Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
To begin this week’s Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop, I want to talk about comebacks. The website www.dictionary.com states that comeback is a return to a former higher rank, popularity, position, prosperity, etc. Regardless of what the dictionary says a comeback is the most important thing that means to you. You don’t have to be an athlete to experience a comeback in your life as everyone I’m sure has an interesting comeback story. I think we focus mostly on athletes simply because we find it remarkable when they return to the top of their sport after an injury.
Tiger is back on top of the podium is what is one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history.
I have witnessed many comebacks from people very close to me over the years, almost too many to count. When I was very young my Dad got hit by lightening at home while in our barn working on a tractor. I had just gone inside our house to get a snack when it started raining and then we heard a huge crack of lightening. It had struck a tree directly behind our house, then the charge travelled down through the tree, down to about 150 feet underground, and came up right where my Dad was standing. It ended up blowing him right out of his shoes and he woke up a minute later lying outside of the barn, 20 feet away in a puddle. He obviously survived and made a full recovery, however during the next three months he was off work and for two months. Suddenly he was petrified of the dark. He had to sleep with the light on and he wouldn’t go outside after the sun went down. Little by little my Mom took him outside at night until he finally snapped out of it. Anyway, his comeback to a normal life was as good as anything I’ve seen. My Mom also made a great recovery from major surgery in 1991, my brother came back and won a few 85cc races after destroying his femur in 1989, and most recently my wife made incredible progress after nearly having both feet severed two years ago in a workplace accident. My two personal comebacks would be from my breaking my femur in June of 1990 to winning the final race of that season in October. In those days a three-month recovery from a broken femur was very rare. Also, to comeback from almost quitting the sport at the end of 1994, to buying two Hondas in 1995, winning a national, and then going on to have five more pretty good seasons after that definitely meant a lot to me.
Ken Roczen’s comeback was one of this sports most remarkable stories.
Over the years I’ve also seen so many awesome comebacks in this sport alone. Just recently Ken Roczen’s has been incredible to watch, and our 450 champion Colton Facciotti has had his share of comebacks over the years, for sure. Tyler Medaglia, Kaven Benoit, Jess Pettis, the list goes on and on with riders who have made a successful return from injuries. One of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever seen in motocross was from Ross Pederson in 1990. That year Ross was badly injured at the San Diego SX in January when late in the main event he over-jumped one of the triple jumps, whiskey throttled a bit into the following smaller and much steeper triple, and launched himself over the bars, landing back first on the wall of the following bowl turn. This was also the race where Damon Bradshaw was leading and then threw it away on a step-up to tabletop section, ironically right after the section where Ross crashed. Anyway, in that crash Ross hit the ground so hard that he broke his pelvis, some ribs, and also had some serious internal injuries. There was a story going around at the time that Damon Bradshaw, who happened to be sharing an ambulance with Ross after the race, said that Ross’s body was in so much trauma that they thought he might not survive. But, I never confirmed that with Ross or anyone else.
Ross Pederson (picture on left) had many difficult comebacks throughout his long career.
With motocross being Ross’s only income, he rushed his recovery and did everything possible to be ready for the Canadian season a few months later. Well, exactly three and a half months later Ross showed up at the Riviere du Loup AX to race and collect a large amount of start money from the promoter. I remember seeing him before the race barely being able to get on his bike as he couldn’t swing his leg over it. In fact, he had to get his mechanic, Dave Gowland, to start it for him. Here he was just a few months after he broke his pelvis back at the race track, even though he couldn’t start his own bike. This wasn’t even his first race of the season as just a few weeks prior he had soldiered through the Toronto SX and the opening national of the 1990 season. I was 16 at the time and I thought the guy was not human, and in many ways, I guess he wasn’t. To go from where Ross was at the beginning of the 1990 season to winning a few more national titles before he retired at the end of 1993 was very impressive. It might just be the comebacks of all comebacks in Canadian motocross.
The track at Delaware Speedway was both hard packed and very technical for Round 2 of the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown SXTour Series. Photo by James Lissimore
The reason I bring up all of this about comebacks is of course because of Tiger Woods and what he did yesterday at the Tour Championship. Like a lot of people, watching Tiger Woods play golf at a high level makes me want to go out and play golf, just like watching Tom Brady play makes me want to pick up a football and throw it at someone. Athletes like Tiger Woods transcend their sport, and the sporting world needs them. To see how far down Tiger has been in the past few years with his injured back (some reports say that at times he was unable to get out of bed) and then to see him once again be able to throw his arms in the air yesterday was remarkable. I have a bad back. While it’s not as bad as Tiger’s was, there are still times when it locks up and I’m unable to move well for a few days. It can be a debilitating injury, and in most cases, there is no fix. Tiger’s comeback might just be one of the greatest comebacks we have ever seen in sport, although Ken Roczen might argue with that stat. Either way, everyone, including me, loves a good comeback story and it was great to see Tiger win again.
Once again Jess Pettis was the rider to beat in the 250 Pro/AM class. Photo by James Lissimore
Prior to watching Tiger take the victory yesterday, my Saturday evening was spent in Delaware, ON watching our top riders battle it out at Round 2 of the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown SXTour. Prior to this event I’d never heard of Delaware Speedway. Unless there is another SX there next year, you can bet that I’ll never go there again. However, for this event the Delaware Speedway appeared to be a perfect venue for some fall SX in Ontario. As I said, all of our top riders were there including the newly signed OTSFF Yamaha rider Phil Nicoletti. The racing was great all night long as Jess Pettis and Cole Thompson continued their indoor dominance in this country. I’m also not sure what the exact spectator count was but it looked pretty good for a cold night in Delaware. I had a great time on Saturday and it was impressive to once again watch our top riders battle it out on a technical SX track. The SXTour Series now takes a few weeks off before resuming on November 3rd in Quebec City. Look for a complete race report tomorrow from Mike McGill.
After a slow start in his practice on Saturday, MP Fox Yamaha rider Jake Tricco kept improving throughout the day and would go on to finish a very impressive 5th in the main event. Photo by James Lissimore
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great first week of fall in Canada. If you live in Ontario, don’t forget about the Vet National at Moto Park, and of course we’re now down to less than two weeks before Team Canada travels to Red Bud for the 2018 MXoN’s. There is still a lot going on and our riding season is still wide open. Have a great week and please ride safe!
