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Tax reasons. The government claimed that the start money for the top riders was indeed a salary and if you implement the heavy French employment taxes to that start money, it almost doubles the cost. The result has been the killing of the (then) numerous French international MX meetings.

Are you aware there is a guy named Romain Febvre in that class, and he happens to be wearing the #1 plate ? Not saying he will dominate but not even mentioning him, really ?

Dust is bad for riders, fans in the stands and, last but not least, stadiums. Stadiums will not only charge the producer a ton of $$$ for cleaning, they will be reluctant to welcome SX in the future (unless they are starving for business and/or owned by communities financially supporting the Event, which was generally the case for this WSX...

My recollection is that Yamaha didn't let Emig a choice.

Same on the 250 race. With 1 lap to go, Vialle, the red plate runner, was like top 5 (?) and said to the big winner (championship points-wise). He actually was, at that point. But then, we find out that he finishes... 22nd. What happened to him ? Don't know.

Last year, Vialle was crowned 250 East champion (after being put on the ground hard at the start of race 1 and finishing 18th), beating Deegan. Then he got second behind the same Deegan in both the Outdoors and the SMX Cup. That's a lot of luck, for just one guy, in one season, indeed.

Lebig did help the bike away from Chance, then backed out, probably to avoid being involved in an outside assistance situation. The duo of flagger / Lebig did as good as was humanly possible and I bet Chance thanked them for that !

Pretty sure that Joel Robert never broke a bone. Different era, yes. But still, not too bad for a six-time world champ who held records for decades !

Nice little trails but one may wonder why they call this "hard enduro" ? It's just tiny. I can't believe he managed not to stall the bike once ! just kidding.

And Vialle smoke both of them ! Remembering Ernée...

And then they "sent it down to Wil"

Did'nt an AMA referee say, during the SX season, something in the like of "roost is a clear indicator" (that penalty must be applied) ? If that was indeed said, both Vialle (and Deegan - twice- + probably others) needed to be penalised. Bummer that the referee came on TV to explain Vialle's penalty and was able to leave un-challenged...

Big fans of Wedge, James & JT but they did miss the only interesting potential battle at the en of 450 Moto 1, when Ferrandis was quickly coming back on Plessinger for 3rd place. So quickly that eventually DF14 heavily crashed and lost 3 positions. Nobody in the booth or trackside saw the crash that Dylan qualified as "season-ending-type" crash...

Pretty unbelievable that Dylan Ferrandis' name hasn't been mentioned once yet.

Yes Rob, these whoops even had some cement on it (in an effort to have them last for the 3 nights of racing). I didn't remember Rond skipping them but trust your memory (he got 10th the first two nights, which made him one of the top Euros). The section was rather short but quickly followed by a 180° right...

you may add Kay de Wolf too.