Decal Works Presents Monday Gate Drop

This week’s Monday Gate Drop is presented by the best graphic company in the world, DeCal Works. If you want your bike to look like the best machine in the pits then log on to www.decalmx.com and in minutes you can create your own set of custom graphics.

Good day to everyone and happy Monday to you all. I hope the entire Canadian motocross community had a great weekend and I hope everyone was safe. I’m not sure where you spent your Saturday and Sunday, but where I was it was hot!. Not just your typical hot, but your really sticky and humid hot. In fact, as I sit here to write this I still feel like I’m sweating.

Of course I’m talking about Round 6 of the 2015 Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals presented by Motovan at Sand Del Lee. After a tough race last weekend in Gopher Dunes, the riders and the teams had to recover quickly to take on what ended up being the hottest national of 2015 thus far. With temperatures hovering around 30 Celsius and a dome of humidity that made it feel even warmer, a few riders were heard saying that this race was extremely difficult and one of the toughest of their careers.

Your SDL MX1 podium from yesterday. The boys at MX101 came up with some pretty cool trophies for the riders at round 6. photo by James Lissimore

Heading into yesterday’s race, both Kaven Benoit and Matt Goerke were coming off dominant performances in the sand at Gopher Dunes and were in possession of the red plates in the MX2 and MX1 classes respectively. For Benoit, other than intermittent challenges from Jimmy Decotis and Jeremy Medaglia throughout this 2015 season, each round has almost been routine. If and when Benoit holeshots a moto, he usually checks out very quickly as he has the early moto ‘sprint’ down to a fine art. This past weekend was no different as he led the pack off the start in both motos, and other than Medaglia chasing him for most of the first moto, Benoit had things his way. What was different at Sand Del Lee was Jimmy Decotis going down in the first turn of moto one and starting the race in dead last. As he’s done all season long, Jimmy gave it everything he had to battle through the pack but after the 25 minute plus two lap moto was over, he could only charge to 12th. In Moto 2, Jimmy seemed to struggle with something and could only manage a 3rd. This gave the ‘little rippa’ a 5th overall and a handful of lost points to Kaven Benoit and Jeremy Medaglia. Yes, it was a tough day for Decotis on his team’s home track, however his teammate Dylan Wright had a great day going 3-7 for 4th overall.

As we’ve seen in almost every moto this season, the MX1 class at Sand Del Lee had every single fan on their feet. In moto one the fans got to see one of our good old Canadian boys, Colton Facciotti, show that he’s not ready to give up his #1 plate as he walked away with the win. Not only did Colton win the first moto, he made it look incredibly easy as he won by over 25 seconds. It was Colton’s first moto win of the 2015 and it couldn’t come at a better time. With four rounds to go he is still in this Championship battle.

Kaven Benoit and his KTM 250 two-stroke once again dominated both motos at SDL. photo by James Lissimore

In moto two, Colton again holeshotted, but this time Brett Metcalfe would not let him get away. After getting a glimpse of Colton’s great lines, the Australian went after him for the lead and the moto win. Colton fought hard but after getting mixed up with some slower lapped traffic, he not only lost the lead but lost a few positions. After the lead change, Metcalfe tried to run away and hide, however the MX1 points leader, Matt Goerke, wouldn’t let that happen and the battle for the lead raged on. With the riders running on their last ounce of energy, Metcalfe and Goerke set a pace that we haven’t seen before in this Country. Goerke would almost make the pass happen once in the corner before the finish line but Metcalfe wouldn’t let him by. For the final six laps the battle for the lead was intense; and then to add to the excitement, Cole Thompson found some speed and he joined Metcalfe and Goerke to make it a three way battle. With two laps to go Metcalfe dug deep and pulled out a lap time almost two seconds quicker than Goerke and Thompson, which seemed to demoralize the two riders behind him. The win in this moto could’ve gone to four different riders at one point and it was definitely one of the most exciting races this year. With only a 17 point lead and four rounds to go, I have a feeling that this MX1 championship is going to go down to the final moto in Walton.

It was a crazy difficult day for everyone at Sand Del Lee, even for the media people like myself who spent the day running around. I must’ve drank at least 12 bottles of water and I still felt dehydrated on the long drive home last night. Again, my hat goes off to everyone that competed this weekend in Sand Del Lee as it was one hot weekend. Also, congratulations go out to Eve Brodeur who once again dominated the CMRC Eastern Women’s class on Saturday, and to Nicholas Cryer who took home Round 2 of the KTM Eastern Canadian Super Mini Nationals.

Now the Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross National tour packs up and keeps heading east to Quebec for Round 7. It’s always exciting going to Quebec for a dirt bike race as the fans are very vocal. This party atmosphere should make Round 7 a very cool experience for everyone that attends. I can’t tell you how incredible the racing was yesterday. If you have any chance to get out to one of the remaining rounds to watch these amazing athletes then you must do it. Finally, a big shout to Team Canada who went over to Spain this weekend and did Canada proud. Both Marco Cannella and Jake Tricco raced to top 30 finishes against the world’s best amateur riders at the World Junior GP. Congrats to them and the entire Canadian crew that headed over to a very hot Spain. I hope everyone has a great week and we’ll hopefully see a lot of you at the ECAN this weekend at Dechambault.