Ryan Villopoto on Sexton: “I know the bike’s fast, I know it’s capable of being up front off the line…at least give your shot off the damn line”
As they do following every round of the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship, Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Villopoto broke down the big storylines from the Hangtown Motocross Classic on their Title 24 Podcast.
One of the big talking points in this week’s episode was Chase Sexton. Sexton had two crashes in the first moto Saturday and eventually finished 11-4 for seventh overall.
Villopoto, who is back as a brand ambassador for Kawasaki, said he knows the bike is capable of better finishes, as is Sexton himself.
“And the biggest thing is too, it's one thing to maybe not be able to run with, say, Hunter, Jett or that those top three guys up front, but to end up on the ground like Chase has in the past, like he did Saturday at Hangtown, it was multiple times, I think that's that goes back to the mental side of it. Your head not being in it. Instead of looking at the positives, you're totally looking at the negatives and there are no positives. You know, and then you have your teammate going 6-5 for fifth overall, you know, if you were to ask Chase or put Chase in Garrett's shoes a 6-5, he'd probably still be bummed. But you got to look at it, and you got to start building somewhere. And problems with the motorcycle ending up on the ground, losing the front or crashing, at this point, it comes down to, hey, if you have an issue, maybe let's use it for example. Figure out what that issue is and stop doing. Learn from [it].. 'Okay, I can't lean the bike this far' or 'I can't pull the front brake this hard' or 'I can't this.' It's happened so many times that you need to now adjust yourself or your riding a little bit. Whatever the case may be."
Villopoto continued.
"The other part of it too, is regardless of how it handles, I know that the motorcycle is fast,” he said. “You've got to put yourself up front when the gate drops and start that 30-minute moto. You've got two of them. So, start each moto somewhat up front or then you're always chasing your tail. And then if you are fighting maybe the track or fighting the bike with a terrible start, you know, that just compounds the issue big time. So, I think that...I know the bike's fast. I know it's capable of being up front off the line. And I think that's one thing to like, at least give yourself a damn shot off the line to then hopefully work through some of those issues, maybe by running third or fourth and running up front with those guys, following them, racing with them. You know, so that's kind of what I think."
They also addressed the report, from the Motocross Action Magazine crew, that one of their staff witnessed “Chase ghost riding his bike into the pits following the race.”
“Heard he ghost rode his bike,” Carmichael said. “That's what I heard. [Laughs] I have dropped my bike. In full disclosure, I dropped my bike one year at Glen Helen. I wouldn't say dropped it. I just let it fall down on the ground underneath the tent, and I used my helmet as a bowling ball inside of the rig, I was so mad. But I was more pissed at myself than I was the bike. [Laughs] Even if I didn't think the bike was good. So, I can say I'm guilty, I didn't ghost ride it, but, yeah, that sucks, but I haven't seen any footage of it."
“I haven't either,” stated Villopoto about actually seeing if Sexton ghost rode his bike after the moto. “I haven't [seen it] either.”
On the Track Talkers podcast with Adam and Tyler Enticknap, Adam confirmed that Sexton ghost rode his bike in the Kawasaki pit and then there were words between Sexton and Garrett Marchbanks afterwards.
They talk about this at 5:42 in the above video.
"Things are going south," says Enticknap.
You can watch the full episode of Title24 below.
