DOES YOUNG TALENT NEED MORE STRUCTURED TEAM TO SUCCEED?

I've been around the American series for a while now with my ups and downs. I can't help notice all the young talents that signed good contracts with factories or factory supported teams. Most of them had a bright future, some disappeared quickly, some never won a race, some even ended up locked up in a jail somewhere…

Teams/factories, more several years ago, would go on crazy bidding wars to get the next Johnson, Stanton, McGrath or Carmichael but without giving them the structure to help the prodigies bloom. There isn't really a team that propose a full package to help the riders improve their speed, fitness and mental. How many times I was on a track at the same time as some 18 year old factory/factory supported riders on their own just riding and looking lost out there. Pro Circuit has been successful. Riders, Mechanics and crew fear Mitch Payton which is a psychology to put pressure on everyone to succeed with one of the best bikes you can get. It has been working for 20 years but it didn't work with everyone. We remember the episode of the bidding war between Honda and PC to sign Bobby Bonds. Maybe one of the most expensive contract ever for Kawasaki and PC.

Joe Gibbs Racing tried a new concept a few years ago having their riders live by the race shop and followed by an ex football trainer on a daily basis in a sort of team sports bootcamp. The key word in this sentence is "football". I respect this concept but a football trainer would not even make you faster from the truck to the starting gate. In every team sports, you have rules, curfews, training scheduled even for Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady. Why not having those in motocross? We spend a lot of money (I am not against that part) on riders and let them do their own thing. If they are not successful, its like throwing 100 dollar bills out of the window on the freeway. At the end of their contracts we don't re-sign them. We pick other ones and so on. This year, the Rockstar Suzuki Lites team hired Randy Lawrence to take care of their riders. He has knowledge and experience and it can only help that team to improve. 

You can count on one hand per decades the riders that won races or championships that were on their own like Bailey, O'Mara, McGrath, Bayle, Reed, Pourcel… Most of the kids with a decent contract have the wrong priorities… They need the new truck, the 24" wheels, the Kicker sound system and give more importance to a shoe deal than their actual sponsors that pays their bills and what could be their retirement...

RC had his mom, Jeannie. Her nickname wasn't "Meany Jeannie" for nothing. Bubba had James Sr. Mike Alessi has Tony and even if I don't agree on their program and approach, Tony was always here to make sure Mike was doing his homework. Whatever how good their program is, you have to respect Tony and Mike to follow it at 100%. My dad would make Tony Alessi look like Chuck'E'Cheese. He was super hard on me, used to beat me when I wasn't doing as good as he thought I could. If I had to do it again, I can assure you I would do it again but I would have stop racing way before I turned pro if he wasn't there and would have never won a GP or a Supercross race.

I am not saying every riders would win with a "dictator" in charge of their training/practice sessions, some aren't strong enough for it or ready to do the amount of work required but it would have helped most of them. I am not saying to need to beat the riders to go fast and win but to give them a structure with knowledge, experience and respect.

I would bet a bunch of money that Kevin Windham, even if he had an awesome career, would be the GOAT today if he had "Meany Jeannie" on his side…

Just something to think about. Instead of gambling of a rider's potential and dedication, why not giving him the tools to become a great investment...