This week’s Monday Gate Drop is brought to once again by DeCal Works. Not only is DeCal Works the best graphic company world, they also happen to love hockey and are massive Chicago Black Hawk fans. With the Black Hawks now ready to face the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference final, this is a perfect time to go on www.decalmx.com and order a set of custom graphics for your new or used bike.
Let me start off this week by saying that I hope all the Moms out there had a great Mother’s Day. That day is always one of the most special days of the year as sometimes moms are the unsung heroes in our lives. Most of the time at the race track it’s the dads that are working on the bikes, going down to the starting line and working the pit board. However, even though motocross is an individual sport, to be successful you need people helping you and usually it’s your Moto Mom running around getting results, cleaning goggles, getting you water and food while she deals with the nerves of having her child compete in this sport. Have you even taken the time to watch a mom during the start of her child’s race? It is heart wrenching and it sometimes looks like she’s watching a 60 second horror film. Anyway, yesterday was their day and I hope it was a good one!
This past weekend was a slow one as far as racing goes in Canada as in some regions they took the weekend off. One race taking place was the opening round of the Quebec Arenacross Series in Montmagny, QC. Arenacross in Quebec has been around for 30 years and it’s great to see these events still going on. To add a little extra star power this past weekend Ryan Lockhart flew out from his home in BC to compete against his usually younger competitors. I spoke to Newf this morning as he told me about his tough night of racing in Quebec.
“It was fun to head back to Quebec to race an AX, but it wasn’t an easy night, that’s for sure. During the start of the main event I lined up on the inside gate. Going through the first turn I had a great start, then some idiot tried to ride around the outside of me and clipped my bars. It caused me to high side pretty much into everyone. Not only did I hit the ground hard but I also got run over and bounced around. It actually hurt a lot and by the time I got up and going I could only get up to fifth. It wasn’t a bad finish but I’m so sore right now – everything hurts. I’m getting too old for this Palms. I’m back home now so it’s time to get back to my preparation for Kamloops.”
Newf isn’t the first rider to feel awful after a night of racing in Quebec, sometimes it’s from a crash and sometimes it’s more of a self-induced pain. From one of our older and popular pro riders to another, Kyle Keast recently opened up his new training facility and classes begin this week. It’s awesome to see riders like Keast give back to the sport in so many ways. We’re actually very lucky in this country as many of our pro riders, young and old, put a lot of effort into helping the sport. Keast and his girlfriend, Shandell Przybilla, have teamed up to give riders both on the bike training as well as off the bike training. This sounds like a great program and one that will certainly help all riders. Here is the official press release from Kyle Keast.
So as everyone knows we’re less than three weeks away from the opening round of the 2015 Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals presented by Motovan in beautiful Kamloops, BC. In recent weeks I’ve been working on the Official Souvenir Program for the series so as you can imagine I’m pretty excited for the gate to drop on May 31st. Last week the teams who are about to compete in the 2015 series began to send in their team photos, and man do they look great! Let’s take a look at some of these cool photos as we’re all in for a treat in 2015.
In closing this week, I would like to give mention of one of the newest and coolest events in Canada that is going on this coming long weekend. The first two rounds of the 2015 Moto Park Cup kicks off this Saturday in Chatsworth, Ontario and I’m sure the paddock will be packed for this fast growing event. There will be two days of racing, events, prizes, fireworks and of course a Saturday night BBQ dinner for campers to enjoy. This past weekend people were already driving up to Moto Park to ride and then leave their trailer so they could save their spot for this weekend. The weather looks great for this weekend so hopefully we’ll see everyone on Saturday. There are also rumours of some pretty fast pro riders planning on attending this weekend as there is a lot of money up for grabs.
That’s it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week!! Ride safe and we’ll see you at the track. Finally, all the best to Konrad Beilke who had a crash this past weekend and ended up breaking his femur. We’ve all been there Konrad, heal up and we’ll see you back soon.
