Monday Gate Drop

At least Fall gives us something nice to look at it.

Good day and welcome to the second Gate Drop of September. As we saw in Calgary last week and Ontario this weekend, Canada is starting to cool down as the official first day of Fall approaches. With the exception of the west coast (which had a mini heat wave over the weekend), cooler temperatures have definitely arrived along with cold and dark early mornings.

Before I get into the news of the day I have to tell you about a very scary moment that happened to us last night. After a great day at Moto Park, we arrived home around 7:30pm, unloaded, cleaned ourselves up and our son (Ayrton) was passed out by 8:45pm. My wife and I were passed out by 11:00, obviously counting on a long night’s sleep. However, this was not to be as an hour later Ayrton called out frantically from his room as he was having trouble breathing. We of course rushed in; since he’s suffered from some mild asthma issues from the time he was born, our first thought was to administer his “puffer” to him as in the past these have worked. This time, though, nothing was working and after a few minutes of him struggling to catch his breath we called 911.

Just a couple of dudes who love riding two wheels.

Within a few minutes an ambulance arrived and the paramedics had Ayrton hooked up to some oxygen and his condition was slowly improving. After twenty minutes or so they loaded Ayrton and my wife in the ambulance and took them to the hospital just as a precaution. While Ayrton has had these symptoms before, they’ve never been as bad as they were last night, and since his does suffer from a peanut allergy we had no idea what was happening, nor could we do anything ourselves to improve his condition. In the end, the doctor said he had a swollen trachea and larynx due to a mild case of Croup, a virus that any child can easily pick up. Ayrton has had Croup before but as I said, he’s never had that much trouble breathing.

Well after some meds and a few hours at the hospital we were home and back in bed by 3:00am and all seems fine now. It was certainly one of the scariest moments we’ve experienced as parents; that feeling of not being able to do anything to help your child is an awful one. Thankfully, everything was okay. Although the less than friendly doctor made us feel like a 911 call and an ambulance ride was a little over reactive (maybe it was but our son was struggling to breath), we as parents felt like we did the correct thing.

Check out this Drew Bezanson edit, this kid can ride motocross also.

All of this drama was of course after a great day of racing at Moto Park. As the 2014 racing season is winding down, it was great to see a strong turnout of riders at MP for the fall CMRC event. With high profile referee Paul Kingsley in charge, the racing went off without a hitch and the track conditions were superb. As every rider in Ontario knows, when the track at Moto Park starts off muddy in practice and all the rain is gone, by midday the conditions are absolutely perfect! This was the case yesterday as the track remained tacky all afternoon.

One rider who probably had more fun yesterday than anyone was Canadian BMX Legend and Red Bull athlete Drew Bezanson. With a rare weekend off, Drew made his way north to see his friends at MP and also to race. Although he obviously doesn’t get to ride motocross very often, the sport is his first love and he definitely knows what he‘s doing on a dirt bike. Look for an interview with him this week on mxpmag.com where he tells me just how stoked he was on his second moto holeshot! It was great to see Drew ride and it was also great, as it usually is, to spend the day with our racing family. Next weekend it’s on to Walton Raceway for a Saturday practice and then the final Rockstar Energy Drink Provincial of 2013. In keeping with tradition, Walton Raceway will be the place where championships are decided.

Cory Graffunder skies it out at last years Red Bull Rocks and Logs. photo by John Evely

As I mentioned last Monday, this coming weekend in Calgary will be where some of our best off-road riders as well as a host of top US riders will compete in the 2014 Red Bull Rocks and Logs event. The list of riders is very impressive so it should be a great race. Geoff Aaron, Kyle Redmond, Cory Graffunder, Bobby Prochnau and Ben Rego are all confirmed so the fans are in for a real treat. The track is set, and after a recent taste of some winter weather last week, the forecast looks good for this weekend. Everything is looking good for this very cool Red Bull event.

Of course everyone in the Canadian motocross community is beginning to hold their breath in anticipation of the MXON in Latvia, which is now less than 14 days away. How will Team Canada do is the in vogue question? While this year’s race certainly caters to the European riders, they know the track and they just finished their GPs yesterday in Mexico so they’re going to be more race ready than Team Canada and Team USA. Having said that, we’re going over there with three proven winners, their full race bikes and a well-supported team. Team Manager Ryan Gauld is a good mixture of old school and new school so he should bring a fun and relaxed environment for the riders to excel. Basically what I’m saying is that I believe our Team is as good as any so we just need a little luck and then let the chips fall where they may. If the boys finish fifth overall or twentieth overall, we’ll all be proud!

This is one of the fine James Lissimore shots that appears in the the brand new issue of MXP.

That is it for me this week and the events of last night are starting to cloud my normally shaped thought process. The latest issue of MXP Magazine is now out, and as you will instantly notice, the cover is one of the best ever. The photo was taken at Deschambault by James Lissimore and as you will read inside the issue in James’s story, this cover is one of his favourites of all time. The MXP team is very proud of this issue and I hope everyone enjoys reading it. I would as always appreciate any feedback or future story ideas so please email me at chris@mxpmag.com. Thanks for reading this week’s Gate Drop and have a great week!

Welcome back to the track Johnny Motocross!