FXR Racing Presents The Delaware Race Report With Mike McGill

 

The Supercross portion of the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series made a stop in London, Ontario on Saturday night as the Delaware Speedway played host to the second round of the Supercross Series.

Delaware Speedway, located about 15 minutes west of London, has been a fixture on the Canadian Stock Car Racing scene since it opened its doors way back in 1952. This, however, was the first time, in my memory anyways, that a motocross/supercross style event has been held at the venerable speedway. I’ve personally attended Arenacross, Motocross and now Supercross events in this inaugural season of the Jetwerx Series and I must say that I’ve been impressed every time, especially by the new additions of Arenacross and Supercross. Not that I wasn’t impressed by the Motocross Series but the foundation for that was already solidly in place.

Being from London and knowing what Londoner’s are like, I was a little concerned about what the attendance would be like for this race because I hadn’t really heard much about it via the traditional promotional outlets. Nothing on local radio or television, and I didn’t even see any articles in the local paper, but I must admit I could have missed something. I guess what I’m trying to say is, there just didn’t seem to be any buzz surrounding this event, but any fears of sub par attendance were quickly put to rest as I pulled into the facility with my son and a couple of his buddies in tow as there seemed to be plenty of cars and activity taking place.

In fact, by the time the first gate dropped, shortly after 7:00pm the place was pretty much packed. I have no official numbers but the main grandstand was full, the licensed area was completely jammed, imagine that, and even the grass hill to the north of the Grandstand was filled with folks checking out the races. The weather has been a bit weird in this area for the last week or so as it’s been hot, hot, hot during the days and cooling off dramatically at night. Saturday night was no exception as the temps dipped down to a very chilly 8 degrees by the time the races were done. No problem for hearty moto fans, though, and the vibe at the old speedway was great and the fans all seemed to be into it.

The track itself was made up of a hard packed type of soil, which was good in the sense that the faces of the jumps didn’t get all rutted up and quickly broken down. The need for grooming was minimal so the program moved along at a nice pace. Of course, the draw back to the hard-packed soil is that it hurts more when you pile into it face first and there was plenty of that going on Saturday night. Right off the bat, 250 class competitor Travis Roberts went down extremely hard in a double-double rhythm section, and that kind of set the tone for the evening in the Pro classes. While it wasn’t a full-blown Supercross track in terms of lap times, I believe the times were around 40 seconds, the obstacles and rhythms were extremely gnarly and technical. Those who made mistakes paid for them in a big way as there were several spectacular, cartwheeling crashes over the course of the evening. Thankfully, Travis got up and walked away, as did all the other riders who went down so we got lucky there.

In the 250s, the class of the field was MX 101/ Royal Distributing/ FXR/ Factory Yamaha rider and Prince George, BC native Jess Pettis. Pettis looked pretty much unbeatable all night and has been on a real roll since the outdoor season started. Pettis rocketed to the front and easily won his heat race, and after a short but entertaining battle with Shawn Maffenbeier, cruised to a convincing win in the final. Pettis is the real deal and will hopefully turn a few heads in a couple weeks as he represents Team Canada at the MX of Nations at Red Bud. Right now, I would say this kid is solidly on track to become the next big star of Canadian motocross. The podium in the 250 class was filled out by Monster Energy/ Alpinestars/ Piller’s Kawasaki rider Shawn Maffenbeier who looked great, even though he doesn’t have a lot of Supercross experience, but just didn’t have the speed to match Pettis. PPR MX’s American import Logan Karnow rounded out the podium in third and looked comfortable all night on the Supercross style layout. Honourable mention must go out to rookie Pro Jake Tricco who looked great all night in his first race as a true Pro and brought his Motopark/ Yamaha Canada sponsored effort home in 5^th overall. Great job by the kid. Conversely, it was a surprisingly tough night for the Thor/ KTM Canada rider, Woodstock, Ontario’s Tanner Ward. Many, myself included, had Ward pegged for a podium and maybe even a win, but the first year Pro had a tough qualifier, and after a tumble in the Dollar-Rama-rhythm-section (my son and I loved that by the way) on the first lap of the main he called it a night. Disappointing night for the kid but he’ll come back strong the next round, I’m sure.

The premier 450 class was stacked with talent as Colton Facciotti, Tyler Medaglia, Matt Goerke, Phil Nicoletti, Dylan Epstein and Cole Thompson were all in attendance. All signs pointed to some great racing, and when the gates dropped the boys did not disappoint. Honda Canada/ GDR Fox Racing’s Colton Facciotti, fresh off his fifth outdoor National Championship, looked awesome in his black Fox gear and took the top spot in qualifying. Rockstar Energy/ OTSFF/ Yamaha’s Matt Goerke looked like a man on a mission in his heat race as he blitzed the whoop section at the end of the front straight at a higher rate of speed than any other competitor. He made a great pass on Colton in the whoops in his heat and certainly looked like a force to be reckoned with in the final. Goerke’s teammate, “Filthy” Phil Nicoletti, looked strong as well but maybe just a tick off of Facciotti and Goerke. Thor/ KTM Canada’s Cole Thompson excels in the Arenacross/ Supercross-style events and was looking super-smooth and fast during qualifying and heat race action. Thompson was leading Facciotti in the points battle for the Triple Crown Championship and the $100,000.00 coming into this event and Saturday’s main event at Delaware was setting up to be a pivotal round in the chase for the Championship, and the cash.

As the gate fell on the Main Event, Nicoletti got the start and jumped out to an early lead, with Thompson, Goerke and Facciotti in hot pursuit. Thompson was all over Nicoletti right away and soon put a move on Phil on the second rhythm section on the back straight. Thompson, Goerke and Facciotti were all going double-triple while Phil chose to go double-double-single, which cost him as Facciotti would end up passing him in the same spot. More on that later.

The fastest rider on the track was Matt Goerke as he was blitzing the whoops and gaining time all over the track. Unfortunately, it all ended very badly and very quickly for Matt on the 3^rd or 4^th lap as he went over the bars big-time coming through the rollers on the front straight. It was a horrendous crash, which ended with Goerke’s bike nailing him in the back just to add insult to injury. Man, these guys are tough. I really don’t know too many people who could have gotten up and walked away from that but fortunately Goerke was able to leave the track under his own power, although I’m sure he is extremely sore today.

For my money, Facciotti looked amazing on Saturday night. Throughout his heat and the final he didn’t put a wheel wrong and looked smooth and fast. This guy is a true Champion and certainly one of the all-time greats. I believe he passed Nicoletti on a yellow flag after yet another rider went down hard on the back straight rhythm section but he would have made the pass very quickly so it certainly didn’t affect the outcome, although Phil might have something to say about that. As it so often does in Supercross, it all comes down to the starts and Thompson always seems to get great ones. There really wasn’t much to separate them as both riders ran a flawless race, and in the end, Thompson took the win and added to his lead in the series and the race for the hundred-grand. The two smoothest guys took the top two spots on the podium, and perhaps that was the biggest indicator of how difficult this layout was.

Overall it was a great night. The fans came out in droves and loved every minute of it. Could a few things have been done differently? Sure. The layout for the pit party could have been better as the rigs were parked kind of awkwardly and made it a little tricky for the fans to get around. Not a big deal but hey, attention to detail is everything and I’m sure the powers that be will improve on that for next time.

The lighting – it wasn’t good. Every rider mentioned it was tough to see out there and it was actually a little dangerous. Maybe they can bring in some extra lighting for next time as I’m sure that’s going to be a contentious point going forward. 

The amateurs – I know they must fill out the program but watching Juniors try to ride that track, especially as a few of them were trying to do the jumps, was just making me cringe. I’m at an age now where, as a dad, I worry about these kids and that seemed scary to me.

Very enjoyable night of racing, though. The program moved along nicely and I must say that track announcer Ryan Gauld does a nice job of both announcing the races and keeping the program moving. The attendance was very solid, which has to make the Jetwerx folks happy, and it’s really nice to see a homegrown Supercross Series in Canada again, for the first time since the ‘80s. Hopefully the next two events in Quebec and Hamilton will prove to be as much of a success as this one was, and the Series, on the whole, will continue to grow and thrive for years to come.