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Jett is in the conversation for sure, but there’s also at least 10 other riders that are in that conversation where you could make a solid argument for them being the fastest teenager the sport has seen. To say that it’s ‘safe to say’ that Jett is the fastest is a wild take IMO. I was surprised to see that DC wrote this article because he is an absolute encyclopaedia of Moto knowledge and will have seen almost every great young phenom the sport has had
James Stewart was by far the fastest teenager in motocross.
I was speaking to current threads so I won't disagree. The endless drone of bla, bla, bla bickering is nauseating.
Before the inevitable vitard assault I didn't read it because I am sure it's meaningless content just because of the title, OP and number of pages.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
I know James Stewart wasn't a rookie in 2008, but I'm comparing perfect seasons and I think Jett Lawrence had much stronger competition in 2023 compared to James Stewart in 2008 when they won every moto and the fact JL did it as a Rookie make that accomplishment even more impressive.
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Agreed on the competition, but stewarts raw speed was better. That being said. Rc was better than both of them, and i wd throw. Rv, beastmode tomac in there also.
Other than MXoN, Jett hasn't lost a series since the 2021 250W SX (3rd) that he has entered ?
2023- 250W SX, 450 MX, 450 SMX, King of Paris.
2022- 250E SX, 250 MX
2021- 250 MX
Very fast obviously and also racing against past their primers , perfect timing.
And then theres very fast Chase who lacks self confidence
That makes him the most successful teenager.
Such a clueless post
There’s probably a few vital members who’ve seen James in practice for national, on a 125. Same as Jett on the 250.
james made me say holy fuck a few times. Jett looked a lot like the other guys.
I’ve seen Millville for about 10 nationals. The rasp of his bike and the things he did , he’s the fastest I’ve seen, and I’m not even a fan.
I think Carmichael is still safely the GOAT, and if Jett was racing RC in his prime.......GOAT would rip his head off.
Bingo. Not even close
Fastest teenager racer = Bubba
Most complete teenage racer = Jett.
This went way longer before getting stupid than expected..
Without seeing Jett on a 125, which won’t ever happen, it’s impossible to compare him to James. JS made the 125 look better/different/way faster than his competitors, he moved the game forward a big step. Jett made a step forward this year outdoors, but I don’t think he moved the needle as much as JS did, but maybe he didn’t need to push as hard? Whatever the case, Jett is in the best ever conversation.
Let’s look at Jett after SX and see how he does compared to McGraths rookie 250SX season.
JM2 got 5 wins and the title right?
I think he got 10 wins and the 1993 title. It was a surprise just like Jett’s 2023 outdoor season. Nobody had gone undefeated yet so 10 wins was unheard of.
Quite sure JS259 would have schooled Jett back in the day.
A couple of points. One... JL vs peak RC or peak JS7... not a fair comparison. Have we even seen peak JL yet? Some guys get slower as they age into their twentys (usually due to injuries), but I don't see that happening to JL. He's not injuring himself. Two... JL certainly deserves to be in the conversation, but... I don't seen him doing things nobody else is doing. JS7, RV, RC, and sometimes ET... when you watched them, they just did things nobody else was doing. They would triple or quad some section that nobody was doing. Or they could double, triple, etc a section after exiting from the inside of the corner instead of taking the high line through the turn like everyone else was doing to get the corner exit speed. JS7... I think he found a time machine, and brought back techniques he discovered 30 yrs in the future. JL isn't doing that. Maybe that's more impressive. JS7, RV, RC, and ET all LOOKED outrageously fast. JL doesn't look fast, but he obviously is. He makes it look easy. JS7, RV, RC, and ET all appeared to have supernatural skills on the bike.
I sincerely hope somebody can keep JL honest, and compete with him. Yes, watching some of the greats like JS7, RV, RC, and ET in their peak was great.. in retrospect. Some of the JS7-RC battles were epic, but after RC retired, most of the races were boring. If peak JS7 ever got the holeshot (which he often did), the race was over. Same with peak RC (before JS7), and peak RV, and peak ET. The only unknown was the margin of victory at the finish. I hope JL doesn't make the next few years boring.
Pit Row
All being said who cares who was the fastest teenager, there's no denying he's a bad ass on a dirt bike.
Also, I would be so annoyed if I was Jett that they chose this year to have a 3 week break during outdoors instead of the two. If it had been the usual he'd of won the 450 championship as a 19 year old instead of being 20+ a couple days.
I started another thread with some stats comparing JL to RC, JS and RV in their first four years as full time pros.
JS was clearly the fastest by a good margin. Crashes/injuries cost him in terms of championships.
JL and RC have very similar stats for their first four years.
people can't deal with it because Jett is so smooth compared to Ricky and Bubba. They looked like they were going to die every race, therefore they *must* have been faster.
Both James and Ricky were well into their 20s before a premier class perfect season. People keep comparing 19 y/o Jett to prime year James and Ricky.
Are you really *that* fast if that speed keeps resulting in crashes? I say no. You're only as fast as your ability to finish races
In that case you can say JS7 should nt be called fast . He crashed Consistently when he moved to big bikes . imo you can say someone is unreal fast and that is a different category to someone who has it altogether, and is unreal fast too . Plus crashing is nt the biggest problem it s getting injured. RC had some Huge crashes but always seemed to ride away from them . Torttelli would have a big crash and get injured. That was a big difference.
Exactly... be interesting to see this thread come back from the dead in a few years and see how this turned out
It's a good thing James Stewart wasn't racing in the same era Jett Lawrence is, because his racing career would have been cut short trying to run Jett's pace. Jett Lawrence is by far the fastest rookie premier class rider ever and he's only going to get faster. Jett smooth and fast beats Bubba on the ragged edge and out of control fast every time.
Has any one mentioned Jeffery Herlings yet?
You need to get your hand off it.
About 3-5 years ago wasn't there a lot of ppl saying. You will never have a dominant rider again. No1 will go undefeated again. Coz of training facilities and every knows all the tricks now days the playing field is so level there will never be another stew or ricky?
Now we are on the verge of that happening in an era that's more difficult to get the edge on the competition. And there's a lot of resistance saying nup they were better.
But I feel like you cannot really compare eras. Who's better, senna, Schumacher, Hamilton or verstappen?
Pele or ronaldo?
Even if jett was to surpass records if your a ricky guy you will still have excuses to dismiss his achievements.
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