FXR Presents The Mid-Week Report With Andy White

The 2015 Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals presented by Motovan has come to a close now that the 10th and final round wrapped up this past weekend. This year saw probably the best racing I have seen in a long time. Every weekend had a battle that we would talk about until the following weekend. The MX2 class was stacked with heavy hitters; if Kaven had not dominated like he did, we would have seen a different winner each round. The MX1 class was unreal with the speed and talent by some incredible riders. Brett Metcalfe was the favourite to crush the series, Matt Georke was coming off a broken collarbone and Colton Facciotti crashed hard only a few weeks before the first round. The only two riders that we had no real idea where they would finish in the top 5 would be Cole Thompson and Tyler Medaglia.

The top spot in the MX2 class was already decided before the final round. Kaven Benoit basically dominated the series starting at the second round and didn’t look back. The Royal Distributing/Fox/KTM two-stroke rider was pretty well unstoppable. Second and third in the series was still up for grabs; Jeremy Medaglia and Jimmy Decotis had been battling for second since the series moved eastward. With only 2 motos left in the series, there was no holding back. This was exactly what we got from these guys on the track. Kaven Benoit looked good in moto one but he was not able to catch the Boston native, Jimmy Decotis, who basically checked out on lap 2. Kaven cruised to a 2nd place finish. Moto 2 started off better for the French Canadian. Rounding the first lap, Kaven had the two Monster Kawasaki Loretta Lynn riders to deal with. Kaven was able to make a pass on Darian Sanayei and then set his sights on Michigan native Joey Crown. After a few more laps, Joey made a small mistake and went down in a corner allowing Kaven to make the pass for the lead. On the last lap of the race Kaven made an unusual mistake and tipped over in a rutted section and allowed Crown by for the win. Kaven was still the overall winner of the day with a 2-2. Second for the day was Joey Crown with an 8-1. Not an easy day for the Kawasaki rider as on lap 2 of the first moto Joey and Jeremy had a moment. It looked like Medaglia was looking to make a pass but Crown was not going to let off. When the two ruts cross lines someone is bound to go down hard. That’s exactly what happened to Medaglia. Finishing third overall for the day with a dominating first moto was Decotis. Moto 2 didn’t go as planned, though. It started out okay with a top 3 around the first corner, but by around lap 5 or so Jimmy said he almost crashed hard as his rear brakes were a little soft. The pit board said, “Ride for the Championship” and that’s exactly what the Canada’s Motorcycle/FXR/Yamaha rider did. A crazy 1-9 gave Jimmy a third for the day. Shawn Maffenbeier rode to a solid fourthoverall with 5-3 moto finishes for the day. Rounding up fifth for the day with a 4-4 was Darian Sanayei on his Monster Kawasaki.

With only 13 points separating Goerke and Facciotti, we were in for some great racing in the big bike class. This is how it went down for the day: Colton had to win both motos and Matt had to finish 4th or worst for Colt to win the series. Both riders were having a very good series with no DNFs. Their worst overall results was fourth for the day. These two warriors would need 2 motos to figure out who would leave Walton as the champion. Colton knew he had to dominate both motos and hope that Matt might run into some issues. Moto 1 played out perfectly for the 2014 champ as he got a great start and checked out for the win. Moto 2 was a different story. The final moto of the year, it’s now or never. The gate dropped and Colton, Matt and Metcalfe rounded the corner side by side. They raced down the long straight away to the 180 left hand turn with Colton on the inside and Matt 12 inches to the right. I’m not 100% sure what happened as I was still in the first turn, but what I was told it looked like Colton drove right into Matt. I wasn’t there so I can’t really tell you what went down but after the two riders picked up their bikes they were in last place. This was going to be interesting to see if Colton could put on a charge because Colton had 10 points to make up on Matt. The two moved through the field pretty fast; by lap 5 the two riders were already in fifth and seventh position. That was only a 4 point difference. By the end of the moto the two worked their way to third and fifth. This wasn’t enough for Colton to take the championship but it gave him the overall for the day. Finishing 2nd overall for the day with a 3-2 was Cole Thompson, probably his best race of the year. With a 5-1 for the day was Brett Metcalfe on his Monster Kawasaki. Mr. Consistent on his OTSFF Yamaha was Matt Goerke who cruised to a solid fourth overall for the day with a 2-5, which gave him enough points to clinch the championship. Rounding the top 5 was Parts Canada Husqvarna rider Tyler Medaglia with a solid 4-4 for the day.

My shout outs for the weekend go as follows: I feel Kyle Swanson had his best day ever with a 6-8 for a sixth overall. Dude, you need to find a ride on a 450 for 2016. The same goes for Seth Rarick. Within only a few weeks Seth finished a solid 8-10 for eighth overall. How about Jason Burke who rode the whole week in the Vet class then comes out and scores a 11-11 for a tenth overall for the day. In the MX2 class I was happy to see Dylan Wright hit the podium in the first moto and then back it up with a fifth to give him sixth overall for the day. Jess Pettis looked like he wished there were another couple of rounds to go. He had a solid day with a 9-8 for ninth overall.

I can’t believe the season is over already and I can’t wait for round one in 2016!