DeCal Works Presents Monday Gate Drop

Good morning and welcome to another edition of the Monday Gate Drop presented by DeCal Works. As I’ve said many times if you need a brand new awesome set of custom graphics then DeCal Works is the place to go. Just log onto www.decalmx.com and in minutes you can design any type of graphics that you want. It’s that easy, you design it and they will ship it right to your door with detailed installation instructions.

Well, here I am in Ontario on what is definitely the coldest few days of the winter so far without a doubt. Although we have cold winters, thankfully we don’t have to deal with these low temperatures very often. Another good thing is that in a month the air should be beginning to moderate just a little bit and spring will be showing it’s sweet face.

Anyway, I’m not going to talk a lot about the Dallas SX as it wasn’t terribly exciting, but as usual things were hot inside AT&T Stadium. In the 250SX East Class the riders had to deal with a restart during the main event, however it was done as a staggered start so the leaders somewhat remained the same. In the end it was Marvin Musquin who dominated the opening round of this series as he won convincingly. If Musquin can stay upright and healthy he’s going to be very hard to beat as he just seems on a different level than everyone else right now.

French rider Marvin Musquin looked completely in control on the tough Dallas track and dominated the 250SX main event. photo by Frank Hoppen

In the 450SX class it was a perfect Orange Brigade sweep as Ryan Dungey went wire to wire to take home the victory and extend his points lead in the process. As the series moves closer to its halfway point Dungey really has solidified himself as the favourite to win this series. In the early rounds Dungey was the most consistent rider and here we are at round 7 and now he’s also the fastest rider. Riding the all new KTM 450-SX and working with Aldon Baker (one of the best trainers in the business) for the first time really has given Dungey that boost of confidence to go out each weekend and be the best, rather than just trying to be consistent. In the last few weeks we’ve seen a Ryan Dungey that’s been going out and taking the victory, instead of sitting back and waiting to see what happens.

It almost seems as though Dungey and Ken Roczen have switched roles as Roczen is now the rider who is just a little off each weekend and seems content to just finish on the podium. If it was another rookie in front of him in the points standings then I’d say this is good strategy, however it’s Ryan Dungey slowly inching away in the points and Dungey rarely makes mistakes. We’ve seen it happen plenty of times over the years that when a rider plays the consistent game for too long, when they do decide that it’s ‘go time’ they have trouble finding that extra speed. It will be very interesting to see what adjustments Roczen can make in the next few weekends in this series?

Team Canada had a great set up last year in Lativa. Hopefully something can get done soon so we’ll get to see it again in France.

Well if anyone was hoping for a drama free 2015 in Canadian motocross you must have been disappointed last week to read the letter from Ryan Gauld on the status of Team Canada and the 2015 MXON in France. To keep this fair I reached out to Marilyn Bastedo on Friday to get her comment on the situation but she was unavailable. This entire thing seems very confusing to me and I can’t help but think there’s a lot written between the lines here. To my knowledge and observations the MXON effort was a well oiled machine in 2014, and while the end result wasn’t what everyone expected, things seemed positive moving forward. However, this is Canadian motocross and at the best of times it’s very unpredictable.

Without speaking to the CMA and hearing their side of this story it’s hard to know what they’re thinking. I honestly can’t see them not wanting to be involved in the 2015 MXON as I would think it’s fairly prestigious for each country to be able to send a team over. As far as I know the CMA has never not wanted to be involved in the MXON as long as someone handled the fund raising and organization of the team. I mean even in the lean years of Canadian moto we still sent a team over to Europe to compete against the world’s best, albeit in a very limited effort. This is where a big thanks goes out to Carl Bastedo for simply not letting this event go unnoticed in Canadian motocross, he always seemed to find a way to make it happen. As we all know Carl stepped aside last year and Ryan Gauld took over and made things happen, however, where do we stand now? Something tells me that this story is not over by any means as the MXON is an event that Canada definitely needs to be a part of. Our riders are simply too good to stay home and not go to France! Stay Tuned in the upcoming weeks to see if there’s anymore news.

Although the temperatures were freezing cold in Barrie for the Royal Distributing Cup Snocross, the riders still put on a great show. Here Iain Hayden skies it out over a triple.

Okay, enough with the drama of motocross, let me tell you what I did on Saturday. Well, thanks to OTSFF I was able to secure some passes to go up to Georgian Downs in Barrie, Ontario to watch my very first Snocross race. This event was a perfect opportunity for a first timer as the area for spectators was all indoors. With cold temperatures outside there was no place I’d rather have been than sitting comfortably in a t-shirt watching some very talented athletes. The Royal Distributing Cup event had all the feel of being at a motocross event, especially with Dave Bell’s voice on the loud speaker. As soon as my family and I got out of our truck we all notice Dave’s voice so we instantly felt right at home. On the track the racing was very exciting as I certainly can’t imagine jumping a snowmobile anymore than a few feet while pros like Iain Hayden and Lee Butler were jumping almost 100 feet. Obviously just by watching it appears like racing snocross takes a lot more brute strength than racing motocross, simply because the machine react so different then a dirt bike. The snocross racers look like they take a lot of pounding as the sled’s seem to hit almost every bump on the track. However, just like in moto the top riders make the sport look very easy. If you thought Iain Hayden was buttery smooth on a dirt bike than you must see him ride his Rockstar Energy Drink OTSFF Polaris sled. I was also very impressed with another moto guy Lee Butler as he was very fast and actually took home the win in the Pro Open main event. It was a great afternoon with some good people at Georgian Downs and thanks to OTSFF for making it happen .

Well that’s it for me this week as today in Ontario it’s Family Day so I have to go and do some fun family stuff. I hope everyone had a great weekend and a romantic Valentine’s Day. If you live in Ontario and youe need to see some motorcycles then you have to make your way to Toronto this weekend for the Toronto Motorcycle Show. The show is located inside the warm and cozy Direct Energy Centre, a building that offers easy access for parking or transit. In 2014 this show was pretty cool as it moved from the Convention Centre downtown west to the CNE grounds. I hope to see everyone there as we’ll no doubt get to do some very interesting bench racing. Also, GDR Honda riders Colton Facciotti and Jeremy Medaglia will be on hand to greet fans and sign autographs at the Honda Canada booth. Please stay warm and have a great week!!

See you at the Direct Energy Centre this weekend.

Ryan Dungey is really on a roll in the 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series. After he won the main event in Dallas he couldn’t resist throwing this old school heal clicker. photo by Frank Hoppen