Decal Works Presents The Monday Gate Drop

This weeks Monday Gate Drop is brought to you by the hockey loving people at DeCal Works. Even though racing season has begun in Canada, it’s not too late to go to www.decalmx.com and order your own set of custom graphics. Any colour, any design, anything is possible at DeCal Works.

Photos from Moto Park are courtesy of Heather Davison Greig.

I’m sure every racer at one time or another has felt the way that I do this morning. Even though I only rode a total 45 minutes this past weekend, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. It’s the same old story, you can practice all you want but to actually get behind a gate and go racing (even if it’s a four lap moto) definitely makes your body and mind feel different. However, lucky for my faithful Gate Drop readers, my fingers are the only part of my body that don’t hurt so I ‘m able to do a little typing this morning.

Of course, the racing that I’m talking about is the first two rounds of the 2015 New Era Moto Park Cup that took place this past weekend in Chatsworth, Ontario. These highly successful Moto Park Cup events began a number of years ago and since their inception the entries have been increasing and the support has been amazing. There are many reasons for the success of this event. First off, the prizes are abundant with giveaways, cash holeshot awards and plaques for almost everyone. There is also cool events throughout the weekend like fireworks, rider interviews with announcer Dave Bell, and a steak and chicken BBQ on Saturday evening. However, the biggest reason why this event has taken off is that just simply, Moto Park is a great place to go and spend a weekend riding.

With all of the above taking place off the track, lets talk about some of the action that happens on the track. Saturday morning started off a little slow as a thick fog had stationed itself over the Moto Park facility. Add in the fact that a good amount of rain had fallen on Friday night so the perfectly groomed track was pretty sloppy. After the very muddy practice had concluded the first motos were postponed for about an hour to see if the pea-soup like fog would clear. Eventually the fog did lift a little and once O’Canada was done blasting over the loud speakers, the gate dropped on the first moto off the weekend!

With riders coming from all over Ontario to this event, the competition was incredible in all classes. Top amateur riders like Jake Tricco, Marco Cannella and Austin Watling have made the Moto Park Cup a must attend on their racing schedule. The Pro-Am class also saw a large entry list as over 25 riders lined up for their shot at glory and the $250 that came with each moto win. Riders like Kyle Keast, Dylan Wright, Nathan Bles, Shawn Robinson, Zeb Dennis and Liam O’Farrell all showed up this weekend ready to battle. With long motos and five or six riders capable of winning, this event served as a great warm up for the National riders that are headed out west next week for the opening round of the 2015 Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals in Kamloops, BC.

Out of the riders that will be lining up in Kamloops on May 31st I was very impressed with their speed and endurance, especially on Saturday when the track got very rough and the motos were long. Keast, Wright, Bles, Robinson and Eric Jeffery all looked great and appear ready to compete in Kamloops. One of those riders who won’t be heading to Kamloops but will be on the line at the Gopher Dunes National in July is O’Farrell. He was racing his very trusted KTM 250 Two-Stroke on the weekend and looked extremely fast, he actually logged the fastest lap time of the day on Saturday. If I was a team owner I’d try to give this guy a chance to race the entire MX2 series with a decent support package, he’s a great guy and a very talented rider. If I had to pick three things that impressed me about the pro racing on the weekend it would be the speed and determination of Dylan Wright, he battled from bad starts on his underpowered 250F (most pro riders were riding 450F’s) to win the overall for the weekend. The second thing that impressed me was how smooth I thought Kyle Keast looked this weekend. Smoothness hasn’t always been part of The Dozer’s repertoire but I thought he rode very efficiently on the rough Moto Park track. Finally, as I mentioned before, for Liam O’Farrell to show up this weekend without a lot of seat time and still ride the way he did shows that he’s one of the most talented riders we have racing inside our Canadian borders.

So that’s wrap of the first two rounds of the 2015 New Era Moto Park Cup. Like the Parts Canada TransCan, this event went by so fast and saying good-bye last night as we left the track was definitely bitter sweet. However, the good thing is that we will see everyone again in six weeks time as the final two rounds when this awesome event will take place. It’s events like this combine intense battles on the track, yet off the track families are sitting around a camp fire socializing, while their kids are off playing and hanging out. In my mind it just further exemplifies why motocross is truly the best sport on the planet.

For complete Moto Park Cup results visit: http://www.tracksideresults.com/motopark

Finally, I know over the years we’ve all seen Ryan Gauld wear a few different hats in this sport. Well this past weekend he put on his head referee’s hat and ran the show. I thought he did a great job as there was a few issues that he was forced to deal with throughout the weekend. All in all the races ran smooth and part of that was due to the good decision making by the head referee. I also want to give a huge thank you to Iain Hayden, Mikey Walker and all of the Moto Park staff who worked their butts off to bring everyone two great days of racing. If you haven’t been to a Moto Park Cup event yet, you should definitely try it out next month for rounds 3 and 4. Until then, have a great week and we’ll see you at the track!