Posts
10937
Joined
5/12/2012
Location
GB
When you look at his career, he has been in and out of rides, and clinging on by his fingertips at some point, and yet here he is , on a Factory 450 , looking solid as, and making Sexton's performances look as sub par as they are.
Its a long list of guys who should have been 5 years into a 450 career, and arent, and a lot of those guys will consider themselves a better rider than Garrett.
Its a good story , pleased he is making the most of an opportunity .
There are other factors why someone like Garrett stays 250 for so long. Number one, a decent salary. Higher number of rides on decent bikes and salaries. Chance of hitting bonuses that will by far outweigh the salary itself (US race bonuses are so much higher than GP).
Look what he had to do on a 250 last year to even get considered for a good 450 spot. Guys like Smith and Hampshire didn't stay 250 forever because they chose it over good 450 spots, they never were offered a good 450 ride until recently.
While I fully agree some guys would be better off just getting out of the 250 class, it's not always that simple.
How many on that list were only offered 250 factory rides that paid more than any offers they received on a 450…Let’s not forget that he was staying on a 250 this year until he was offered a factory 450 ride thanks to George….
This is why the 250 class needs to be one class for SX.
Loads of funds being spent on guys in 250 SX, to do half the races, when they should run 3 450 guys instead.
The fact they get paid more to not win on a 250, than a 450, is just wrong.
When it comes to Garrett’s specific situation…
Having Mitch Payton campaigning for you certainly doesn’t hurt. When this was all goin’ down, Mitch was adamant that Garrett was the right guy for that team.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Free shipping: VITALMX
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Now solve the dilemma you create by doing that when the factories cut the rides in half because they don’t need two riders per coast…
But didnt Mitch originally let him go ?
my point is that there are way to many guys in 250, getting paid a lot of money, on the off-chance that they may be the next big thing, while 450 guys are thin on the ground.
I’m actually happy that we have two coasts. You have double the amount of paid rides. No team will hire 6 guys if it is one championship. Now you have 2x 3 rides. Or sometimes even 2x 4 riders (Star Racing)
I think Garrett was given some pretty poor advice back then…
There’s plenty more that burn out or get lost in the talent when they move to big bikes.
Garrett is the minority, when’s a non championship 250 guy put results up like this after an extended period in the 250 class?
Justin cooper maybe?
Yes, but they are paying the wrong people.
How many goes at winning half a series do you give these guys?
The sport is struggling for money, and there are guys in the 450 main working a day job, please make it make sense.
We need more Weston Peick's .
Jcoop has a 250 SX title, on top of that he was pretty much always in the hunt for titles
Cooper won a championship.
It crossed my own mind to grow out my hair, change my name to Sally and ride the WMX nationals.
I’d still get last. Them young ladies are hauling the mail.
It was a thought.
Are we in the job creation business?
Combining SX regions would result in fewer rides but those riders would be better paid.
There’s definitely a culture in motocross of paying good money for potential, even when that potential is repeatedly never realised.
No doubt, it's a pro sport not a jobs program. Quality not quanity.
You cut 250 SX rides by half, and get to see the absolute best kids race every week. This may seem harsh, but SX/MX isn't a make-work social program.
Pit Row
Beat me to it...couldn't agree more
Exactly 💯
Garrett was playing both sides with PC and STAR and held out too long and then he was left off of both teams. He had offers from STAR and PC, took to long to sign a contract, and was left out. The agent was looking for more apparently.
This idea of getting rid of coasts with 250 sx…
If I’m a team or manufacturer and there are 3 250 titles, and 1 SMX title, I will ALWAYS want more opportunities to hold that number 1 plate at the end of the season in front of my bike. Always.
I’m sure teams and manufacturers are not bummed that they have more opportunities for championships and there are more rides overall by splitting coasts. If anything, let’s add more chances for rides and championships not eliminate them.
there are 3 shots at a championship for 450s a year and 4 for 250s.
If that’s the goal why not split 450’s into east and west? Then there’s be two 450SX titles.
A combined 250 series means half the professional riders as today = more privateers at the gates.
The gap in power/performance between a privateer and professional 250 is significant.
So now you just reduced professionals racing competitive machines and introduced more lappers.
And that is going to equate to better racing?
people downvote the weirdest things. agree, its a great story. people jump down your throat but key word is "longer than you have to", and he didn't so kudos to him.
in contrast, idk what choices craig had or didnt have but here his is trying to eek out as many years as he can at the tail end of his career to show he can ride a 450 too, when he should IMO have at least a few more years of 450 foundation to draw from. he'd be better off now on a 450 had he jumped earlier and thus ironically, it would have likely ended up extending his career by adding to his competitiveness.
more sympathy to RJ, i dont think he's had the opps. cool to see him grinding his ass off to tho. marchnanks will need to get to where rj is now to prove the theory out to be fair.
Why would that happen? There would be the same number of teams and riders at each round. The difference would be its the same 2-3 riders for each team instead of different riders for east and west rounds.
Love the discussion in this thread. This topic is something I think about a lot. A big crux of the problem is if you believe the 250 class is a development class or not. I'd say the fact that no young amateur ever goes from Loretta's to the 450s and there being two 250 coasts that gives more riders a chance to flow into the series does point to it being a development class, BUT with how the rules are set up, yeah, if you're a fringe 450 guy that can't win a championship, you might as well just hang out there and collect a better paycheck than a lower level 450 guy would until someone kicks you off your ride. That's how we end up with these old dudes racing the kids in what's essentially high level sandbagging because there's just no rides worth leaving their cushy 250 jobs for. The problem will probably only get worse as the average retirement age for the sport goes up.
A potential solution is either more factory rides in the 450s or more privateer teams closing the competitive gap between them and factory. This is always my big argument when someone is against growing the sport. Yeah we don't want to water down our product, but more money coming in=more high quality rides to go around (although I might just be describing trickle down economics.)
Anyways I'll hang up and listen
If 250SX was national and SMX Next was East/West, would that lead to 250SX having smaller gates like how MX2 has small gates during EMX250 weekends?
Last week we’re ripping Marchbanks for a racing incident. This weekend we’re giving him props for riding great. The Vital Lords have spoken.
Marchbanks is also a giant relative to other riders. So obviously he'd be at a disadvantage on a 250
Post a reply to: Marchbanks showing why staying 250 any longer than you have to , is dumb.