Tomac, Lawrence and Sexton asked about the long season

“They control the narrative” was a dagger comment from Chase. Good for them for speaking up. 

They’re getting paid well enough, so suck it up boys.  It’s only one more race than when they used to Monster Cup and US Open, and a few of them also do other events like Paris, WSX or Aus SX.

What’s this “narrative”?

Not a single one of them want to do 30+ mandatory weekends a year. I don't blame them. 

Imagine that - someone wanting to get paid the same for less work.

A good question that I do not have the answer to. 

Chase was absolutely right. If you get at least the top 10 guys to pool together to say, "we're not gonna race this much". It will change right away.

IMHO this is a nothing burger. It's only one additional race when you subtract Monster Cup and the one national that's gone.

This is all laughable, and completely-self inflicted. Most of these guys train or test on the "off weeks" during the season, then pick up the big money races overseas during the off season, so if they want more time off, just skip those weeks and those races and relax! The big money came into the picture when they added these last three rounds. Take those rounds away, and all that money goes away, too! 

Anybody watch MotoGP, its 22 Sunday races, plus 22 Saturday Sprint races (half distance), so total 44 races.

I'm not saying 31 races isn't a lot, but these 3 guys are being paid big money to do what they love. And as mentioned above, ET3 signed up for all of WSX, and JL18 is going back to King of Paris and doing a round of Aus SX I believe in Australia. Plus 2 of them are also racing MXoN. So clearly they are not burn-out after the AMA stuff concludes.

Are they "required" to do the 3 SMX races/weekends?

I would assume it is written in each contract 

absolutely bs they dont get paid enough at ALL!

They’re getting paid exactly what the people with the money believe they are worth.

I feel the same way about my job. 

I’m sure they aren’t too happy that the teams are poaching the prize money for SMX. Pretty convenient that the purse money goes up and all of a sudden it stops going 💯 to the rider 🤔

One thing that is a bit overlooked in all of this- It's not just the riders doing all the races. Mechanics, truck drivers, trainers, caterers, basically everybody behind the scenes making this all happen- They're all doing them too. Most of them probably aren't getting jetted all over the place or getting paid huge amounts of cash. More races means more wear and tear on far more than just machinery and the riders. For a crew member during the season in most motorsports, it's a long, tough slog.

This was discussed on the latest Matthes Racer X podcast.  Apparently only 20 per cent goes to the teams to cover their additional expenses incurred because their contracts with suppliers don't cover the SMX rounds. 

I was listening to the Title24 Post Charlotte podcast today where RV and RC were discussing this.  RV's opinion was that once the season is over there should be a three month break; his reasoning was a month of doing nothing, then two months of preseason and prep for A1. 

Well guess what - last SMX race is Sep 21, Anaheim 1 will be early January; except for the three guys selected for MXoN everyone is getting a break that is over three months.  Another way to look at it - they race 31 weekends out 52 - a tick under 60% of the weekends in the year.

Finally, the comparison to MotoGP and F1 is somewhat flawed as they are predominantly summer only competitions whereas dirtbikes are an all-weather, all-year round proposition.

Yes it's toughest for the crews that's also why mechanics and all have been dropping of MotoGP lately. 22 weekends of racing around the world is the dream until it isn't anymore, people get tired faster, they quit earlier.

The top riders are the stars of the show, get nice accomodations, travel, and obviously do not lose money but I'm not sure how many privateers really benefit from extra rounds vs how many more privateers could afford to race the whole season if it was a bit shorter (travel expenses vs prize money they actually get).

I think there should be more weekends off during the year and less supercrosses too.

SMX is a gimmick and shouldn't exist.

Spread the prizemoney out during the season. 

Wonder why RV, Dunge etc retired early the grind got to them…

Jason Thomas said as a privateer he was absolutely going to do as many money paying races as he could, that’s how he made his living.

No one was expecting JT to win though, there’s a big difference between privateer and factory rider expectations.

For those saying “it’s only one more race”; you can’t compare a championship race to an off season race. The level of pressure, stress and preparation are not the same. Did anyone really care if they didn’t produce their best at Monster Cup or an off season SX? There was also a good break between Outdoors and these races.

Now the top riders (and teams) have three series to compete in, instead of two, with basically no break in between. Meanwhile an international SX is a fun, well paid holiday for the rider and their families.

The complete racing season may only be one race longer now, but it is not the same.

But they're signing the contracts and lining up to race, so it must be enough....

Stupidcross is was too long, imo.

MotoGP and F1 aren't all weather? And it's already been established SX/MX is 60-65% of the year. I would argue MotoGP riders get the shit beat out of them worse than pro MX. Those are rockets on wheels they ride now.

I agree & disagree with this whole topic , the season is kinda long but at the same time , after the season is over half of these boiis are signed up & going to a lot of these off season races for wht 🤔 the money , then u have the mxon every year , if ur tht tired or burnt out , just say no to these off season races & mxon , their off season races for a reason , their not mandatory 🤷🏾‍♂️

I like Jett but this talking about to much racing I go blaa too. He say to many races yet he's going racing a couple nights in Paris , Then flying Aus to race there. Oh and he doing Mxdn too. So I take it with a pinch of salt.

Oh and isn't Eli signed up for all WSX

Strictly speaking they are getting paid what they have agreed to be paid. The factory may think they are worth way more or way less - as might the rider - but the factory is paying them exactly the amount they feel they need to, to secure that riders services and the riders have agreed to work for that amount of cash for a certain duration of time. 

I’m sure if any of the riders wanted to do SX only the agreed upon amount would be reduced accordingly. Of course so would all other financial contingencies and potential to accrue additional prize money . 

So technically speaking if any rider is complaining the season is too long what they mean is “ I want to compete in fewer races but with the same compensation package as I’m receiving now”..

Ask your boss if you can work 30 hrs but get paid for 40 hrs and see what he says ;-) 

I mean we know what Roczen/Tomac approximately got offered by WSX, but do we know what kind of money riders actually get from racing and showing up at Paris/AUSX? Would love to know. Even tough it's probably also used as a preparation/testing race for SX, I'd assume it's gotta be more than a race win bonus to show, or?

Also Justin Cooper said something interesting on Pulp. While he agreed that the current schedule is too bloated, he felt like SMX was rather refreshing and chill compared to outdoors. I could imagine that he hardest part of the year are the last SX races combined with all the outdoor testing and then straight into the full outdoor series? Maybe they should look into shorten the SX series to 13-14 and give them more than a month between SX and outdoors.

Would be cool to hear from pro riders specifying what kind of changes they would like to see to the schedule. Lewis maybe?