Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
Here are his moto finishes for 2018 when he was 18 years old:
11 5 10 8 10 6 10 Ret 8 4 5 14 11 6 8 5 5 10 5 8 7 2 2 6
But you can see why I'm making the case that a Leblanc shouldn't have to race his first year of SX against a 25-26 year old forkner
You are wanting to set a rule where someone over a certain age cannot have that paying position at Star Yamaha or a satellite team.
And make no mistake, we are talking about a real JOB here where someone gets to make some money to put food on the table for him and his family or not.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
They are also not "employed" by anyone. They are independent contractors conducting their own business basically just using the logos of the team.
You really dont have a firm grip on laws at all and your previous post bringing sexton into it was subjective, trying to compare individual results from different points in time to different people
You're acting like no one has excelled in the 250 class until they were over 23, when the overwhelming majority of the sport's top guys did very well at the ages you claim it's not possible to do well at.
I never said they couldn't be successful under 23. I said its bad for the sport when so many good riders are unable to make it to year 2 of the pro ranks after competing with a gang of 25-30 year old lites riders. Is that concept so difficult to understand? Geez, I'm not explaining how to run a car into a lightbulb here.
The guy just might not want to pursue it anymore, the sport is an absolute meat grinder.
Diversity quotas are a very real thing for every industry and business, even though they don't exist in this particular case, the concept in effect is valid.
By the way, I'm pretty sure 0 of the riders you mentioned were successful at age 16-17. Your first example, jeremy martin raced a supermini at age 16 at lorettas. Bet you feel smart now
Seriously. I think their must be something more to the Leblanc story , is he really bad at sx ? Or is it just consistent injuries, jett Reynolds is looking similar
These are the guys I mentioned in my first response to you...all of them except JMart and McAdoo podiumed or won between the ages of 16 & 19. Have the best day ever.
In the past 2 seasons guys like Jed Beaton, Wilson Todd, Mathys Boisrame, Conrad Mewse, Ben Watson, Alvin Ostlund, Morgan Lesiardo, Josh Gilbert, Nathan Renkens, Cyril Genot, Davy Pootjes, Richard Sykina, Brian Hsu, Michael Sandner, Hardi Roosiorg and Mitchell Harrison had to move up.
Maybe Ben Watson ends up with a full time ride in MXGP next year. All these others will not have a full time ride unless they bring big $.
I have no idea why it helps MXGP that they are forced to move up.
And as for 'they are keeping spots in MX2 that should go to young talent!'. Well if you cant beat the majority of this list then you are not such a supertalent imo.
Pit Row
All the names mentioned were the usual suspects who would have hung around and taken up seats. You probably wouldn't have had rides available for Geerts, vialle, lagenfelder and others early on in their careers if they had to compete for rides with the names mentioned. Thats exactly why the rule works so well and has been such a successful policy in mxgp
I agree with your premise, that giving riders time to develop might give us some later career success stories, just look at Craig. He got kept at Geico for years (even got an offer to become unretired) with results that would have gotten other riders dropped, and he finally put it together to get to the top tier.
But the root cause is the lack of good paying 450 rides. You'd probably see a lot more guys retire after 1 privateer season on 450s. Then you would have an even bigger skill gap between 250 and 450, because now those rookies haven't had to push themselves to beat the more experienced riders, and when they move up eventually, they'll need even more time to get used to the 450 pace. An age cap doesn't fix anything, just creates a new problem. If anything is capped, make it a 250 team salary cap. The goal is to make moving up more enticing, not forcing them out.
It's professional racing, not the local job market.
You might be the only guy outside of David Luongo who thinks the 23 rule is successful
The sport will suffer if it doesn't have a way to develop young talent. Having a race on one coast, then 7 days later another series race on the opposite side of the country certainly doesn't help either. A 13yr old kid with factory support and factory pressure to perform isn't good either. They still need to be kids for a while.
And if you are getting lapped 5 or 6 times at a pro race, that's another problem entirely.
If anything this is an argument for a pro-am class or a 125 pro class...
And perhaps an argument against a ridiculously productive amateur system in a sport where there are only 20 gates in each class.
Unless you find it an issue that a guy like Beaton or Harrison would end up at Motoblouz or Hitachi in MX2 and take the spot of Rubini or Gifting. Which really is just potato, potahto
See also: every other sport ever
Post a reply to: Leblanc Story: this is why AMA needs under 23 rule