Decal Works Presents Monday Gate Drop

Good morning and welcome to the first Monday Gate Drop of 2015. This week’s column is brought to you again by DeCal Works. I don’t think anything could ring in the New Year better than a brand new set of custom graphics for your new or used dirt bike. All you have to do is visit their website at www.decalmx.com and within minutes you can design your very own custom set of graphics.

Just like the Chicago Black Hawks (DeCal Works’ favourite hockey team) who suffered a last minute heart breaking loss on New Year’s Day to the Washington Capitals in the 2015 Winter Classic, my 2015 also started off with disappointment. After spending the day on Friday at the Motorcycle Supershow in Toronto, I made my way to the airport to begin my long journey to California for the Anaheim Supercross. Well, to make a long and agonizing story short, my flight to LAX was cancelled so the airline put me on another flight through Montreal. It was a small detour but I’m a fairly easy going person so I thought no worries at all. When I arrived in Montreal the gate agent then informed me that due to the long distance from Montreal to LAX and the strong headwinds that pilots were experiencing, they were forced to load restrict my new flight and leave people behind, and I was one of those unlucky passengers.

So this left me with very few options as the next flight to LAX from either Montreal or Toronto wasn’t until Saturday morning which would get me to Angel Stadium around three in the afternoon. At this point I figured there was very little point in even going as part of the enjoyment for me is arriving to the track early and walking around the pits. So I had the airline change my flight completely to the end of January so I could attend Anaheim 3 on January 31st. So basically my Friday afternoon was spent flying to Montreal and back for no reason. It’s a good thing I love to fly!

It’s so on!

After all of that hassle, I was forced to scramble (like almost everyone in Canada) to try to find the race on the internet. I never did find the proper link to watch it live so if anyone was successful please email me at chris@mxpmag.com and let me know how. At least then I can watch it live moving forward. I followed the race on Twitter on Saturday evening and then as soon as I woke up on Sunday I watched both main events on YouTube. I must say that as it is with some of the opening rounds in the past, the one on Saturday night was a little anti-climactic.

The first thing I thought was how easy the track seemed for our Supercross stars. Except for maybe Will Hahn who suffered an awful crash in practice, none of the riders had trouble with the track at the opening round. A less than technical track has become the new norm for Anaheim 1 as no one wants to see riders crash themselves out of the series at round one. However, these riders spend two months training on tracks a lot tougher than the one on Saturday night so give them a little credit. The track in Anaheim was one lined and easy by supercross standards, so I thought the racing followed suit. Oh well, it was just one race and I’m sure the tracks will improve as the series navigates the west coast.

In the 450 class, it was cool to see Ken Roczen grab the early lead and ride away to victory, seemingly with no effort at all. It was a picture perfect ride for the new RCH Suzuki rider. After all of the negative press that the yellow brand has had to endure in recent weeks, Roczen’s ride couldn’t have come at a better time. If he gets these types of starts all series it could be a very long season for the other riders and a boring one for fans.

Not the best track ever constructed but it was just the first round.

Behind Roczen was a single file freight train of white, red and orange as Jason Anderson, Trey Canard and Ryan Dungey all battled to survive the opening round, with Canard being the only rider that seemed to recover well from a so so start to finish third; all of the other riders who didn’t get off the gate well had trouble making passes. I’m sure this was due to the track and the fact that at the opening round no one wants to make that big mistake that can cost you. We saw these types of errors from Davi Millsaps and Eli Tomac, who really put themselves in a hole after just 20 laps of the season. Chad Reed was another rider who started outside the top ten and really didn’t go anywhere, even finishing behind Mike Alessi. After reading on Twitter that Reed suffered some sort of issue, I made some inquires and found out that early in the main event his clutch cable broke. I’m sure Reed will get stronger and his results will improve as the series moves on. After starting off last year’s series so strong and then crashing himself out of the series in San Diego, I’m sure in the back of his head he’s very cognizant of not pushing too hard too soon.

Finally, how cool must it have been for the people at Husqvarna to finish on the podium in both classes at the opening round? Team Manager Dave Gowland and all the people behind the scenes who have brought this awesome brand back from the dead deserve a ton of credit. Obviously, so do Jason Anderson and Zach Osborne who both rode brilliantly to secure the middle spot of the podium in both the Lites and the Supercross class. How do you not love the riding of Anderson now? He just seems to have figured it out. By “it” I mean he just seems to quietly go about his work as a professional motocross rider. Nothing fancy, just doing what he needs to do to be successful. This kid could be the dark horse for the title in 2015 if a few more things fall into place for him.

2015 Title favourite Davi Millsaps had a rough night in Anaheim and could only manage an 19th place finish.

So round one is in the books and everyone now looks ahead to Phoenix this weekend. It was great to kick off the New Year with some supercross. Even though spring is still a few months away for most of us, hopefully time moves quickly and we’ll all be riding soon. I must admit, even though I was at the bike show for only a short time on Friday it was so cool just being around motorcycles again. Attending shows always brings back memories of when I was a kid and my dad used to take me to them. Back then it was always the first chance we had to see the new models. I still remember running through the International Centre as an 8-year-old, going from brand to brand to see what the new 80cc’s looked like. Even though the Stars of Tomorrow and Redemption Racing were really the only motocross set ups there on Friday, it was still good to be around some two wheeled machines again. As we also saw this weekend, Redemption Racing was showing off their brand new rider Nathan Bles on Sunday. What a great deal this is for both parties heading into the 2015 racing season. We wish our latest MXP cover boy, Nathan Bles, nothing but the best in the New Year.

Colton Facciotti’s son Keagan is all ready for a cool 2015.

That is it for me this week. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and I hope your 2015 will be a great one! In case you missed it over the holidays, here is a video that Matt Koleman did for MXP last week. It’s not only a day in the life of Ryan Lockhart but also a cool tour of the Atlas Brace and Matrix Canada offices. It’s an extremely entertaining video and another amazing edit by Matt and RTBA Films. Happy New Year!!