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Well one reason is that he has been their partner for 25+yrs running their factory 250 program…who do you have that could do a better job or is more qualified?
Is there any real accounts of Chase's dad being difficult, or is it just speculation?
Why would Star even want Chase, they have a pretty full roster now.
Mitch ain't stupid either. I imagine he's seen the factory team 450 shit show from a distance for years, and stays as far from that situation as he can. I doubt too that Kawasaki would give PC free reign to dial in the 450. If the bigshots have been unwilling to change up until now...they're not going to give in overnight.
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Because it would be better than factory Kawi. 100%
I’d understand if his 250 program was having successes. But it isn’t.
Why would KHI want to put their faltering 450 effort in the hands of the manager of a similarly faltering 250 effort? It doesn’t make sense.
I don’t know WHO would do better. But until Mitch can put the 250 on the top step consistently again, it ain’t him.
Maybe it will take some KHI top brass to take a year living in the US overseeing a newly appointed manager- Lars made a great improvement from Betley, maybe Kawasaki can find someone in their company who can do the same thing?
I believe a condition of Chase's contracts is that he requires his dad to be his practice bike mechanic? For a guy who constantly struggles with setting up the bike and "testing," that's proof enough for me. Does anyone know if his father is still his practice bike mechanic at Kawi, or if that's changed?
Generally, where there's spoke, there's fire. Multiple different people wouldn't say it constantly if there was one instance or rumor that popped up over the course of his career.
Not from me personally, but yes. Doesn’t mean he’s not a nice guy or that people don’t like him, but there is definitely a pretty strong narrative out there that he’s a difficult guy to work with when things aren’t going well.
His dad seems humble and chill honestly and talks to fans.
100%
Got Damn, this thread hit 50 pages...
Just like they've cracked down on Deegan and his daddy's antics, right?
The 250 team is way more competitive than the 450 team…they need to clean house Bruce and Dan need to go and Mitch has more knowledge in his pinky than those two fools…like I said you can’t name anyone better than Mitch other than a maybe they can find someone in the company…I don’t know man…
PC issue isn't the bike, it's the commitment to riders who can't stay off the ground. They have the anti star approach to the team. Temmerman can't get a ride but mcadoo who is an absolute known quantity keeps getting signed. So I wouldn't use that teams lack of recent success as evidence that PC couldn't improve the 450 and team dynamics if they have the right guys riding it.
Another kawi issue I've wondered about..... star has goat farm, club is killing it with their facility, dog pound is basically Honda compound..... seems to be some recent correlation between having a year round compound and success, maybe they need a similar home base outside of southern California?
I’m sure they would if he wasn’t dominating and felt that it was detrimental to the team….
How much of his struggles are bike related though? Jo lost the ‘23 SMX championship by like one or two positions at the final race, and both of his main east and west guy snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in ‘24. He signed Marchbanks who then got drafted just when he finished out a year with some good progress.
You could claim the bike is part of their failure but I don’t believe any current or past riders have complained.
Yes, I understand, and I have heard the rumors and the narrative. But I have never been given an example of him being difficult, you know an actual event that happened. It seems all heresay. Don't get me wrong, I do think it's weird a lot of these dads have no life of their own.
Pit Row
Part of the reason why they were moved back to Aldon’s facility when on KTM was because him and his dad were having melt downs at the sandbox over the bike and KTM didn’t want stuff like that happening in a place where the public could easily see.
James mentioned on his pod years ago that the dad was the reason they stopped working together. Chase wouldn’t follow advice from James and the dad was telling chase the opposite. James understood that he couldn’t get between family and quit coaching.
My WTF was about why would you answer that way? Just simply say “Chase is racing the nationals” or something similar that’s concise and to the point.
I understand not wanting to address rumours but at least put the correct story out there.
Unless, of course, that’s not the correct story…
Ask anyone who worked at bakers how negative chases dad was while they rode outta that facility. Some would say that effected and wore off on Tom towards the end of his time at ktm
That would appear to be the most likely option. Very low chance in the near future that anyone signs Chase for a fat contract. He’ll get low salary and chunky performance bonuses for his potential. Sad to see really; as a Jett fan he was the guy I was most worried about 3 years ago.
Even if you know it's not true or that there's discussions going on, it should be very easy for someone in that position to answer that question confidently and say of course he's racing outdoors, we've all been working hard testing etc etc etc. Even if you know it's bullshit, selling that line of bullshit is his job.
I never actually heard that. Chase's dad second guessing James Stewart on dirt bike riding? Unreal if true. I can see that being a problem.
I heard that too, but nobody claims ownership of that claim. But if James claims Chase's dad was second guessing him that is pretty damning for sure.
I heard there was a dad that caused the split and it was big James, allegedly Chase would show up to the track expecting to work with James and big James would show up instead. Make of that what you will
And ktm not wanting other teams to see what they were testing during the week like the kyb forks.
Yaa that’s what I heard too, pretty sure that came from Chase himself
Put it in his contract he has to train at the Goat Farm. No more Keir turning wrenches on the practice bike. Maybe the team structure would help him find the magic feel he’s looking for.
Post a reply to: Panic Button for Chase/Kawi?