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Welcome to the month of October everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend whether you were riding, racing or just enjoying the first official weekend of fall. With one Canadian Arenacross series all set to restart this coming weekend in Sarnia, this Country’s longest running indoor series kicked off out West in Armstrong, BC. I will let our man on the scene, Brett Worrall, fill you in on all of the details as he was front and centre all weekend. However, by the sounds of it, the racing was pretty intense as Ross Johnson, Brad Nauditt and Ryan Lockhart battled hard during both nights of racing. With the weather changing for the worse right across Canada, it’s great for some of our riders to have a few options to keep racing these cool indoor events.
As the Future West Canadian AX Series takes a few weeks off, the Monster Energy Canadian National AX Tour hits the Hiawatha Horse Park this weekend for Rounds 3 and 4. With the opening weekend in London being a great success, I’m sure all of the amateur and pro riders are very excited to get back on the race track. With this weekend’s track being outside, thankfully the weather forecast looks very favourable for Friday and Saturday. One new entry that we’ll get to see this weekend is GDR Honda rider Kyle Keast who said on Social Media last week that he was looking forward to racing arenacross in Sarnia. It’s been a while since I’ve seen ‘The Dozer’ race an indoor-type event so it should be very interesting to watch. What he may lack in starting prowess, Keast makes it up in aggression and intensity, so I would predict a little bumping as he tries to make his way through the pack. Whatever happens, it’s going to be very exciting this weekend in Sarnia. If you live in Southern Ontario and you feel the earth shake on Friday night, don’t worry, it’s not an earthquake, it’s probably just Keast and Bobby Kiniry fighting for the same line in one of the corners. If you can’t make it to Sarnia, Billy Rainford and I will be going live at 7pm on Friday night. Just visit www.arenacrosstour.ca and follow the link for live streaming.
With arenacross on the minds of most people now, AMO/ CMRC held it’s final race of 2015 yesterday at Gopher Dunes. With over 250 entries and tons of excitement, the event that is known as “Sandstorm” blasted off without a hitch on a very nice day in Courtland, Ontario. This past season has been just what the doctor ordered for amateur motocross in Ontario. Entries were up, the tracks were all great, and the satisfaction level at a level that we haven’t seen in years. A perfect example of this content was the fact that yesterday at Gopher Dunes we saw 24 entries in the 50cc class alone. To see a full gate of kids was incredible and for the 2015 AMO season, it was definitely icing on the cake. Another very cool gesture yesterday made by Gopher Dunes track owner and AMO President Ryan Gauld, was that together they chipped in to pay the insurance fees so that over 30 extra day passes could be given out to riders who wanted to try racing for the first time. I’m sure these riders were very thankful and I’m sure they had fun.
With a boatload of fast kids like Jake Tricco, Marco Cannella and Austin Watling (just to name a few) currently racing in Ontario, and a strong 50cc class, the future is very bright as long as an organization like AMO exists. As I said, Ontario amateur motocross was badly in need of a jumpstart and this season they definitely got it with AMO/ CMRC. As a long time rider and industry person, and also a Father of an 8-year-old who just loves to go racing, I would like thank Ryan Gauld, his awesome staff, the CMRC and of course all of the Ontario tracks for helping to put a big smile on all the racers in Ontario in 2015.
Here are some photos courtesy of Danielle Berkel from yesterday’s Red Bull Sandstorm:
As part of the fun day at Sandstorm, some of the kids got together and had a track building contest.
Davin Grose won the jump contest at Sandstorm. Could Davin be the new Zeb Dennis? I think he just might be.
Even though he wasn’t able to ride because of a sore back, Canada’s new #2 rider Colton Facciotti came out with his family to support this very cool event.
A big thanks to Frank Schuster, his family and staff, and of course AMO for a great day in the sand.
This weekend is also the second annual Red Bull Straight Rhythm in California. With a line up that features riders like James Stewart, Ryan Dungey and Dean Wilson, it’s sure to be the same successful event that it was last year. The following weekend is of course the Monster Energy Cup in Las Vegas. This year’s MEC will be pretty special as James Stewart will return to racing, and it sounds as though Chad Reed will be debuting his brand new Yamaha ride. Our own Casey Keast has been training hard and will hopefully make his return to the track in the hotly contested Super Mini class. These next few weeks are going to be action packed both in the USA and right here in Canada as there’s still lots of racing to come.
I hope everyone has a great week and Happy Thanksgiving this coming weekend. My Thanksgiving will consist of arenacross and turkey; what a combination. Take care and please ride safe!