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Once again friends, thanks for climbing aboard what is a very frigid Friday Flight out here in the West. The sledders will be smiling as there has been some serious snow come down on the mountains and through the passes. The sun is out now, though, and I awoke to a clear crisp -9 thermometer; that trend looks to hold for the next week. I know that weather in parts of the east has been above seasonal, and if you are still able to ride, I know you are probably taking advantage of it. I have been seeing social media posts from some who are still able to spin some laps here and there. One of those being Kaven Benoit who looks to be getting very comfortable on the KTM 450. Kaven will be one of no less than eight riders that have the ability to hit the MX1 podium when the gate drops in 2016. With the 2016 CMRC Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals schedule released this week on their previous week’s breaking news of the changes to the two-stroke rule, things have been a buzz continent wide. Whatever your view is on both of these issues, be it positive, negative, indifferent or whatever; change is an inevitable fact of anything in life. Rules are rules and those that choose to play will have to govern themselves accordingly. As far as us race fans go, the schedule has been written and I am pretty confident to say that even with the rule change and two venues now not on it, the season ahead will be great. I will also weigh in and say that even though I believe the wheels have been in motion for a while on some of these recent developments, I like many of you optimistically hoped the outcome would may have been a little different. With every reaction in life there is either an adverse or positive reaction or effect as a result.
I would just like to air out a few thoughts in the regard of cause and effect as I see them. First off to the schedule change. I had last been to a national at Sand Del Lee just outside the nation’s capital in 2009. The last couple of years I have tried to get back there but it just never worked out. I was really hoping to make that trek this year and maybe witness firsthand riders that cut their riding teeth on that surface – Jeremy Medaglia and Dylan Wright stand side by side on the podium. Now that will not happen. I believe that not hosting this event will allow the MX101 crew more time and energy for their race team effort. Anybody that has hosted one of these events can profess to and validate the amount of time and energy required to put on a great event. Yes, the MX101 crew has done a fantastic job over the years, and as a race fan, I say thanks guys, your national efforts were much appreciated. The Pleasant Valley race will likely deliver one of the best race surfaces riders will see throughout this series. It is also pretty much a no brainer that more riders will make the trek east now that there are two rounds instead of one. Now there will be the biggest Pro National Moto compass malfunction that may happen in mid-August when team truck drivers have to fight the magnet gravitational pull of their steering wheels and do an about face and head to RJ Motosport Park outside of Barrie, Ontario instead of the Huron District’s Walton Raceway. The gang at Walton, like their colleagues at Sand Del Lee, are as well to be commended for their top shelf efforts and historical place in the CMRC’s National history books. Looking at it from this angle, what race fan can complain about having ten top level rounds of action capped off with an exclamation mark that is the biggest week in Canadian Motocross the 25th Annual Trans Can. Grab your calendar friends, the gate drops in Kamloops for Round one June 5th and the 25th Annual Trans Can goes August 17-21st. This year’s Trans Can will be followed on Sunday by a newly conceived ‘King of Walton’ Pro race format. The details are still currently being worked out and the pile of purse money that will be added to it.
These super cool Dad’s from BC used Big Steel Box to get everything they needed to the Parts Canada TransCan.
Different 2016 will be, but as a race fan I am still a racer at heart and with every single thing I have my hands on in Moto media, I still prepare like I did throughout my racing days. Part of race preparation for me was always first and foremost a mental visualization. I am not sure exactly what age it started but probably around the first time I saw a motorcycle at a race track. Like most kids, I would take the thoughts and visuals of what I had seen at the race track with me throughout almost every waking (and sleeping) moments of my day. From there it would be to the backyard sandbox where I would act out my interpretation of what it would take to excel and succeed on a bike. Even walking to school picking up a two and a half foot long by one inch round stick and pretending it was a pair of handlebars so I could ride my virtual mx bike to school. I did this in everything riding and race related, and it helped me gain the confidence needed for success. I can think of too many cold winter days riding practice tracks close to home and having a problem with a section or making the same mistake more than once. I had a quick fix solution. As crazy as it sounds, it worked for me without fail. I would re-approach the section that dogged me on the next lap or go around, and I would tell myself “You are a winner, just like Bob Hannah.” It seems kind of crazy to look back on it now. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Man there has been a gopher in this cat’s garden for a while now, let me join you. All laughs aside, Hannah was my idol and that part of my preparation always worked for me. Fortunately for me, even though I felt awkward at times as a kid growing up, my confidence for everything in life came from what I learned on a motorcycle and at the race track.
I was lucky enough to line up some years and look left to right down the starting line and be able to tell myself that I was a winner and no one was going to beat me. Cocky, maybe, but it is a big part of the confidence needed to succeed at any level in this sport. Getting back on track after taking a little ADHD trek down memory lane, I have already grabbed a great big handful of improvisation throttle and marked my calendar for 2016. Being in the west June 5th at Whispering Pines cannot come quick enough, and barring internment or spontaneous combustion, I will be there. Even though when first looking at the 2016 Nationals schedule and titling my head sideways like a perplexed dog, I will have come up with a cool plan for the east. As they say, timing in life can be everything. The day the schedule broke I got word from my wife that my brother-in-law had just moved to a place outside of Deschambault. Great news as we will head east for the last three weeks of what is likely to be three of the best weeks of the outdoor Canadian Motocross schedule. Soon after that it will be once again be Arenacross season. Man alive, if you’re wondering…. no there is no cure. This is a full on affliction, obsession or whatever you want to call it. Some may even say drugged but I am not a fan of that word as in some of my darker years in an effort to replace everything Motocross gave me, I tested some bad vitamins. Luckily enough for me I was able to get off of the garbage truck before it got to the dump and get back to where I belong, the race track.
Newf and his Arenacross friends get back at it next weekend as the Future West Moto AX Championships head to Chilliwack for the final four rounds of the series.
We are headed back to the races here in Chilliwack, B.C. for Rounds 5 & 6 of the Future West Moto Canadian Arenacross series. The Chilliwack venue is huge and is strategically located an hour from the 1.5 million person draw of Greater Vancouver. Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals’ ‘Moto Mouth,’ Brian Koster, will be in Chilliwack for both remaining weekends of action to do all of the play by play announcing. I could type for miles here about all of the good things that have come out of this great series and how it continues to grow and build momentum. Instead, I will simply point you in the direction of www.futurewestmoto.ca /Arenacross for all you need to know for the final half of the series that will be run both weekends in Chilliwack. I am looking forward to being there as I have gone through the first half of the series broadcasting ‘Live’ from my Canadian Moto Show platform. We are on the air Fridays and Saturdays at 7:00 pm Pacific, 10:00 pm Eastern at www.canadianmotoshow.com. I know a few of the series regulars like Tyler Gibbs, Devin Sache, Jarred Greenough and Ryan Lockhart are headed down to race an Arenacross this weekend in Washington State at Monroe, Washington. Good luck down there boys, have fun and save some for Chilliwack would you Ryan. Rumour has it that your vortex window of opportunity to hit the top step of the podium may be closing. Who started that rumour? Okay, maybe I did. Have fun guys, proud to call you all my friends as without my Moto friends I am sure I would die of loneliness.
Whatever you get up to this weekend friends, stay safe and keep that Moto passion pinned. Until next ‘Friday Flight‘ …….Airmail’ out………………
