Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! It’s hard to believe that we’re almost to the mid-point of April, but we are, and finally, the weather is starting to warm up in much of Canada. Unfortunately, rain forced the cancellation of the 2023 Future West MX Championships opening round in Mission, BC. Ryan Lockhart told us on Friday in his 3 Q story that this round will be rescheduled, so look for that announcement soon. The forecast for this coming week in Southern Ontario looks outstanding, so no doubt more and more tracks will be opening. The famous Motopark track in Chatsworth, Ontario, held its opening day this past weekend so things are slowly starting to get rolling.
I took my son riding yesterday, and we hit up two tracks in one day. We first went to Dylan Rempel’s track and rode some laps there. Dylan’s track was rebuilt last fall and is currently in great shape. Dylan was also there riding, so it was good to see him ride again. He looked very fast and definitely more at home on his KX250F than he did at this time last year. Now that Dylan has had a year under his belt in the pro class and a solid winter in training down south, he could be very good this summer in the Triple Crown Series. The 250 class is stacked with talent this summer, and it could be one of those series where we see a different winner each weekend. I like Rempel’s hard-charging style and determination so watch for him in 2023 and beyond. After riding for a few hours at Rempel’s track, we drove over to Gopher Dunes to finish the day off. As usual for this time of the year, Gopher Dunes was busy with riders and families, and the main paddock area was full. As I mentioned above, spring is in the air, and you could feel it at Gopher Dunes as many people were there enjoying the sun and the ideal track conditions.
One former top Ontario rider I ran into yesterday was Kyle Keast, whom I haven’t seen in a few years. When Kyle was in his prime a decade ago, he was famous for two things, his grit and his ability to ride the Gopher Dunes track so well. That makes sense, as you cannot ride the Gopher Dunes well if you don’t possess some grit and determination. However, Kyle took it to a new level, and during his career, almost all of his best national performances came in the deep sand of the Schuster Compound. It was great to see ‘The Dozer’ back at the track yesterday with his dad, and they said they’re planning on doing some racing this season. Kyle is 38 now, so he’s still a couple of years away from the 40-plus class, but hopefully, this season is a sign of things to come for the Keast family, and we’ll see them at the track again for years to come. All we need now in Ontario is to have Chuck Mesley return to the track, which might bring John Nelson of Machine Racing fame back to hang out also. With Keast and Mesley being John’s favourite two riders of all time (maybe they’re two and three, as Jeff Surwall is #1), I’m sure he’d want to come out and see them battle once again.
Moving from spring riding in Canada to the Glendale SX in Arizona on Saturday evening. As you probably know, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac came into Glendale tied atop the 450SX class points standings. Having two riders tied in points this late into a Supercross Series has only happened a couple of times over the history of our sport, so this season has certainly turned into something special. Glendale was also a Triple Crown format, so the riders had to deal with three shorter main events on the hard and slippery track. I’m not going into all the details, as you can watch the highlight package to see how each race went, but I will say that Tomac definitely asserted his dominance on Saturday night. Regardless of who you’re cheering for in this 450SX series, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Tomac came in with a game plan and executed it perfectly. On the other side of things, Webb was a little off the pace in qualifying, and while he did recover and show great speed in the three main events, some crucial mistakes cost him the win and the shared red plate with Tomac. Now, these two warriors head to a day race and a speedway race in Atlanta this coming weekend!
The lone Canadian racing was Cole Thompson, who entered Glendale inside the top ten in the 250SX West class points standings. Cole is having a great SX season, and once again in Glendale, he proved that he’s capable of finishing near or even inside the top five. His 8-10-15 main event finishes weren’t indicative of how well he rode in Glendale, and if he hadn’t come together with Yoder in the final main event Cole, no doubt, would’ve had his best finish of the season. With a weekend off before the first of two East/West Shootout races of 2023 in New Jersey, Cole plans to keep training hard to finish the season strong. I contacted him on Sunday evening, and he said this about his night in Arizona.
“I had a decent night, and in the final main event, I was on my way to getting my best finish of the series. Unfortunately, I came together with another rider on the opening lap of main event #3, and his bike and leg got stuck in my wheel. By the time I got going again, I was a lap down and could only charge back up to 15th. In the end, I went 8-10-15 for 11th overall. We now have a few weeks off, and I plan to keep working hard so I can finish the 250SX West Series off strong.”
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and a safe few days of riding. As I mentioned, this weekend is the always exciting Atlanta SX and hopefully another great riding weekend in Canada. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at chris@mxpmag.com.
