Monday Gate Drop

Another year of the very successful Toronto Supercross is in the books, and boy was it a good one! Not only did fans get to see James Stewart put on one of his best rides of his career, but we also got to see Cole Thompson have his best ride of the season as well as mini sensation Preston Masciangelo ride away to victory in the KTM JR Supercross race. The only negative part of the weekend was all the talk that there will more than likely not be a Toronto SX in 2015. With the Rogers Centre going through some renovations next year for the upcoming PanAm Games, Supercross will have to take a back seat. This is sad news for everyone. With the attendance on Saturday at just under 49,000, this event has become one of the most successful of the series and actually ranks sixth in attendance. Let’s hope that if the Toronto SX takes a year off in 2015, it will come back stronger than ever in 2016. To celebrate this event and what an awesome time I had, here are my top five moments from the 2014 Monster Energy Toronto Supercross.

Number Five: Cole Thompson

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who predicted that Cole Thompson would have his best ride of the season on Saturday night. While he’s been very good so far in the East Lites class, his starts and a couple other mistakes have kept him from being great. After getting a decent start in the main event in Toronto and suffering through a few mediocre first few laps, Cole used his cerebral talents to find some good lines, which is when he began picking off riders. During the second half of the race when a lot of riders were beginning to make mistakes on the deteriorating track, Cole was still riding strong and looked like he could’ve raced another ten laps. When the final flag flew, Cole had worked his way up to fifth and in the process did himself and all of Canada proud. Even though Cole has yet to visit the podium in Supercross, look for him to be a consistent front runner this summer in the outdoors; he‘s definitely a MX1 Championship favourite. The 49,000 fans at the Rogers Centre were definitely delighted that Cole saved his best ride of 2014 for their hometown eyes. Well done Cole Thompson!

Number Four: The Track

In the ten years of the Toronto SX we’ve seen all types of tracks and conditions. In the early years the ruts were a big problem and then it seemed like the track design suffered a little bit to compensate for the soft dirt. However, this year I thought the track set up was awesome. Although the dirt was still a little soft in some spots, it still provided a good surface for racing. There were still a lot of ruts, especially in the whoops, but it forced the riders to think to be successful. In the past eleven rounds of the 2014 series there has maybe been four tracks that were fun to watch and had sections that separated the good riders from the great riders. As all of you saw on Saturday night there was a few different sections that some riders were able to find a few different options. I loved the track in Toronto and the racing was great.

Number Three: The KTM JR Supercross Race

I chose this as one of my favourite moments from the weekend because this race had more Canadian riders in it than any other of the night. Of the fifteen riders that were entered, twelve were Canadian kids. During their three lap race all of them put on a great show. I got to sit in and listen to their riders meeting on Saturday morning and it was amazing to see just how excited everyone was. It was also very interesting to hear that KTM gets over 600 applications from young riders all over the world to ride the ten events that KTM have planned for the Supercross season. So for the 150 kids that do get chosen, it really becomes a chance of a lifetime. Throughout the day the kids got pampered with free product, a meet and greet with top KTM riders Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen, and of course the chance to race three laps in front of 49,000 fans. All the riders rode great on Saturday and congratulations to Preston Masciangelo for pulling off a big win. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a few of these talented kids racing the Toronto SX in ten years.

Number Two: James Stewart

While there isn’t much that I can say about James Stewart’s ride on Saturday night that hasn’t been said already, I can say that I thought that his main event was one of the best I’ve ever seen him ride. We all know about James’ very successful career; he has won a ton of races and off the track he’s been one of the most colourful personalities this sport has ever seen. But we also know about his short comings. He’s been prone to make a lot of mistakes in the form of crashes on the track and bad decisions off the track. However, for 20 laps on Saturday night, we saw an athlete at the absolute top of his game and a few steps ahead of his competition.

After getting off to a terrible start in the main event, James went on a tear, passing the back markers like they were standing still and gaining ground on the leaders like they were going backwards. It’s hard to pinpoint what the most impressive part of his ride was. Was it him jumping the length of the stadium floor in just three long jumps in the main rhythm section? Or was it the triple/triple he began doing in the section before the finish line? Whatever your favourite moment was it was clear that at times James Stewart can still ride at a different level than anyone else in the world. We were very lucky to see it live.

Number One: The Toronto Supercross Experience

When I say “experience” I’m referring to the entire scope of the weekend. Whether I was hanging out all weekend with my six year old son, or celebrating my Dad’s 71st birthday on Saturday afternoon at our hotel, or just seeing all of our people that make up our Canadian Moto Family, all of it was great and I wish it could’ve lasted more than just two days.

It was also great to see a healthy and happy Ross Pederson at the race. The Rollerball is one of those people that comes along once in a blue moon. He was simply born to race a motorcycle and when he did, he did it better than anyone. However, when he retired in 1993 he had a lot of trouble coping with the void that racing had previously filled for almost two decades. After many years of searching, Ross has finally found his way, and judging by the huge smile he had on his face at the Rogers Centre, at 54 years old the Rollarball is happy. While I’m not a religious person, I want to say God Bless Ross Pederson and the path that he paved for all of us riders that came after him.

Bring On 2016

If that was indeed that last Toronto SX for a couple of years, then I’m glad it was such a good time and a great race. To be at the track, to be able to see everyone, and watch the practice and the race through an excited six year-olds eyes is something I won’t soon forget. To hear Ayrton yell out during the main event “OMG Daddy, Stewart just went triple/triple before the finish line” was awesome, especially considering that I hadn’t even noticed. I hope everyone who attended the event had the same great time as I did. If the race has to take a year hiatus from Toronto then so be it. Let’s hope it just increases the hype for when it does return. With the Toronto SX now history for yet another year, all we need now is some nice weather then it’s on to the outdoors!! Look for lots of Toronto Supercross coverage all week on mxpmag.com to see how we captured what a great weekend it was.