Monday Gate Drop

As the leaves have now changed colour and are falling off the trees, this signals the end of almost all of the outdoor races in Canada. In Ontario we had our final race of the 2013 season at Gopher Dunes on the weekend, which is also known as Sandstorm. This name was very fitting as we had a pretty decent storm roll through Ontario this weekend so riding in sand was probably everyone’s best option. Sadly, I didn’t attend the race this weekend but from speaking to a few people, the race was pretty good and as usual the Schuster Family did an outstanding job.

So with the 2013 Canadian racing season coming to a close, I hope everyone had a great time this year. By not going to a motocross track this weekend I had a little extra time to think about my favourite moments from 2013. Look for a story later this week and my own personal top ten moments from this past year. I’d actually like to hear some of your best moments so please feel free to email me at chris@mxpmag.com and I’ll put them in next week’s Gate Drop.

Since the weather was less than perfect yesterday we decided to take Ayrton to the movies to kill some time on Sunday afternoon. We were all set to see Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2, but after waiting in line for 15 minutes we found out that we weren’t the only parents trying to entertain our kids on a rainy day as it was sold out. This actually played into my favour as the movie “Rush” was playing at the same time. So after spending a ridiculous amount of money on movie tickets and popcorn we sat down in a theatre with only five other people. I like to think of myself as a big Formula 1 fan (after all my son’s name is Ayrton) so I’ve wanted to see this movie since it came out a few weeks ago.

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The movie is based on the 1976 battle between polar opposites, Niki Lauda and James Hunt. While a few facts are stretched a little bit, the movie is pretty accurate and very well made. I’m not sure if I would recommend it to a six year-old because there is some bad language and a few inappropriate scenes, but there is a strong message in the movie that any racer can take from it. Near the end of the movie there is a scene where Lauda just pulls out of the final race of the season and hands the championship to Hunt. The real reason Lauda pulled off was it was raining and due to the injuries he suffered in a mid-season crash (he was badly burned), he couldn’t blink or see. In the movie they say that it’s because Lauda just felt the conditions were too dangerous and he was over it.

This scene in the movie kind of got me thinking back to just how hard it was to be a professional motocross racer, especially as you’re approaching the end of your career. For most of us, motocross is something we start doing from a very young age so we ultimately end up accumulating a lot of hours on the bike. For some riders, motocross is all they know so saying goodbye is one of the hardest things they do in their lives. I considered my final year of racing to be in 2001. That was the year when I tried to give it my best but I had nothing left. All the travelling, the racing, the stress and all the pain were too much and it was time for me to move on to try something else.

During that 2001 season I started the year on a Kawasaki riding for Two Wheel Motorsport. Looking back, this was a mistake as team owner Ron Ashley wanted to win races. Even though I said that I did as well, the 23 years I had spent riding was telling my body that I did not. Also, the competition was getting younger and faster and the sport was changing. Gone was the everyone hates everyone 1990s and a friendlier millennium was upon us. It was a miserable spring and summer that year but after I switched to a Yamaha in the second half of the year. My confidence came back and I started to have fun again. Thoughts of retiring were slowly fading as the 2001 Montreal SX was approaching. Darcy Lange was staying near me at Dave Gowland’s house. We were riding together and I found myself learning new things on the bikes. There were just a few local races to go before Montreal and one of them was at Auburn Hills.

After a good first moto, I was sitting on the line feeling like I could win again. It had been a while since I’d felt like that. As fate would have it, I got a decent start and while jumping into a corner in the back, Chris Tyndal jumped across on me and took me out in mid air. I landed so hard that my entire body hurt. Thankfully no one landed on me. After doing that check, you know the one I mean, where you go from your toes right up through your body to see if anything really hurts, nothing was broken. At that moment I thought I was done and there was no way I wanted to do this again. While I did race the Montreal SX two weeks later, that thought stuck with me and I was done with full time racing.

We as humans are pretty exceptional specimens and we can do some really cool things. Of all the things that we can do, I think the one that amazes me the most is our ability to forget pain. Think about it. How many times have you hurt yourself and thought, that’s it I’m done, only to heal up and come back swinging a few months later? Look at women. I was there while my wife was giving birth to our son. To think that they go through that and then some time later want to go through it all over again, that is pretty darn amazing!

Thankfully we all have this ability and that is why a lot of us just can never stop riding, and it’s the reason I’m sure that while Niki Lauda pulled out of that Grand Prix in 1976, he did come back to win two more F1 Championships before he retired for good. I will look forward to reading some of your favourite moments from 2013. Have a great week