We’ve seen Jett struggle with his ankle all year long here and there on certain tracks, but never this bad. We’ve seen Jett get bad starts here and there (like, last weekend!) but never not be able to get higher than 11th. If you want to sit there and say that Jett gave this title to his brother, again I can’t say you’re nuts.
The one theory that Jett came around on lap one and saw Deegan and Hunter laying on the ground, made a split-second decision that Deegan took Hunter out, that he didn’t want to win a title like that and he’s gonna lay-up, it makes some sense to me. I kind of thought in the moment watching the race that once Hunter got up to him, Jett was now going to race him straight up but nope, Hunter went right on by. As Darren Lawrence said on the show, ‘Jett wasn’t Jett’.
Darren explains on the PulpMX Show why they decided to risk it and take off their extender peg-thingee for Ironman and how it might have backfired as well.
I’m not in that camp because if he was going to give it to his brother, then why ride his balls off last week in the second moto? If he was such a generous brother, why take the last two 450SMX titles away from Hunter at the last round? As Darren told us on the show, Jett gets paid for titles only while Hunter has top three so if the “family” wanted to throw it, why not have Jett win and get his bonus money, and Hunter get second place money, which is the most money they can win. Instead, Jett got $0 while Hunter raked in a lower title bonus. As far as the contract stuff goes, Hunter’s deal was signed earlier this year, so he’s set there. Yes, he would get a kicker from winning a title, but it was already negotiated earlier.