Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
As we near the end of the inaugural year of the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown series we look back on a successful, yet a very challenging year. As CEO of Jetwerx, it has always been a dream of mine to produce a series that brings the best racing from all worlds together under one championship in Canada. With this dream has come at a great challenge, the biggest being to earn the trust within the Canadian motorcycle industry. Our vision is to create a championship that would be recognized as one of the premier series around the world. With this huge endeavor, we have come across every problem a dream at this level could experience from dirt issues, rulebook issues, budget issues, to just plain old learning issues. With that uphill battle from the start, I have to say that the amazing team I have at Jetwerx have always pulled together and risen up against any issue good or bad and dealt with it. To this, I want to say thank you.
With any new project, I always keep learning to strive to get better with each year as a company. Canada is a different animal than our USA endeavors in the past. Some things are easier to get to an end goal and others are not. The marketplace is very broad and yet so small all at the same time. This made it challenging when producing events that cater to an 18-35 year old demographic. The costs of business in Canada are substantially more than anything we created in the US. With learning that brought challenges of how do grow new customers, engage new sponsors, and how to build a platform for our industry partners to work from. We aimed high and have learned any dream has its struggles at the beginning.
This past weekend in the Videotron Center our team, and I had multiple hurdles to overcome. With the event being in Quebec City there is the language barrier that always adds a wrinkle when building events as we do. An issue with our team having to relocate the finish line from the side of the venue to the middle all due to a weight issue that was in French and was not understood by the team. This threw our team into a tailspin. The next issue we encountered was the rule to increase fines for Team Tactics. This should have been properly done through a team managers meeting, but amongst the chaos, it never happened and I will take ownership for my team and myself for not doing it properly. The rule was enforced due to the information that was received at the MRC office after incidents from the Montreal Supercross with the perception of team tactics. The second perception was the two teams fighting for the championship hiring riders to alter the outcome of the race; once again this is perception, but brought MRC to the control a potential issue. This is where the increased fine of up to $20,000 for the team tactics was formed. As mentioned in the riders meeting Paul Kingsley stated an example of team tactics being someone waiting off the track and crashing into a leader when they came around the track. The difference between team tactics and normal racing rules was explained. This moment right here caused a snowball effect in which the night unraveled. Teams and riders got very upset with each other. My father, Kevin Thompson, whom I love to death was acting like any concerned father and got into a heated conversation with the GDR Honda team rider Colton Facciotti. This is truly unacceptable and in no way how Jetwerx wants to be perceived in business. Due to this, I have had the hard talk with my father and he is no longer involved with the Jetwerx team in any form. It was a hard decision to make as my whole family is truly passionate people toward the sport and is probably one of the most involved in the country. So effective immediately, Kevin Thompson is relieved of any Jetwerx duties and is under probation from the MRC from now until the end of the 2019 Arenacross championship. Kevin can go back to being a father and a fan although this saddens me to have done it is the fair and proper way to deal with it. The GDR Honda Team, its staff and riders did not deserve this and for this, I apologize on behalf of Jetwerx and my father.
Concerning the incident on the track in the 450 main event is something I cannot really weigh in on as neither I nor Jetwerx can control racers during our events. I know both riders are talented, amazing friends that did not wish this ending on either of them. Colton Facciotti is pretty close to being a family member of the Thompson’s as much time as he spends with our family. So it is extremely unfortunate that our 5-time Canadian champion is now likely sidelined for our final round because of the crash. The MRC has placed the incident in the hands of the rule committee and we will await the review of the finish line crash between Cole Thompson and Colton Facciotti.
From day one when I took this on my vision for 2018 has taken many tough turns. I feel the amount of learning we have done this year can only make us better for the future while trying to build something amazing for our country and the sport we all love so much. We hope our fans, our customers, our families, our racers, and the Canadian motorcycle industry can see we are working hard to give the sport the edge needed to not just be good, but be great for everyone.
Sincerely Yours in Riding,
Justin Thompson
CEO
