Sexton, Jeez!!!

IMO, Sexton still has this. He’s fast and he’s fit.  He has the Fitness of Alden‘s boys, and more speed than the current champion.  He has made a bunch of mistakes early in the season and he’s only seven points back.  Shit happens.
Take away just one of those mistakes and he’s in the points lead.  It seems he has room to clean up his mistakes and to step up his game, whereas the other riders are closer to the top of their game and have less room to improve. 

Having more speed doesn't mean much if you can't keep it on two wheels. 

James was a perfect example of that. 

All it takes is one big get off and he's done for the season. He has to clean up those mistakes if he wants to win titles. 

I think the problem is that bfrc shock.

Agree 100%. I think Tomac does have Sexton's speed though (and maybe even more) but he just won't go there. Tomac did trying to pass Webb and saw what happens when you ride too close to the edge.

Only watching the broadcast, I think it is weird that they show the Sexton prior-race crashes during the actual main. Was it on the jumbotron or visible in the stadium? I don't feel it's appropriate to show a video of a rider crashing during the race he is actually in, visible to him. He doesn't need that distraction or thoughts in his head other than his race.

Maybe only DV, Starling or Chiz could comment on how much a stadium racer knows what is on the screen when they are racing. I know for practice - yeah it's practice - this guys look at the tower for lap times. 

Agree. I think it's a little premature at this point to be saying he has more outright speed than Eli. If push came to shove and Eli had to push the envelope, I'm confident he could wick it up a level or 2. He's in management mode right now.

Has HRC focused too much on the 250 team and let the 450 program slip? Or once HRC heard Chase was leaving they were less motivated to improve the 450 for 2023?

Lol yeah HRC, perhaps the proudest racing organization in the world, is going to dog it in the premier class in the premier racing series in the entire sport because they just don't feel like putting in the work

The Konsky bikes are probably as good as HRC of both sizes. 

People don't like to admit it but a slowing, slightly more hesitant and error prone Eli flatters Sexton to an extent.

Consider the very real possibility Chase may have to try to run way over his own personal red line just to stay in front of ET3? And the odds are low that anyone - anyone - can run that pace every lap for the entire moto without eating complete shit? Has anyone in the history of our sport ever broken someone from 2nd place in a moto? 

I would say the majority of it is on Chase, but you overcompensate and make things worse when you're on a bike you don't trust. The only negative thing I can remember Tomac ever saying about a bike was the last year he was on Honda, something like the bike put him on the ground a lot. He had a reputation for crashing on that bike which improved drastically as soon as he went to Kawi so who really knows...maybe a change of color will help Chase find what he's missing.

He's missing good lines !!! He's not missing the cool Honda sticker on his front fender.  Besides it being in his head now, I believe this is a simple fix.  HIS HEAD IS ALWAYS DOWN.