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Not sure if you're being serious or not, but yes Jett's first ever 450 race was Nations, and he won his class.
I think he meant national, Tomac won his first pro national on a 250.
Okay that makes sense, cheers.
2015 Tomac was a lightning strike on the MX world. Just unbelievable. Jett could not have run with him.
Then Thunder Valley came around . .
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2015 Tomac was definitely something special. To me he seemed very flowly. He wasn't trying to break throttle cables or clutches in those particular outdoor races. It was incredible. If only...
so u forgot RC raced before he became a commentator huh , RC wasn’t playing any games out there & he would do Eli just like he did errybody else thru out his career
It’s just my opinion bro. You don’t have to take it personal.
I was too young at the time to have access to watch all the races back then but one of the most impressive things about Carmichael for me is that he waxed everyone for years and was easily the fastest guy. Stewart comes along and Carmichael just goes faster then he ever had to and beats Stewart straight up most times. I cannot stand Ricky in any form post career but he was an absolute savage on a bike.
I'm old, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but didn't Carmicheal regularly beat the field by 1:00? And if not regularly, often?
Didn't Carmichael beat the whole world after getting a mediocre start at the Motocross of Nations, while riding an outdated 2 stroke against factory 4 strokes?
Didn't Carmicheal lap the entire field once?
Didn't Carmichael have not 1 but 2 perfect seasons?
Didn't Carmicheal win every series he entered and would have easily won his retirement tour year if he felt like sticking around?
Didn't Carmicheal regularly beat JS7, the fastest man on the planet?
If those things are true, and I think they are, why would anyone think that he wouldn't figure out how to beat ET or Jett?
RC wrecked everyone by 30sec every moto. Every moto. Plenty of races the gap was bigger. His debut on the RMZ in '05, he had a gap at Hangtown of 45sec. He made Chad Reed quit doing outdoors lol. Now we see a gap of 10sec and its complete domination. That was an off day for Ricky
2015 Eli has turned into this mythical Superman version of a motocross rider. He was otherworldly, agreed. For 5 motos. When you put that up against the best versions of all these other riders, they did it for 22-24 motos. Or '18 Herlings did it for, what, 38 motos? Maybe that otherworldly pace wasn't sustainable. I know, he didn't look like he was riding over his head. Neither does Jett ever. He's the smoothest rider ever with flawless technique. He still manages to crash and be injured. I dont disagree '15 Eli might be the pinnacle of speed. But its in its own little box as far as comparing it to other riders
Yeah, that’s pretty much my take on it too. I never have seen anyone that I thought could beat THAT Eli…. Even Jett today, or RC. It was otherworldly.
But the consistency that Jett is doing it now and RC did it, with even fewer injuries and missed races is just as remarkable.
A good question to ask would be, how would his career looked without that devastating double shoulder injury. There is no reason to not believe that he would have added 2015 and 2016 to his 17, 18, 19 title run.
How many titles would he have had if Kenny never got injured? It just doesn't work like that in our sport and is disrepecting to other riders imo.
The better question should be why couldn't the moto gods give us this version of Tomac and 2016 Kenny in the same season?
Right.
If we’re going down the path of “what if” how many times would have “poetry in motion” Windham won if number 4 did not exist.
How many more titles would have the badest man (Stewart) to over throw his leg over a two stroke won if number 4 didn’t exist.
If Pastrana didn’t have ADD and tricks in his bag, would he have dethroned Carmichael or Stewart?
Etc., etc., etc.
Jett could put 30+ on this current field if he decided to just not manage the gap one moto. No one past or present is beating Jett aside from his brother.
The level hardly changes; it’s just how easy the riders ride at that level. Dungey showed in 2022 just how little the pace has changed. Think of how much less he rode than his competitors in the previous seasons and look at how well he did. He was a mechanical away from a podium at Washougal that year running with Tomac and Sexton.
Go watch the good RC and Stew battles from early 2006 plus Washougal and when they raced in 07. Those guys get easy top 10s in this field.
Kenny showed this year on a 2018 bike how little bikes changed; past his speed prime and Kenny just won the biggest title. So it’s easy to think 2015 Eli could compete this year, but he was also a ticking time bomb according to many in the pits that year.
Jett is so much like prime Kenny, except he maybe lets riders get on his rear wheel more, but they are so similar in race craft and making motocross look tame. Jett has never had to race someone like a prime Tomac and prime Roczen, but those guys hardly ever raced prime versions of themselves either, and they raced together forever just like the guys are not racing a full-strength Jett right now.
Pit Row
Stupid post. He’s been spanking ET3 since he stepped up to the big bikes and everyone else. The only rider that has a shot of beating Jett when he’s not feeling it is Hunter. Accept that reality and stop hoping your heroes (past or present) will get close to the best rider we have ever seen. His flawless technique and effortless speed is incomparable.
I agree with your last statement 100%. Plenty of hyped up srasons that never came to fruition over the years. Were all just bench racing amd throwing out what if's in this thread. Just the kind of stuff you discuss over a beer with friends.
Yep. I just thought about it a couple days ago how specially those last couple years we've always missed one of the absolute top guys and contenders outdoors..
2022 Ferrandis literally injures his thumb at Pala Press day and is out until late in the season as the defending champ, never been the same since then
2023 Tomac freak injury in SX and is out for the year
2024 Tomac thumb injury in SX and is out until later in the year, Jett out halfway through the season aswell with thumb injury.
2025 Sexton goggle incident in the first moto of the year at Pala, has a super weird crash and is basically out of the championship
2026 Tomac again, bad incident with Marchbanks first lap of the season and is out. Then Sexton struggles on Kawi and out of the season aftter a nasty Thunder Valley crash.
Tomac definitely had a lot of bad luck in the recent years, that's for sure. He also broke his leg in 2025 SX, came back for outdoors but was still nowhere close to being 100%. He almost seemed immortal from 2016 until 2022 and then from 2023 on he's basically injured every single year/season.
if we looked at all time greats using statistical data;
-goat
-MC (sx only)
-RV
-RD
-Stew
-ET
https://pulpmx.com/2026/05/20/super-stats-the-final-mt-rushmore-spot-st…
I've looked at this before, my memory's a bit rusty, but without RC it goes something like:
Windham would have 4 premier titles, Reed would have 4 more and Stew only one more, but that was fuel gate, which also could have gone to Reed depending on how the rules were interpreted.
And put RC into another era and take the corresponding number of titles off the top guys in that era.
Interesting, thanks.
He absolutely could NOT do that. He would have done it already..
Why would he do it if he doesn't have to? Better to win by a few seconds and not take any unnecessary risk. He's shown he can turn on 2-3 second faster lap times anytime he wants if he needs to open up a gap
that's the point.....he can do it, he just doesn't need to do it. d-bag hasn't been close no matter what he claims....
He had 32sec on Deegan the 2nd moto at Thunder Valley. The only guy close was Lucas, an MXGP rider, 10sec back.
I disagree with the narrative that Jett can just go 2-3 seconds faster than anyone at any given time. Does Jett have .5%-1% extra top end most of the time? Probably, but the idea he's just comfortably controlling the race/gap? I don't think so. He's managing risk, and energy.
Not that anyone is doing this on purpose, but I think people actually belittle what Jett accomplishes when they act like it's easy for him to do and that he's just riding around at 85%. What makes it so impressive, is that he is riding hard, but he does it in such an efficient way and doesn't crack under pressure.
He certainly couldn't reel Hunter in last race, much less 2-3 seconds a lap faster. And regardless of track cutting, I don't think he wanted to be anywhere near Deegan at Thunder Valley.
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