by gauldy107
Driving home right after a race is such a great time to reflect on the events that took place that day.
My short bus was full to the brim with eight merry men from the Ste-Julie National. I hate the drive from Montreal to Toronto; there is nothing that stretch of highway has to offer other than pedal down, boring straight road. Luckily, as I said above, I had tons of good company to chit chat and help me keep my eyes open after a long day in the sun watching what I thought was the least eventful round of the series so far…… or was it?
When we go to the race every person, whether it be the fan, the racer or and industry type, wants to see some good racing, battles between the best racers in Canada in every turn and drama to surround the four motos so all of us are on our feet with anticipation of what’s next on the track. We got that in moto one with Kaven Benoit, Jeremy Medaglia and Teddy Maier swapping positions and banging bars for ten minutes of that very first moto. It set the stage for the day but the rest of the races were blown away by the top three. So the final three motos were not full of great racing but the drama that unfolded out on the track was fairly spectacular.
Dusty Klatt has been less than stellar so far this year. He has not been shy to say it was he and nothing to do with his KTM Red Bull Royal Distributing Fox ride. Many people behind closed doors have shared their thoughts on his season. He’s overweight, he’s out of shape, his Tom Tom GPS always goes to DQ instead of the gym, for some reason. It’s been a laugh at Dusty’s expense for all of us, up until this past Sunday afternoon. There had been some changes under the KTM tent that they have tried to keep quiet but that is near impossible in this sport for two reasons. Our sport is too small to keep it quiet and nobody can keep a secret in motocross. It came out in the TV interview yesterday when Dusty thanked his “Suspension Guy.” We all knew that he had been struggling with Factory Connection up till Gopher Dunes where he finally showed he was still fast and could be a top guy, again. Now I’m not sure how Factory Connection can’t do what this new guy is doing but I’m guessing it’s just a comfort thing. Riders are very picky and high maintenance sometimes and DK#2 is that type of guy. Having been part of the best team that never missed a beat for so many years gave Dusty a comfort zone that he became very tight with. This comfort came through in a big way at Ste-Julie. He was oodles above what he had been in the first four rounds out west. We saw a little bit of it at Gopher, but the full effect took place yesterday. He went out and showed us all that if we had been losing faith in Dusty Klatt, then you should give your head a shake and never count him out. I guess it just took a while for the real Klatt to stand up. I know the sponsors and team didn’t want to wait this long, but the way he dominated put a lot of smiles in the orange pits yesterday, especially when the race shop was a mere ten minutes away.
Now to the drama of the situation: Klatt had been looking like a rider that was going to be wearing the #5 or #6 plate for 2013. This was not what the team would have been looking for and may have had them thinking about keeping Dusty for the second term of their deal. Then he goes out and rides amazing taking the win, while his teammate Colton Facciotti and former teammate Tyler Medaglia claim no points on the day and may be out for the rest of the season. This moved Klatt from a dismal 5th in the points to third in the title chase. The sport of motocross once again proves that anything can happen when you just keep going and working hard. The misfortune that Klatt had been having until this moment fully switched over to Facciotti and Medaglia and has now turned into fortune for Klatt. This is why motocross is truly an amazing sport and for those who believe in themselves and are willing to soak up the pit chatter, the doubt of others and the negative that surrounds poor results, good will come for those who wait and never give up. Good on ya DK and keep it going.
I just got word from Derek Schuster on the status of Tyler Medaglia. He was off to a Quebec hospital to get checked out. They had to wait eight hours before getting served so Heidi and Tyler booked it back to Nova Scotia to see Tyler’s Doctor and get X rays. Word is that it’s a pretty good ankle injury but to what extent is still up in the air. Stay tuned!!!
How about the ride for Kaven Benoit this weekend? His dad did the announcing all day and then Kaven brought home the overall. He was pretty unreal to watch this past weekend. Congrats to him and the family.
So “MXP Leads the Way” just got a big shake up this weekend. Ultimately my plan way back was to help get the three MXDN riders for Canada down to Steel City so they got the big race experience before the biggest race experience in Lommel, Belgium. Now that Tyler Medaglia may be out (will know more this week) who was a shoe in for one of the $500 cheques, Cole Thompson just got a ride so he really doesn’t need it; my final choice was Jeremy Medaglia but KTM will not let him take his race bike to Steel City nor will they send him to Lommel. We started some stuff on Twitter saying maybe we send really young kids so they can see how it all goes and prepare for the future. As Brett Lee says “Not many years ago Richard Grey and Spencer Knowles could race or beat Cole Thompson, now Cole is top ten in the biggest class in the world while Grey and Knowles are barely battling for top five in Canada.” Maybe Brett has a point and we should start sending our youth to the big races and get them comfortable in those environments. I mean we know we’re not going to win either of these events so maybe we should start to help the kids get there to plan for getting better down the road. So maybe this year’s MXDN team is Cole Thompson (450), Richard Grey (450) and Dylan Kaelin (250); all great sand riders since Lommel is a gnarly sand track. It seems farfetched but maybe it’s what we should so. Thoughts? gauldy@mxpmag.com I need to pick these three riders for “MXP Leads the Way” before the end of this month, so only a week to go.
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