FXR Presents The Mid-Week Report By Andy White

With it’s loamy dirt and old school design, the Ulverton Track is one of Andy’s favourite. photo by James Lissimore

What another fantastic weekend of racing we had at Ulverton, Quebec. The track is located deep in the countryside not too far from Drummondville. This is the 9th round of the CMRC Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals presented by Motovan. The weather was perfect with low humidity and sunny skies. The spectator turnout was really good. This track is well designed on the side of some pretty big hills so you can see pretty well the whole track. The fans were not let down; the action was unreal. The same four top guys put on one hell of a show. Colton Facciotti has found some extra speed. Metty and Goerke have their work cut out for them. Cole Thompson looked like he is really gelling with his factory KTM 450. The MX2 class had some great battles as well – I expected Kaven Benoit to run away with both motos, but no! And the final round of three in the east, the Women’s National race was fun to watch too.

Let’s get right to the action. Jessica Patterson made a surprise visit to the final round. She worked out a deal to use a Yamaha 250F from the Canada’s Motorcycle/MX101 team for the weekend. She didn’t disappoint the fans at all. One holeshot and going 1-1 gave her the overall for the day (Megan Brodeur surprised the crowd with the first holeshot). Eve Brodeur gave Patterson a run for her money (ha!) for a few laps in Moto 2 before she fell off the pace. That’s ok, Eve only needed to put in two solid motos to wrap up the championship. With a 2-2, Eve was crowned CMRC Eastern Canadian Women’s National Champion for the second year in a row.

Kaven Benoit took home his second MX2 Championship in a row in Ulverton by finishing second overall. photo by James Lissimore

Local hero and Royal Distributing/Fox/KTM rider Kaven Benoit had one plan for the weekend – to ride smooth and score enough points to wrap up the MX2 series. Well, that’s exactly what he did! Benoit holeshot the first moto and basically checked out. Moto 2 was not quite the same and Benoit was in 4th around the first corner. It only took three laps for the 2014 Champ to move up into the lead. Lap 5 everything changed, as Jeremy Medaglia put on one heck of a charge. The GDR Honda-mounted rider worked his way past Benoit and put some space between them. Jeremy came off a good Moto 1 by finishing 2nd behind Benoit. In Moto 2 you could tell that Medaglia wanted it bad and he never looked back, even when Benoit put in a couple solid laps late in the moto. Jeremy looked solid on his Honda, and going 2-1 gave the Ontario resident the overall for the weekend. Benoit cruised to a 1-2 for a 2nd overall and was crowned 2015 MX2 Champion. Finishing 3rd overall for the day was Dylan Wright by going 4-3. Wright looked very good on his Canada’s Motorcycle/FXR Yamaha. His teammate Decotis went 3-4 for 4th overall. Jimmy was not having the day he hoped for, but I am sure we will see Jimmy rebound at Walton this coming weekend at the final round of the series. Rounding out 5th for the day was Blake Savage on his Devils Lake Yamaha. Blake had a pretty good weekend by going 6-5.

I hope I get this right – the 450 guys really made it interesting on Sunday! Let’s talk about Colton Facciotti on his GDR Honda 450. This ex-Canadian champ has found some extra speed the last few weekends. Ulverton is a good track for lines and roughness and I was pretty sure Colton would impress once again. We were not let down one bit; Colton rocketed off the start and by Lap 2 he was gone – and that’s all she wrote. Moto 2 was unreal. Colton started off with a good solid start and moved in behind Metty and Cole Thompson, who was leading second moto. Lap 11 and 26 minutes into the moto, Colton decides he has had enough, clicking it into high gear and knocking 3 seconds off his best lap time. He motored by Cole Thompson and now leader Brett Metcalfe. Within a lap and a half, the 2014 Champ was out in front with only a few laps to go. Metty had nothing for Colton as they crossed over the finish line. Colton crossed the finish line with one crazy whip as he won the overall for the day with a 1-1. Monster Energy/Leading Edge/Kawasaki rider Brett Metcalfe, who finished 2nd overall on the day by going 2-2, looked solid. His goal was to make up as many points as possible as he has fallen to 3rd in the points chase after two DNFs during the series. Rockstar/OTSFF/Yamaha rider and series points leader Matt Goerke earned a solid 3rd overall on the day with a 3-3.

I’m sure Matt would have liked to have had better results, but he is also looking at the championship. With one round to go Matt now has a 13 point lead over Colton. Walton is going to be pretty exciting! Finishing 4th on the day was Royal Distributing/Fox/KTM-mounted rider Cole Thompson. I feel he had one of his best races this year. The results may not show it but Cole was able to run at the same speed as the leaders this past weekend. As this was the first time Cole had ever ridden at Ulverton, I feel that he will shine at Walton as he has put in many laps on the hard pack track. Rounding out 5th overall was Tyler Medaglia on his Parts Canada Husky 450 with a 6-7 for the day.

The ageless John Dowd showed up again in Ulverton and finished an amazing 8th overall in the MX1 class. photo by James Lissimore

My shout-outs for the weekend go to a few riders. How about John Dowd, who turned 50 on the Monday after the race? I know of a few riders that were not happy that they were smoked by a guy that was, let’s say, a few years older. Seth Rarick looked way more comfortable on his Yamaha 450 this past weekend, though he had a little bad luck with some rear brake issues and a crashed late in Moto 2. I see Seth as a top 10 competitor in 2016. Keast and Schmoke had another solid battle and they both finished in the top 10. Looks like Mike Treadwell had a decent day by going 22-13 for 17th overall. That’s it for the week – only a few days until Walton. Should be a good one! See you at the races!