Northern Notes: Madness I tell you

By Danny Brault

“It’s get nervous time, David Bailey!” as Art Eckman used to say while commentating AMA Supercross events on ESPN.

It hurts me to say it but a good portion of the youth today probably doesn’t know who Art Eckman or David Bailey is. Let’s put it this way: Eckman is the guy Ralph Sheheen can only dream of becoming, and Bailey could be considered the Kevin Windham of the ’80s, except he won championships. Yes, I believe the youth of today don’t hold tight to history like folks used to. It’s all about right here, right now, and with 140 characters or less.

I’m nervous but also excited with the hype leading up to the 2014 Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals. As if we didn’t have enough to talk about, with Kyle Chisholm (and then possibly Nico Izzi until visa issues prevented that) and Mike Alessi coming north, and the prevalence of riders switching from 4 to 2-strokes; now we have Cole Thompson sidelined with a knee injury, which opens up a spot for Tyler Medaglia to continue racing on the factory KTM Canada team, and the latest headline is that Brett Metcalfe isn’t returning to defend his MX1 title.

You got ’er, Roger, the Australian is returning to the AMA National circuit instead of the Canadian series. Kawasaki USA wants him down south and that’s where Metcalfe ultimately wants to be if the spot is available. We’re only a month away from the first gate drop at The Wastelands in Nanaimo, BC and things are heating up fast, some good and some bad.

I can’t reveal sources but we do know that Metcalfe is going where he feels he belongs (and he does): the U-S of A. The big question is who will replace him? And secondly, is this better or worse for Canadian racing?

Right now fingers keep pointing to Josh Hill to replace Metcalfe as he’s a Monster Energy athlete and fits into that small group of speed/ cost to potentially win a Canadian championship. But can the Canadian route offer enough coin for the big name racer from the US? In my humble opinion, I think Hill is great and would add value to the series, but I don’t think he can be considered the favourite and my bet is Canada can’t afford him anyways.

The bottom line is it’s a bummer that Metcafle isn’t returning. I would be interesting to see him battling with Alessi, and hopefully a healthy Colton Facciotti for all 10 rounds. I think it hurts the series but if Leading Edge Kawasaki can fill the gap with another ‘big gun’ then I think we’re all good again. Geez, going to be tough to find a comparable rider, in speed and consistency, like Metcalfe with only month to go before round one.

And here’s a crazy thought: what if Alessi finishes well at the AMA opener in Glen Helen? He does have a legitimate chance at winning or finishing on the podium. If he hits a home run at GH, would he and MotoConcepts then decide to follow the US circuit instead of the Canadian?

I believe they would stick it out in the US if that’s the case, but then what about MotoConcepts Canadian MX2 rider, Jeremy Medaglia? Does he then get the opportunity to chase the entire 12 round AMA Motocross Championship? Who knows, I’ve had too many coffees tonight and like to think anything could happen.

Wait, one more thing to think about: imagine if this Metcalfe change-up happened two weeks ago—maybe we would have seen Tyler Medaglia on a Kawasaki?!

Things have got to come together quickly as James Lissimore is scheduled to photograph the Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki Team next week. Who will be the new hotshot on a KX450F in Nanaimo? We’ll let you know as soon as we do!

We know one thing that is for sure, Tyler Medaglia is racing for the KTM Canada Royal Distributing Fox Racing Team this summer.  True, we haven’t seen the official PR yet, but with Medaglia uploading videos of him riding a KTM 450 SX-F, it’s safe to say that he’s on an orange bike for the second year in a row.

Ever wonder what the process is to building a factory race bike? Some will argue that Canadians aren’t ever riding true ‘factory’ race bikes, when comparing them to the teams in the US, but while Canadian squads don’t enjoy the same budget, they still produce speedy steeds.

The Gopher Dunes Troy Lee Designs Honda duo of Colton Facciotti and Weston Wrozyna were busy finalizing parts on their CRFs this week at, guess where, Gopher Dunes. Team Manger Derek Schuster has been doing a great job but he’s only been operating a national race team for a few years now. What’s his process to building a race bike, especially with a guy like Facciotti?

“It’s going well, we take one step at a time and focus on one part rather than trying to do everything at once,” he says. “It takes a while to test, going back and forth with parts. We don’t want to make the guys think about more than one thing while they’re on the track.”

Schuster admits it is helpful to have advice from Superior Suspension Settings’ Joe Skidd who managed much of Blackfoot’s testing and development for years. He also adds that Facciotti saves the team time and money as he knows what he wants.

“Colton is pretty good. He says ‘This is how I ride and I’m not going to change [laughs],’ but he’s really good at noticing small changes. As for Weston, because he’s young and new to this, he just can’t believe how fast the bike is. It takes a bit of time to learn how to give feedback, but we’ll take what we know and try to keep making his 250F better.”

I have got to say kudos Derek. I’ve been chumming with the guy since 2005 and he’s really turned himself into a bit of an entrepreneur in Canadian motocross; he’s grooming tracks, managing teams and keeping Gopher Dunes alive and well in the social media world.

As for KTM Canada, they’ve had Kaven Benoit busy testing 2 and 4-strokes at the Georgia Practice Facility for the last two months but with Benoit having ridden KTMs since 2011, they’ve already a set-up developed that he’s happy with. With KTM losing Facciotti to injury at round two in Kamloops last summer and Dusty Klatt only riding a few rounds before being hurt in Moncton, the team has a good inventory of parts/engines remaining, so it’s not like they need to completely recreate the wheel this year. In fact, Medaglia told me at Walton last year that he was interested in racing a 350 SX-F because his 450 was too fast. Get the governor added to the #3 machine, Steph!

‘Til next time, keep your stick on the ice.