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Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

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Good day and welcome to another edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. With just two weeks now until Christmas Day, we’re definitely in the home stretch as Santa will soon be here. A week after that we will be closing the door on yet another year and 2019 will be upon us. Here is to a great final few weeks of this exciting year.

Dylan Wright will be back with the GDR Honda Team for 2019 and beyond. Photo by James Lissimore

Since this Monday Gate Drop is sponsored by Honda Canada Racing I will begin with some very exciting Red Rider news. On Friday it was announced that the Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing Team had resigned Dylan Wright for the next two years. Like Jess Pettis, there was actually a small bidding war for Dylan during the past two weeks, but with the GDR Team having the upper hand with regards to the first right of refusal, they were able to get this deal done. As you might have witnessed on Social Media this weekend, Derek Schuster and his in-house production team put together yet another beauty short film to announce the team’s new deal with Mr. Wright. Congratulations to Dylan and the GDR Team for getting this deal done.

I thought Dylan had a pretty solid season in the 250 class and if it wasn’t for his unfortunate DNF’s in the MXTour series, he might have had a shot at the championship. Dylan is a shining example of a rider who has proven just how difficult the transition to the pro class is these days. After an extraordinary amateur career and a solid first few seasons in the pro class, I still don’t think we’ve seen the best of Dylan Wright yet. However, each year he’s gotten better and better at harnessing his speed and aggression. Will 2019 be the year that he puts it all together and wins his first pro championship? With riders like Pettis, Cannella, Ward, Crown, Osby, and most likely a few more, next year is going to be very competitive without a doubt. However, I do think he has to be one of the favourites heading into 2019.

For anyone out there who has seen the movie ‘Top Gun” (if you haven’t then you’re missing out on one of the best films ever made), Dylan reminds me of Tom Cruise’s character Maverick from the film. He’s talented, fit, lives life on the edge (well not really), and although you may hate racing against him, you want Dylan on your team. Anyway, I feel like I’ve made his analogy before so I won’t keep going on about it. The bottom line is each year Dylan appears to figure more stuff out and learn what it takes to be the best for not just a few races, but for an entire series. It’s only a matter of time before he puts it all together, and then look out. With a rider like Jess Pettis already there, the next five to ten years is going to be incredible as these two battle for Canadian motocross supremacy.

Speaking of Jess Pettis, the news finally came out that he will be racing a KTM for the next two years at least. Even before the ink was dry on his new contract, Pettis was headed to California with a new KTM in his truck to begin his training for Anaheim 1. With the weather improving this week in California, Pettis will hit the KTM test track and begin his 2019 preparation. I spoke to Pettis briefly last week and he’s obviously excited about the future. He’s also excited that for the first time he will be begin SX testing in great shape. With the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series just wrapping up less than a month ago in Hamilton, Pettis is already in race shape and ready to go. This is massive benefit to those riders that are hoping to do some racing down south in the early part of 2019, and credit to Jetwerx and the Triple Crown Series for having events so late into 2018. Part of Pettis’s new deal is that KTM USA will be assisting him with testing prior to A1, so look for him to have a very solid set-up for the SX races that he will be doing. As you can tell, this is a very exciting time to be a top pro rider in Canada.

Anaheim 1 is just around the corner.

Anaheim is fast approaching and all of the riders, including Jess Pettis, are training hard for the opening round. With all riders confirmed on the teams, the only question remaining is how will we watch the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series on television. I reached out to Feld Motorsports late last week looking for an answer. I did get a response and they told me that although they’re not quite ready to announce what network will be airing SX in 2019, they said that Canadian viewers will be very happy. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds good to me. Feld also told me that the final announcement will be made as part of the big press conference just prior to Anaheim 1. It’s exciting to think that the 2019 Monster Energy SX season is under a month away now.

Shawn Maffenbeier won my Golden Elbow Award in 2017 as the Rider of the Year, who will win this prestigious award for 2018? Photo by James Lissimore

With this year coming to an end soon, these next few weeks will be our final opportunity to reflect on 2018. In doing so this week on mxpmag.com I will be unveiling the winners of my annual 2018 Golden Elbow awards. As always, these highly anticipated awards with feature the following categories:

Rider of the Year

Team of the Year

Event of the Year

Moto of the Year

Most Stylish Rider of the Year

Female Rider of the Year

Hardest Charger of the Year

Rookie of the Year

Pass of the Year

Toughest National of the Year

Amateur Rider of the Year

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and I hope you’re all excited for Christmas. Finally, have you ever wondered what has happened to some of our former fast and young riders? I’m not sure if you remember Kyle Stephens or not, but he was one of the many talented Ontario riders that appeared to be destined for a successful pro career. These days Kyle has changed his Social Media name to James Bowen and he recently launched his second YouTube channel. Here is his introduction video. It’s good to see that Kyle is doing well in the modern day real world. Have a great week and thank-you for reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDqW8PGgUjU&feature=share

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