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Jordan Bailey Steps Away From Professional MX/SX
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he was barely a top 20 guy outdoors..not really news.
While I have to have a real job, race for fun a few times a year and never get paid to even offset expenses.
Pit Row
There are quite a few riders earning good money as a base plus the opportunity to make GREAT money if they "produce". 15-20 riders on Factory Backed 250s plus the support teams...many of which pay the riders. Then then there's the 12 plus riders on Factory Backed 450s plus teams like RMATVMC KTM and others that pay their riders AND have an excellent bonus program...
You can easily list over 30 riders making really good money just on their base pay. Add to that, bonuses and other pay like gear (450 riders). On top of that are the 15-20 support team riders making money plus bonuses. Never-mind the "up-n-coming" am riders that're actually paid. Ryder, Danger...etc.
And, there are other ways to make money racing...
In 2015, I took a Matt Goerke from the US to Canada. In his 1st year, he raced AX for Babbits before heading north to Canada. He got paid well for the AX ride (Injured late in the season while competing for the title). In Canada we rode for André Laurin's Rockstar Yamaha Canada Team. He won the 450 title. He got paid well for that, too. We stayed on that team for 4 years & made good money for the rider AND the team! Rockstar's support increased quite nicely during our tenure there. Also, they sent Christophe up there on a Factory Husky for a season: that cost some coin, too!. After that, we signed a deal with Monster Kawasaki Canada. That paid well, too. That lasted 2 years and then he retired at the end of 2020.
All our contracts had a good base pay, excellent travel pay and good bonuses. Matt was paid well, treated well, traveled very nicely and was able to "easily afford" to relocate to Canada for the ENTIRE 2020 race season...which IS NOT AN INEXPENSIVE thing to do.
The point: people come in here and talk about "If you aren't making top 3 money, I can't see when it would ever make financial sense to keep racing..." or "No one's making money racing..." ...well...
My guy made plenty of money doing what he loved.
If someone simply takes the time to list all the racers and the teams...? There's A LOT of riders getting paid to do what they love. I call that,"Successful". Period.
this sport is alot more risky than most traditional ball sports, which is why some scoff @ the salaries these guys make.
they also have to re-invest into their own program quite a bit (trainers, tracks if they own them, etc..)
and from what ive read, what racers were making prior to 2008 (old world order) was actually somewhat worth it.
I dont remember the exact numbers but when JT$ was at his peak years, he said he made pretty good money. Weston Peick was more or less the millenial JT$ in terms of results (if not better) and wasnt exactly setting the world on fire in terms of his pay until he got onto JGR
also..when factoring in inflation..lol..100k a year isnt really much anymore. the dollar doesnt have the same buying power as it did in 2000
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