St. Louis! Great dirt and an old stadium. If I am being honest I thought the track wasn’t very good for round two of the SMX Playoffs. Tough to pass and there just wasn’t enough “motocross” involved into this hybrid track design. I know we are in a stadium but I thought it was going to be a little bit bigger of a track design than what we got. Regardless, since we had some decent racing so I thought we could bring this article back for a round.
Jett Lawrence: It is crazy to think on a track that wasn’t great for passing that a rider can come back as far as Jett did the first moto. I am sure we ALL study Jett on film but if you watch him corner, he barely locks up his rear brake. I bet you could leave a set of rear brake pads on his factory Honda almost all year and they wouldn’t be worn down. He is really smooth on the brakes and if you watch the race back, you will see when he comes into the left hander (in the tunnel), his front/rear brake are applied evenly. Watch the others come into this corner! The rear locks up a bit or the front dives hard into the left. It’s simple things like this as well as jumping the double from the inside, on the off camber that makes chunks of tenths up. Oh wait, what about the sand? Yeah, he rides so light on the bike through the sand that his bike doesn’t dig in or dive too much. Again, just like I said on the show a couple months ago when Jett was on, I use the “F” word a lot when the camera is on number 18.
Hunter Lawrence: I don’t think we give enough credit to Hunter on how good his style is on the bike. He is also similar to Jett on braking but just isn’t as efficient when it comes to creativeness I think. I think Hunter is as good as Jett in most areas, but being a little more creative has Jett at the next level. Hunter’s start consistency is better than Jett’s and his early moto sprint speed, I would say is better as well. We are going to see A LOT of red come 2026 Supercross. Watch.
Ken Roczen: Kenny had Jamie Ellis from Twisted Development and Mark Johnson from REP out last week for some testing and it showed in St. Louis. The goal was to get a little more comfort and better starts for St. Louis and it looks like the team succeeded with that. It’s crazy to think that Kenny is this good, this late into his career. Sure, Eli is the same but with as many “breaks” as Kenny has had, it’s tough to wrap my head around how good he is with ALL the injuries/illnesses that Ken has been through. Ken’s bike is set up softer than most but with the magic of Mark Johnson’s mind, this soft set up has a unique internal setting to create a softer initial stroke with a very firm ens stroke feel. If you spent a day with Mark from REP you know that his unique way of doing suspension really opens the rider’s mind to ways of creating a SX suspension spec.
Valentin Guillod: Not bad for a guy who never rode SX until he got here a few months ago. Steve texted me for a map on Saturday for Guillod and I sent him a hard hitting setting for his bike (for St. Louis) but I don’t know if he used it or not. Regardless riding these kind of tracks without much time and getting the results he has had is impressive. I know that his bike is kind of roached out without much done to it, so that tells me that this guy has some talent and maybe should stick around for a full 2026 tour?
Best Dressed: O’Neal and Justin Cooper have been setting the bar pretty damn high this year. I have been hard on O’Neal in the past but this gear set up was well thought out and well put together. The Alpinestars flo yellow Tech 10 boots, the flo yellow gloves and even the flo yellow HJC helmet all tied in great! Something about blue and flo yellow that gets me going on the Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha! Great job A-Ray…
Deegan/Kitchen: I mean, we can’t say that we didn’t see that coming right? This is just a pre-cursor of what can happen in the 450 class if Deegs keeps running the program he wants to run. I am not here to say what is right or wrong but if you play the game then expect to get some of it back at a time you may not expect it. This is what happened and I can guarantee that Deegan didn’t even think anyone would come into him that early. If anything is going to happen in Vegas, it will happen in qualifying, not the race. It will be handled before the race.
Nate Thrasher: Put a roof over the track and here comes Thrasher! So weird. The dude is so good at SX and this is going to keep him on a good bike. Nate updated some of his suspension (specifically his rear shock) in order to fit how he rides. Not everyone likes a high rear end like Deegan and Tomac.
Tom Vialle: This is where I prove to you guys that having a bad spec on your bike can lead you to bad results. Sure, you may be able to overcome a bad setting for a while but sooner or later, you will just not be able to get motivated to hang it out during the race for fear of crashing. Vialle went softer on his fork and he found front end feel. Vialle needs front end feel from his KTM in order to ride how he likes to ride. You just can’t tell a rider to hop on this spec because “we” think it’s the correct direction. Let the rider dictate which way he wants to go and let him live or die by his own actions. It’s that simple. Vialle changed front fork for second moto and he wins. Not rocket science.
