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IVE ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT THIS. SEEMS IF YOU ARE A LEGAL CITIZEN OF A COUNTRY, YOU SHOULD BE ELIGABE TO REPRESENT IT.
Ummmm read what I said. I said other than Deegan and Davies, I don’t see anyone else currently in the 250 class battling for future top 5’s in the 450 class. LOL
Did you watch des Nations last year? Jo will absolutely be battling for top fives.
Yeah, I did. But I prefer to judge based off an entire body of work rather than one race. I love Jo, and I hope he proves me wrong, but he has like 3 SX wins in 5+ years of racing professionally. That doesn’t strike me as someone who will be battling for top 5’s against the likes of Hunter, Jett, Cooper, Chase, Eli (hopefully), Haiden, Kenny, etc. I believe Jo will collect some random top 5’s in the 450 class, but I don’t see him consistently battling with those guys.
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If that is Blake Bohannon, the other teams are really a sleep on the wheel.
Tomac-Deegs-Sexton in that order.
Thank you for your attention to this matter 😂😂
We have running water when it floods, which is rare, hence Hunter's mud skills or lack there of.
As for our paved roads, they resemble ama sx whoops, hence we're whooping your ass! 😂
Ask Jeff Ward.
Well played, sir.
☺☺
"Whoever pulled Dungey up and out of the amateurs needs a raise"
That would be Roger DeCoster.
Another aspect to ponder about American riders, is many of our fast ones are mentally weak. Consider Sexton, and Tomac at times. Fast, but chronic overthinkers. RV said he never overthought racing. RC - same way. Stewart did sometimes, but was speedy enough to rise above it.
Deegan will most likely be number 1 within a year or two.
But i think this is an interesting discussion. America still produces elite talent but the talentpool after the Deegans and Sextons of the world is really not great. Some will bring up Kitchen, the guy is 25 years old. Hammaker 26. The riders next in line after Deegan are relatively speaking old. And the young ones around 19-22 do not impress me at all. I have high hopes for Drew Adams but there has been a few too many hiccups with injuries.
Less homeschooling and facilities, more big regional weekends and putting money into local tracks. Spitting out dozens of kids a year who won’t make it and haven’t completed school past 7th grade isn’t working.
And don’t tell me homeschooling is working for them. The pros in our sport are 28 and can’t predicate a noun or differentiate between 3 words that end in the same suffix so they use the wrong word interchangeably.
The best American rider at this moment is Eli 450 and was Deegan 250. How Deegan adjusts to 450 racing remains to be seen. Sexton could be in the mix if he gets himself and the bike sorted but I’m in the camp he may never figure any of it out. As for the future, I’m sure we will get another great at some point but I don’t see any on the horizon. The amateur system cash cow and kids living in facilities has proved it doesn’t work. We end up with a lot of kids who have a self inflated ego with not a lot of grit. Injuries will play a huge part as well.
They spend too many years in amateurs cherry picking classes to get podiums, then too many years in regional supercross. Seriously does anyone think any of the current regional supercross riders will ever be decent 450 racers, besides Deegan and Davies? They need to know how to pass, chase riders, get beat by other riders, race shitty tracks, ride a shitty bike, camp out the night before a race - not in a motorhome, they need to knw what it feels like to drive overnight to get to a race.
It’s well documented that most 450 champions are also good at camping
Sexton isn’t even the best Kawasaki rider at the moment
Both of you guys make excellent points
My point is they need to struggle, they need hardship. We can talk about it on our podcast.
Pit Row
Good topic idea
Sexton on a KTM or Honda
Deegan next year
Tomac this year on one of his "good days"
Savatgy 🤣
I don’t like him, but probably Deegan
The one willing to rep the US at the MXoN…
I thought Dudney showed good speed when he was racing, and Gordon has also been impressive.
Pierce Brown could also be good if he can stay healthy, although he's older than Jett.
It should be an embarrassment to the people who control the sport in this country, Coombs/ the AMA, that we are the largest, wealthiest, most tracks, most dealers, largest aftermarket, and we cannot win our own championships. The system simply doesn't develop complete pro racers, it simply transfers money from parents to promoters and "facilities". We don't even have all the announcers at our supercross races.
Pierce turned pro the same year as Jett, I think they are close ish in age. Maybe a couple months difference
Rick Melon, gotta be part of the discussion. I mean, he even builds his own bikes!
Why would he be? Hes not even a podium threat on an outdoor track
What do you mean we can't win our own championships? In the last ten seasons, Americans have won the majority of outdoor titles, both 450 and 250, and the majority of 450 sx titles, as well as the majority of the 250 lites titles. This is expected since the majority of the racers have been Americans, but you need to look at the bigger picture here.
The last few years have seen the dominance of Jett Lawrence, and now his older brother has taken huge steps forward after winning the 250 outdoor and 250 E regional titles in 2023. Aside from Jett winning when he's not out injured, the results vary. Tom Vialle won 2 regional sx titles in Dungey-esque fashion through consistency, but then failed, as a 2 time World Champion and outdoor specialist, to win an outdoor title. Cole Davies just won the 250 E regional sx title, but in the first two shootouts was no match for Deegan.
None of this is unusual. Fast foreign riders have always crossed the pond and done well. Kenny Roczen came over, won a regional title and 2 450 outdoor titles. Dylan Ferrandis came over and won a regional sx title and then the 450 outdoor title. You can go even further back to Jean-Michel Bayle, who came over and dominated in 1991 winning the 250 sx (then the premier class) title, the 250 outdoor title, and the 500 outdoor title. No one did it before or since (though that format no loner exists). He would have likely won the 125 title in 1990 if not for a broken wrist at Washougal.
Plenty of other foreign riders could be named as well. The point is that even if we had a good amateur system (and I agree with you that ours needs help), there would still be very fast foreign riders that would cross the pond and win. We dominated in the 80s because until JMB, no foreign riders came over and gave it a serious go. The older GP guys like Malherbe, Thorpe, Jobe, and the like had no interest in supercross, and their styles weren't very adaptive to the tight, technical supercross tracks of the time.
It wasn't until the younger generation expressed interest that riders started coming to the States to try sx. Even Stefan Everts came over for a few rounds in 92, and a few years after that, we started seeing racers like Mickael Pichon and Stephane Roncada. Then we got the Reeds, and Roczen's, and now a lot of the younger racers want to come to America to race sx, so it should be expected that as the talent pool gets deeper, we will have winners from alll over the globe.
Yes, it seems like it's that time of year again.
Welcome to the 'Cooked Webb is not even in the Top 10 Outdoors' segment.
Jett, Hunter, Eli, Chase, Prado, Deegan, AP, JCoop, Barcia, Ferrandis........Webb
Also, as he does every single year, he either will reveal he's 'banged up' just before outdoors begins and not show up...or he'll be 'banged up' or suffering from 'Epstein Barr' within a few rounds and off to the local McDonalds.
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