Yamaha Motor Canada Presents The Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to another edition of the Yamaha Motor Canada Monday Gate Drop. After three rounds of the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross Series, Yamaha rider Justin Cooper still leads the 250SX West Series over his teammate Dylan Ferrandis. The Star Racing Yamaha Team has been very good so far, and the Blu Cru looks to continue their success this weekend in Glendale, AZ.

To begin this week let me first talk briefly about my trip to California this past weekend. Although it only lasted a few days it was jammed packed with fun and unique opportunities. After landing in San Diego on Thursday morning, I made the drive up the coast on I-5 to the Fox USA HQ in Irvine. I’ve only done this drive once before as a wide eyed 12-year-old with my Dad and my brother, but I don’t really remember much about it. This turned into the perfect start to my trip and certainly made my 3:30am wake-up call worth it. Once you get north of San Diego and past the famous Carlsbad, California, the Pacific Ocean becomes visible on your left-hand side, and what a magnificent sight it is. From there you pass through Camp Pendleton and on into Irvine where Fox Racing have their main offices. As I said, it was a perfect start to my trip as the sun was shining and my skin was just soaking up the Vitamin D.

When I arrived at Fox Racing for my tour, I was greeted by the Fox Canada Team of Jay Moore and JC Seitz, as well as the best photographer in the business, James Lissimore. Jay and JC were in the middle of one of their frequent trips to the USA offices, this time it was to welcome some of the eastern Canadian dealers who go down once a year to look over the following year’s Fox product line. Also on hand was Canadian BMX legend Drew Bezanson who was there to take in Anaheim 2. After talking for a few minutes about how cold it was back home, we began touring through the unbelievable Fox offices. Like any office that does what Fox does, this one is separated into different departments like marketing and design, plus it has a new gym for its employees. However, one of the things that makes this office so cool and special is the Fox memorabilia that is everywhere. Old championship bikes, past famous posters and jerseys, a room where they build all of the Shift and Fox Social Media videos, and the original cameras that were used to film the old Terraferma videos. There was even a pair of the first Fox boots that Ricky Johnson used at the Anaheim SX in 1986, still with Angel Stadium dirt on them. There was so much to see that it felt like my head was spinning. This iconic brand is responsible for so much history in our sport. We toured around for about two hours before heading out to Newport Beach for dinner and then to bed. Friday was going to be a big day and I needed to get some sleep.

On Friday morning Jay, James and I made the 90-minute trek to Fox Raceway out in Pala. Waiting for me at the track was George Willenbrock of WP Suspension as I had arranged to do a day-long test using their new XACT Pro Component Suspension. Like any public practice track, Fox Raceway was a busy one on a sunny and warm Friday. Also, during the night, a little bit of rain had fallen so conditions were about as good as they get at a California practice track. As my pre-testing briefing was getting underway with George, Ryan Dungey rolled up on his brand new #5 Geico Honda. This was Dungey’s first public ride on his new red bike and obviously it made just about everyone at Fox Raceway, including myself, stop what they were doing to take notice. Dungey looked good on his new Honda, and as I fpumd out later, he was at Fox Raceway for a very cool reason. A few months ago, Red Bull and KTM held a contest where you could win a trip to Anaheim 2 and a chance to ride with Ryan Dungey. With over 300,000 entries, the two winners were a lucky father and daughter from Tennessee. When this contest was originally held Dungey was still part of the Red Bull KTM Team so everything was good. However, with Dungey’s recent switch to Honda he is no longer a Red Bull athlete. But with Dungey being Dungey, he still agreed to do it and the two winners were elated to be there riding with him.

After going over what we’d be testing, I took to the busy track for a day of riding. Since I hadn’t ridden for two months, I was a little rusty at first, which didn’t help with testing suspension. Thankfully, though, it came back quickly and we started trying different settings on both the front forks and the rear shock. It was really amazing to feel what the changes did to the motorcycle (for this test I was on a 2020 KTM450) on the fast and jumpy Fox Raceway track. I will go into more details in the next issue of MXP Magazine, but basically, we started off with a pretty stiff set-up on both ends of the bike, then we went to an even stiffer shock and a slightly softer fork setting as I searched for a little more front-end traction. As we made changes, the track obviously got rougher, and as I felt more comfortable, I began to go faster. At that moment we went back to the stiffer forks, which is what I finished the day on. It was an amazing day and I rode until I physically couldn’t ride any longer. My hands were chewed up, my body was sore and my brain was mush. We decided to call it a day before I made a fatigue-induced error and ruined my perfect day of riding. What a day! Not only did I get to ride and test some incredible suspension, but we were able to see Ryan Dungey ride his first laps aboard his new Geico Honda as well. From there it was on to dinner at Noah and Bjorn Viney’s house in Murrieta and then the Anaheim SX the following day.

I made sure to arrive early to Angel Stadium as this race is always very busy. As I was waiting to pick up my media credentials I ran into Australian legend and former Canadian 450 Champion Brett Metcalfe. Metty is in California for a few weeks helping out his Penrite Honda teammate and fellow Aussie Luke Clout as he gets his feet wet in Monster Energy Supercross. Since he finished up in Canada a few years ago, Metty has been back in Australia racing Outdoor Nationals and Supercross for the Honda Team. We spoke for a while and he told me that he really misses racing in Canada and that one day he’d love to come back and either race the entire series or even just a few rounds of the MXTour Nationals. Obviously, I completely agreed with him, and before we parted ways for a day Metty said that he would seriously consider trying to come up to the opening two rounds this summer in Calgary and Prince George. It would be great to see Metty come back to race again in Canada as he really was one of our classiest champions.

After talking to Metty for 45 minutes I then made my way into the Anaheim 2 paddock. I ran into Andy White, who was also down for the weekend to check on his FXR riders. We spoke about a few things including Luke Renzland’s amazing Instagram video and Broc Tickle’s Tampa SX return in February. Andy also mentioned that he saw photos of me riding the day before at Fox Raceway and that in his opinion my gear was way too bright for an old guy like me to be wearing. You just can’t make everyone happy these days! From there I made my way through the paddock to look at all of the very cool factory bikes. All of the bikes looked so good and the team set-ups this year were incredible. With Anaheim being one of the rounds that has the Supercross Fanfest, there is so much to experience within the pit area. There was even a miniature SX track built so a few lucky riders could sign-up and test ride the new Husqvarna Electric 50cc bike. It’s too bad that not every round has this large of a Fanfest as it really is a cool experience for everyone.

Soon it was time for practice and then qualifying. One of my favourite parts of the day is watching the top riders in both classes try to put in their fastest laps. During qualifying, the top riders usually cruise around at about 80% for most of the session until they feel the time is right for a fast lap. As I said, when they do “go for it” it sure is fun to watch, especially in the whoop section where there is a massive speed difference between the top riders and the rest of the field. In the end it was no surprise that Ferrandis and Tomac won the main events later on that evening as they both had incredible qualifying sessions. Tomac’s whoop speed during his third and final qualifying session was mind boggling. As for Ferrandis, it was too bad that the incident with Christian Craig happened as it far overshadowed how well he was riding in the 250SX West main event. Unfortunately, his win was one of the most unpopular in modern SX history as he not only took out Craig but he also stole the win away from teenage phenom and new fan favourite Jett Lawrence. Hopefully Ferrandis was able to arrange some security as he left the stadium as the Anaheim fans were not happy with him at all. On the flip side, I’m sure if they could have, the fans would’ve carried Jett Lawrence on their shoulders out of the stadium as he is now the new hero of SX. Ironically, as Chad Reed was racing the final Anaheim SX of his long career, he was able to watch fellow Aussie Lawrence make his first mark on Supercross. I will have more on Lawrence and the 250SX main event tomorrow in my Style Check column, but he is definitely the real deal, and it’s too bad he crashed and injured his collarbone.

Well, that is it for me this week. As you can perhaps tell, I had an amazing few days in California and was able to do a lot in a short period of time. I hope everyone has a great week, and since it’s cold in every part of this country, I hope everyone is staying warm. After two successful shows in Calgary and Edmonton, the Canadian Motorcycle Show Tour moves to Abbotsford this weekend, so if you’re in the area please go and check it out. Please have a great week and thank-you for reading!