This week on show #630 of PulpMX, presented by Motosport.com, Fly Racing, and Decal Works, Steve Matthes was joined in studio by two of the sport’s most legendary mechanics, Skip Norfolk and Tony Berluti. WLTN Kawasaki’s Phil Nicoletti called in for his weekly segment, along with special guests Hunter Lawrence and Tallon Vohland.

The show kicked off with a heavy bench racing session. The AMA Pro Motocross Championship has officially headed east, and Matthes, Norfolk, and Berluti discussed what the series has given so far and what we may see going forward. Who is the second-best 250 rider right now? What will it take to beat Jett Lawrence? Is Eli Tomac clearly Jett’s biggest threat? The guys discussed all those questions and more. They talked about how Jett seems unfazed when he has been passed by the likes of Justin Cooper, Aaron Plessinger, and his brother Hunter. Matthes pointed out that Eli Tomac has yet to pass Jett so far this summer, and the theory going around the pits on how that may be by design.

“There are some people in the pits [not me] saying that Jett is like, ‘Oh, my brother got me, Aaron can get me, it’s fine. I am not letting that guy [Eli Tomac] get me because if he gets me once, confidence starts brewing,’” Matthes explained.

Phil Nicoletti joined the show for some bench racing as well. A caller asked Phil about Enzo Lopes’ future in America. Nicoletti has built a relationship with Lopes over the years and has been a bit of a mentor at times. Despite being a bit frustrated with some of Enzo’s career moves, he acknowledged his potential, saying, “Enzo is an amazing talent. He is still young, and it's untapped potential. Do I think it is still there? Of course. I can try to force it on him all day long. It’s not me; it has to come from within his own gut to figure that out.”

They continued with some discussion on Garrett Marchbanks’ stellar summer, Chance Hymas’ knee injury suffered at High Point, and some analysis on Jorge Prado’s disastrous beginning to his U.S. Pro Motocross career.

Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence was the next to call in. Lawrence came into Fox Raceway, fresh off a shoulder injury suffered at Tampa Supercross. He returned to Pro Motocross right where he left off last summer, living inside the top five and battling for podiums. He was in position to win the overall at High Point with 2-2 scores until his brother made a late-race pass to bump him to second overall on the day.

Hunter made a few runs at Tomac for the second moto win in the mud until vision became an issue.

“I honestly felt really good. Mate, plain and simple, I felt good until you cannot see anymore. That is every mud race summed up, I feel like. If we did not have the lightning coming in and they had left it, that lap I was planning to throw my goggles,” Lawrence explained. “My plan if I got close enough to Eli was send it! Risk it a little, send a Hail Mary pass and then, it sounds stupid, but fill him in with mud. That is literally a tactic in the mud: make the guy's vision tough to see or make him use more tear-offs because you can’t ride without seeing, especially on a track that is a national level.”

It is no secret how big of a role Dazzy Lawrence (Jett and Hunter’s father) has in Jett and Hunter’s day-to-day program. A caller asked Hunter how involved Dazzy is within the HRC Honda team and if he thought parent/team involvement was a trend of the situation.

“I feel like the teams have their way of figuring out whether or not a parent is an asset to their investment. If they feel the parent is an issue, they have a way to filter them out,” Lawrence replied. “The John Tomacs, Big James, RC with his mom, our father, if they were such a bad human or whatever, they would get the flick a little earlier in their career. I do think the teams that know what they are looking at and know their rider can see the influence that the parent has on their rider in a positive way.”

The final guest of the night was former race winner, Acerbis and Cycra general manager, Max Vohland’s dad, Tallon Vohland. Tallon talked about Max’s season, how the transition to the Club MX team and facility has been, and Max’s infamous handbrake.

“A lot of people know that Max had a pretty substantial injury, and Brandon (Haas) is really good about bringing in either young riders or riders that have been injured in the past or maybe [things] haven’t gone the way they wanted it to go,” Tallon stated about Max’s move to the team. “They are just improving all year long. Bike, program, Daniel [Blair] has come on board, and Chad Reed is here. He spent some time with Max last week, and they are going to do some testing again tomorrow on suspension.”

The handbrake on Max’s Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha has been a talking point all year long. Tallon spoke on the challenge of getting Max back on the bike and his determination to get back to racing.

“When we realized that this could be a problem, he said, ‘Dad, I can do a hand brake, we need to find a way to get a hand brake on there,’” Tallon exclaimed. "I’m like, dude, I don’t think there is any way. I even bought a Moto GP thumb brake, and we tested and tried many things. It was tough. It was scary; I thought maybe we were done because he just did not have the feeling in that foot, and he could just stomp on the brake and not realize it and go over the bars. It was too risky to not only himself, but to other riders.”

Tallon credited the team for their openness to develop the handbrake system, as well as working through the trials and tribulations of getting it to be a reliable system.

The guys went on to reminisce about Tallon’s career. Tallon talked about losing his factory ride in America and being forced to race in MXGP to rebuild his career. Tallon made his return to the States in 1999 with FMF Honda. Vohland got hurt in supercross and nearly retired. He decided to give it a go for outdoors and put himself back on the map at Glen Helen after reeling in and passing Ricky Carmichael. “That made me about a quarter of a million bucks!” Tallon remarked about Glen Helen '99. “Everybody remembers that race. I told Max that it would be like coming over and racing Jett Lawrence. Ricky was undefeated there. The second moto, I reeled him in and passed him, and the place went completely berserk. Most people didn’t even remember who I was!”

Steve asked Tallon if he was using his Italian engine at FMF Honda. He admitted he did and talked about how he went over to Italy low-key to test a motor package with the SRS Honda team.

“I spent my own money, flew over to Italy, met them at their track, and rode the bike,” Vohland explained. He tried to keep the motor a secret, but team manager Hylton Beattie caught on. “He called me, he goes, we heard you were in Italy, we saw some photos. If you let Brock [Sellards] or Danny [Smith] test it, either we will buy it or we won’t, but we’ll make sure you have the engine at no cost, as long as you run the FMF pipe and silencers.’”

You can always count on some good stories when the retired riders come on!

The show finished with the weekly segments and some old stories. Matthes went off in his ‘Race Tech Rant’ about a social media debacle between himself, Grant Langston, and Brian Deegan. Steve voiced his distaste for Brian. It was a controversial rant but made for great radio!

Afterwards, Matthes, Norfolk, and Berluti had a great chat about the downfall of No Fear. Skip worked for No Fear from 1996 to 2005 and had a front-row seat to the rise of the company and the first stage of failure.

“There was a time where they were trying to do some stuff with Nike. They were talking about Nike maybe buying the brand. That kind of fell apart, and then it was okay, we are going to be the next Nike. We are going to get into golf; we are going to get into everything,” Norfolk explains. “I think the big failure was at that point; you think you can have something for everyone, and you realize you can’t.”

To learn more about the rise and fall of No Fear, check out Matthes’ oral history story from years ago.

Listen to the full episode #630 below.