This week, everyone’s favorite grump, Phil Nicoletti, joined Steve Matthes in the studio. Phil flew into Pulp headquarters straight from round two of the Canadian Triple Crown Championship to talk about Thunder Valley National, his start to the Triple Crown Championship, and more. HRC Honda’s Chance Hymas, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Jeremy Martin, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Garrett Marchbanks, and the voice of Canadian Motocross, Ryan Gauld, made for a star-studded lineup. MX Sports’ Tim Cotter also called in to preview this weekend’s High Point National, and Jason Thomas made his weekly appearance to talk Thunder Valley and debate the potential “Holeshot Challenge” between himself and Steve!

Chance Hymas was the star of the 250 class at Thunder Valley. The HRC Honda phenom had a perfect day, taking the top spot in both qualifying sessions, two holeshots, and a perfect 1-1 score on the day. Hymas was obviously happy with his performance but also expressed that it is what he expects out of himself week in and week out. “I go into every weekend believing that I can do that. I made a lot of good improvements on the bike,” Hymas said. “I went in super focused and super confident that I needed to turn this thing around and start getting some momentum going my way. But yeah, on paper, it was a perfect day for me.”

Hymas controlled the majority of the two motos from start to finish, but Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Haiden Deegan did close the gap before being forced to back it down due to some bike issues. Hymas acknowledged Deegan’s push in the first moto, saying, “I hit a bad batch of lappers, and I hit them in most one-lined part of the track. Haiden put like two seconds on me, two laps in a row, and I was like, holy shit, I need to get her going. So, I put down two sprint laps and that kind of broke him a little bit. I felt like I was the fastest guy there. It was just, don’t make the mistakes.”

Nicoletti shared some insight that he had heard the HRC team did a test at Lakewood after Denver Supercross. Hymas confirmed this and admitted that it did contribute to his performance on the weekend. “You learn a lot, especially being at altitude. I am almost certain that gave us a little bit of an edge going into this weekend,” he said. Hymas also mentioned that he had spent the week training in his home state of Idaho, which is at similar elevation to Lakewood.

Hymas’ win comes one week after not lining up for the second moto at Hangtown due to food poisoning. Hymas explained exactly what happened and cleared up some false rumors of electrolyte deficiency. “I didn’t have electrolyte deficiency; I had food poisoning all week. I said I had food poisoning and told them I couldn’t keep my food down. I said that, and then they flipped their scripts and do their stories that it was 100-plus degrees, and Chance couldn’t keep his water down and didn’t have enough water,” Hymas explained.

Next up was Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's VIP host/fill-in rider Jeremy Martin. The two-time 250 Pro Motocross Champion was given the opportunity to fill in with the team for the first three rounds, but after a big crash at Hangtown, he announced that he was out for Thunder Valley and would return with the team for a farewell race at the Martin family track, Spring Creek, in Millville, MN.

Despite things not working out the way he had hoped, J-Mart has a positive outlook on the situation, and it has given him a sense of closure and acceptance that Millville will be a send-off to a great career. “There was maybe going to be one or two teams that could have dragged me back out, and Star was one of them. When you get the opportunity to ride the bike and they say you can ride the first three rounds, how do you say no to that?” Martin said. “I’ll get back on the bike here soon, and we will get hammering with the boys down there (at the Star Farm), leading up to Millville. I’m really excited to have one last, fun, good race day at Millville.”

Jerma touched on the difficulty of letting racing go and the uncertainty of what’s next, admitting, “To be honest, I don’t know if there is anything that replaces the adrenaline or the rush you get from racing a dirt bike. I think you just have to let a little bit of that part of you die, and then you fill that gap with the next best thing, I guess.”

A caller called in, saying it was a bummer that we will never get to see Jeremy give it a go in the 450 class. Jeremy concurred, which led to a little bench racing about 450 deals that almost happened with RCH in 2016 and then again with HRC Honda for 2019. “The RCH deal was close because they were doing that in 2016 before things went downhill in ’17. Hindsight was 20-20 because he went the GEICO route, which was a lot better,” Nicoletti chimed in. Martin then talked about the HRC Honda deal for 2019, which ultimately derailed when he broke his back at Muddy Creek in 2018.

Garrett Marchbanks has been one of, if not the biggest surprise, of the summer thus far. Marchbanks is third in points after three rounds and put his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki on the podium with a third in the first moto at Thunder Valley. Garrett called in to talk about his performance so far this summer.

Marchbanks has been trending upwards ever since Seattle Supercross, and he credited that to his longstanding work with Troll Training, as well as hiring Broc Tickle as a riding coach ahead of Indy Supercross. “Alex [Martin] helped me out with a lot of stuff off the bike, and working with Broc, he has been great,” he said. “During the break (after Indy SX), we figured some stuff out on the bike, and it has been great. I don’t know, just something about Broc; he’s helped me out on the bike. I am super pumped to be working with him.” They asked Garrett about his contract situation, and he confirmed he is on a one-year contract with an option, but as of now, nothing has been done. “Things seem like they’re rolling, but honestly, there hasn’t been a whole lot yet,” Marchbanks explained.

One unique thing about Garrett’s program is that he is one of the few riders who is based out of Southern California for the summer. What used to be the norm has become the minority as more and more riders move east to base themselves at a facility. Marchbanks doesn’t mind it for the time being and is happy with his current program. “I don’t think the tracks are that bad right now. Besides the times on public days when it is packed, it can be a little hairy with some of the junior 50 kids on the main track. But besides that, it has been solid out here. This is the most fun I have had training and racing out here in SoCal,” he claimed.

The final guest of the night was none other than Guaranteed MX’s Ryan Gauld. Gauldy is always a riot on the show; he came on to talk about the opening rounds of the Triple Crown Series, Phil’s return to the series, and some of the random chaos that goes on in Canadian Motocross.

The series made a trip to a new track, Cold Lake, in Alberta. Gauldy felt that there was some good racing stuff to come from the weekend, but the track and the track prep have room for improvement. “On the TV side of things, it looked a little rough, to be honest. There was a lot of one-lined. There were 15 feet in either direction where the track did not look like it got used. But on the racing side of things, there was some stuff that we got to talk about,” Gauld explained. “From what I gather, there was a lot of positivity for a new track, new people, a club atmosphere, out in the middle of nowhere kind of thing. So, from what I gather, everything was good. On TV, though, I don’t think it looked great.”

Matthes and Gauldy poked some fun at Phil for various reasons, including Phil wanting a cut of the Ryde TV money for bringing viewers to the series, as well as Phil cutting his two-minute deficit to Jess Pettis and Dylan Wright in the opening moto of the season down to one minute this weekend. Matthes asked Gauldy about a potential rivalry brewing between Phil and Tanner Ward. Gauld confirmed the rivalry, saying, “Oh, very much have I seen this. Phil, did you hear his interview on the podium? He made a little jab, saying he (Phil) knows I am here now because he didn’t know I was here at the press conference.” The quote refers to the Triple Crown pre-season press conference where Nicoletti discarded Tanner Ward as a potential threat, naming Jess Pettis and Dylan Wright as the only guys Phil was worried about coming into the season.

Phil goes on to tell a hilarious story from the weekend about the 30-second card being held upside down for the start of the first 450 moto of the weekend. “She comes on out holding the 30-second board, but it’s upside down. It’s upside down, and I’m like, what’s happening? It’s not held up; like it’s all limp,” Phil jokes. “I’m like are we counting down right now, or what’s happening? Is the board up or not? I’m trying to figure out when I have to burn my tire; I’m trying to find a sweet spot here. She just flips it to the five… the five is upside down. I’m like, f^%^ dude, okay, I’ll put my bike in gear now.”

The interview concluded with some banter about Gauld’s role as play-by-play for TV, as well as the Pulp live show ahead of the Gopher Dunes National, as Steve announced he will be taking the trek to Canada for the weekend to not only watch the action but also do some racing Saturday in the Vet classes! It’s always a good time with Gauldy on the show!

The show wrapped up with a bunch of bench racing between Phil and Steve on both the Canadian and American Motocross series, some silly season talk, as well as some random banter brought on by some of the callers, including some debate about Steve’s new passion for running!

Listen to the full episode #629 below.