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I think at this point, there would be arguments about the size and placement of the button.
It isnt that he isnt winning, its how far off he is when he isnt.
Hunter Lawrence isnt winning, and never has.
Worst suspension but had the best record in racing with Tomac and even AC and savachy did well ok it. Tomac was worse on the 19
Hes not a race down yet. He can still recover. Time will tell.
Woah a guys rookie season wasn’t a barn burner? Who could have guessed
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Agreed... his 2024 Hangtown moto 2, East Rutherford 2025 (or whichever race he won by like 20 seconds), and Washougal 2025 (was hauling the mail so hard it forced Jett into a mistake) were probably the best rides of his career IMO.
I hear you, but the difference is, I think the consensus idea of Chase playing it safe would be a 3rd place 10 sec back, not a 5th place half a lap back. Never in any situation has his pace been straight-up mediocre on a 450 until this season (save rds 2 and 3).
Some of the context of the KTM years seems to be missing as well. He said plenty of times when the bike was good that it was really good, it was just inconsistent. Would go from good to not good without warning. That's not looking for something that doesn't exist. Give Eli last year's shock and see how it goes. Not really fair to say it's an apples to apples comparison when KTM is on all new suspension this year.
Only asking this here bc idk where else to put it:
Can anyone explain to me how this happens to guys? It does seem like a Kawasaki thing too. Why can they not start on a stock-ish bike and then adjust from there? How is it possible to be 7+ weeks in on testing and not have something you can go ride at 90%?
They probably did start on a stock bike to build a base, he was probably pretty happy with the setting they came into A1 with, but you never truly know where you are until you go racing. The night show at A1 was a bit of a disaster and they panicked and made massive changes.
I think the pre season races are crucial. Sexton has never really done them, but I think if he had done a couple this year he may have had a bit more confidence in his set up to stick with it and not just throw it in the bin straight away.
He’s 18 points out of the lead.
He’s one of 5 riders that’ve won this year….so far.
11 races left to go (65% of the racing left to go).
Man, maybe it’s just me…but…the whole “Panic Button” thing seems silly.
Just put Levi's forks back on.
There is so much context to the 18 points. It could be much worse, and the fact is that he has 4 riders in front of him that are head and shoulders better than him at the moment.
18 points is nothing if you're consistently the fastest rider and are able to reel of wins and podiums for multiple races in a row. Does it seem like Sexton and Kawasaki are on their way to a situation where they just straight up start beating those other top riders in all conditions? Absolutely not.
He was also out for half the season, and still showed blazing speed, he crashed while leading at round 2 of I remember right and that put him out for a while
I guess we can jus’ disagree an a few things.
Like I said, he’s won a main…on a bike that he’s still sorting out.
On top of that, he’s shown the ability to race with anyone out there. In fact, again…he’s BEAT ALL of them on the track…already.
As he continues to get the bike sorted out and goes East…where he’s usually less inclined to “Pull a Sexton”, he’s gonna be up front more and he’s gonna be a threat.
Btw, same goes for Webb & KR.
While we’re here, I’m thinking we’ll have 6 or 7 different winners this year.
the 18 points behind matters because even if he splits wins going forward he is still 18 points down. 18 point down is only doable if Tomac, Hunter, Coop, KR all pull sextons at the same time and Chase wins, not going to happen. so ya, 18 points matters.
Could win or crash trying next weekend
18 points matter if you are behind the same guy that wins each week. 18 point gap can be closed with wins and the other guys swapping podiums. Not saying it’s happening, especially the way he looked the last two weeks, but the gap isn’t insurmountable
Kawasaki killed it... careers that is.
Pit Row
I mean you herd this on Pulp. Sexton blazing fast first few rounds and made mistakes he's never rode that Bike in ruts like that. The bikes already good enough to win needs to go back to what he was running early on
Yeah, his perfectionism is a whole thing as well, and his seems very multi-faceted. Like, some of the times he's crashed it's like, "yes Chase, we get that the bike broke traction, but you also tried to take a flat turn with a very questionable berm at a 30* lean angle while the suspension was unsettled by braking bumps. Throw us a bone here". I think you actually answered part of your question though. Part of why he keeps changing is because he's chasing a unicorn rather than learning to just ride a fucking workhorse lol.
The writing is potentially on the wall for the version of his career that he had in his head. He's a winner for sure but like you said, not really giving off champion vibes in the way that he wants to be. Which is fine. He's still plenty young, in insanely good shape, and could probably stay competitive for another 6 years at least. Plenty of time to figure it out. Hell, if this contract ends and he's still a human rollercoaster, maybe he can go over to Roczen's team or start something like that so he can have full autonomy of his bike haha.
Doesn't surprise me about what JT said. I think things are gonna get much worse before they get better. The version of this that I've got in my head only really starts to improve when both Kawi and Chase run out of directions to point fingers and are forced to look in the mirror. If I'm right I really hope Chase has someone in his corner telling him to keep his mouth shut and not air dirty laundry to Lewis and risk turning reconcilable work conflict into actual animosity and resentment.
He won a SX title because Eli got hurt. He won an outdoor title because Jett got hurt. I understand you have to stay healthy but when has he won a title by flat out beating someone? 1 of his East 250 title he was trailing Forkner by a decent margin and Forkner got hurt. Jumps from bike to bike and there is one common problem, Chase Sexton on the bike.
I don’t think that would work well for securing riders in the future. Riders like what they like, whether it would be better to use a different setup or not.
In interviews now, Ian Harrison can't seem to stop grinning. Pretty sure that says something.
Says his first year rider has won 3 of 5 races. And Prado is shutting people up and making the Kawi look bad. Lots of reasons to have a cheesy grin lol.
18 points back is a lot when you're losing points to the guys ahead of you every weekend. Two more bad races and he'll get passed by Jcoop for 5th.
Honestly.. When has the panic button turned off?
https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Moto-Related,20/Whats-it-gonna-take-for-Sexton-to-get-his-head-on-right-and-be-an-actual-contender,1402039?page=0
https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/moto-related/sexton-rattled
https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/moto-related/opinion-how-will-chase-sexton-do-2024-factory-1-ktm
https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/moto-related/so-whats-verdict-chase-sexton-he-faster-ktm?page=0
https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/moto-related/sexton-and-ktm
By the time this 3 year contract is up his window for winning a championship will be pretty much closed. I think he fucked up that KTM situation and don't see how he couldn't get along with that team but what do I know. What I do know is he was fast as fuck on that KTM often. He is out of excuses and almost out of teams and I'm not sure whoever is left on the merry go round wants to help a guy find a set up that only exists in a fairy tale.
Factory Kawi at this point kind of reminds me of Factory Yamaha before Star took over the 450 program.
Eli needs 4 more wins to match Chase's total at KTM last year? Seems he can do it, and Prado looks real good too. The combination of a rider who never is happy with his set up combined with a team that historically has been tough at setting bikes up seems like a match made in hell for Chase and Kawasaki so far.
Spot on. The Blue Pig
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