker 3:
[26:52] No, no, I did not.

Speaker 5:
[26:53] No, I was going to say, though, Steve, when you said he's not a motoguy, I thought he was, or maybe it's because I was just.

Speaker 3:
[26:58] Well, I guess, yeah, I guess I didn't. Yeah, you're right. I didn't really think.

Speaker 5:
[27:01] I think he's just, I think, first off, Cameron Steele, legend, I've never met the dude. I'm a big fan. I just think he's a massive legend. Much respect.

Speaker 4:
[27:11] He's an awesome guy, awesome guy.

Speaker 5:
[27:12] Yeah, I would love to meet the guy. I think he's great. But I would assume back then, people thought he wasn't a motoguy, because again, my little kid memory, didn't he commentate X Games or something at 1.2?

Speaker 3:
[27:26] Yeah, he was a big freestyle.

Speaker 5:
[27:27] But I think he wasn't like your Bob Hanna diehard motoguy. He was like an everything guy. He has a lot of knowledge about everything, if that makes sense, which in this sport, for some reason, that is not respected, really, of when it comes to commentating. You have to just be moto all the way. I don't understand.

Speaker 3:
[27:47] Well, so I was more in the trenches because I was a mechanic, so I guess I'm wrong, Weege. There was some Camsteel hate. I don't remember there being any. Yes, I was going to make a comment to nowadays.

Speaker 4:
[27:57] No different than what people would say about Lee Diffie today.

Speaker 1:
[27:59] Absolutely no different.

Speaker 4:
[28:01] The world is just as evil then as it is now.

Speaker 3:
[28:03] Okay, okay.

Speaker 5:
[28:04] Never any Cameron Steale hate from me. I remember watching him do the hot lap at Unidil with the helmet cam. He wore no fear, so automatically, he's cool. Yeah, Cameron Steale is a badass.

Speaker 3:
[28:15] Can we talk about the helmet cam? They clipped to it when Chad goes around Voss, Ricky's got a live cam from ESPN on there. They love the helmet cam and they went to it a few times. I liked it. I thought it was cool.

Speaker 4:
[28:29] Here's the trick with that helmet cam that you cannot tell. So you didn't even realize as you watch. I've asked them, like, how did they have a live helmet cam at 05, but we don't have it now? Well, apparently, it wasn't. They just had a recorder in their helmet or whatever, the camera.

Speaker 3:
[28:43] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[28:44] The races weren't on them the next weekend. So it was someone's job to go pull the footage and then put it in underneath the footage. Because if you watch closely, you will never hear Todd Harris be like, and now we can see on board.

Speaker 3:
[28:57] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[28:57] They never fully reference it. So I'm like, how are you doing it back then? It's like, well, it was fake. It was the night after the race, they'd edited in as if it was being shown live.

Speaker 3:
[29:06] Oh, okay.

Speaker 4:
[29:07] All right.

Speaker 3:
[29:07] Well, yeah. Obviously, we have issues with helmet cams now on helmets, but I liked it. I thought it was cool.

Speaker 4:
[29:15] It's cool.

Speaker 3:
[29:15] Yeah. I mean, watching grainy YouTube, it looked even grainier than grainy YouTube. But I did like it. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[29:24] I also feel like this was like the era or maybe even the year that they first came out. Not that they first came out, but that they first were modernized, if that makes sense, to where it's not like we're in a basketball in your head. Is that about 0405?

Speaker 3:
[29:42] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[29:42] Although, we got to ask. Dude, I swear the 1995 Atlanta Supercars McGrath had were on, none other than the best guy in the sport. I would love to know, that's 30 years ago now. What was that like? Obviously, if it's not McGrath, wouldn't have run it, right?

Speaker 5:
[29:57] They had them before then. I feel like 05 is when they became tiny, to where it wasn't affecting the rider.

Speaker 4:
[30:05] Yes, but then why would McGrath agree to it if it sucked back then?

Speaker 5:
[30:08] Because he could probably win without wearing even a helmet.

Speaker 4:
[30:13] He had Dingleberrys on one year. That was no problem.

Speaker 3:
[30:15] Yeah, he used to wear, it was a fanny pack when he ran it. Jeremy, it was really like a fanny pack. It was that bad.

Speaker 5:
[30:24] Yes, I remember when, like I just said, when Cameron Steele was doing practice at the Nationals wearing it, I remember watching him and it was noticeable to me as a fan, as a little kid, it was big, whatever the hell he was wearing. But I feel like 05-ish is when they became more discreet.

Speaker 3:
[30:44] Yeah, maybe. Go ahead.

Speaker 4:
[30:48] I could be, that's all. Maybe it was.

Speaker 3:
[30:50] Fox Racing athletes have it. The ability to make split-second decisions based entirely on feel, impulse, intuition, to know exactly where the body exists in time and space, sensing the smallest shift in terrain, and adjusting without thought. Some call it race instinct, but to them, it's second nature. Awaken your senses with vision, awareness, and diffuse. Fox Racing's collection of limited-edition moto kits released in the spring, foxracing.com. Also, thank you to folks at Maxis Tires, maxis.com, Mitchell Harrison, Vince Fries, Luke Clout, amongst others, putting in the main events and getting near top 10s with Maxis Tires, great mountain bike tires as well, side-by-side tires, maxis.com for more information on that. They got some new tires developed by that guy, Jeremy McGrath. So he's done a good job with the Maxis stuff. So thanks for listening. Speaking of McGrath, the Ferry-McGrath battle was really good to watch. Timmy's wrist was really sore and he was pissed that Jeremy caught him and passed him. And he slammed him in the turn. Jeremy had words with him after this race. So like in the area, right when we pulled off, Jeremy rolled up to him after the race and was like mouthing back to him. And Timmy's yelling at him a little bit, nothing that bad. But dude, I was team McGrath. Like dude, what are you doing? This guy's part-time. It's awesome he's here and you're slamming him because he catches and passes you. So I was not happy with Timmy this night.

Speaker 4:
[32:08] Just to disrespect him, McGrath?

Speaker 3:
[32:10] Yeah. Just what are you doing, dude? He caught you from way back and now you're going to do that to him. Like he was going by, you know what I mean? It wasn't some massive battle. So I did check in with Timvery about this race. Phoenix 2005 round two, what do you remember? I remember my wrist was still hurting really bad. MC caught me and passed me and I was pissed. So I hit him hard in the turn just out of my own frustration. I don't remember anything else at all. So I sent him the- That's actually a lot from him. Well, because it's the king, right? You're slamming the king. So I sent him the photo of Timmy slamming Jeremy back in that left turn. And he replies, if I wanted to clean him out, I could have, but he's the king. So I let him go. My wrist was so bad, I couldn't even hang on. Tim Ferry, everybody. But that was a neat little battle they showed between those. And then Jeremy, I had to laugh. I actually put this in the notes. About three quarters of the way through the main event, Todd Harris asks Cameron, do you think MC is running the same fitness level as RC and Chad Reed? Cameron's like, no, I don't think anybody's running the level of those guys, but it's a nice way of saying that.

Speaker 5:
[33:25] Yeah, I would agree with Cameron on that one. Hey, I slightly remember this, or it came back to me when I was watching this, but I feel like it was only this year. I never remember them really pointing it out when he was on the 125 or any year after this, but James' rookie season, is it just me or is it very odd they kept really harping the junior? James Stewart Jr. Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 4:
[33:54] They did say that a lot.

Speaker 5:
[33:55] Like every time, James Stewart Jr. But in a 125 class, it was just Bubba, and then the rest of his career was Bubba or James, or James Stewart. James Stewart Jr., they really, it's like, I don't know why it was a big deal that this 05, it was kind of weird.

Speaker 3:
[34:11] I never even thought of it. Yeah, I never noticed. Good pick up.

Speaker 5:
[34:15] Yeah, very strange.

Speaker 3:
[34:17] All right. So Ricky wins. He's very stoked, very excited. Windham gets second. Chad ends up third. After battling Voss, he makes a mention, he makes a mention on the podium about Voss got sketchy and almost took him down. And then, like I said, huge gap back from there. It was, hold on. Oh, I don't have the main. It was Ricky, Windham, Reed, Ernie, Voss, Tortelli, Nick Way. Way and Villam and get Jeremy. Jeremy is seventh for most of the main event and they get him near the end. And then, did you see who won 250s, Weege?

Speaker 4:
[34:53] Oh, master of the desert terrain.

Speaker 3:
[34:55] Yes. Yes, absolutely. Brock Hepler. Hepler brings it home.

Speaker 5:
[34:59] Hey, before we move on, before we talk about 125s, the first lap, Tortelli was in 16th, dude. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[35:08] Good job.

Speaker 5:
[35:08] We never showed them once. But wow, Seb was on it.

Speaker 3:
[35:12] Good job, Seb.

Speaker 5:
[35:14] But yeah, 125 Class was... I actually want to talk about it in categories more, because it blew my mind.

Speaker 3:
[35:19] Did you watch it? I couldn't find it.

Speaker 5:
[35:21] No, I did find it. I do actually want to watch it. I just found it before you called me, so I haven't yet.

Speaker 3:
[35:27] Okay. I do have a Who's That Guy Award also from... I thought everyone in the night show I would get, but... Nope, in the LCQ, one guy. Also, Tyler Evans, he's going down. This is his privateer season. He does pretty well, I think, and he goes down in the whoops. And then he's like, is he trying to get up? Are they holding his head? What's going on with the medic attention that he's getting? It looks like there's four guys around him. Tyler's trying to move and they're like holding them down? Or are they helping him up? I didn't get that part.

Speaker 5:
[36:03] I think Doc Bodner was trying to assess him and it looked like his buddy just ran out onto the track.

Speaker 3:
[36:09] Yes, okay.

Speaker 5:
[36:10] And just trying to heal his freaking head off, pretty much.

Speaker 3:
[36:14] Yeah, so that guy was pulling him up by the head or holding him down by the head?

Speaker 5:
[36:19] Yeah, I don't know, dude. It looked like Doc Bodner, obviously great, he's awesome. I think Bodner was trying to actually be a doctor. And his buddy was obviously not a doctor. Yeah, that was confusing. I feel like Bodner was just as confused as us. Like, dude, who is this guy? What are you doing? Like, chill out.

Speaker 3:
[36:38] Right. But he still got 19th because Pastrana crashed out two laps in. So he's still in it.

Speaker 5:
[36:47] Yeah, if I had to guess, I would assess that as a concussion. He looked a little dazed.

Speaker 3:
[36:54] Yes, yes, I would agree. Absolutely. Shout out Daniel Blair, by the way. 14th in the LCQ, Daniel Blair. Yep. Our guy JT, fifth in the LCQ. We'll get to his comments earlier, but just missed it. Brian Mason, I'll qualify him, who we used to call Donkey Kong because he was, oh, sorry, only top two went, not top four. Brian Mason was sponsored by Nintendo. Do you guys remember that?

Speaker 6:
[37:19] No. No.

Speaker 3:
[37:20] Yeah, he had a Nintendo sponsorship. No one knew how. He was an Illinois privateer, and we used to call him Donkey Kong because he had Nintendo graphics and we're like, you got beat by Donkey Kong or how did Donkey Kong do or whatever. I don't know how that ever worked, but Nintendo was in the sport with Brian Mason. No idea to this day what was going on. So also, I asked Jeff Myshack, the owner of Geico, about the Napster deal. Do you remember Windham thanked Napster? Did you guys hear that? I forgot about that deal and I said, hey, was this a real thing? Because as we know in our sport, it could very well just be nothing. And he said, no, it was a real thing. He said, not the owner of Napster and not from the movie, but another guy would come to The Re-Raceables. He thought it was a $100,000 deal for the team. He thought it was really good and Bob Walker got it for him. And yeah, Napster, no idea. How about that?

Speaker 5:
[38:14] Yeah, I remember Napster very well because when I saw it on the Geico bikes, I immediately, I guess I was a desktop back then. Or did you download it? I forget how it worked. But I got Napster and started burning CDs.

Speaker 3:
[38:31] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[38:32] Nice.

Speaker 3:
[38:32] And then also-

Speaker 5:
[38:33] I didn't know you could do that before 05.

Speaker 3:
[38:35] I also saw the Butterfinger banners. Forgot about the Butterfinger whole shot and all of that. Butterfinger, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[38:43] Never forget that, dude. Kyle Lewis has to hold the record.

Speaker 3:
[38:46] Yeah, really, right? I just forgot about those guys coming around in our sport, like Napster and Butterfinger and all of that. So, Fox Racing Re-Raceables, 2005 Phoenix show. Shall we call Mike Gosselaar and get to the bottom of all this RC Suzuki stuff?

Speaker 5:
[39:01] Yeah, let's hear from Goose.

Speaker 3:
[39:02] All right. All right, since we're talking about Phoenix 05 here on the Fox Racing Re-Raceables, we had to have the man that wrenched Ricky to the win, one of the all-time winningest mechanics, a simple legend in the world of motocross and supercross.

Speaker 6:
[39:15] Come on.

Speaker 3:
[39:16] Mike Gosselaar, what's up, Goose? Come on, man.

Speaker 6:
[39:18] Oh, that's too nice. That's way too kind.

Speaker 3:
[39:23] Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Listen, you got a lot of wins, Goose, more than I got, so.

Speaker 6:
[39:28] I haven't won anything. I worked on bikes, but I didn't win a thing. Nice.

Speaker 3:
[39:33] I like it. Let's start with this, Goose. When do you learn RC's going to Suzuki? And do you have second thoughts about... Because you're a long-time Honda guy. You were there forever. Do you have second thoughts about yourself going, or do they make it worth your while, or do you think about like, ah, maybe I'm not going to go and stay at Honda?

Speaker 6:
[39:52] Well, it's kind of odd. You know, it's kind of in the summer of 04, when we were dealing with all this stuff, and Ricky wanted to stay at Honda, I wanted to stay at Honda, and I'm in a bunch of negotiations going on, and I remember being at Ricky's house when he found out exactly the moment that he wasn't going to get the contract with Honda, and we were going to Suzuki. And I had my doubts, because I had been with Honda for like 10 years, and I thought, am I really ready for a change, and I didn't know what to think about Suzuki. I just always thought, you know, working at Honda, we're like at the pinnacle of racing at that time. And so, you know, I wasn't too sure what was going to happen, but I wasn't committed yet.

Speaker 3:
[40:42] Okay.

Speaker 6:
[40:43] For me, that happened a while later, you know, talking to Roger and Ricky pushing it. And basically, I didn't deal so much with Roger more with Mel Harris.

Speaker 3:
[40:56] Okay.

Speaker 6:
[40:56] Because I wasn't sure that Roger really wanted me to come work there. Because when I reached out to him, I remember when Ricky talked me into talking to him, Roger, I knew Roger is a friend. And he basically said, I don't have a position for you. No. I hung up on him and I called Ricky and called him some names. And I said, well, you know, I can't believe you put me through this. And he goes, no, no, no, just hang on. We're going to get Mel involved and Mel's in charge. And so I told him, I said, I don't want to go to some place where I'm not wanted, being pushed into it. I'm not interested at all. It ended up working out really good. And yeah, I'm no turning back at that point.

Speaker 3:
[41:38] So one of the things we were kicking around in our group text, talking about this race and talking about you, we didn't know if you got to Honda after Roger left because it was 93, 94, and he was out of there by then?

Speaker 6:
[41:49] Yeah, he was gone already.

Speaker 3:
[41:50] Okay. All right. Okay. Good to know. Seth, go ahead.

Speaker 5:
[41:54] Earlier, Goose, we were just talking about earlier on the call, I should say, how much of a risk it was for Ricky. Suzuki hadn't won anything in the 250 class in a long time at that point, and obviously, he's the best rider in the world. So we're talking about how big of a risk it was for Ricky. I personally don't remember it being that way. I'm like, man, it's Ricky Carmichael. He can win on anything, but it did bring up a good point. The biggest risk was for you. So you obviously just alluded to you weren't really keen on going there, but what, I guess, what sold you on making the decision, and did you feel like this is a risk? Like, was it like a one-year deal for you, and it didn't go well, you were screwed, or did you not burn the bridge with Honda? You felt like you could go back if it didn't go well?

Speaker 6:
[42:47] Well, it actually happened. I wasn't really too keen on it. You don't have to talk to Roger. No, I'm sorry. This is how it happened. We had a meeting at American Honda, and things that were said in that meeting, I don't want to really repeat them, because I really respect the person that was in charge of the meeting, but that changed my mind at that point. I remember walking out of the meeting, and this was pretty much before cell phones, and I walked over to the wall where the phone was, and I knew Roger's number. I guess we had cell phones. We had cell phones, I had Roger's number. I remember calling him from a landline at American Honda, and that's when I was told that he didn't have a spot for me, and then, you know.

Speaker 3:
[43:33] Oh, so you were really, like, in a bit of a bind.

Speaker 6:
[43:36] Oh, wow. It was a bad deal, you know, for me, but, yeah. And I forgot where we were going with this, but, yeah, then I called Ricky, and then, you know, I ended up getting Mel Harris involved, but it was basically because at that time, I think Eric was the team manager. Eric Kehoe was the team manager, and he basically told me, he goes, Look, we don't have a top quality rider like Ricky. We will, and you can just stay here. We'll pay you what we're paying you, and you can just hang out, be around everybody we want you to stay. So it was like a super good offer from Honda. Ricky made things happen as far as bringing up my pay with Suzuki, but that's what caused me to leave. It was basically once we had that meeting with Honda, just one thing that was said and I couldn't believe what was being said. Like I said, I really don't want to repeat it because it's right. But that pushed me over the edge. I was like, okay, I think it's time to go. I couldn't believe what I heard.

Speaker 1:
[44:47] So hey, when you got there, Mike, when you Ricky straightened out, Mel Howard straightened it all out. When you first started working with them, I'm assuming at their shop or whatever, were you pleasantly surprised or were you like, now this isn't Honda? Because I feel like Roger and Ian had a good program, they just weren't getting results. But what was it like when you were first there in the fall season and stuff?

Speaker 6:
[45:05] Well, the way I think I remember it, I think we showed up and I don't know if it was the first week or it was right away, we had to go to the US Open. We did a bunch of testing and basically built a bike and went to the US Open, I think immediately and then had a bike failure at the first race. But that kind of opened my eyes too. Suzuki coming from Honda where everything is thought out methodically and tested thoroughly and lots of meetings about everything. This part that failed was basically in a clutch hub and looking at it, it was way weaker than a Honda one. And it surprised the heck out of me that like within, I think within a week, we had a new main shaft, whole new clutch set up. And I was like, wow, these guys are serious. And they made something happen that quick, changed major part in the motorcycle immediately. And then it came out in production in 05.

Speaker 3:
[46:19] Yeah, it is interesting, Goose, because obviously I'm buddies with Berlut. He lives in Vegas. I know him well.

Speaker 6:
[46:25] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[46:26] And he, I mean, this is not so much your era, but like, you know, in his working for David Huffman and these guys, like he told me stories. Suzuki Japan would be like, here's an A and a B cylinder and an A and a B pipe. You can mix them however you want, but that's now we're done testing. That's it. Have a good year. You know, did you notice a lack of testing and parts and all of that and lack of? No. Okay.

Speaker 6:
[46:50] No. Here's what I noticed. Coming from Honda, it was such an eye opener. I mean, I think because of Ricky and I was told this, you know, after the fact of they basically told everybody at the race shop, if you guys don't win with this guy and this budget, you're all fired. It's done. So whatever it takes to win, that's what we're going to do. And I was completely blown away by how much stuff we tested and how quickly they could produce them. I remember I had an idea on a triple clamp one time. Roger said, yeah, let's get it out of the loop. And we had the engineers with us. And this was like one week and less than a week later, we were testing that part from Japan, overnighted, built. Somebody engineered it, and it didn't work. Okay, on to the next thing. No big deal. And we tested so much stuff, and they built so many things. It was amazing.

Speaker 3:
[47:55] Okay, yeah, so much different than, yeah, from the Tetherton buzzard, the buzzard early 90s days, which is kind of what Berlut was telling me about.

Speaker 5:
[48:01] No, there's a common theme here. This sounds a lot like when Roger left Suzuki to go to KTM. Seems like when he joins a program and wants to win, pretty much he makes anything happen to win.

Speaker 6:
[48:15] Right, and the Suzuki guys, I mean, the Japanese, I mean, they were on it. It was amazing. I mean, it was way more than I expected. I didn't know what to expect, but I definitely didn't expect that.

Speaker 3:
[48:28] Did you?

Speaker 5:
[48:29] So, watching this, we just watched this race on YouTube, Goose, right before this pod. And watching this race, obviously, Ricky's the man. You know, he's winning his ride or whatever.

Speaker 1:
[48:41] You know, that's, everyone knows that.

Speaker 5:
[48:43] But my memory was, you know, 03, yes, he won the title, but, you know, Chad beat him the last eight rounds, I believe. His setup was a little goofy, you know, bars in his lap, and then he missed. Yeah, he missed all of 04. And obviously, he won this title, you know, this is 20, what, 21 years ago now. But I really haven't watched one of these races in a long time. In my opinion, I had never seen Ricky be this good in Supercross, like, just this morning watching this. I'm like, this is my opinion. It's the best he ever looked indoors. And what really stood out to me was his corner speed. And this is, we're talking about Phoenix. You know, it's hard, slick, he's on a two-stroke. To me, it looked like he could turn on a dime. He looked so dialed in.

Speaker 1:
[49:34] I was really blown away by how good he looks.

Speaker 5:
[49:37] I think he actually took a step up going this is his.

Speaker 6:
[49:41] That bike was incredible.

Speaker 1:
[49:43] And that's what I'm going to do, is what I was going to ask.

Speaker 6:
[49:47] The tires we had, the engine performance compared to the Honda was basically just a top end bike and the Suzuki just had a super broad power band and then really good traction. Kind of the same suspension components, but going back to a steel chassis, it just suited him really well. I mean, for him to be... I think he passed Chad in the loops there, didn't he? I haven't watched it full well, but I think that's where the pass was made, I think.

Speaker 5:
[50:16] He whole-shotted, but actually K-Dub is all over him, and he actually gapped K-Dub in the loops every lap, which we all know how good Kevin was in the loops.

Speaker 6:
[50:26] Yeah. It was amazing how much traction and how much low-end grunt and top-end performance. That 250 that year had more peak power than our 450 did. But it was, you know, super broad. I mean, a super narrow spot where it just had more peak power. The fourth stroke we raced obviously had more torque in a much wider area where it had peak power.

Speaker 3:
[50:57] Sorry, sorry. I made a mention earlier because I was at Yamaha at the time and we brought a Suzuki in, and Bob Oliver was like, they copied us. The bore, the stroke, the power valves, this is a Yamaha. This is a Yamaha motor. Bob was so pissed.

Speaker 6:
[51:11] That may or may not be true, but I know we use the same piston that Yamaha had because you guys use an aftermarket piston and we did too, the exact same piston.

Speaker 3:
[51:21] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[51:22] But we had changed power valve components before we went to the first AMA race. They had made some cylinder changes and power valve changes and so it wasn't the exact one. And just so you know too, Chad rode that bike right before Ricky did too.

Speaker 3:
[51:40] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[51:40] Yeah, he did. He liked it too.

Speaker 3:
[51:42] Yeah. Oh yeah. No, no, for sure. Weege?

Speaker 1:
[51:46] That's pretty wild. So this was Suzuki potentially signing Chad instead? Is that what that was?

Speaker 6:
[51:53] I think they were, I'm not sure how all that worked out. Maybe they were thinking if we don't get Ricky, and Chad's already rode the bike, or maybe Chad was just trying to feel the thing out and see what was out there.

Speaker 3:
[52:05] Chad was just, I don't think it was a contract. I think Chad just jumped on somebody's bike somewhere.

Speaker 6:
[52:10] No, they did a test with Chad.

Speaker 3:
[52:11] Oh, they did? Okay.

Speaker 6:
[52:12] All right.

Speaker 3:
[52:13] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[52:14] You know?

Speaker 1:
[52:16] So do you feel that this stuff you're saying, you're pretty impressed at how quickly the team can turn stuff around. By the time the season began, did you like your chances at that point, or is there still some level of, oh, we'll see how this goes? Or had you seen what you needed to see in the three months or so you had October through January?

Speaker 6:
[52:35] Well, I mean, for sure, I saw a big improvement in Ricky, but it's still going racing. You never know what to expect. You know, right from the beginning and then the first race being a mudder, you can't really tell there. So basically Phoenix was the first time, you know, you're going head to head on normal conditions.

Speaker 1:
[52:55] Yeah, we knew the thing was good, man.

Speaker 6:
[52:57] He was happy.

Speaker 1:
[52:58] Yeah, yep. Ricky goes absolutely nuts when he wins this race at the end, like the level of celebration. Oh, for real, it was huge. Yes, that's what I wanted to get out of him. He's like, well, first of all, if you really think about it, I hadn't won a Supercross in a year and a half, really, since whatever, like Daytona-ish of 03, and then the Suzuki thing and validating it for the team. So that's the way he felt. I'm assuming that was huge in your mind as well.

Speaker 6:
[53:24] Oh, it was gigantic. Yeah, it was huge. Yeah, I can still remember it because I think he rode right over to the mechanics area and greeted me and that was a big deal.

Speaker 3:
[53:37] So we know his setup on Honda, the bars in his lap, low and slow. You know, all of that. You guys were trying to fight him on it, trying to fight him. He just never got away from it. And then in all of our amazement, he shows up at the world rounds with a totally normal bike setup wise. None of that weirdo setup on a Suzuki. Do you, did he try to do that early in the Suzuki, or did it just right away fit him like a glove goose and where you didn't even have to worry about like doing these weird shock setups and bar setups and seats and all of this stuff?

Speaker 6:
[54:11] Yeah, I mean, right from the beginning, I think we were more normal.

Speaker 3:
[54:14] Yeah, okay.

Speaker 6:
[54:16] Towards the end of that season, it was a struggle. I mean, we were struggling with traction, struggling to find a good power delivery, you know, that kind of hooked up. And so I mean, he's changing things around to try to maybe, you know, put band-aids on other issues that we were having with the bikes.

Speaker 3:
[54:31] Yeah, okay.

Speaker 6:
[54:33] Plus trying to win that championship, you know, the pressure of it, you know, making setup changes that didn't make any sense, but you can't argue with him. He's the one riding it.

Speaker 3:
[54:43] Yeah, yeah, really right.

Speaker 6:
[54:45] No.

Speaker 5:
[54:47] You mentioned the four-stroke thing earlier, and I know outdoors he rode one. Was there ever any test on the 450 and Supercross, or was he set on just two-stroke indoors?

Speaker 6:
[54:56] No, we never rode that 450 until I think right before the Nationals, you know. So, because I think Tortelli was racing at the time doing some development work for us. But then we still, or Suzuki still had the thing where you could ride a works bike the first season, or at some point, you know. And so, Ricky got to ride that works bike in 05. That was a trick bike too. They didn't hold back on anything that year. It was amazing. And maybe that's why they're broke now. I'm serious. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding you. I mean, the level of testing and parts and the things we did, it was mind-boggling.

Speaker 1:
[55:46] You know, I never thought about that. I mean, obviously, I knew he was on the works bike in 05. The bike that you guys raced in 06, which then has to be a quote unquote production rule bike, was it that different than what he had, like was?

Speaker 6:
[55:58] Well, it's kind of based off the 05. It was based off the 05. And that's sort of going back to what I was saying. You know, Suzuki made changes quickly. If they thought it was right, then it went into production. There was no, you know, let's test this thing for six months to make sure this is okay. And, I mean, things happened quick. As opposed to now. Now you look and there's no changes, you know.

Speaker 1:
[56:24] Oh, we definitely, definitely not changing things quickly.

Speaker 6:
[56:28] Right, right. So we went from just changing things on the fly, like immediately to, you know, we'd go into production to this, where we're at now.

Speaker 1:
[56:41] So you're saying that 06 Production 450 was very much all the things you guys learned in 05 on the workspite.

Speaker 6:
[56:47] Yeah, a lot of it had to do with it, yes.

Speaker 1:
[56:51] That's pretty cool. That is pretty cool.

Speaker 6:
[56:53] Yeah, it was. Yeah. Yeah, I remember the engine cases, a whole bunch of stuff, you know, that we came up with in 05.

Speaker 3:
[57:00] A couple of things we were discussing. Do you remember Pastrana being around? He had his own team this year. Did he ride the Suzuki track? Was he getting help at all from anybody? Like, was it, or is this straight privateer? Do you remember TP being around?

Speaker 6:
[57:13] Yeah, kind of. Not really. I don't remember seeing him around that much.

Speaker 3:
[57:18] Okay, all right. And then secondly, for me, how was Suzuki as a mechanic, just flights per diem, you know, all that kind of stuff? Did you like it better, worse than Honda? All of that? Like, how did it compare just to working environment?

Speaker 6:
[57:35] That first year, you know, being there, them not knowing me, I'm not, you know, I'm not familiar with how everything works there. It was amazing.

Speaker 3:
[57:43] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[57:43] The whole thing was a good deal. They took care of me and I have no regrets. And then going back to Honda was like even, you know, I left there and then I ended up coming back was just like, it was almost surreal, you know, like I'm back to where I was when I first started, even, you know, after going to Suzuki for a bunch of years.

Speaker 3:
[58:05] Okay. Awesome.

Speaker 6:
[58:07] I came back to the race shop at Honda with Chad.

Speaker 3:
[58:11] So yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 6:
[58:12] Made a full circle. So yeah, there was no issues with that.

Speaker 1:
[58:16] I never even realized that. That's right. Chad, 2.2 was integrated in with the factory team at the shop, right?

Speaker 6:
[58:22] Yeah, I was working in the same day that I worked on when I first started at Honda.

Speaker 1:
[58:27] Oh my gosh, I never do that.

Speaker 6:
[58:31] But you know, I mean, after the first year, they really took care of me the next couple of years. There were some really good years there for being a mechanic. And I don't know what these guys are getting paid nowadays, but it was an experience going to Suzuki. And then it kind of tapered off, you know?

Speaker 5:
[58:56] How did your commute change? Everyone at Honda complains that the shop's in Torrance.

Speaker 1:
[59:02] Did you live close to there?

Speaker 6:
[59:03] And when you went to Suzuki, was it a big change for you? I didn't live close to there, but the commute was way better. I didn't have to deal with all the traffic going through downtown and all that stuff, so the commute for me was way, way better. Plus, at that point, I was already getting... Right at the beginning of working for Suzuki, I bought my place in Idaho, and after a year of being at Suzuki, I told them, hey, I'm doing this contract next year, because I only had a one-year deal. I'd like to be based out of Idaho and just fly to the races and not be at the race shop every day if we're not in the racing mode and we're not building things. I'd rather not be an employee. I'd rather do my own thing and just fly in and out of Idaho. So, there was even more icing on the cake, you know?

Speaker 3:
[59:53] Yeah, yeah, that's awesome they did that, but I guess that comes with winning races with Carmichael, right? Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[59:58] No, it comes with being with a really good rider.

Speaker 3:
[60:00] Right, right, yeah, no, for sure. All right, so anything else for Mike Gosselaar, guys?

Speaker 1:
[60:11] Do you still work, do you still do some projects, right? Like people, you still work on bikes, I think, in Idaho, right?

Speaker 6:
[60:17] I have my own shop, I'm sitting right here in my shop right now. I'm actually away from the phone in the working area, I'm sitting in the office here.

Speaker 5:
[60:27] Yeah, you got Shane moving up there, dude, you talked him into it.

Speaker 6:
[60:31] No, I didn't talk him into it, he came up here and like two days later told me he sold his place and bought the place next to me, so he's gonna be my neighbor.

Speaker 5:
[60:39] Yeah, he called me after that trip and said, hey, I'm buying a place.

Speaker 1:
[60:42] I'm like, well, that was quick.

Speaker 6:
[60:44] It was super quick. I told him, I said, are you sure about this? I mean, you just barely got off the flight and you already sold your place and bought the place next door to me.

Speaker 3:
[60:54] Who are we talking about?

Speaker 6:
[60:56] Shane West O'Connor, he's the Suzuki truck driver, the KTM truck driver, he worked for Kevin Windham as a truck driver.

Speaker 3:
[61:04] Oh, okay, oh cool, yeah. I went to Mesquite and hung out with Chris Heimus a bunch, and I got all my Goose stories and what you were up to, and how you were doing for Chris.

Speaker 6:
[61:13] Yeah, I'm still kind of involved with Honda. If I want to, they let me go to their amateur races, and I kind of pick and choose which ones I want to go to, and talk to Lars maybe once a week or so.

Speaker 3:
[61:28] Yeah. So Goose, your great career, as we talked about, you sound really stoked on this Suzuki part of your career. Obviously, you won with Lammy early on, all of that. You were a street bike cop repair guy for a while, before that, right? You worked on the street bike, cop street bikes.

Speaker 6:
[61:50] Yeah, the California Highway Patrol.

Speaker 3:
[61:52] And then you slide into Carmichael at Honda. I guess for me, the final thing for me is like what part do you remember fondly? Is there a certain part where you have never been happier in your career? And then you got the 2-2 stuff as well, obviously. But what part do you look back on and be like, man, that was so amazing? Maybe this part. I don't know.

Speaker 6:
[62:12] All of it's amazing. I mean, for me, just coming off the streets and going straight to work for Team Honda, I mean, that was a big deal. But the whole thing, just always being in the right place, in the right time, it seems like, and being involved with good riders, Steve Lampson and then Ezra Lusk and then Ricky, and in the meantime, I did some work with Jeremy, went to a European race with him, and worked on Kevin Windham's stuff when his mechanic was hurt for a few months, and just the whole thing. I mean, I've just been super lucky. Yeah, I can't complain, you know, the opportunities and the things I've experienced is just super nice, but I never would have thought going to Suzuki would have turned out that way those first few years. Sure. They were like amazing when Ricky was there, and like after that, I'd say, you know, it just kind of came to a slower halt, almost.

Speaker 3:
[63:13] They were going broke, they were paying all the money to Ricky, right?

Speaker 6:
[63:17] Well, I mean, when Dungey was there, Ricky was, I mean, Roger and Enor were still there, so things are still moving along, but we already knew, I think it was maybe after the second year of Dungey being there, that things were going to change drastically.

Speaker 3:
[63:30] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6:
[63:31] And, you know, I had to talk to Roger about it, because I think I got my contract before Roger did, and Roger didn't have a contract yet, and I called him to thank him, and he was blown away that I got my contract, because both of us were struggling to figure out what Suzuki was doing, and nobody was contacting us, and so I thought Roger being my boss, you know, he got me my contract, and he had no idea, and so I think that was a nail in the coffin, and he was planning on leaving right at that point.

Speaker 3:
[64:05] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's true, right?

Speaker 5:
[64:08] I got one last question for you, Goose, and you're so humble, you've probably never even thought about this, and I don't know if there's a way, or yeah, if there's a way we could find this out, if there's any stats on it, but are you, I mean, I know you're one of them, but are you the winningest mechanic of all time?

Speaker 6:
[64:26] I don't know. I have no idea. You need to call Lars and ask him.

Speaker 1:
[64:31] No, I'm being serious. I think you got to be, right?

Speaker 3:
[64:34] I would think so. I would think so, yep.

Speaker 6:
[64:36] I don't remember. I didn't win anything.

Speaker 1:
[64:40] Well, that's why you're an ad mechanic.

Speaker 6:
[64:42] I worked on things. I just worked on things, and I was lucky to be in the right spot at the right time with the incredible riders.

Speaker 5:
[64:50] Goose, this is why you're in the right spot at the right time. Listen to your attitude. Most mechanics think that they're the ones on the bike.

Speaker 6:
[64:58] When they say I won, what did you win? Yes, thank you. Show me the check and show me the trophy.

Speaker 5:
[65:08] This is why you're a legend. More people need this attitude.

Speaker 6:
[65:11] I'm not a legend. I put my pants on the same way you do.

Speaker 3:
[65:14] Weege, can you and Matt...

Speaker 1:
[65:15] I do have some stats. I actually looked this up once. This is all rickety, right? Because we're climbing different classes and all that. And Mike doesn't sound like he cares either way. We had... It's actually when Brian Kranz was done working with Tomac, he thought maybe we've won the most races because he had been with Tomac for every win at that point. So he looked it up. I believe Ricky with Chad Watts actually has 90. And this is what I'm seeing here. You have 71. But the difference is everyone that you had was in the premier class. That's got to be the most of the premier class. So not that anyone...

Speaker 6:
[65:50] I won races with... I didn't win races. Ezra Leshaw won races. Ryan Dungey won races. That's why I mean Chad. All those guys won races, you know.

Speaker 3:
[66:00] I would think Cliff would be in the mix. Also Cliff White would be in the mix. But not... God, when you say 71 Supercross wins, Weege... I don't think Cliff's got that many at all. Yeah, but...

Speaker 6:
[66:12] I'm working on one of Cliff's buddies' bikes right now. I'm working... Cliff sent one of his friends here from Boise to have his bike worked on. And the guy told me, he goes, Cliff sent me here because he said you won more races than him.

Speaker 3:
[66:25] Oh, okay. There we go.

Speaker 6:
[66:26] There we go. This is coming from his friend. His bike is sitting right here. I'm looking right at it.

Speaker 3:
[66:31] Oh, there we go. Cliff knows it. Weege, I've done this media stuff for a while, and I've only mentioned High Point 2000, my only national witness.

Speaker 6:
[66:41] Oh, here we go. Here we go.

Speaker 3:
[66:43] So Weege, Weege, can you imagine if I had won as many races as Goose? Well, I was going to mention 03, Buds Creek, first Moto, Goose.

Speaker 6:
[66:54] Oh, don't forget Summercross. Don't forget that one. But I remember. I remember. You never let me forget.

Speaker 3:
[67:01] That's the one day Matthes had it over Gosselaar. The world knew.

Speaker 6:
[67:04] The world saw it. Wait, was it just one Moto though?

Speaker 3:
[67:07] Yeah, it was just the first Moto Goose.

Speaker 6:
[67:09] Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3:
[67:12] Awesome. Good stuff. Thank you, Mike Gosselaar, for the time on the Fox Racing Re-Raceables, Phoenix 05, and thanks very much, man. Appreciate it.

Speaker 6:
[67:20] Yeah. Thanks, you guys. Good talking to you.

Speaker 3:
[67:23] All right. Thanks.

Speaker 6:
[67:24] We'll see you. Thanks.

Speaker 3:
[67:24] Bye. Good stuff from Goose. I was actually, I forgot that it actually, Weege, it's not a great look for me that Goose is like, here we go, 2003 Buds Creek. But I forgot that I used to say that to him.

Speaker 4:
[67:42] Oh, you forgot. You didn't think he had talked about it much.

Speaker 3:
[67:45] I forgot that I used to say it to Goose though.

Speaker 4:
[67:48] Oh, that's great. You got him.

Speaker 3:
[67:49] Yeah, I got him that day. That's absolutely. But no, so many wins, right?

Speaker 4:
[67:55] My bad on those stats, yes, we had looked up the all-time high of a rider mechanic.

Speaker 3:
[68:00] Got it.

Speaker 4:
[68:00] But yes, the only wins, I mean, Chad Watts maybe won a few with Rhino before RC. But yeah, when you think about Gosselaar, just continuing with Chad and Dunge and then back with Chad, and Lamson and Ezra before that, he's got to be, got to be all-time.

Speaker 5:
[68:14] Dude, he's got to be. He won from, what, 94 till, when did he step away?

Speaker 3:
[68:24] I don't know. It feels like only a few years.

Speaker 4:
[68:26] Did he do anything after 2-2 or was that the end? I don't know.

Speaker 5:
[68:29] I think that was it. But no, no, no, he went to Yamaha with Chad after 2-2.

Speaker 4:
[68:37] Oh my gosh, factory Yamaha, like the web Chad years?

Speaker 5:
[68:41] Dude, so he won races for over 20 years.

Speaker 4:
[68:45] Dude.

Speaker 5:
[68:47] That's insane.

Speaker 3:
[68:51] So Kranz had him covered just one rider, one mechanic, is what you're saying?

Speaker 4:
[68:57] No, let me see here. Yes, Kranz did. From what we could calculate, the most one-on-one rider mechanic was Carmichael at class, Tomas Kranz, and actually J-Bone Stu, and then Gosselaar.

Speaker 3:
[69:10] Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. But again, you're counting the 125 class with those guys and not Goose because he didn't work with that. But anyways, yeah, whatever.

Speaker 4:
[69:20] Yeah. Premier class, it's not even close, I don't think.

Speaker 3:
[69:24] Yeah. Legend. Absolute legend. I thought he would come on a little bit and be like, dude, it was a bit of a mess when we got there. We had to do this, we had to do that. I thought it would be a little more of a mess behind the scenes because just the way Suzuki was. But no, sounds like they were on it. They made parts right away, all of that. So that was a surprise for me to hear that. All right. By the way, Guts Racing, Pulpimax 26, 2026 is the code to save it. Guts Racing, Pulp 2026 code to save. Guts Racing, all things seats, covers, foams, vintage stuff. A lot of riders and teams in the pits are using Guts Racing up there in Northern California, guys. They can design your own seat cover as well. Guts Racing, Pulp 2026 code to save, Maxxis tires and Fox Racing all available as well. All right. So, yeah, Brock Hepler, Weege, takes the 125 win this night over to Tedesco, who goes on to win the title.

Speaker 4:
[70:19] Yes. So I remember this well. Stu has vacated the 125 class. So it's like, who's going to take over? And now history shows that Tedesco had an all-time year that year. But the RaceRace guys were highly biased in favor of Hepler because he was racing high point in Steel City every weekend growing up. And he was highly touted and he wins round two. And it was like, here we go. And I thought at that point, I'm like, he's second year. I think he got second to Stu in everything near before as a rookie. And I'm like, oh, he's just going to be the next guy. But then he just started crashing a lot. I think he got hurt right after this, I think. And then outdoors, no one remembers this. First Moto of the Year outdoors, same thing. Who's going to take over? Stu's gone. He wins the first Moto of the Year at Hangtown. Hepler does. Everybody remembers the GL Alessi smash up in Moto 2. But man, Hepler's potential doesn't really get talked about enough. He very much couldn't have been the next guy after Stu, which is, I don't think anybody thinks that now. But in the moment, that's where he was.

Speaker 3:
[71:23] I agree. He was fast. He was really fast. He had a lot of great moments, for sure.

Speaker 4:
[71:29] He got second in Supercross and Motocross points to Stu in his rookie year in 04. It's crazy.

Speaker 3:
[71:34] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[71:35] Hepler was a bad dude.

Speaker 4:
[71:37] He was.

Speaker 6:
[71:38] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[71:39] I agree.

Speaker 4:
[71:40] I remember at the time though, looking back on this, it was like, and then Ricky's going to come on board and he's going to take Hepler and Millsaps to another level. From what I remember hearing back then, Hepler was pretty cheap, I think. And I don't think he fully took the invite to like, buy a house in Florida, move to Ricky and work with Ricky and Alvin do it. I don't think he fully, fully committed to that. And obviously looking back now, that is the model. I don't think he took full advantage of what he could have.

Speaker 3:
[72:09] And then I think Millsaps just didn't work hard enough for those guys. So like.

Speaker 4:
[72:13] Oh, I can't even imagine.

Speaker 5:
[72:14] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[72:14] They were just like.

Speaker 5:
[72:15] Also, this was Sipes' first podium.

Speaker 3:
[72:19] Oh, was it?

Speaker 4:
[72:19] That's one of my awards here. I didn't even know this.

Speaker 3:
[72:23] This is WBR Suzuki. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[72:26] Yes. Which do you think, what percentage of listeners even remembers that team?

Speaker 3:
[72:32] Very low. One year, two years? Was it just?

Speaker 5:
[72:34] It was.

Speaker 3:
[72:36] Two years? Troy Adams wrote there.

Speaker 5:
[72:39] It was three years. 04, they were Cowie. Then 05, no, might have only been two years. 05 was obviously this year Suzuki. Were they around 06? I feel like they were.

Speaker 3:
[72:49] I don't know.

Speaker 5:
[72:50] I think they lasted three years. Richie Owens and 04 and a Cowie.

Speaker 3:
[72:56] I'm not sure. All right. Let's do the category, shall we? Fox Racing Re-Raceables categories. Who really won the race, Weege? Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[73:08] I think it was Ricky Carmichael with Mike Gosselaar. That would be my rough going out on a limb guesser.

Speaker 5:
[73:14] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[73:14] Listen, sometimes this category isn't always the winner. The guy comes from last of whatever to clinch a title or whatever you want to talk about. But yeah, I think in this one, it's RC, Seth.

Speaker 5:
[73:27] Yeah. There's no argument here.

Speaker 3:
[73:31] All right. Who's that guy award? Like I mentioned earlier, I thought I would have to go to the unseated guys, but I was able to dig up a guy. Hold on. I'm just trying to find him now. Well, I'm not counting him because he's from Spain. But I can't find it now. Damn it. Okay, Seth, you go.

Speaker 5:
[74:01] I had to go to the Heat Race. I don't remember if it was Heat Race or LCQ. But the first guy that I did not recognize, no clue who he is, 250 class, Rob Floth from Idaho.

Speaker 3:
[74:16] I think you've said this before. Have I? I think Floth has been here. Who's that guy award before? No.

Speaker 5:
[74:24] Really?

Speaker 3:
[74:25] He's a legend. Yeah, he was a short guy. Short. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[74:29] Well, hang on. If I've said that, I don't recognize that name at all. If I've said that before, then let me try to search. Okay, second, I know everybody. Dude, I got to go to freaking 125 class.

Speaker 3:
[74:47] Yeah, I'm going to Scott Howe, 22nd in the LCQ 250 class.

Speaker 5:
[74:54] Scott Howe, okay, yes. He's the only other guy in 250s. I have no idea who that is either.

Speaker 3:
[74:58] Yep, yep. All right, Weege, you?

Speaker 4:
[75:03] Yeah, the guy from Paris, California, Spain. Hashtag never change AMA with your results. I've not heard of Xavier Hernandez from the LCQ of the 125s.

Speaker 3:
[75:14] Yeah, Paris, California, Spain. Weege, we died at those in the review part.

Speaker 4:
[75:19] Oh my gosh, Weege. Paris, California, Spain.

Speaker 5:
[75:23] Dude, I just looked through all four Heat Races. The only two guys I don't know are Rob Floth and Scott Howe. Obviously, the guy you just said, Weege, but he kind of is, I don't really count him because he's Spain.

Speaker 3:
[75:35] What about this Daniel Blair guy? Anybody heard of him?

Speaker 5:
[75:38] About Vincent Blair, dude, he was also there.

Speaker 3:
[75:42] All right. Next category is Lit Kit Award. Okay, Seth, we get it, man. K-Dub, got it. Arai Helmet, we know the Arai wasn't your favorite, but it's No Fear and it's K-Dub.

Speaker 5:
[75:56] Well, yes, that's the easy answer, but I actually was going to dequeue No Fear from the category because it's always going to be my answer. Second best, I think RC's kit, dude, Fox. I actually, funny story, remember when he wore, this is the first year, the Barrett boots, those boots ended up, my buddy actually got a pair, they ended up being terrible, but they look cool. I thought they look cool. And remember that, like, the logo, like the eyes kind of, you know, and we might have told this story before, my first time going to California, the Lake Elsinore Storm baseball team, everyone had their logo on the stickers on the cars, and I thought it was the Barrett boots logo. Like, dude, what the hell, my Barrett is like big in California, they're still in business.

Speaker 3:
[76:52] All right, so but Windham would be it normally for you.

Speaker 5:
[76:55] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[76:56] Right.

Speaker 4:
[76:56] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[76:57] Weege?

Speaker 4:
[77:00] Man, it's tough. I really couldn't find anything that good, but I did stumble upon Gary Bailey posted practice footage, and I'm going to give it to Stu's Fox gear. You don't see Stu in the mains because he got hurt, but that's the best I can do.

Speaker 3:
[77:16] I was going to say Stu also. I googled Images, Phoenix 05, and I got a photo of Stu in practice. He's got yellow, white, and flow yellow, green, flow yellow, white. It looks really good. Really cool helmet. Also, in looking at the images from this race, this is the parade lap with Chad and MC doing knack-knacks to each other. It was a race.

Speaker 5:
[77:39] Oh, is that where that comes from?

Speaker 3:
[77:40] Yeah, it's this race.

Speaker 4:
[77:43] Oh, okay.

Speaker 3:
[77:44] Really cool photo of that.

Speaker 4:
[77:46] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3:
[77:47] I'm probably going to go, well, lit kit for me would be Stu, sorry, and then the next one is shit kit. I will step up with a shit kit and say, I didn't like the Pro Circuit look. They wore the cheaper Thor stuff. There's a photo of Ivan here. It was like the lower level Thor. I don't know. I guess Thor is just like, hey, we're trying to sell our cheaper line, so we're going to put Pro Circuit in it. There's logos everywhere. The jerseys are 3X. Every Thor rider has a jersey that's like 3X. I don't know what's going on. It's like a fucking sale. Pro Circuit to me was shit kit. Evans, when he was laying on the ground, I think that was early fly. It doesn't look great either, but I can't quite make it out grainy YouTube. I'll just go Pro Circuit, guys. It's too many logos. It just doesn't look good. Weege? Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[78:33] For shit kit, I'm actually going to go with Way. There's a lot with this team, I think, logos that had to get in there without an MSR.

Speaker 3:
[78:40] Yeah, it's MSR.

Speaker 4:
[78:42] Yeah. But up for debate, now that I found this practice footage, you can see Sean Hamblin with alloy gear up close. I actually think a lot of the alloy gear looked good. Like Alessi's gear, I think actually look good.

Speaker 3:
[78:54] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[78:55] But terrible colors on Hamblin. But I don't want to slam alloy like that. I thought their gear looked good, so I'm going to give it to Way.

Speaker 3:
[79:01] Okay. All right. Fair enough.

Speaker 5:
[79:03] Yeah. I kind of like that way actually. It wasn't bad, right? The shit can't, there's a lot to choose from in this race. But I got to narrow it down to the biggest fall from Grace in the history of the sport when it comes to looks. No. Yes. The biggest fall from Grace, dude. Okay. Rewind a couple of years. Pastrana is the sickest looking rider on the track. Now, 2005, he comes out and looks like a fucking idiot. Dude, that is the worst fall from Grace ever. Ever, dude. That's bigger than Michael Jackson dying his skin.

Speaker 3:
[79:49] What's he wearing? What is it?

Speaker 5:
[79:50] Dude, it's Thor, but Chad's Thor stuff looked pretty good.

Speaker 3:
[79:55] MC stuff looked good, yeah.

Speaker 5:
[79:57] Yes, yes. Travis' Thor kit, it's like, I have no idea, dude. I have no idea what that is. And then to top it off, he has an M2R helmet. Not only an M2R helmet, which is bad enough, the freaking, I don't know what you call that, the wing thing the M2R had on the top of their helmets. Travis is like extra big. It's like he's gonna fly out of the stadium.

Speaker 3:
[80:23] Well, also, I believe because he's been wrecked with injuries so much, I think he's wearing like a football chest protector or something underneath. He looks huge.

Speaker 5:
[80:34] Yeah, I mean, dude, that don't even bother me, dude. Honestly, if you would have took the jersey off and just wore a football protector, it'd be better.

Speaker 3:
[80:41] Yeah, white bike. You had a white bike.

Speaker 5:
[80:44] Dude, that is the worst fall from Grace in the history of the sport.

Speaker 4:
[80:49] How did he end up, so no fear is still around? How does he end up not at no fear?

Speaker 3:
[80:55] Probably money, yeah, who knows, right? This is near the end of no fear, tapering off a little bit. JT, where's JT? He does not make the main, as I mentioned earlier, in the LCQ, he gets fifth. I said, what do you remember? He said, I remember being really fast on Friday and able to ride behind Timmy and then just blew it on Saturday. Bad starts, didn't get the job done. JT, everybody. Jacob Marsak Award, there is only one here. There's no doubt in my mind, which is the Jacob Marsak Award. But I'll let you guys see if you can figure it out. Weege?

Speaker 4:
[81:27] I had no idea that Sipes got a podium with WBR in the 125s.

Speaker 3:
[81:33] I'm going Turbo Reef in a fourth.

Speaker 5:
[81:37] 100%.

Speaker 3:
[81:39] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[81:39] 100%.

Speaker 5:
[81:40] Turbo Reef, dude, look at Reef's vault. It's all double digits and then randomly a fourth.

Speaker 4:
[81:46] Once I got the Sipes, I stopped. I should have went one more position.

Speaker 5:
[81:49] Fourth?

Speaker 4:
[81:50] What?

Speaker 5:
[81:51] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[81:53] Yeah. Fourth to me is like, wait, I remember Turbo Reef. I don't remember ever being that good.

Speaker 4:
[82:01] Wow.

Speaker 3:
[82:03] My, what the, the WTF happened. I'll go Loroco. So crashes in the heat, gets last. He wins the semi and then dude, he's just 15th in the main. Fifteenth from Michael Loroco. Now I know O5 was near the end. I get it. But he wins a race this year or did he win a race in 04? Was it 04?

Speaker 4:
[82:22] 04. And he got second, I think, in Anaheim 1 in that mud race.

Speaker 3:
[82:25] Yeah. So he starts last. He starts last. I looked at the lap chart. I know that's amazing. But starting last doesn't mean anything for Mike. That's fine. That's still an eighth. Starting last is still an eighth. But dude, he just gets 15th. Like no idea. Michael Loroco, everybody. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[82:43] And they were talking about him and, was it him and Villamint?

Speaker 3:
[82:48] Yeah. Him and Villamint came together in the heat and Mike broke his throttle or something. But I just don't know how Michael Loroco could start last and again, and still get 15th. So he must have fell again. I don't know. Yeah. It's just, yeah. What's yours Weege?

Speaker 4:
[83:04] First of all, I just want to say Seth, I was afraid that you have found, it says that Damon Huffman is still back by Axo. And I was thinking that you were going to say the fall from grace was that. So since you're a no-fear guy, you can have that. I thought you were going to assault the fall from grace of the brand of Axo with Huffman who went from best looking gear ever seven years earlier to this. But okay. I just want to mention that Huffman gets 10th with ECC. Yeah, I don't know. This one, this is a tough category, I would agree. The Loroco thing, he freaking got a podium at round one. I don't know how I top that.

Speaker 3:
[83:42] I mean, Timmy going from sixth to tenth isn't good either, by the way.

Speaker 4:
[83:46] No, but he was hurt.

Speaker 3:
[83:47] He was hurt, yeah.

Speaker 4:
[83:48] Yeah. Overall, Timmy should never get 11th or whatever he got.

Speaker 3:
[83:54] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[83:55] No, go ahead.

Speaker 3:
[83:56] Pastrana is ninth when he crashes out, looking at the lap chart, by the way. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[84:02] My... I didn't really have a WTF. I'm just going to go basically the 125 class because Turbo Reef is fourth. Andrew Short, 10th. Billy Leninovich, 11th. Now I haven't watched the race yet, so obviously something happened to those guys. But Turbo Reef should never be beating those guys.

Speaker 3:
[84:26] Is this Lando at FC?

Speaker 5:
[84:29] Yeah. He was really good. Yeah. He won San Fran this year. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[84:32] Yeah. For sure. All right. Fox Racing Re-Raceables. That's a wrap. Phoenix 05. Thanks to Mike Gosselaar. He's a legend. I don't care what he says. He's a legend.

Speaker 4:
[84:43] I got one more story for this race.

Speaker 3:
[84:44] I got one more story.

Speaker 4:
[84:45] I'll enjoy this one. I've told this before. In practice, Stu goes down, as we mentioned. Steve Bruin, who was helping us at RacerX, the factory spectator, started the Moto Day site, media pioneer, writes a story. He calls Davey and he's like, dude, Carmichael and Stu were chasing each other around in practice. Stu went too fast. That's why Stu got hurt. Davey's like, oh, tell me more. Davey and TFS write a story together on Monday, I think, for the website about chasing each other around in practice. Riders do this all the time and they're trying to get in each other's head, all this. Davey's like, hey, you were there to just check out. I'm like, yeah, I guess so. Cool. I think nothing of it. They posted on the website. I go to the race the next weekend. All the cowboy guys are super pissed at me. I'm like, what? Big D and all these guys are super pissed. They're like, dude, you wrote a story saying that Stu got hurt because he was chasing RC around. I'm like, well, I didn't write it. They're like, yes, you did. Your name is on it. I'm like, what? I go to the website. I'm like, mother F. They put my name on the story.

Speaker 3:
[85:47] Well, you were there. You were there.

Speaker 4:
[85:49] I said to Davey, I'm like, why is my name in the story? He's like, well, I wasn't there and you were, so it seemed like you would have more credibility. I'm like, just because I said, yeah, it seems like it checks out. I was just saying, yeah, I wasn't saying I agree. I guess that does sound like I agree, but I wasn't that passionate on the subject. They're like, what would you do with a photographer? Your source on this is Steve Bruin. He's a racing expert, shoot photos on the track. He knows what's going on. I'm like, I don't know, man. Then Stu comes back for Orlando and I think we had posters or magazines that we were going to bring over there. Then he's like, no, we don't want any raceracks over here.

Speaker 3:
[86:27] Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, man. That's funny.

Speaker 5:
[86:33] Steve, that had to be the only time in Weege's career that there's any controversy around him.

Speaker 3:
[86:41] I know, right? It wasn't even him. It wasn't even him. It wasn't even him.

Speaker 5:
[86:45] Right, right.

Speaker 4:
[86:46] But close.

Speaker 3:
[86:47] I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4:
[86:48] That's what it takes, I guess, somebody else.

Speaker 3:
[86:50] You have these moments that you can remember and we all have them, I can picture, like I said, I can picture Stu's crash just like it was a year ago. Standing there, watching it, watching him go on, off, lose the front end, go over, medic flags, yellow flags coming up, broken arm. I just remember being like, wow, yeah, you can't do that, James. You can't scrub yourself onto and on and just keep going sideways. Like this is a video game. It was just, yeah, because he was unreal, right? Like this was the first dry race and he was unreal. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[87:23] I mean, dude, I'm three weeks into doing the webcast. I'm 21 days of this job and I've already got, as far as I know, James Stewart thinks I'm a hack.

Speaker 6:
[87:31] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[87:31] Yeah. Really, right?

Speaker 6:
[87:33] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[87:33] My life is great.

Speaker 3:
[87:35] That's great. That's a good story.

Speaker 6:
[87:37] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[87:37] Awesome. Well, listen, thanks for listening, everybody. These are really fun to do. We appreciate it. Seth Rarick, Jason Wigant, I'm Steve Mathis. Thanks, boys, and we'll see you this weekend in Philly.

Speaker 5:
[87:48] Sir, thanks, guys. See you. See you, guys.