Weege Show! Anaheim 1 2024

Jason Weigandt walks and talks around Angel Stadium to study the opening round of 2024 Monster Energy Supercross. He talks to Nick Wey about the difference between test track and race track, and then James Stewart weighs in as well. We’re ready!

Brought to you by Honda’s CRF250R and CRF450R. Makes winning look easy!

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It’s the weed Show Time Warp same place same everything it’s Anaheim because we don’t want to change it there are some traditions that need to stay forever I keep making that link between what’s up Christmas and New Year’s and this is it for us it is the only thing that’s

Changed since the last time I was in this building is that uh the sh Otani posters are gone there’s actually a giant Angel’s logo out front where his face used to be otherwise it’s the same old same old and it goes for Monster Energy Supercross and the weed show this

Is the 82nd time we’ll have a race in this building that’s the most ever sure that’s not a surprise we’ve raced two and even three years in this building at times and the weed show is brought to you by Honda as it always is the CRF

450R and 250R the very first person to be asked questions at today’s press conference was Lars linstrom the team manager and he said we tried to keep the momentum going from 2023 because the offseason was so short what offseason helps keep the momentum going and he does believe that jent Lawrence can

Maybe help avoid some of the typical rookie mistakes because of his approach to racing and I mentioned this on here before when I was last in this building a month ago I got to talk to a lot of the riders in private conversations so we’d have background knowledge for TV I

Will share it now what really struck me is that both Hunter and jent Lawrence said the main thing that they are taking away going into their first full 450 seasons is Eli tomac’s approach last year Tomac had a couple of not terrible but not great races like fifth place

Races and they were impressed how he didn’t freak out change everything with the motorcycle he just calmly moved on to the next race just take those fifths and uh don’t change everything and I’m like oo that is dangerous if rookies are already thinking that way because I

Think we know speed wise these rookies move in they already have the tools the question is will they mess it up oh what’s up you didn’t ask any questions yeah because I wasn’t in the main media section cuz I waited too long to sit down oh so it’s your fault it was my

Fault it was your fault or or failed purposely no I think so you’ve been left behind JT and I front and center you’re not even a factor in this behind you asked multiple questions you’re good you were by ABS I had questions to ask there was no mic around

Me I was pushed out the questions were too dangerous too dangerous going to ask the top questions we don’t want y exactly I he was texting me Doran we were texting Dory very professional I was texting him while I was hosting this oh while you’re yeah yeah yeah Dory he

Kept saying but I can’t see it’s just lights in my face so I didn’t know if he was really there uh so math is complaining that’s Anaheim tradition as well uh but it is interesting to hear that rookies are at least thinking we don’t want to be like rookies and that all

Leads to the same old tradition again at Anaheim which is what’s up good to see you again anybody can win everybody says that every year we counted the numbers we had 15 450 Riders on the stage today 15 15 guys who are good Riders on good teams who’ve had success before we’re

Going to get a bunch of them on the track in a moment I know that’s what you really want to see we’ll break that down what we saw and we’ll see who’s flying at the test track the Intel I did get today I wanted to have a one-on-one interview with

Cooper web because it’s telling web he’s so stealth fast he’s stealth fast right uh every year when we come to Anaheim we do not give Cooper Webb the respect that he deserves as a multi-time champion of the series and I think internet culture tells you that’s just bias there’s

Haters out there or whatever it is I’ve been thinking long and hard as to why is it that we don’t think about Cooper web in the way we should I think the names that keep rolling off the tongue are Tomac jet Chase Tomac jet Chase Tomac jet Chase Ken roxon has been

Flying at the pretty much every event he goes to why not Webb well I think we got some actual evidence first of all we did see web jump on the Yamaha he really thought he was going to do well at SMX that didn’t happen Paris Supercross wasn’t

Great we haven’t seen this oh my God he’s on the Yamaha and he’s 20% better than he was thing that I think he wanted Donnie Banks but but um when I talked to him today he indicated that things are a lot different than they were back in

Paris the last time we saw him race where he wasn’t on the pace of roxon or the Lawrence brothers but also remember last year at Paris he was even worse and then lo and behold we get here to Anaheim and the only one that can beat him is Eli Tomac

And he’s giving Tomac fits and then two months into the season he’s holding the red plate and he was second in points ahead of Chase ston when ston went down sorry when he went down with his own injuries so if your web we this is what it is he doesn’t do anything until

Anaheim to remind us of how good he is he doesn’t fly the test track he doesn’t dominate offseason events you don’t see any instab bangers that make you go oh my God this guy’s hauling we have to wait until here to see it now I wanted to actually interview web about this but

I don’t think my audio worked let’s try it see what happened so I just paraphrased everything he said here uh they’ve done major changes uh to the bike uh starting for example with the switching either from hydraulic clutch to Cable cut clutch or vice versa but what ever used

In Paris it didn’t work with the Stars they changed that and I did say look is this bike better in the whoops which is where we know historically his struggle had been and uh he said yes so we’ll see if that uh Bears out but I think we’re

Probably sleeping on that guy a little bit to the point where in our own Racer X video preview shows we put him in episode two not one prove us wrong right let’s get bikes on the track and give you more all right it’s the moment we’ve

Been waiting for Riders are on track uh I want to tell you who’s been flying in the test track but I got analysis of Cameron madoo and Nick way that flying in the test track M do you said it might almost be 80% inaccurate maybe 6G but maybe not even

50/50 where it applies I said 60/40 probably because I’m not a fire at the test track so I’m but I’ll get really bummed on myself on Tuesday and Nick will be like dude but you’ve seen yes and then I am fine yes so it goes the complete opposite so whatever we’ve heard seen

Talked about in December doesn’t necessarily mean Nick way is it going to mean anything you hear someone’s struggling or someone’s flying yeah like we talked about the elite guys are going to be elite and they’re going to show Eli tomac’s always good well maybe not every single day the fastest guy there

But close yes yes uh beyond that there’s obviously everybody at this level is extremely talented so there’s some guys that can speak you know they can they can definitely go the pace but can they do it at the race that’s a different okay so flying at the test track doesn’t mean

That much we’ll find out now and that’s the cool thing it’s real reality I will say I will say though we that nowadays how the prep tracks are prepped and they develop them like they leave the tracks a little softer so it develops more ruts

To slow it down some which is the right thing to do but that definitely evens the playing field for the Grinders like the like the Cooper WB cuz yes what you’re saying is the test tracks are not that you can’t keep up with that that’s why it’d be too gnarly

So we get a little more disconnect between December and January because the practice tracks are not this and you’re just not you just don’t have 50 people there riding either well it makes all the difference cuz why does CER we not get MZ before the season his strength

Doesn’t play Until We race but to be honest with you I like I said I appreciate it being like this and more technical as a a father of an aspiring RAC you’d rather it end up like this well they’re going to say that if the tracks get beat that’s dangerous but I’m

Like no man you got to think your way around the track well it slows it down yes think your way around don’t just pit it you want to get into the one time in lcq you said I want to donate this money so they can build more jumps on a track

That you could pass on yeah that was a hack track it was he’s still sticking with it he’s still sticking with it I like that oh my God everybody out there somewhere is what we wanted to see jet Lords going across the big double you can see Jet’s got some oranges here and

Eli to is right behind him and this is again not to disrespect anybody else I just keep saying this it’s the only match up we have not seen we saw Jas xon and J Trace we saw Cooper web and J Trace we saw Ken roxon jet just slowed

Down and Tom went by him in the sand okay let’s hype that let’s hype that jet just got passed by toac let’s hype that up in the first in this upcoming rivalry battle comak went around J that has to be something here’s Eli I don’t have assume but it happened

Everybody there’s jet went long oh damn can I actually walked on down to the track with the lee d and will Christen darn it now I just want everybody to know on my social media I did announce that I will be in the Super cost Booth this year just for clarification as I

Did say there I will be doing 10 out of the 17 rounds in the booth uh lead GI will do the first three rounds I will be in the booth at anah 2 but I will be part of our pre- R show there’s comat back Vince freezy in the 450 class again

This year on the number 125 there’s a beta on a super cross track hey I guess I’m press day I’m allowed to do this I’m just going on Race let’s go ow there’s jet Lawrence running the uh high bid green and purple numbers he h and Hayden Degan will be wearing that

As the champion all year that’ll be their plate colors and number colors although if he has the point SE he’ll have a red background with the high viz green number on it see what else we’ve got coming here interesting what Ian Harrison said in the press conference they were

Talking about shase ston and he said uh look there are challenges there are certain things that old bike did very well and certain things our bike does well and it’s impossible to have everything so I had heard a lot of stories about such did not flying at the

Test track for whatever that’s wor and that’s why I go to an expert like Nick way who again says that he has seen many many times Riders not riding well during the offseason and then do well in the races or they ride very well in the

Offseason and they don’t do so well in the RAC so we have to take everything we heard in the office but I’ve heard that and that motorcycle it time it’s not been an instant classic and said that they’re working on it it might mean nothing there’s a Craig

Right there it might not need anything what we’ve heard of the off seon once thing go and also so really to further Flur the lines here’s Derek Drake racing a 450 this year we don’t have the woops in play today at pres you want you don’t even have wops so harder to

Detect orge PR he he said the whoops it does make him sweat uh he’s still learning that but he enjoys trying it he likes the challenge go comac looks freaking good man I can’t put it any other way comac looks he looks like a beast out there East Bo I like

It but ultimately this is Anaheim one is all about I know that everybody wants the answers right now we want them quickly but in in in the reality we’re best served by not getting us not today not tomorrow you want to not know week

In and week out we can go we really know what we have in our hands the better off we will be so after I’ve already dced the Flames of you know we shouldn’t overanalyze everything that we’ve seen today and we probably shouldn’t want the answers as quickly as we want them which is

ASAP I will tell you that the guy I thought that looked best today was Eli Tomac and that’s just an eye test thing it’s just the way he was attacking the corners everybody kind of rolls the turns on a press day they’re just kind of learning the jumps and I don’t think

That uh that last gasp of hanging on on the cable out of a corner is the most important thing on press day I don’t think Tomac knows any other way to go so that’s interesting uh but now everybody’s buzzing about a table and double into the corner actually I think

He took off before that I guess if you want to count a tabletop as a double which some people do and some people don’t that could be a five for uh jet Lawrence and then Hunter Lawrence went down in that Rhythm and then Jet actually stopped to help him out so uh

If you love the Lawrence brothers story jet did a jump no one else did and then he slowed down to take care of his brother to make sure Hunter was okay which he was uh and if you hate the Lawrence brothers You’re probably like dude stop talking about this oh we’re

Going to give it all to you when we go racing love it or hate it that’s the cool thing about sports what’s up everybody all right we’re going to sign off for this show why you see oh you want more why you well look I was I

Didn’t want to put you in a spot here I’m always I I didn’t want to put you in a spot everybody’s like I want answers now get some did you see anything I mean I saw did you see jet five into a turn I saw jet Lawrence I haven’t seen a JS

Stable moment I just saw one with him I li you see that that was a JS my dad called it out and I’m like no no I’m not riding and then he did it i’m he got the Jazz it’s stable it was legit yes cuz

Your point was as great as he has been you were not seeing stable crazy stuff that was stable that wasable he got a new name he got a new title now too stable I mean that was definitely a stable moment um I mean I could see it

Happening I mean the day on a wild you know what I mean baby steps okay good it’s good okay no it look good I thought toac looked good though I was about to say that yeah say did AES look good me yeah yeah no he was hitting the corners

Hard like he was he probably only knows one way to do it yeah no Eli looked pretty good even the um uh product like really he don’t look like he ain’t ever WR Supercross no definitely not his results might not be his results because Supercross is a different world but I

Mean they didn’t want going through the whoop so he had to worry about that but he look good Chase Exon I think he’s going to Ryan dun approach this year he looks like a Ryan Dung really yeah I think he’s going to I don’t think he has

The speed but I think the way he looked I think he’s going to play the consistency game so we’ll see I was wondering I feel like eventually you guys all get to the point I don’t know if you ever got there where you’re like qualifying speed whatever I don’t

Care most guys do get to that point and I’m like I wonder if Chase is going to accelerate that maturity of like I’m not going to chase Jet’s laptop time in practice anymore I don’t care well I don’t think it happens because of a choice it’s not oh it might not be a

Choice we’ll be right back people save this stuff for tomorrow or on the show yeah I think he’s I mean n i mean he actually L like Ryan dungon to me when I was watching R like he was in the rush but yeah I mean maybe that choice that

He has to make not by choice might be the best thing for like this is the best way for me to win now yeah um my last thing is a big picture thing I’ve asked a ton of people about there’s flying at the test track everybody wants to know and I’m like

What is the ratio of that even mattering when we go racing some people say it’s 8020 60/40 50/50 what have you seen in your experience how much does it matter what we heard someone doing in November n because when you put those tough blocks on here it’s a whole different

Game so that’s it yeah I mean and it’s built used to beat me at the test I promise and then come here on Saturday night and I didn’t qualify I’m not lying he would beat you he would beat me piss me off too couldn’t do nothing about it

So that’s like you were riding as fast as you can go yeah I mean come on like no K he would be here that’s why we were kind of but when they turn these lights on that’s when the real show comes so so whatever we’ve learned so far who cares

That’s what we learn every day what you learn for you going to learn something new so you do have to watch the TV show see that’s what matters I got the best bench racer in the business right there thanks JS all right that’s our show we

Ended it with a wallup right there all right see you after the race on Saturday everybody thanks so for Honda for back in the show