Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to another edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. Before I got started on this week’s racing news, I’d like to take a moment to thank Honda Canada Racing for their continued support of this weekly column. With our riding season still a few months away, if you’re still looking for a new bike for 2019, make sure you check out Honda Canada’s incredible line-up of off-road motorcycles.

I want to premise what I’m about to write by stating that I didn’t watch the Oakland SX live on television the way I’m sure most of you did on Saturday evening. Since I help coach the Men’s Senior AA Hockey team in my town, we had a game in Tillsonburg, ON on Saturday night so I wasn’t at home. Tillsonburg, of course, is the home of many things motocross in Ontario, including Gopher Dunes, MP1 Suspension, and I guess you could even say Colton Facciotti, who lives just 15 minutes away in Alymer. I love this area of Ontario, and even the arena in Tillsonburg has a certain bit of ‘Je ne sais quoi’ that you don’t normally find in arenas these days. Anyway, on the flip side of things, being so close to the Gopher Dunes track when the temperatures were -15c and there was six inches of snow on the ground, it most certainly was a sad reminder that we’re still a long way from spring. So, by the time I got home the 450 main event was half over and it was time for bed. All I can say is thank-God for YouTube.

By the time the gate dropped for the Oakland main events the track looked extremely technical and chewed up. The whoops were worn out and deep ruts were beginning to form everywhere. These ever-changing track conditions made it very difficult on the riders, and we definitely saw a lot of mistakes. Just in the main events alone we witnessed a few top riders make some very uncharacteristic errors, and they paid dearly for them. My thinking is that while a few of these unforced errors were obviously brought on by the rutted track, a few were because the riders are just pushing so hard at this stretch of the series. When you have a series that has produced three different winners in three races, all of the riders begin to sense an opportunity as they want to be the next main event winner. In the 450 class, Cooper Webb, after his win on Saturday night, is the first repeat winner of 2019. Webb’s newfound speed and consistency is no surprise as he looks a lot more comfortable on his new KTM – not to mention a lot stronger thanks to the training of Aldon Baker and the Baker’s Factory crew. Can Cooper Webb keep up this type of success for the entire series? My guess is no, but it’s sure fun to watch at the moment.

Cooper Webb got off to another good start in Oakland and grabbed his second win of 2019. Photo by James Lissimore

After the amazing speed that he showed during practice in Oakland, many people thought that Round 4 belonged to Ken Roczen. All through qualifying he was the rider to beat, and with the track being technical, it really appeared to fit Roczen’s skillset. However, a so-so start in the main event had Roczen playing catch-up. It looked like he used up way too much energy in the early part of the race, and then suffered in the closing laps. Roczen definitely has the speed to win a main event. He also has the experience to win this championship but it’s going to be tough, especially at races with tracks that are soft and rutted. After four rounds, Webb now takes over the 450SX points lead while Roczen drops back to second, Eli Tomac is third and Marvin Musquin is fourth. With the Top 4 heading to San Diego this weekend separated by just four points, the 2019 Monster Energy SX Series is off to a rager of a start. And that’s without mentioning other riders like Justin Barcia, Dean Wilson, and of course Blake Baggett, who won Round 2 and finished with a strong third overall in Oakland. Round 5 in San Diego should be another great race.

Jess Pettis had another great night of racing in the 250SX West class. Photo by James Lissimore

Our SX hero Jess Pettis had another great race in Northern California as he charged back from an early race mishap to eventually finish 11^th. Other than his glorious charge through the 250SX West pack, the highlight of the evening for Pettis was leading the early laps of his heat race. Throughout these first four rounds of SX, Pettis’s starts have been very good, and he’s been able to put himself in a solid position during each gate drop. With some very consistent results and some eye-catching riding, Pettis has definitely made himself noticed in this series. If it hasn’t been decided already, I’m sure Pettis will look at racing the remaining 250SX West rounds later on in March and April. These races would conflict with the rounds of the 2019 Rockstar Energy AXTour rounds, but finishing the 250SX West series in the Top 10 could be a career changing result. With one more race to go this weekend in San Diego before the 250SX West Series takes an eight-week break, I’m sure Pettis will be looking to break into that elusive Top 7 in the 250SX West main event. Then he will get a chance to first take a breather, and then get some much-needed testing done on his KTM250 SX-F. In case you’ve missed the video series that MXP and Alternative Vision Films have been doing with Pettis during these opening SX rounds, here are all of the first four videos.

In closing, I want to give a big congratulations to a few of our Canadian athletes who had some great results at this weekend’s Winter X-Games in Aspen, CO. Both Cody Matechuk and Brock Hoyer got themselves on the podium in the Snow Bike Cross Final. And our Canadian legend Blair Morgan battled hard to finish up in 7^th in the Para Snow Bike Cross final. I know it’s been stated by so many people in this industry, but it really is amazing to see Blair back out on a race track. In case you haven’t seen the truly inspirational Blair Morgan X-Games video that was released two weeks ago, here it is. Blair’s life and story are truly remarkable.

That is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a good week and I hope you can find a way to stay warm. With the month of February just around the corner, we have now reached the dog days of winter. So, bundle up, travel safe, and of course, enjoy the Superbowl this weekend. I’m hoping for a Patriots victory on Sunday. Have a great week and thank-you for reading.