Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to the March Break edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. I hope everyone is having a great week so far and let’s hope Mother Nature gives us some spring weather this week right across the country.

Judging by what I’ve recently seen on Social Media, a lot of Canadians have headed down south for some early season riding. As much as I’m envious of each and every photo posted, I absolutely love seeing our Canadian riders there working hard and having fun. With so many people heading south I was thinking over the weekend of years ago when it would just be mostly pro riders who would travel to warmer climates to get a jump on their training. My first riding trip to Florida in the winter was back in 1989 when I was getting ready to race the Intermediate class. Up until that point my family and I had only heard stories about tracks like Dade City and Croom from friends who had visited them. To a young Canadian kid who had only been able to ride from April to October, listening to people talk about practicing at Croom in February sounded more like a fairy tale than anything real. However, in 1989, we loaded up and headed down I-75 in search of these mysterious riding areas south of the snowy tundra that we lived in. Even to this day my favourite part of driving south in the winter is that after each passing hour it seems to get warmer, and then by halfway you’re usually in a t-shirt and life just instantly improves. It’s amazing how energized our bodies feel when we go from the dead of winter to warmer climates. I don’t know if it’s the extra Vitamin D that we get as it warms up or just the release of stress that our bodies let go of the moment it doesn’t have to work to stay warm. Whatever it is, I’m sure everyone loves that feeling when you finally get into mild temperatures after being stuck in the cold for so long.

MP County Line is just one of the many tracks that Canadians can head south to train on during our cold winter.

That first trip down south in 1989 was a huge success as we not only rode at Croom for two weeks, but we also did the Thursday night races at Dade City, as well as amateur day at the Gatorback National. We also had friends who travelled around with us so it was like one big caravan of happy Canadians going from track to track. One of the coolest memories from that trip was riding at Croom with the late Donny Schmit, who for some reason was a full on privateer in 1989. I’m not sure where he was sleeping at night, but each day he would show up and park beside us in the Holiday Inn parking lot. In those days you could ride straight from the Holiday Inn to the riding area at Croom in like five minutes. After a few days of parking together we kind of struck up a friendship. Donny and my Dad even told the Holiday Inn staff that we were related so Donny could get in on the free Holiday Inn buffet lunch and dinner that came with our room. I’m not sure if he had a structured training program back then, maybe none of the riders did, but his appeared to be pretty simple. He would show up and park, then he would put on his running shoes and go for a long jog, then come back, get dressed and go riding. He would go and ride moto after moto in the deep, rough sand of Croom, only stopping for gas, water and food. Since Donny was by himself, I think he liked having us to talk to and to watch over him while he trained. I obviously wasn’t riding at his speed, but it was still great to go moto with him and do my best not to get lapped. Ross Pederson was also riding at Croom so it was good to see our top Canadian rider training. As I think back to those days, what a great first trip to Florida I had. Whenever I see photos of other families down there riding I can’t help but smile.

The racing was close and intense at the 2019 Daytona SX. Photo by Mike Vizer

Another race we went to watch while in Florida in 1989 was the Daytona SX. This was yet another ‘first time’ experience that I will never forget as driving up to the famous speedway was incredible. I was thinking about what the track at Daytona used to be like in those days while I was watching the race Saturday night on television. I know that sometimes TV can make things appear much easier than they really are, but it sure looked like the Daytona track was a lot less brutal than it used to be. I remember the first time I lined up to race there in 1994. I couldn’t believe how rough the track got. Maybe part of it was the fact that in those days the Daytona SX was a day race with the main events happening around 4pm or so. I don’t know what has changed since the 1990’s and early 2000’s? I’m sure the track on Saturday night was much rougher than it looked on TV, but in 1994 the track was basically made up of a few jumps and then 1000 deep sand whoops. There was rolling sand whoops, square edge holes, deep ruts, and rutted jump faces. It always seemed hot outside, and the starting gate was full of deep ruts. It was just a brutal race and one that left you sore and beat up for days. It was fun even if you didn’t make to the main events, which sadly I didn’t. The toughest, most fit rider almost always won Daytona while everyone else just tried to survive. I mean, in that regard, I guess things haven’t changed as one could argue that Eli Tomac is the most bad-ass rider in the 450SX field. The guy lives and trains a mile higher than everyone else, and for that reason, racing in the thick sea level air of Daytona has to feel like a walk in the park for him. Anyway, maybe like almost everything in our sport, the Daytona track is just different now and not necessarily tougher.

Once again Austin Forkner was the dominant rider in the 250SX East class. Photo by Mike Vizer

I thought the racing on Saturday evening was entertaining, for sure, as Kawasaki was able to get the double class sweep with Tomac and Austin Forkner. Is it me or does Forkner remind everyone of a slightly humbler Damon Bradshaw from his early years? This kid appears to get up in the morning and piss excellence as he’s most certainly on top of his game. He’s fit, confident, he has a good looking Monster girl on his arm, and he has the swagger and moves like Jagger. All he has to do is keep his Kawasaki on two wheels for another few races and this 2019 250SX East title is his. I’m happy for the kid as last year I thought he looked a little disinterested and somewhat out of shape for a young rider. Now he’s on it and definitely the rider to beat. I’m sure his competition was thinking that the rough conditions of Daytona might be Forkner’s undoing. Well, I guess they have to think again as he dominated the main event and actually made it look quite easy. I thought that Justin Cooper might have been able to give Forkner some trouble in the main event as he looked really fast in his heat race. However, I think once the gate dropped on the main event, Cooper wasn’t comfortable with the pace up front and he settled into third. I can’t wait for this week’s GoPro videos to come out from Daytona as I want to see how bad the ruts were in the long rhythm sections. It’s one thing to jump through a section when it’s smooth and the faces are clean, but it’s something completely different when there are deep ruts. As I’m sure you saw, just about every top rider made multiple mistakes during the main event and that definitely added to the suspense of the race. The Daytona SX has always been one of my favourite races and once again it didn’t disappoint.

In other news, we are now only 25 days away from the opening round of the 2019 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series. Last week I spoke to Tanner Ward about how his off-season training has been going. Tanner told me that he’s not planning to line up for the first two rounds of the AXTour but he may race the final two in Ontario. With Jess Pettis currently injured, it looks as though KTM will only have Cole Thompson racing in Abbotsford. You can read my entire interview with Tanner right here: https://www.mxpmag.com/ryno-power-canada-presents-mxp-chatter-with-tanner-ward/

Even without a few top riders like Ward and Pettis, the opening rounds in Abbotsford and Calgary should be exciting. I have been assured that the dirt in Abbotsford will not be an issue this year so the racing will no doubt be entertaining. I thought the crowd last year in Abbotsford was decent so hopefully it’s even busier this time around. With the exciting conclusion that the SXTour came to last year, 2019 should pick up right where we left off just a few months ago. I cannot wait to watch the battles in the 450 class between Thompson, Goerke, Nicoletti, Maffenbeier and possibly Facciotti, as well as watching the kids battle Tyler Medaglia in the 250 class. 

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and a safe March break. I’ve also included a photo of our latest cover. We thought Chad Reed was the perfect rider to grace the cover of our first issue of 2019. Thanks for reading this week’s Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop and good luck if you’re one of the lucky Canadian riders to be racing today in the RCSX event in Daytona or the SX Futures event this Sunday in Indianapolis. Finally, I want send some good healing vibes to young Ontario rider Tyler Booy who was recently injured while riding in Florida. Tyler is one of my favourite young riders to watch so all the best to him.