The 2019 Western WMX National Series Preview With Dominique Daffe

Every off-season seems to drag on as the winter blues set in and we count down the days until the tracks start opening, and then all of a sudden it’s time to go racing and the off-season feels like it flew by. I say this every year – nationals are here already?! But like everyone else I’m stoked that race season is upon us and we’re looking forward to another solid season for CDNWMX.

In 2018, we saw a big change with the women being moved to Pro day. This meant dealing with rougher tracks and a lot of racing happening in one day. There were definitely some hiccups with the schedule but that’s bound to happen with anything that’s new, and I think overall, racing on Pro Day went really well. Kennedy Lutz raced the west and absolutely dominated, excluding Round 2 in Popkum when Tarah Gieger showed up. It would be awesome to see her race up north again! Kennedy announced after taking the Championship that she was hanging up the boots so we will not be seeing her on the line this year but wish her all the best! A nice addition to the west coast series was the speedy Brittany Gagne. Brittany lives in the US and typically makes it up to Canada to race the East but switched things up last summer. She was consistently 2^nd behind Kennedy, taking home 2^nd overall. There was a tight battle between 3^rd to 6^th so staying on two wheels was important. Danika White took 3rd, with 4^th going to Tamala Whiteside, 5^th to Mariah Gauthier, and 6^th to myself. These three girls were constantly behind me, in front of me, or beside me, which made for some fun motos and a tight points battle heading into the fourth round. Unfortunately, I had to sit out Round 2, which left me a bit behind in the points chase but I had a lot of fun racing! Kate Lees finished 7^th overall. Kate came back from an injury in 2018, which is no easy task, but I think 7^th is a solid finish after a tough season in 2017. I know she can be closer if not inside the top five. Fresh faces finished in the top ten, 8^th – 10^th. I believe we will see more from these girls in the years to come! Nicole Gaudern ended up8th, 9^th went to Kassee Morrison, and 10^th to Samantha Bartlett.

Round 3 in Manitoba should be an exciting one. Photo by James Lissimore

The 2019 Western WMX National Championships kick off on June 1^st at Wild Rose MX Park in Calgary, AB. From there the series hits Blackwater MX in Prince George, BC on June 8^th, and then McNabb Valley in Minnedosa, MB on June 15^th. Minnedosa wraps up the western portion of the MXTour for the guys but the ladies still have four rounds as we head back west to Kamloops, BC to steal the show on the Saturday of the Western Canadian Amateur Nationals on June 29^th. After the west ended in 2018, it was announced that we could race the east if we wanted to, but for no points. This caused a bit of an uproar at first, which was understandable, but from what I hear we’re going to have some eastern girls joining us for the west, which will definitely shake things up in the top ten. However, if they choose the east coast rounds to count for points their points won’t count in the west. The other change to the series this year is the limitation of the size of bike in which we can compete. Nothing bigger than a 250 four-stroke or 250 two-stroke is allowed. I know only a handful of girls riding anything bigger than that, so hopefully they were able to figure something out to get to the line this year for another epic month of racing! This year we have the four-time Eastern Champ, Eve Brodeur, joining us in the west. I believe she’s only racing the first three rounds as then she will head back East. Shelby Turner is back and has spent what seems like the entire winter riding so she’ll be ready for sure, and we also have another girl, Avrie Barry, racing the west (so I’ve heard). Avrie is from Washington but has spent the past few years racing over in Belgium. I think we’ve got a solid championship battle right there. I know there’s going to be some fresh faces in the top ten and I really think there’s going to be some awesome racing at all four rounds!