Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Good day and welcome to another edition of the Yamaha Motor Canada Monday Gate Drop. With just over two weeks remaining until Christmas Day, there is still time to head out to your local Yamaha dealer to pick up some last-minute gifts. For a dealer locator please visit www.yamaha-motor.ca for all the information needed to take advantage of their Year End Bonus Program where you can get an extra $300 off all Yamaha products.
With Dylan Wright over in Switzerland this past weekend racing in the Monster Energy Geneva SX, all Canadian eyes were on our 2019 250 Triple Crown Champion to see how he would fair in his first ever International SX. This was a two-day race, and when Dylan logged the fastest qualifying time during Friday’s practice, things were looking good for the weekend. With Michigan rider and former Walton TransCan Champion Joey Crown being the only other rider in the 250 class capable of running lap times close to Dylan. The stage was set for the opening night of racing in Geneva. Judging by what the track looked like on the event’s live streaming program, as well as Social Media posts, it was soft, technical, and complete with a very challenging whoop section. As I mentioned above, this is Dylan’s first International SX so as expected on Night 1 was filled with a lot of nervous energy. After easily making it to the main event through his heat race, Dylan managed to secure a good start in the final race and was running third in the early laps. With Crown out front and pulling away, Dylan got a little anxious while trying to pass for second and crashed on the soft and rutted Geneva track. Dylan got up from that crash and began a charge back up to the front, much to the delight of the Swiss crowd. Unfortunately, a harder and more spectacular crash into one of the walls that lined the track put an end to Dylan’s opening night. With a sore body and a damaged bike, Dylan ended up finishing 16th on Night 1. As for Joey Crown, he held on for the win and carried the momentum into the second night of racing. In the 450 class, Martin Davalos was the surprise winner as he took the victory over Justin Brayton.
The challenging whoop section gave Dylan Wright trouble during the main event on both Friday and Saturday night. But our Canadian hero never stopped giving it 100%. Photo by James Lissimore
The second evening of racing for Dylan Wright was almost a complete duplicate as the first. While he was once again the fastest 250 rider in the field, he wasn’t able to get the starts he needed to get a clear track in the main event. On a track that wasn’t conducive to coming from behind, Dylan was forced to take chances that he most likely didn’t want. A hard crash in the deep whoop section slowed him down and hurt his chances at a good finish. Just as he did on the opening night, Joey Crown took the win and was crowned the Prince of Geneva. For Dylan Wright, obviously it wasn’t the weekend that he was looking for and I’m quite sure that as he’s walking around Geneva today doing some sightseeing, he’s extremely sore. However, when you go to some of these overseas events and take in the travel, a strange bike and surroundings, not to mention that you don’t always get set-up in the best hotel rooms, when you have to deal with all of those things and more, the race itself can either go good or bad. Even though travel is much easier than it used to be, you just never feel like yourself when the gate drops, especially when you have to battle from behind. Dylan should be happy with his speed this past weekend and knowing that he certainly could’ve won had things gone a little differently. One thing is for sure, he’ll definitely get invited back to this race in 2020 as no one entertained the crowd like Dylan did. By all accounts, they loved his hard charging, never give up style and they were cheering for him during both nights of racing. On one hand the promoter brings a rider over to these events to win, but on the other hand you’re mostly brought over to entertain the fans and make sure they return next year to buy tickets and watch. You can bet that a number of Swiss fans are now big fans of Dylan Wright! So, congrats to Dylan Wright for making it through his first International SX. Also, congrats to Joey Crown on his big win in the 250 class. Finally, congrats to Justin Brayton for winning the overall in the 450 class and being crowned as the King of Geneva!
After riding smooth all weekend long and winning both 250 main events, Joey Crown was given the honour of being the 2019 Prince of Geneva. Photo by James Lissimore
So, as we sit right now, we’re just over three weeks away from the opening round of the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross Series in Anaheim. Last week Honda USA had their media day for all of their factory supported teams, so it was cool to see that the Red Riders are ready. I think everyone can agree that if Ken Roczen can remain healthy in 2020 then he will most certainly be a title threat in SX. Of all the top riders he’s had the most time off since the outdoor series concluded in late August so he’s definitely fresh and ready to go. Perhaps the biggest news to hit the air waves on Friday was that Marvin Musquin suffered a serious knee injury and will be out for the entire SX series. This is obviously a massive blow to the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team as now they only have the defending SX Champion Cooper Webb under the tent. Or so we thought? This weekend the news broke that KTM had reached out to Chad Reed to see if he wanted to come out to California to test Musquin’s bike for a possible fill-in ride in 2020. While Reed has tested KTMs before, I’m not sure if he’s tested a full-on factory KTM complete with the best WP Suspension available. We’ll see what happens with this story as the week progresses, but from the outside it definitely could work. If Reed wants to truly contend for top fives and possibly podiums in 2020, he needs a factory bike or at very least a bike with some factory parts. This looks like a win-win for both sides, and the only two things I can see that would prevent it from happening is either Reed, for some reason, doesn’t like the KTM. I don’t see that being an issue, and the bike is a proven winner. Or that with the solid list of personal sponsors and investors already involved in Reed’s racing he may not want to be under the KTM team’s umbrella. Boost Mobile and CBDMD are two big sponsors of Reed that most certainly are not a part of KTM’s racing effort. Watching Reed race a KTM in 2020 would be very cool. After all it’s the only brand that he’s never raced a SX on, but it might prove to be a very difficult deal to put together.
Even though he didn’t win the Geneva SX, Dylan Wright put on an incredible show and will definitely be invited back next year. Photo by James Lissimore
So, who is ready for Christmas? With just over two weeks until the big day we’re kind of in the home stretch now. Hopefully you’re all organized and getting ready to shut things down for the year. We at MXP just wrapped up our final issue of 2019 so now I’m able to focus solely on our website and Social Media over the holidays. Speaking of Social Media, this past weekend Dylan Wright was running our Instagram page (@mxpmag) over in Geneva and he and his team did a great job all weekend long. I hope everyone has a great weekend and please be safe. Thank-you for reading!
