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Wait a gosh darn minute! I got wolf packed in another thread for saying Joey is not a top tier guy. According to some Joey is as good as it gets.
It just seems like one thing after another with this team is all. Definitely an extremely rocky start.
I mean he was still able to get paid to ride dirtbikes for a whole year, so maybe not the biggest waste.
I guess it’s not the end of the world but it is a bummer he wasn’t and still isn’t allowed to race 250sx. It seems really weird that triumph can’t get a 450 ready for next year though, obviously a big task, but they got a lot of it done already by developing the 250. Unless they plan on having an entirely different 450 that doesn’t share any parts/frame.
They would have to have time to get them in dealers too especially with the Vital homologation police.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
It’s not just a matter of building a 450. They have to have a production ready motorcycle that is on sales floors to meet homoligation, along with all the parts and support that comes with releasing a brand new model.
I’d be interesting to know who is making the decisions over there, in terms of rider signings etc. Have they just handed the keys over to the teams they partnered with and given them control over everything? Because there is a stark difference between the way things are going at Triumph here in Europe and over in the US.
I like Savatgy, but signing him made no sense. I know they were planning on having a 450 ready for ‘25. But at the moment they only have a 250, and they signed one of the guys who isn’t allowed to race 250SX. I simply don’t understand
I could have sworn he got some top 5s or at least knocking on the door in his 2nd go round on the factory Kawi.
I think he podiumed a moto or something at Redbud that year.
Ricky
Get him on a mad parts kawi
What a waste of time for Triumph.
Maybe it's a personnel thing rather than the bike. The MXGP team hit the ground running with a podium at their first race, and both riders have been at the sharp end all year with very few technical issues on the bikes. If McLellan hadn't got injured both riders would've been top 6 by now and both are getting their best results since getting on the Triumph.
Swoll was going well in SX, so something has definately gone tits-up with the AMA MX team effort.
Curious they would do this now rather than after SMX. Could Joey not race the 250 in the three SMX rounds? Triumph could still let him seek other opportunities over the next 3 weeks. Or maybe Joey is the one who pulled the plug? Maybe didn't feel safe trying an SMX track on a less than reliable race bike?
I’m just here for the “not a good look” comments
Swoll, Ferry and Robertson all have a history with Bobby Hewitt from the previous Rockstar Husky team. Savatgy was hired to help develop the 450 he was supposed to debut in '25, and raced the 250 in the meantime just to get gate drops. How many other top 10 450 riders do you think were available and willing to fill that position? Ferry was a disappointment on and off the track but otherwise I think they got what they paid for with Swoll and Savatgy. Swoll had a podium in SX and his best career finish in MX (7th).
All we can do is speculate until Savatgy no longer cares about the Triumph NDA.
Its probably a list of things. Most obvious ones we can guess:
-Too many bike failures
-No 450 remotely ready to start testing, which kills the 2nd half of his contract.
-Management/Team issues
-Parts availability
What a waste of time those bike reveal videos were...
Swoll had the best year of racing this year. I would think one would look at the history of JS17 before saying it was the teams fault.
Pit Row
That’s not how vital works though
Would be curious of the findings of JS17 dnfs. Surely a professional team is doing some root cause analysis of the issues. Why was Swoll able to finish so many more motos? Riding style, mechanic ability, getting different parts?
Best career MX finish was a 3-1 for the overall win, High Point 2021
It was all the way back in 2021, but Jalek Swoll is a 250 MX outdoor winner....
He finished 7th overall for the series, his best career finish
Just a guess but I thought I heard him say its cutting out or cutting off when he was on camera in the mechanic area one time which got me thinking about the other brands that have been having lots of wiring harness issues.
Yeah, he's been cut off.
😉
I have always been a huge Savatgy fan. You could tell though that he was never 100% happy dropping down to 250’s again. Especially after he wasn’t allowed to race SX anymore. I figured he would have good results and jump up to Triumph’s 450 but when that got delayed you could see the hand writing on the wall.
I dont know how it is now, but i do know when i was working for a factory team( the last year was 2016) we were not running a remotely close to stock harness and they were made in house(we had no wiring issues just to put that there) and i would imagine most of the high level teams arent running OEM harness as there is so much junk in them not needed for the race team.
As far as Joey having some more dnf's, wasnt his role there mostly on the bike development side for atleast this year? I bet he was race testing more as opposed to Jalek. Obviosuly his starts werent helping, and situations like Unadilla getting cleaned out when in the middle of the pack is really just luck of the draw. Although he seems to get the short end of the stick on that side of stuff way too often. Joey still has some life in him as a racer and for a first year Triumph didnt do too bad at all all things considered. I wish them both luck going forward.
I had him as a podium guy with all the time they had to test. Firepower seems like a good bike too, and he'll have 4 months to adapt, so Its another put up or shut up situation.
He had more top 10 Motos then I thought, and it’s a little funny with all the bike issues he had that his most solid overall round was Southwick. Coming back to this class, I didn’t think he would be on the podium. He’s always came across as a whiner to me even though that matters to no one hahaha
I wonder if he would have stayed if they allowed him to ride 250sx in 25’? 🤔
Either way, I think they/we underestimate how different of a mindset you need to ride a 250 vs. 450. Feels they just “shut their brain off” and pin it whereas the 450 class is more strategic about how and when they use their energy. I don’t think Joey was willing to send it like that but here’s hoping the FP ride goes better.
Silver lining; at least he got paid.
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