Weege Show: Arlington Preview with 250 East Updates

Jason Weigandt walks and talks to get an update on 250 East riders who were caught in that massive first-turn crash at their opening round a few weeks ago, plus others. After chats with Seth Hammaker, Nick Romano, Evan Ferry, Jalek Swoll, Guillem Ferres and Austin Forkner, we get an update on Cameron McAdoo and Chase Sexton’s status, and an overall look on how the 450 class has changed this year. Everyone is feeling good, so the line between a good night and a bad night is much closer.

All brought to you by the Honda CRF250R and CRF450R. Makes winning look easy!

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Yeah welcome to the weed show I’ll get wor quieter in a second look at this meeting in the mines here meeting in the mines those mines those mines yes Brian Degan in coer web web’s not riding today he’s not part of press day uh but he’s out there with ran Degan scouting the

Racetrack welcome back for 250 East and really just welcome back even for anybody even 450 guys because hey we didn’t have a race last weekend we’ll get into it with the weed show brought to you by Honda and the CRF 250R and CRF 450R I’ll show you some clips of press

Day today and then we’ll get into the racing Hol yes sir so where are we after a couple weeks off for 250 East first I talked to a bunch of guys who were involved than a first turn melee and the winner of the previous Race Austin forner about how they’re feeling coming

In this is uh triage we’re going to follow up with everybody cuz we haven’t seen you in a couple weeks yeah first step haker are you okay from the first turn crash yeah honestly from the first turn crash I’m good for my practice crash I was

Just I was a little worried about that one yeah uh but you were all there that was good yeah I was just a heavy one for sure just to start the day off like that was like third lap into the pre practice yes and it was just yeah I just tried to

Scrub too much speed off that double just on me so the first turn what do you think happened you got hit you hit somebody do you even know yeah I just so like the Al I got I think it’s was like my front breaker my or my hand bar just

Kind of got caught in his jersey actually and then ripped me down and then that’s when like I like when I was off the side of my bike and that’s why I just like shot over so um but yeah racing it’s funny though cuz see we everybody’s like this is the same style

Of first turn mhm but it’s it’s just one tiny thing if your jersey or you don’t hook his jersey maybe none of that happens yeah I mean it’s it’s so tough cuz it’s like it doesn’t happen like very often and that’s what everyone’s been saying like same first corner and it’s

Like it’s not it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again all right let’s do some interviews here so Nick Romano you got one sup under your belt how was that at uh Detroit I mean it was fun till it wasn’t whole day was good uh I was

Struggling a little bit the nerves were high for me but uh yeah kind of regrouped for the heat race had a good heat race and then yeah I was honestly less nervous for the main than I was for the heat uh just kind of getting a gate

Drop and I uh yeah I was excited and then just got caught in that mess so nothing I could do once I was down but just get up and try my best which is what I did so uh yeah it was it was up

And down all day but I had fun man just being there back at the races my super first Super Cross like man it it’s it’s been it’s been unreal so just getting that even with the first turn crash out of the way has to have helped a lot for

This yeah no like I feel even like for press day at Detroit dude I was nervous like I tucked the front in the sand and like I was just a mess but just being here like I’m way more calm and uh yeah I’m just excited we got some good

Testing under our belt so uh I’m excited to see where we Stack Up catching up with everybody after Detroit you’re good I saw the airport you posted on Sunday you’re okay Evan Ferry yeah yeah yeah uh man that that interview was maybe a little rough but oh okay yeah you look

Fine yeah honestly I was I was fine within the next couple days so uh yeah just took took a little bit of time off and got back on the bike really I would say this week honestly and then felt pretty good on Tuesday and Wednesday so yeah we’re feeling pretty good now how

Much pressure on the line did you feel on that lcq to get it in I was like this dude has to be very nervous right now honestly I feel like the pressure was more actually in the heat race really yeah for what for whatever reason like

Lcq was more like I got on the gate and I was like all right I I need to win this obviously but uh I would say almost more more pressure on the heat race wow then uh I would say that the pressure kind of sett settled in like the last

Like couple laps I would say on the lcq for sure but then after that it was like oh I’m ready to go let’s and how long did that last uh it last about here let me let me let me think yeah yeah let’s let’s map it out I last about 3 seconds

4 seconds speaking of that people are like oh it’s the same style of first turn but I was talking to hammaker it just takes one inch here and there of a guy bumping each other it’s not like I guarantee that the same thing’s going to happen again are you worried about that

Am I worried about doing the same thing that I don’t I don’t know I haven’t really thought about it no it’s all circumstances you guys could have done 100 starts and that might have happened 90 92 times it might have got through yes so you’re not worried about this

You’re not thinking about it again this one it looks like there’s a little bit more of like a place where I could just ride right up stands oh okay that might be the plan that might be the escape hatch okay looks more like a we got a

Little double and then we can ride right across the oakle banner and and let go right up right up into right up into the like endurocross yeah like endurocross um last thing now you have one under your belt you didn’t get to ride as much as you probably wanted to with the head

But did you test did you improve are you feeling better yeah we definitely we definitely feel a little bit better um made some adjustments suspension wise and I feel like we’re definitely in a better place than we were okay maybe not even lcq this time maybe not I hope not

I I try not to I’m I’m going to try not to be there so okay okay they want to be there or there no so the real media here question is after One race on this bike and all that are there improvements are there gains are there things you guys

Learned yeah I mean we had three weeks to test so it was nice we did the we did some changes we ain’t going to say in front of this team so you know what’s funny you know what’s funny I was literally standing by a Husky and you

Had white gear and I didn’t even realize it wasn’t your so maybe I shouldn’t talk to you so we made some testing we made some gains uh for the most part similar not similar you guys have to figure that out yourself but we made some gains it’s

A level up it’s a level up yeah we’re making we’re making steady progress okay and uh this is actually your bike do I have this right now I loaned him this bike oh you have to be happy with that like were you worried at any point you’re like dude this could be really

Bad or did you know going in you’d be okay I mean I knew I was going to be okay I was just like kind of nervous cuz I mean I’m here by myself uh first time in the stadium you see all the people and stuff it’s are we yeah but yeah we

Made it through okay I mean that’s got to be all the goal is yeah just make it through all right forner um anything change after that after round one yeah uh not really um I tried to I I tried to not let anything change um yes it kind

Of sucked cuz having 3 weeks off I mean I don’t know it depends on how you look at it cuz I went into the race being like oh dude if I can win the first race and then just have three weeks to just like like you know uh that would be

Great but it was almost like after that happened I was kind of like I don’t want this cuz I don’t want to get in like a I came into the to the first race with like a you know not even that have something to prove but just

Like I was in a certain mindset and after I won I didn’t want that mindset to change to be like okay we got what we accomplish we accomplished the goal which yeah that was the first goal it’s not the end goal but that was the first obviously goals to win the first race

Race so I didn’t want to kind of take that just and and relax I wanted so like I wanted to race the next weekend I wanted to get straight back to it so I couldn’t be you know I couldn’t just almost be like content which is so you know it’s it’s

Hard because then I think like man I’m grateful cuz I know how how quickly you can go from on top and winning races to not winning races for a year or for month or for a long time you never know when your last race win’s going to be

Basically so um I want to be grateful for those but then at the same time I want to stay in just that hungry mindset of like I I I want to win I need to win I I you know I’ve said it to all you

Guys this first time to you you have the dream job but when you have it you can’t really think of it that way you have to always be like no I’m almost going to fail I need to be better you can never be satisfied really yeah and and it and

It sucks like like I that’s just what I was saying it’s like it’s like you obviously you want to be happy you know you want to enjoy things and you want to be happy but also sometimes certain guys you know I’ve seen it in myself sometimes I I mean just this year

You know we’ve seen like Tomac he’s went like 10 3 9 2 like sometimes you have your your best races after your worst RAC ah yes Austin forner getting to learn the lesson that I’ve told many riders that they all know but don’t really know that they know which is

They have the dream job that everyone wants they get paid good money to race dirt bikes and forner told me uh when he got married in the off season that a lot of the guys at his wedding party were dudes that he grew up racing with and he

Said I’m the only one that’s still going still a racer and it really get in the perspective of he’s pretty blessed in life to still be doing this but at the same time did you hear that he can’t think of it too much in that direction

Yo what’s up what’s up what’s up um anything anything yes we on the weed show you’re almost becoming like a weekly guest yeah I’m I’m pretty proud I spot you out I grab you um like it’s almost like I’m I’m grabbing you like usually you’re grabbing me it’s organ

You’re not trying you’re not trying and honestly you got your own thing now right you got your own Vlog show M does some like she does her best at um getting some content to like the fans but she’s she like comes here to do a job like she really feels that way and

Like she’s super like engaged and lock in and she knows what she has to do to help me so she just does everything that she can to give you guys like a little bit of in our life I mean we’re not full vloggers and she does social media as a

Job too so like it’s it’s good she knows how to do it yeah and it’s good for both of us but for you anything changed from a social media perspective after the last race oh yeah oh yeah got some got some new fans maybe I don’t I

Think interesting but which had a bigger bump Detroit or Atlanta in 21 or Atlanta 21 that still the bigger bump oh yeah I mean that was like I think if you’re talking about social media recogn ition I went from 70,000 to 160,000 in 2 days no way yeah you

Like doubled double yeah wow yeah wow so you got you’re like dude I put it all out there for everybody I talk about it like I want to I want to double my like they like I want to get 10,000 new fans by passing for the win in the last turn

Something sick maybe throwing a whip maybe maybe hitting a quad like stew yeah but I don’t know it’s been something else press is press I guess press is press uh uh everything else is okay you’re still banged up not that part that part’s okay that part’s okay other things yeah I’m struggling with

Some stuff but we dir back Racers we always kind of have a little bit of something here and there right I appreciate you at least admitting it yeah yeah at least camera m do yeah so he I know what you want to talk about from last time with madoo with the pants

Breaking open and then other things hanging out but the bigger issue for him now is that he did bang up his knee a little bit he said he was able to do some riding between uh uh Detroit and here and even the shoulder inches they had in December is still not quite 100%

So he’s banged up but he said you know what I’m going to be transparent from now on and I’m just going to tell you so that was good that he mentioned that and the other injury thing I think everyone wants to know about is Chase ston who

Had the hand injury in Glendale and I talked to him before and he did a bunch of interviews for PR day and he said it’s the problem is pulling in the clutch and in a longer race where you got to keep pulling it in especially in Corners uh that’s where it really starts

To hurt he said it’s like 80% now it’s not as good as he wanted it to be but it is better than Glendale he was able to do like ma some riding during the week so we’ll see how that affects him which All Leads me in the 450 class

To talk about how we’re going to have to start looking at the results this year with a different prism a different lens a different perspective if you go to the racerx online site I’m proud of myself for coming up with this idea we had a

Story this week where we took the top 20 450 Riders and compared their results to six rounds last year and this year and the distance between a good race and a bad race is startling this year year what was a bad night last year for top Riders was a fifth now they’re getting

Ninths and tth and there’s obviously a couple factors a two mud races with a short sample size two or six races being mutters that’s going to mix up the results for sure but you’re dropping in more Talent when you consider not only jet Hunter Lawrence and Justin Cooper

Have dropped in in the class but don’t forget Dylan fand is barely raced last year he was out with injury early now he’s here from the get-go and he’s still here these guys are all stealing points away from each other to a draft degree I think if you would ask Cooper web are

You better on the Yamaha in the KTM he’d say I’m faster I’m better but he’s 20 some points off of what he scored at this point in the series last year Chase ston I think is happier on the ktam than the Honda he said that he said there’s

Room to grow but he’s already happy with the bike compared to where he was last year he’s 20 points or so worse than he was at this stage last year and Eli Tomac is 39 points worse than last year we’ll talk about Tomac in a moment and then the guys you think that

Got way better this year Pinger Anders roxon they’re slightly better they’re like two or four points better than they were after six rounds last year what this means is everyone’s stealing points from each other you drop more talent in the ranks with the rookies and fandos

Being good and I think a very underrated part of all this I don’t want to interrupt this VIP tour back here for the building I think an underrated part of this is we are in a strange Year everyone wants to say all the Riders are healthy we didn’t have a lot of injuries

Early in the year last year that all happened like Nashville at the end of the year we’ve had healthy Fields six rounds in I think rarely do you get this many guys that feel this good on their bikes at once Anderson likes his bike better Pinger likes his bike better we

Already talked about ston and web uh FIS loves his Honda the rookies have adapted quickly just want to point this out this is actually the carpet this is actually the carpet so to speak this is actually the grass for the stadium they just roll it up on these

Giant things like paper towels and then we got a concrete floor for events like this and everything else to have at AT&T Stadium that’s the football field right there great camera work there anyway because everybody happens to be good at the same time now one mistake

Look at Pinger he could have won last week he tips over he goes all the way back and he can barely get a top 10 a guy that’s fast enough to win a race in previous years in that situation could still come back and get a fifth you

Can’t do that this year it is Starling when we actually ran the numbers it’s not just hype so check out the list on the website to see those exact numbers and see how crazy that actually is and to that end I think we have a couple other points that we can take out

Of that so much talk about Kat’s terrible Detroit I said he would be better at Glendale he was better at Glendale but he still didn’t finish on the podium and he got beat straight up by jet down the stretch and I think it’s like panic button time I think for a lot

Of people I want to remind you that’s still fourth Fring place which is still really good so I wouldn’t fret too much about that the whole question here is are we seeing all Tomac has or is he still got a 5% gain to get as he comes back from injury that’s the real

Question title because these guys can steal points from each other the odds are better to come from 7th to 1st than they would be in a normal year but that’s still a lot to ask um but riding wise okay it’s nothing to be embarrassed just think of it this way would you

Rather have Tomac out here getting fourth or just not out here at all think of it that way couple other guys got a bounce back U Cooper web’s a perfect example of this wow # deepfield so you got web who was maybe the fastest guy in Detroit and then was not good at

Glendale and I think he could bounce right back because this track is much softer much tackier than most people think back in the day when we race this race at Irving in the old Cowboy stadium the dirt was rock hard uh now it’s darn tacky and rutted and that’s Cooper web

Conditions he won here that magical 2019 race where he ripped it away from roxman the end he won the Triple Crown race here last year so I would not count web out don’t don’t read too much into any one result for any one Rider and that includes last week and finally jet

Lawrence kind of trend spotting here we’re trying to figure out you know what one result does it all mean anything does it all mean nothing and like I’m saying week to week I don’t think it means a lot there is one thing I will point out though in the preseason jet

Lawrence said he wanted to take a page out of toax 2023 Playbook which is if you don’t win and you just get a third or a fourth or a fifth just be okay with it and I was like man that’s scary because I think we know

Jet’s fast enough to win a lot the question is is he going to crash away a whole bunch of points and if he really could do that if he really could just take what the Knight gives him 17 rounds I was like man that’s really going to

Improve his odds for the title and I’m going to say that he wasn’t doing that at the beginning of the year he was getting way too emotional he was trying way too hard getting mad at Anderson in a race where he came from a horrible start to

Get like decent points you should be happy with that he was letting the emotions get the best of him for sure Glendale Glendale he did not guys were roughing him up he didn’t let it get to him he said to me that the track was difficult he knew it’d be slippery as

Soon as I get out there and he’s like I’m just going to take what I can get and he took third and he was more than happy to do it and that is what jet said he was going to do at the beginning of the year it wasn’t what he was actually

Doing but now I think he’s turned that corner and that is dangerous he’s got the points lead I don’t think anyone doubts the speed or the ability to win multiple races the question is is he going to throw it away at times he’s got a couple close calls out there but if he

Can reain it in and just do what he did to Glendale I honestly think that Glendale way back getting roughed up by web dealing with freezy in his heat race and then coming back to get third I think that meant more for his title chances than winning Detroit with a

Whole shot the previous round so a lot of the line there the 250 class kind of know the score we don’t have too much data because of that first turn crash you heard forner situation even he is trying not to let it get too far into

His head doesn’t want to rest on on his Laurels and think that he has this just because he won that one just for his own motivation but let’s be honest a lot of the guys that were going to battle him we’re down on the first turn so we’ll

See how that one turns out we don’t have much data and that that’s what makes it fun we have really close championships in the 450s and this 250 thing I almost feel like it’s not even round two it’s more like round 1 B it’s a guy who knows how to handle

When a camera’s around finally a shout out to Honda and the SE F 450R and CRF 250R for backing our show makes winning look easy or in the case of jet thirds look easy or fifth for Hunter at the last race it reminds me that uh you

Cannot count out uh chance hus another guy not caught in the first during crash bait he had a knee injury that aggravated him at the last round but he was super fast most of the day uh so chance hus watch for him in the CRF 250R this weekend so much to talk about

Coming into Dallas it’s so rad to not use this weekend off in the series has like false hype and pretending that things are crazy and close and they’re going to be wild this year it continues to actually bring that in reality we don’t need to fake it