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.
Hitting the gate is not a penalty.
Leaving the gate before everyone else is a penalty.
This is not difficult.
I get it that its self penalizing. So is going backwards on the track , but its still a rule violation. If there isn't anything about gaining an advantage in the rule. Being at a disadvantage should not exempt you from the punishment.
Actual Jumping the gate only works when gate is lower, broken in or damaged so to say. On a normal gate, you cant jump it.
So jump it means anything that gets you passed the gate before you are supposed to be able to.
I got/had the jump is a normal expression, it means you are ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2hdaItSvGA8
Watch this clip. I guess when I watch it, i don't see a 1/4 bike lead when the gate drops...? I watched it several times and see him leaving right at the gate drop, just like the kawi to his left.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
Would love to see a Venn diagram of people crying in here that the penalty is unfair and should be reversed with the people that think RC should not have gotten his points back in 06
This is why they changed the penalty to a lap from a single spot. This is not AI or some faked clip. This was a REAL thing that resulted in the rule change.
At this point I really don't care, I know that people have their minds set. But THIS IS THE reason for the 1 lap penalty. If that is the reason for the harsh penalty, all I'm arguing is that they are not acting in the spirit of the rule. And that Mike had a choice to enforce or not.
Only reason I bring up Barcia is that he too hit the gate and was so close to Jett in that photo. And the difference between what Jett and Barcia did was a stronger gate and or less commitment to the start by the racer. After watching the start challenge that Pulp did. I see that You have to commit to the start and be wide open. The way the start map and starting on those grates work. I could never get the drive to hit a gate that hard on a concrete start, maybe on a dirt start. But the level of commitment and how much throttle I would be giving the bike is going to be dramatically less when NOT on a grate. It takes a little bit of time to realize the gate did not drop and then let off the gas when You are so committed to the start..
If your interpretation is correct, then it should read “….WILL result in a penalty of one lap penalty or disqualification”, not MAY.
why'd that gate flop over so easily
Shit, speak for yourself. A LOT of people don’t have common sense. They don’t understand what’s in black and white.
I did see that...
but what constitutes a "false start" is not defined, if it's not defined, it's not a rule.
As I said...
There's no rule against jumping the gate at MXoN!
Race director can always issue penalty for unsportmanship behavior. DQ normally.
Jumping the gate would classify as that easily so in effect you cant do it.
It doesn't have to be defined to be a rule.
That's true, but it's weird a "false start" is not specified in the FIM regulations.
I agree , and if You look another 20 pages into the rule book ( I posted screenshots of the rulebook with page numbers on page 5 of this thread) it says first offense is a lap, second is DQ. That is why I take the " may" to meen that there is a choice to penalize or not. And after You decide the rule was broken, the penalty is set. Otherwise why write it out that way?
And Jett made a mistake. He wasn't trying to jump the gate. Not that the intent matters according to the rule book. But I really think that should have been factored into the decision of whether to penalize or not.
DC in Racerhead this week:
So, what about the Jett Lawrence penalty of one full lap for “fouling” the starting gate at Ironman in the first moto, which turned a third place finish into a 17th and effectively cost him the overall win? The decision to assess a one-lap penalty was made based on the wording of the existing rule in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship rulebook, and it will be up to Honda to appeal, though that puts them in a weird spot: an overturning of the penalty would give Jett the overall and knock Hunter out of his first 450 win. In my personal opinion, I believe the AMA should revisit a couple of things in the rulebook during the offseason, specifically the wording and the automatic penalty: “Jumping or fouling the gate may result in a penalty of one lap or disqualification.”
Most of the old pros who have weighed in on social media seem to believe that getting caught up in the gate and starting mid-pack like Jett did was penalty enough. That's why we have individual starting gates that fall towards you—if you go early, your gate will either catch your front wheel or just cause a bad start. So in this case, with Jett having just a momentary advantage (for maybe a split second) and then an outside-the-top-20 start, the added penalty seemed harsh.
Also, this obviously occurred within the competition, and Jett did not gain any lasting advantage. Yes, his wheel fouled the line, but that was for a brief second. Had he accelerated throughout, he would have had the holeshot. Instead, if you watch the close-up videos, he obviously just pushed it over and then hesitated; his holeshot device did its thing, and he started 22nd or 23rd. So, here's the conundrum: How is this in-competition infraction any different from a rider going off the track, missing markers, coming back on, but not gaining any advantage?
The most egregious penalty I remember like this was the black flag of Chad Reed back at Anaheim one year when he got into it with Trey Canard. This was not a black flag, but it was hefty—15 points for fouling the starting gate, despite no benefit. Moving forward, maybe make its a points penalty based on how much advantage he gained, rather than a full lap? Also, it was an in-competition infraction, but with a much heavier punishment than pretty much any other infraction—going outside the markers, jumping on red cross/lights, overly aggressive riding, etc. Jett didn’t intentionally jump; he just reacted to the guy next to him (Jeremy Hand) flinching. It was a natural, accidental reaction instead of a deliberate attempt to cheat the start. His gate just happened to flip forward, whereas Hand’s did not, nor did Chase Sexton’s earlier this year in the Detroit SX (which Sexton then backed up and got going dead, dead last).
And that’s where we find some inconsistency between how things are done in SX and how they are done in MX. Supercross starting gates are designed to not go all the way over; instead, they have a stop that keeps them from going all the way forward, making the rider stop and back up if he fouls it. In MX, where every track also has amateur races, most of the starting gates are built so that individual gates can go all the way over forward when they are hit, as amateurs—especially newer riders—tend to panic when caught in the gate, often tearing it out and causing delays. Had the Ironman gate been the same as the Detroit SX gate that Sexton hit, he would not have been able to get his wheel past the line, as he would have been stuck in the gate, which in most cases—including Chase at Detroit—is penalty enough. As mentioned above, the rule reads, “Jumping or fouling the gate may result in a penalty of one lap or disqualification.” Does “may” mean automatically one or the other, one lap or the full DQ, or does "may" mean optional, which might allow the officials room here to determine a rider’s intention and whether they gained any true advantage? Those should all be topics of discussion for the SMX League during the upcoming off-season.
And you can listen to Matthes' interview with Honda HRC Progress team manager Lars Lindstrom, who explains that the spirit of the rule is to prevent the Mike Alessi "count to five and go" attempt to beat the start, but that's clearly not what happened here. Like I said, these are all things for discussion moving forward.
Don't care what the old pros think. He knocked the gate over forward. Penalty is DQ or 1 lap. He got the lesser of the two. If Honda or whoever doesn't like it petition to have the rule changed. The irony here is that they abided by the letter of the law and people are upset.
1 lap penalty is for first offense, DQ is for subsequent offenses.
Here is what nobody on all the podcast talked about. When Hand flinched both Jett AND Barcia went early. This gives us a good demonstration of what it cost Bambam to pull back and let the gate drop(not breaking a rule), vs Jett going through and over the gate and gunning it. Jett’s violation is clearly more egregious than Bambam not breaking a rule. Therefore the penalty must theoretically be worse then the price Bambam paid in the horrible start…imo. Bambam had to work through about 15 more riders than Jett did. So….while a full lap penalty is ridiculous, it should certainly be more than 10 seconds. If I were writing the rule I would say the rider, who clearly knows they hit the gate forward, can either shut it down enough to be the last rider, not counting any downed riders, across the holeshot line then race on. If the rider continues to battle for position, as Jett did, then he shall be assessed a 30 second penalty, maybe even more, at the end of the race. Hell, Jett would have still taken 5th. He deserved a penalty. 1 lap is too harsh. Saying it is already a self penalty…No. Self penalty is just making any mistake in the race. I self penalize multiple times a lap…lol. Jett broke a rule from making a mistake. Something more reasonable then 1 lap while still penalizing the breaking of a rule.
All jmho.
Hardly Jetts fault that the gates were sourced from Temu, if the gate had of worked as intended he would have been stuck in it.
Pit Row
Again, jumping or fouling the gate MAY result in a penalty. I guess it should depend if it seemed intentional and if the racer gained al advantage but it is not an obligation. So in the end, it depends on what the direction wants to do.
Makes you wonder if the penalty decision would be the same if the championship battle was close.
If he would have known he's starting a lap down I wonder if he would have gone ballistic and tried to make it up? or just F it and pull off? IMO lame ass AMA shit
Have read all the posts and the rule book screen show. My take is that the ‘MAY’ implies that there is discretion in applying any penalty. This MAY include the options of other teams appealing etc. The language is way too openly worded.
Look at the photo in this thread, page 5 or so. Possible others. Barcia is about 20 feet behind Jett as they are leaving the gate. Jett passed those extra riders in the first turn. Jett normally starts better so it makes sense that he would still come out of the first turn better than Barcia even if they were exactly the same at the point the photo was taken.
Jett was in 37th or so off the gate. He likely thought everybody had already gone when he got back on the gas. Perhaps he should have taken a quick look behind to see if anybody else was behind him still. He waited for everybody who did NOT hit the gate to pass him before getting back on the gas.
Perhaps the AMA also should define jumping the start. If jumping the start and getting caught in the gate is OK but its not ok if Your bike leaves the start pad before the others. Say that. Otherwise how is a rider supposed to know what to do if his gate breaks like that? They need to at least rewrite the way the rule is written. To make it clear that the official either has a choice to penalize or not. And adding in what should be taken into consideration might be a good idea, similar to how the rule is for going off the track. It defines when a penalty is appropriate and how to avoid getting a penalty for the rider if they find themselves going off the track.
They have a table that shows penalties' for each rule( 20 pages past the page the rule for jumping the gate is on). So again, that word May , has to mean they can have discretion on giving a penalty or not. After they decide to give a penalty, the penalty is set . If Jet does it again and they decide to penalize him, he will be DQ'ed as per the rulebook.
They made the penalty so strict as a result of Jlaw jumping the gate and going for it. At the time the penalty was loss of a single spot. Pulp talked about it on a podcast way way back when they changed the penalty.They made a strict penalty to stop riders from doing in on purpose.
According to the Pulp show,KTM brought it to the attention of Mike Pelletier . I think he should have looked further into the rulebook to see the page showing the penalties and I think he would have had a similar opinion .
Honda could appeal it or could have I don't know how long they have to, I wonder if Jett would want them too though. Knowing it could take Hunter's win away. If the interviews that Hunter has talked about Jett feeling bad about beating him all the time are even remotely true, I feel like Jett would not want to appeal if it would take Hunter's win away.
We will see if the points loss impacts the SMX title. But most likely its only going to hurt Jett's average finish numbers for now. So it might end up doing more good than bad. It sounds like enough people who's' opinions matter , want it to be worded differently at the least. And perhaps the penalties changed. This attention the rule has gotten may clarify it so that the next time something happens like this, the rider and officials will know what to do differently or the same. And hopefully it will never impact a title if its a mistake that a rider tries to make good on like it appeared Jett did.
If I was involved in the penalty. I would also add a clear way for a rider who made a mistake ,to be able to avoid a penalty by following a set proceder like when a rider goes off the track. That could also help clarify if it was a mistake . or done on purpose. And if done on purpose I think the current penalties are appropriate. There is just no clear way of knowing right now since its not defined in the rulebook and in my opinion , the AMA official/KTM interpreted the rule wrong.
How funny would it be if it came out that it was really Hunter or his mechanic who called Jett out on that start and not KTM?
It's simple. Don't knock the gate over and you don't get penalized. JFC!
Damn, its over Jett won the championship at Unadilla but you are still yammering on about this, give it a rest. I bet people walk away when they see you coming because you are the guy who wont shut up.
You are probably right on that I never give up.
But For me its not Jett being penalized, it was highly unlikely that it would impact this title anyway.
Its that the rule has no clear way to comply if You jump by mistake .And is written in a way that the AMA official interpreted it incorrectly ( in the opinion of MANY) / did not consider the penalties section of the rulebook when they made the choice to penalize Jett.
And that when the penalty was put into place it was made to stop people from purposely and literally jumping the gate. It was never intended to punish somebody who made a mistake like that. So they were not acting in the spirit of the rule as well.
When KTM brought it up, they were doing it for SMX points not MX points. Hoping to give Sexton any advantage they could. Before Chase crashed out , that ruling had given him the sway in points he needed to be ahead of Jett going into SMX. It was never about this title, it was to give Sexton the advantage going into SMX. And it worked until it didn't.
I've also disagreed with how the homologation rule has been written without a penalty that was put in words until the current rulebook. That rule has NEVER been enforced and I doubt it will ever be. It could potentially give a rider a much larger advantage than jumping the gate would, yet the penalty is just a little more than a single OVERALL win bonus. I think that rule and its relatively light penalty ( now that they have put it into printed words) is more of a marketing tool ( for bike brands) than a rule with a real impact on racing. Perhaps there is more to the penalty than the money part, that I did not see since I did not read the entire book. I'm sure that the manufactures want to keep that rule. Marketing, it helps sell more bikes if the teams are using more of the bikes that are what You can buy. It also keeps smaller brands from entering racing without a larger commitment.
Solid counterpoint.
A jump by mistake or a jump on purpose is entirely irrelevant. You are completely missing the point. You are wrong…. PERIOD. A jumped start is a jumped start. A fouled gate is a fouled gate…. PERIOD.
The penalty is way out of whack with the infraction, yes. But had Jett let everyone go, there wouldn’t have been a penalty. It’s on Jett, nobody else.
Post a reply to: 450 gate twitch? JETT DOCKED 1 LAP