Yamaha Motor Canada Presents The Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to another edition of the Yamaha Motor Canada Monday Gate Drop. With the month of September almost over we still have a few weeks of decent riding weather remaining. Also, Yamaha has some great deals on their new bikes as well as their 2020 models, so head over to your local Yamaha dealer and have a look.

I guess I will begin this week with my prediction of Team USA winning the 2019 MXON’s going horribly wrong yesterday. Please keep in mind, however, that when I did make this prediction I had no idea that the conditions were going to be what they were in Assen. It wasn’t just a normal mud race that we’ve seen in the past, it looked like a quagmire of epic proportions. It was definitely a shame as things appeared to be falling into place when Justin Cooper won his qualifying race on Saturday and Team USA qualified third. Who knew at the time that Cooper’s race win would end up being the highlight of the weekend for Team USA as crashes took them out of it early in the first moto on Sunday. Ironically, Cooper crashed and took his teammate Jason Anderson with him on Lap 1 of the first moto race. With the adverse conditions and the narrow Assen track, coming from behind was next to impossible, and that opening moto pretty much sealed Team USA’s fate once again. After so much preparation during the past few weeks, Team USA definitely deserved a better fate yesterday, but I suppose that is racing. In the end the home team was just too good as they finally dethroned Team France and won the 2019 MXON’s. On a side note, I can only imagine how trashed every rider’s bike was after Sunday’s mud fest. With the wet, gritty sand that can penetrate every seal and bearing, I bet nothing is salvageable on anyone’s race bike. Maybe it’s a good thing that Team Canada took a year off!

Before I get away from the MXON subject I’d like to talk about Justin Cooper for a minute. I think by now everyone knows his story. He’s a late bloomer by most standards; he’s from Long Island, NY, a place that I don’t even think has a motocross track. He went to a normal High School, graduated, and then attended College before setting out on his pro career. Obviously, this is a slightly different path than most of the top, young USA riders, but I believe it’s a good one and one that more riders should do. With how relaxed the schedule gets for most pro riders once August ends until January, why not take a few College courses while you race a few SX events and then get into your off-season training? If you did this over the course of a few years then you could have a diploma by the time you’re 24 or 25. Just like practicing or training, education leads to more knowledge, and the more you have the better a person you will be. And, as it’s been proven time and time again, the better a person you are away from the track, the better a rider you’ll be on the track.

Anyway, back to Justin Cooper. The first time I ever saw him ride was at the 2016 Baja Brawl when he was fresh off his Loretta Lynn’s A class Championships. Although he was still young, he was already racing both the 250 and the 450 classes and obviously doing quite well. Just as it was back in my day when young riders would sometimes wait too long before they started riding a 250 two-stroke and they would just focus on riding a 125, I think today young riders wait too long before they hop on a 450. If you know how to ride a dirt bike and you have some strength and respect for your throttle, then you’ll be able to ride a 450. Plain and simple! From the first moment I saw Justin Cooper ride at Baja Acres that day I was blown away. So much so that I tracked him and his family down in the paddock and told him that he should be racing in Canada the following year. He told me that he wanted to stay with Yamaha and continue doing USA based races, so I gave him Kevin Tyler’s number and then texted KT and told him about how good I thought this kid was. It wasn’t just his speed on the track, it was his technique, line choices, smoothness, just about everything. Not to mention that he rode his big 450 Yamaha just as well as he rode his 250. I think he and KT even chatted about 2017 but Cooper was already on Star Racing’s radar and they wanted him to race one more year as an amateur before graduating to their factory team in 2018. Well, he now has like an 80% podium percentage in his first two years as a pro, and he just won a qualifying race against the best 250 riders on the planet on their home turf. What I’m trying to say is that this kid is obviously pretty good, and so far, he’s gone about his career the right way.

On to my weekend now. Two weeks ago, I was approached by Fox Racing Canada and Red Bull about going out to Calgary to not only do a story on the new Red Bull Outliers event but also to compete in it. While I had seen some advertising for this event, I really had no idea what the Outliers was. As it turned out, this event was split into two days with the first day being a small Endurocross race at Eau Claire Market in downtown Calgary, and then Day 2 was a long Cross Country-type race about two hours east of Calgary near, Brooks, AB. Although I’ve never done either before, I figured this would be a fun adventure, plus it would make for a great story.

When I arrived in Calgary on Thursday afternoon the sky was grey and the weather forecast was calling for Alberta’s first snow fall of the season. Considering when I left Toronto it was 25c and sunny, the Calgary weather was definitely going to be a massive shock to my system. On Friday afternoon I made my way down to the track to get my first look at exactly what I would be riding on Day 1. Well, for a motocross guy like myself the Red Bull Outliers Endurocross course was about as far out of my comfort zone as anything I’ve ever done. The course was made up of logs, rocks, tires, curbs, and narrow beams. It was pretty much made up of everything that scares the crap out of me. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only motocross-only rider that was there as Keylan Meston was also lining up, although he was taking his chances in the pro class while I was entered in the Vet class.

Race day came on Saturday along with the snow that the weatherman promised. The temperatures were cold, and the snow was flying around as we all started our bikes and took to the challenging and slippery course. However, even though it was unseasonably cold, because of its downtown location, Day 1 of the Red Bull Outliers attracted over 5,000 spectators. There has never been anything like this in downtown Calgary and the city really seemed to embrace this event. As I said, it was cold and snowy, but the fans loved watching the riders try to navigate the difficult course. After a solid practice session where I only got hung up once in the more difficult log section, plus one small tip over when I hit a tall curb the wrong way, it was time to race. My first thoughts on riding Endurocross were that it takes a lot of strength and patience. Unlike motocross where you move around the track at speed and you’re able to flow with the track, when you’re riding an Endurocross track there is zero flow as you travel at a low speed from section to section. Anyway, during my heat race I was actually in second and was passing for the lead when the rider in front of me fell and I had to wait for him to get up as we were in a section of rocks. I got going again in third place but got stuck in a difficult section of logs and slipped out of the Top 6. In the end I didn’t make the main event and I was done for the day. During practice I had the third fastest lap time, so I think I could’ve done pretty well had I stayed up and made it around. It was incredibly difficult, but I considered the day a success, then it was on to Day 2.

When we woke up for Day 2 the snow was really coming down as we made the three-hour drive to dinosaur country in eastern Alberta. It was even colder than Saturday, and when we arrived at the track it was pretty clear that we most likely wouldn’t be riding. Not only was it a blizzard but there was already snow on the ground and the organizers deemed it too dangerous to ride. Unfortunately, Day 2 of the Red Bull Outliers was cancelled, so we then had to make the slippery three-hour drive back to Calgary. When we arrived back in Calgary it was snowing even harder and there were accidents all over the place. Thankfully, the Calgary Airport was still operation normal so my flight this morning wasn’t cancelled. I made it home safely, and now that I’ve had a day to process my first Endurocross race, I feel pretty good that I was able to survive. This past weekend wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Jay Moore, Red Bull Canada, Fox Racing Canada, KTM Canada and Cycle Works Foothills. Despite the adverse weather conditions, it was a great weekend and I enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone. Look for a large feature story on this incredible event in the next issue of MXP Magazine. Also, congratulations to Keylan Meston on his solid 6^th place finish in the Pro main event.

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great, first week of October, and hopefully the weather allows for some more good fall riding. The Rockstar Energy Triple Crown SXTour Series resumes this coming weekend in Quebec City so look for coverage all weekend from QC. Please have a great week and thanks for reading.