Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Montreal Supercross – after hearing all about the history of this race, it’s pretty special to say you get to race it. Even though it’s not quite as big as it used to be, it’s still unbelievable. People in Montreal are pretty lucky; that stadium is unlike anything I have ever been in before. I could only imagine a real supercross in there and how big it could be, let alone sold out with thousands of fans.
Some of you may have noticed I was riding for a new team there. The Sky Racing Team I was originally on was only for outdoors. They helped me with some Arenacross but their main concern was the outdoors and they did not wish to do the SX portion of the series. With that, Julian from the PR-MX team called and offered me a spot for the three rounds left in the year. I honestly don’t think I could be happier with my decision to come and go racing. With little time to prepare and not knowing anyone on the team and never riding a Kawasaki, it was up in the air on how I would do or feel. It took a little getting used to; new bike, tires, suspension company, bars, literally everything was different besides the gear I was wearing. I was able to get about four solid days of riding at SMX here in Quebec and London, Ontario at a new private SX track that was well worth the 7-hour drive.
As far as my riding and racing is concerned, I was pretty happy with how it went. Practice was a bit of a struggle, never really finding a flow and making dumb mistakes. The whoops were tricky; the first practice I tried skimming them the entire time but never figured them out. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one though, considering everyone jumped them all night. That was the hardest part for me because I haven’t hit a real set of whoops in almost two years. Let’s all just agree I need some work and move on. My starts weren’t great but I at least I knew to always start on the inside so I could sneak around both insides and make some passes, which worked. I started about 5th to 8th each race, not great, but it could have been a lot worse. The mains were like the perfect length, I thought, long enough that there was plenty of good racing. When everyone gets super spread out, that’s when it gets boring.
As far as the car and quad racing, I guess it was cool. Could the show do without it? Probably. Would it have been nice if the car didn’t hit the starting gate and break it? Yes, but it was something new to watch that you don’t ever see. I love the freestyle, those guys amaze me. Everything they do, even just the gap they jump is insane. I looked at it on track walk and was amazed.
I know I have things to work with my riding, but a big concern of mine is fitness. I had too many moments this summer where I didn’t feel fit enough to go 100% the entire moto and I don’t like that at all. Before coming to Quebec, I was fully focused on my off-the-bike training and that’s how it will be when I get home on Tuesday until I return to Quebec the Tuesday before the second round. This year I don’t want fitness to be in question at any moment. Like I said before, I seem to be meshing well with the bike so far, little things to change here or there but nothing too crazy when I get back. I also don’t have a Kawi back home yet so it will be easy to keep my focus on what I need. Hopefully this weekend I proved that with a little more time on the bike I will be able to podium these next two races in Quebec and Hamilton. We will have to wait to see. Thanks, and see you at the races.
