EP 241: Ridgedale SMX

Industry Seating

The episode provides a comprehensive recap of the Ridgedale SMX finale, focusing on rider performances and championship outcomes. Host Jason

Key takeaways

• Levi Kitchen secured his first championship by overcoming past mental hurdles and executing a high-risk start.
• Cole Davies is identified as one of the most talented riders in the 25/2 class despite failing to win the title due to mechanical issues.
• Dylan Ferrandis's future is highlighted by a high-value contract for 2028 with Yamaha.
• The Motocross Nations Team USA lineup faced significant uncertainty following Chance Hymas's injury and potential replacements like Julien Beaumair.
• Jorge Prado demonstrated remarkable self-confidence and resilience to secure a win during the playoffs.

Main topics

• Ridgedale SMX Finale Recap
• 250 Class Championship Analysis
• 450 Power Rankings

Notable quotes

He finally, finally got over the hump. He wins a championship.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a deep dive into the shifting landscape of profe

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) A Pulp MX Network Production. A Speaker 1 (0:09) cerebral and experienced look into the racing action from the week that was. This is Industry Seating with Jason Thomas. Presented by Guts Racing, Works Connection, RaceRadios.com, Unmatched Supplements, Firepower Parts, Grandstone Boots, and Fly Racing. Speaker 2 (0:45) And we are back. I didn't do it again. I didn't do the welcome to the industry seating. If you listen to the podcast on Thursday night or Friday, I said, I'm going to not do that for a while. I just, man, I did it hundreds of shows in a row and, um, yeah, it was annoying me. So we are back. Uh, it's Sunday morning, very, very early, right after, uh, the Ridgedale smx finale branson whatever you want to call this race it's september 27th i'm on my way to the airport to head back to idaho for a couple days before i head off to motocross nations so we're going to talk about what happened last night the last race and we're going to talk about uh motocross nations briefly that is coming up i will do a proper motocross nations preview i want to get to europe and kind of be in the moment. Maybe I will get to see some of Team USA. The plan is to see them on Thursday. So I'd like to record it after that just to have that kind of insight and just more context. I am going to touch on it a little bit because of developments with Hymus and Bonaire. But I don't want to get into an in-depth preview until more, you know, I just have more information. And being there, I just think it's going to shed so much light on the situation that it would be a waste to not wait for that. So before we get there, let's thank the sponsors of this podcast. And I'm going off memory too here driving. So Guts Racing, thank you to them. Best seats in the game for all power sports, e-bikes, mountain bikes. uh sarans uh so check out guts racing.com at guts racing on instagram works connection works connection.com at works connection on instagram code is jt23 to save yourself some money but all sorts of accessories over there uh geometry stuff ergonomics for your bike pro launch start device uh you know they were they were the name and frame guards back in the day i think that was what what really put them on the map but now it's so much more than that so check out all the great things they have to offer over there I didn't talk about unmatched supplements last time. And I am just beside myself with that because one, it is the products they are putting out and continue to add is incredible. And also it's my buddy's company and just what a huge miss by me. So very much apologize to the unmatched team and Chris and family there. But the newest product is a protein bar. And they're going into production right now. I think they're going to be widely available. I think October 5th is the date. So we're what a week out. They were hoping to be available right now. Um, but yeah, pre-orders were much more than they kind of expected, which is a great problem to have. And that put them behind on what they could meet on a production level right away. And they didn't want to launch and then you can't even buy anything. So, uh, October 5th. is uh oh my goodness we just have some lightning i know you can't see it so that's kind of a waste to say but it is whitening it's not even raining but the whitening wow Uh, but for unmatched, um, they've launched like a, uh, a greens on it's called longevity greens. So I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with some of the other companies in that space that their marketing is just, uh, yeah, pretty impressive. They spend a lot of money in marketing, but I've been taking that product, uh, the protein bars. I got a box of them ahead of time just, uh, to kind of spread the word really, really impressed, uh, with quality and taste and texture. And what I. never have to worry about with unmatched stuff is the cleanliness of them. And I don't mean like clean as in like cleaning your floor. I mean like the quality of ingredients and the things that are going to make a difference nutritionally are just literally unmatched. They just don't cut corners. And I love that. I don't even have to think about it with them because all the things that I trust. with my training stuff, I bounce off of Chris who is co-owner and founder of unmatched. I bounce all this stuff off of him. And, uh, so when, when I, when he tells me something, it's the gospel for me when it comes to nutrition and fitness. I just, I've seen enough change in my own life and body where I don't even worry anymore. You know, like if he says that I do it and yeah, okay. He's not a doctor, but I'll tell you what the guy knows a lot more about this stuff than anyone i've ever met um so I would give them a shot. I understand that I am sponsored by them and it's, there's a lot of, you know, like a lot, there's many reasons for me to tell you to go out and spend your hard-earned money on something. But if I was spending my money, this is where I would be spending it. Listen, all you have to do, look, like take a look at me, go find pictures of me from five, six, seven years ago. And they look at me now and the proof is all there. You don't have to look much further than that. Um, that's a lot of, everybody wants to take shots and yeah, cool. You're short and make funny pictures. Who cares? Speaker 1 (6:18) That Speaker 2 (6:18) stuff doesn't bother me at all. I think it's hilarious, but the fitness stuff, um, I also know that that's undeniable too. And I'm, I take a lot of pride in it and I work really hard for it. And, um, unmatched is such a great way. for me to, it heightens all your hard work. It's like, it is not the reason for it. It takes all of your hard work, all these products, and it heightens the effect of them. Like it, it really catalyzes and speeds up. and really improves all the hard work that you're putting in. That's kind of how I view these things is you can see gains without taking anything. It's just going to be much more subtle and it's going to be a lot harder to do, or you can be taking all the right things, vitamins and protein and, uh, you know, like things like dilucine, things that enhance muscle growth. They speed up all the, the metabolic processes. They get all the necessary. you know, blood flow and things to your muscles, the things that help them grow and repair themselves, products like Intra that you take mid-workout. Those things all make a huge difference in recovery and how fast you can train again. There's endless stuff there. So check out unmatchedsups.com. And again, can't believe I left them out, but that's what happens when you're driving. You forget some things. Race-rentals.com. Talked about them a lot last show, but what a great product to... it's not even really a product it's a company right like there are just very few companies in this world that do what they do i don't know of any where unmatched like i talked about there's a million there are so many freaking supplement companies in this world protein companies it's in like thousands and thousands and thousands race rentals and uh you know jason cobb and his team Speaker 2 (8:18) I don't know of any, like seriously, like a place where you can go fly into. They teach how to drive trophy trucks. They have all the equipment on site. They have, uh, Speaker 2 (8:29) all side-by-side racing equipment where you can go race Baja 500 or Mint 400 or whatever you choose. Like good luck finding something like that out there. I don't know of anything. So anyway, check it out. Maybe it's not for you. Maybe it is, but I like it for, you know, corporate retreats, guys trips. I just went on a guy's trip. It was to where I grew up, but still it was a guy's trip. Um, I think they have some really cool packages to offer over at race dash rentals. dot com prime food distributors best quality meat in the game i know it's a really obscure kind of pod sponsor and company but if you like grilling out and let's face it who doesn't during football season or smx playoff season you're not going to find better quality than this and i say that with like my if my life depended on it you could hook me up into a lie detector test and i would come through with flying colors on the quality of this stuff. It is just, it is so over the top good. Um, and that's, what's cool. Like a side note. That's what's cool about what I like to do with my podcast is I don't have to like, or I guess I could, but I don't really take on. companies or products that are second tier. And that's not really, it's not like I have some mantra where I'm like, I'm only dealing with the best of the best. Like that's not really how it went. It's just kind of by happenstance that. I've gotten to work with these companies that put out literally the best product in their space. That's cool. I truly enjoy that. So check out race-rentals.com. Check out all these different companies. Grantstone Boots, same thing. Anybody who has stepped out and gone and bought a pair of Grantstones. you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about because I have a lot of them. I'm very fortunate. You know, they've been a sponsor of mine for a very long time, which means I have gotten products for a very long time. And I'm just telling you their stuff is way too good for me. It is so far above what I deserve. Uh, yeah, it's just, yeah, it's a blessing in my life. I wish I got to wear them more because I don't, you know, like if I don't, like I don't need to wear them to work every day. It's a little bit casual. Sometimes I need to wear, like I need to be in a corporate setting and have a meeting where it calls for that. But a lot of times it's casual. The races, I don't, you know, like I'm running all over the place. So I have like a more like an on cloud sneaker. I'm not going to wear their sneakers because they're too dressy and I would ruin them. I need something that I can wear at the races that I can just throw in the washing machine. So I just don't simply get to wear my Grant stones enough, which is unfortunate. Firepowerparts.com. So many cool products there. Controls, chain sprockets, ramps, stands, gas cans. You name it, Firepower has it. Flyracing.com. Thank you to all of them for allowing me to work there for so long and being such great employers and creating such great products, which is more relevant to you guys. We work incredibly hard. And I say we because I'm a part of the team, of course. We work incredibly hard to try to create the safest, best quality. uh, best bang for your buck type stuff. You know, like we, if we, some of this stuff's really expensive, like our top tier, like pants are over $200 now, but the amount of effort and resources and the quality of materials we are putting into that stuff, I can say with hands down without a question in my mind, uh, we don't cut corners. Uh, you just can't, if you do. you have zero chance of competing in the marketplace. So it's one thing we don't do is we don't compromise on quality or performance or safety or anything. If you want to compete with the best brands in that space, you have to throw everything possible at it. And yeah, Speaker 1 (12:31) stuff is not cheap anymore. But anyway, Speaker 2 (12:34) enough about that. Let's get into this podcast. I need to thank those sponsors and that'll be it for it. Maybe I'll run through them once again. I appreciate everybody who listens to those and supports those great companies, but listen, Levi kitchen did it. He finally, finally got over the hump. He wins a championship and, and sure. Like those that want to be cynical and say, well, it wasn't super cross and it wasn't motocross fine, whatever. I don't care if you don't think it mattered to him. Go back, watch race two, look at his emotion after the race. And you tell me it didn't matter. I promise you, I promise you it mattered because all the pressure is the same. The situation's the same. He could have blown it. He could have gotten bad starts. He could have left, you know, like whatever, 700 grand. We talked about the money on the last show, at least 700 grand he could have left on the table. But guess what? This time. He didn't this time he got the job done. So I'm happy for him. If, if you've ever met Levi kitchen, if you were going to say, say anything about him, you could say he's too nice. He doesn't have a killer instinct in him. He, you know, like when it's time to be brutally like just a killer for lack of a better term, he hasn't done it. And he, you know, like that, I think that is a, criticism I have heard about him from other people. And I don't think it's unfair. I don't because he is, he has had that issue in the past of closing the door when the opportunity is there. He has not done it. And this time he did. It wasn't like he went out and was like Deegan-esque where he's just slamming people and making harsh comments. And we know Deegan has that like dog in him for lack of a better term. Speaker 2 (14:36) Kitchen's a different guy. He just is. He's from the Northwest. He's laid back. He's really nice. He's really kind of like an easygoing, like yacht rock guy. I don't think he listens to yacht rock, but you know what I mean? He just doesn't have that killer mentality the way that other guys do. Speaker 2 (14:59) I think it has haunted him in the past. He's been the odd man out in these championships, but not this time. And I don't think he underwent some sort of like fundamental shift in his personality. I think he just finally executed, you know, like when I asked him about the start and, you know, I talked with our broadcast team a lot about make it, keep it big picture stuff because it is his championship. Don't get into the minutia of the specific racing details in these podium interviews because it's kind of bigger than that. But I just, I felt like the second question needed to be that because that inside gate, there was so much risk associated with that for him to have a good gate pick and choose to go away from everybody else and go to the very inside and take on that high risk, high reward. yeah do or die kind of whip and i think i said on the show live by the sword die by the sword option man, it could have gone so poorly. He could have got squeezed. Just what happened to, to Bomer in race two could have so easily happened to kitchen. And guess what? It didn't. He nailed it. He got the start. He forced the issue. He comes, came sliding in there and he pulled it off. He rode the way he needed to. And did he beat Cole Davies who we're going to talk about? No, he didn't, but he didn't have to. That's the thing. Like he didn't have to be Cole Davies. And you could argue, you know, if you, if you really wanted to get ticky tacky and you're a Davies fan or whatever, maybe you're listening to this in New Zealand. You're like, well, yeah, Davies is still the best guy. And I would agree with you. I would agree with you that Cole Davies is the best guy, but sometimes, sometimes the best guy doesn't win the championship. It's happened so many times over the years where the best guy doesn't win because they made a critical mistake or their bike broke or whatever. They got taken out by a lapper or anything can go wrong. There's so many variables in racing that sometimes are beyond your control. You can do everything right and it still doesn't go in your favor because racing is so nuanced and there's so many aspects to it. Again, that you may not have all the say in. And for Davies, you could say that this happened here because, yeah, he blew it last weekend. And that was enough to take him out of it anyway. But like the first race in Columbus could have been enough in a lot of different scenarios to cost him the championship. And that wasn't his fault. You know, like there was something, something went on with the caliper. in his rear brakes. I got a little bit of insight with it. Something went on with the caliper in the mud and they couldn't get it to, to un like disengage and let the brakes work. Right. Or actually not work, I guess in this, in this case, and that could have been enough. I think he would have overcome it. Had he, you know, if he won the second round and the third round, he still wins the championship. No question. But This time it went Kitchen's way. Like all the things that had troubled him in the past and gone sideways and the crashing at Ironman and, you know, Unadilla crashing on the first lap of Bud's Creek and letting Warwood, or no, Brody Connolly pass him back on the last lap in Unadilla and like endless things, you know, you go back through. Just the other shoe didn't drop this time. The anvil didn't fall on his head or Mitch Payton's head this time. And I... Speaker 2 (18:45) I'm here for it. I really like Levi Kitchen. And it doesn't bring me any joy to watch him have difficulties and suffer the pain and the hurt mentally and emotionally of losing another championship and feeling like it's never going to happen and letting your boss down and letting your team down. And that stuff compounds. It really does. It can just build on itself and fester on itself. And you let the weight of the world take its toll and it almost becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy of here we go again, going to be in position to win a championship and what's going to go wrong this time. And thankfully for Levi kitchen, he doesn't, I don't think you have to worry about that anymore. I just don't like it. However it goes from here. It's not going to be the same story anymore because he got this job done Saturday night, September 26th. And even if he's in position to win the next two, next three championships and probably what, you know, I don't, I don't know if it's his final year in 27 and two or not. Speaker 2 (19:53) But it's never going to be the same story. And yeah, it could have shades of it and people will talk about it, but it's never going to have the same effect because he finally got one. It's not going to be an offer situation. So congratulations to Levi. And I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, tell him my piece in person, kind of in Europe when we have some time, you know, last night was not the moment. has nothing to do with me and there's just so much going on I'm not I'm not going to insert myself into the story but there will be an opportunity next week in France where it's I get to say like hey this is kind of how I saw it and if you're willing to listen this is my thoughts on it and good for you because I think when you're you know I don't know how old he is probably now 25 maybe When you're 35, 45, 55, and I'm not 55 yet, clearly, this is what I think is going to really matter for you. You know, having the benefit of hindsight being post-racing, but being around this stuff, I think there would have been some really hard thoughts that you would have had to square with yourself. that I think are going to be much easier. They're going to that, those hard thoughts and hard things you may tell yourself, had you not ever gotten it done, you're never going to have to, you're not going to have to cross that. And, uh, that, that brings me joy is, is he's going to be able to go easier on himself one day because of what he accomplished Saturday night. So great job to him. Uh, Cole Davies, as I said, he's, he's the best guy in the Juvity class. Just because he crashed out of Columbus, or I'm sorry, crashed out of LA, doesn't mean he's not the best guy. It doesn't mean he's going to, you know, anything for 27, he's going to be the favorite in every championship he enters. And, you know, he has this incredibly bright future. And the most I've ever talked to one-on-one was before opening ceremonies Saturday night, last night. um, we, he got to opening ceremonies way early, like way too early. And I was there set up to interview Dylan Ferrandez. So we, it just gave me this opportunity to just have a dialogue back and forth. And, um, you know, you can tell he wasn't feeling any pressure. He's just kind of like, yeah, man, I want to go in and whatever. But we were talking about New Zealand and, uh, I'm going down at the end of the month and well, I guess in the end of October, we're not even in October yet, but, um, He was telling me about where he's from, specifically New Zealand, and this Auckland race at the end of October is right by his house. All his friends and family that are not coming to the U.S. are going to get