Honda Canada Racing Presents The Monday Gate Drop

This weeks Monday Gate Drop is once again brought to you by the fine people at Honda Canada Racing. With their lead rider Colton Facciotti already training for the 2017 season, Honda Canada and the GDR Fox Racing Team is very excited for what lies ahead. We at MXP Magazine are very proud to have the backing of Honda Canada and we wish them luck on the race track in the future.

Happy Birthday to Honda Canada Racing’s top rider Colton Facciotti’s son Keegan who turned two yesterday. Looks like he’s ready to follow in Dad’s big footsteps.

Good day and welcome to another edition of Honda Canada Racing’s Monday Gate Drop. I hope everyone had a great week as we now have reached the middle of November. Soon it will be December, and then we all know what is next? Well, first we’ll have to celebrate Christmas and the beginning of a new year, but then on January 7^th it will be the opening round of the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross Series. With the series set to visit Toronto on March 4^th, I’m sure we’re all looking forward to what’s ahead.

This past weekend we got a little prelude to what we might expect in 2017 as both the Sydney SX and the Lille SX took place. In France, it was the Marvin Musquin show as the KTM rider dominated both nights. Behind Musquin was Justin Barcia who was racing his new JGR Suzuki for the first time. By all accounts Barcia looked very comfortable on his new yellow bike, even though he’s only been on it for a month. Look for Barcia and Musquin to be in great shape when the gate drops on the 2017 season. Also in France was Malcom Stewart, who was racing for the first time since the 2016 SX season six months ago. The younger Stewart was racing a Geico Honda in France so it appears that he will be riding ride in Anaheim. There are still rumours of the Ride365.com Honda deal for both Malcom and his big brother James, but with nothing from James in a long time, who knows right now. Hopefully Malcom can find something before the season begins as he is a defending Lites SX champion. As for James, we might have seen the last of James Stewart as no one appears to want to take a chance of him.

With the departure of James Stewart a big possibility, on the other side of world Stewart’s old rival Chad Reed was once again proving that he will be a huge threat in 2017. Looking fitter than he ever has, Reed dominated both nights of the Sydney SX over Cooper Webb, Justin Brayton and Ryan Villopoto. Yes, you did read that correctly, the promoters of this event were able to coax RV2 out of retirement to compete down under. Is his long awaited return to racing, RV went 6-4 over the two nights of racing and looked okay in his brief one race comeback. Will this light a spark in RV to return to race the entire SX series in 2017? I would have to guess that the answer to that question is a big NO! Infact, I’m guessing the it did more to reinforce that he made the right decision when he retired two years ago. Good on him for putting in the work to get ready for Sydney as it’s something he obviously didn’t need to do.

As for Chad Reed, I think the biggest question with this guy is what exactly is he made of? At the ripe old age of 34, Reed still has the desire to win races. This past weekend was a perfect example of Chad Reed’s burning desire to compete at the highest level. Yes I’m sure he got paid a lot of money to travel half way around the world to race in front of his Australian fans. But, to show up looking fit and trim and to race like he did, to me this shows that he’s happy and ready to go for 2017. A few weeks ago when I was at the 2017 Honda CRF450 media launch, Reed’s old mechanic Lars Lindstrom was my mechanic for the day. Over the course of the day I asked him a few Reed questions, with the most important being, what drives this guy and can he still win? Lars told me that when Reed is happy and healthy, he’s as good as anyone on the track. He also went on to tell me that when Reed is this happy state of mind, he trains harder than anyone and that is what he’s doing right now.

Obviously Lars’s words rang true this past weekend as Reed was by far the best rider in Australia. Will he be able to beat the likes of Roczen, Dungey and Tomac in 2017? Who knows and at this point in his long and illustrious career, who cares! The fact that he’s out there racing is enough for me and all of his fans. With the report on a Australian website that Reed is trying to sign a two-contract extension that will see him race Yamaha’s until 2019, this guy is quickly becoming the new G.O.A.T in my opinion.

In keeping with the riders who never seem to age theme. Canada’s own ageless wonder Ryan Lockhart flew all the way to Finland this past weekend to race some SX. With his travel companion Kyle Springman at his side, Newf (as he’s known throughout the moto world) had a okay time in Finland finishing 11^th in the main event on Friday night. Unfortunately, Newf suffered a mechanical failure during practice on Saturday and was forced to call it a day. Kyle Springman failed to qualify for the mian event either night, but he rode well and had blast racing in a strange land. These two will now make the long trek home to BC to prepare for the Future West AX Championships which resume in Chilliwack in two weeks time.

I know I’ve spoke at lengths about the positives of this sport for young people and their families. The ‘get out of it what you put into it’ lessons of an individual sport far exceeds that of a team sport in my opinion. However, this past weekend I got to witness first hand how valuable team bonding can be in an athlete of any age. My son plays Atom Rep hockey and this past weekend we travelled down to the very familiar Gopher Dunes area to play in a tournament in Aylmer, ON. Just like a long weekend at the race track, I’ve quickly learned that these three day hockey tournaments are almost as much for the parents as they are for the kids, as the moment the kids go to sleep at the hotel, the party really begins. And just like at the race track when you see a few parents looking a little worse for wear the following day at rider’s meeting. This past weekend as the kids raced to the hotel pool at 9am, a few parents weren’t moving at the same speed. However, despite the shenanigans by the parents, and the endless bottle flipping by the kids (when will this stupid activity end), our team did some great bonding as they played together on and off the ice.

Team sports like hockey, teach kids the valuable life lesson of how to be part of a team.

You see, for a team to be successful their has to be a mixture of individual focus and group performance. A good team sticks up for each and plays as one unit through the good times and the bad times. If you see a teammate fall, you stop and help them up, if you see that your teammate has a better chance to score than you do, you pass the puck and celebrate with them as if you scored the goal yourself. In team sports you can have a great personal game and still lose. Or, you can have a bad game and still win. This is sometimes a confusing message to young athletes, and this is where they have to learn that the team comes first. In short, I think this is why it’s very important to compete in both team sports, as well as individual sports if you want to be a well rounded athlete. And while I still prefer the individual sports like motocross, the team concept is a great life lesson to learn.

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope the month of November is treating you well, and I hope that with the weather still staying decent in some parts of the country, you’re able to get some late season riding in. Have a great week and thank-you to Honda Canada Racing for their continued support.