When will Jason Lawrence return to racing?

Matthes, you should pay Hill to talk J-Law into doing a podcast together with you, that would be epic and bring you tons of new listners I'm sure. If J-Law is all new, maybe he'll do it? Hill always seems to have fun with you. Right before his return...I can see it now.

Just finished listening to that Hill podcast. I can't believe he called you the "TMZ of Motocross." I can tell you that I have seen quite a few lackluster publications in my time (and even wrote and photographed for a few!), especially when it comes to Motocross, but I know quite well that none of the work Matthes turns out is part of the problem. I think of all the podcast shows that I frequent in motocross, Matthes asks the most intuitive questions and has a unique story-telling ability. I always learn something new when I listen to Matthes, which is the goal of a good journalist--to inform his or her audience. Sometimes (see: very often) in that informing process, you may say something that someone's knee-jerk reaction is to kick your ass for that comment. That lets you know you're influential in your industry you are doing your job right. Keep right on happening, The Happening.

Yes, that's was I wanted to comment about after listening to the Hill podcast yesterday on my drive Chicago-Indy (and also digged the Super Huncky, that man is a legend, and the Stanton podcasts).
I didn't really appreciate, nor agreed, with what Josh was saying. Keeping in mind that 2 of his close buddies are Lawrence and Hansen, his comments were totally guided by his friendships and not fair, or justified at all.
First of all the "TMZ" comment is very childish for a guy who has surprisingly matured very fast over the last 2 years. It made me feel like Steve reports on people's private life and this is something he has always tried to avoid, always trying - like Racer X - to things that are related to the professional/public/racing life of a racer. And yes, Hansen's childish fighting behavior and racing/team attitude and results of the last couple years, with the JGR and H&H teams were a joke. Matthes commented on this in Observations, never going into the private life of Hansen and what he does at his parties and other chill out times.
At A1, the 4 different press guys I had chats with were all ridiculing Hansen and saying he'd have no results this season. The majority of the people on the forums, the majority of the people in the industry, press included, has that same opinion on Hansen. Matthes is just the guy who feels that he has to write things as they are and not sugar-coat stuff in order to protect advertising money or other special access some have to teams and riders.
And the same goes with Jason Lawrence. It is so funny and ridiculous to see him focusing on Steve when the whole media loathed him after his unacceptable antics at the tracks, on and off. Again Matthes tried to report on things that would have influence on, or related to, racing and the ear-bitting-goes-to-jail thing did have a very direct relation with Jason's racing.

I think it is actually very immature for these kids (who come from a very protected and shelled amateur motocross racing community) to focus on 1 writer or another, on 1 forum or another. The day these guys have decided to embrace a public profession, and pro racing is a public job, under the eyes of all the public, fans and cons, these guys should have understood what this entails to and that it was not only about hot pits chicks and lot more zeros on their paychecks.It comes with scrutiny, with an image you have to maintain, with people, kids, looking up to you and that means you are going to be under the media's microscope, the core fans critics or praise.

Why is it that Trey Canard, Justin Barcia, Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villopoto, Ricky Carmichael have these huge following and respect from the fans and media. Why is it that RD, the all good American boy, who thanks God after every win and went to high-school, is the golden boy of MX right now?
Because of their attitude, their behavior, their work ethics, their very low profile and uneventful private life.

These guys who are pissed at being criticized should actually really be happy that PulpMX and Steve are NOT the TMZ of Motocross, because there is so much crap and dirt (no pun intended) out there that Steve would actually make a lot of advertising money if he was reporting these. People love trash and trash pays. To the contrary, Observations and the podcasts have been pretty clean, sticking to racing, reporting on things as they are.
When those guys turn Pro, the AMA should subscribe them to ESPN magazine and Sports Illustrated and give them an insight of what media do in the real world and what athletes go through.

Hill is actually a witty and good guy. He tried to be the man and stick for his buddies, fair, understandable but still a bit immature. The #75 is much better than that. He's worth more and in 10 years he'll listen to this podcast again and will say "oh dude, sorry for that first part, I was a bit young at the time".

Hope to see the #75 on the podium tonight.