Photos by James Lissimore
Before he packs up and makes his nine hour drive from Ulverton, Quebec to Walton, Ontario for the Parts Canada Walton TransCan, photo-pro James Lissimore shares with us some of his quick favourites from Round 9 of the Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals in Ulverton, QC. It was another epic weekend at the Canadian Nationals with Tyler Medaglia, Shawn Maffenbeier and Kyle Chisholm all achieving their “firsts” of the year at Ulverton. Let’s take a look back at the action ….

The Ulverton track features a cool, old school layout with lots of elevation changes and natural flow. It’s only open one week every year, so appreciate every lap you get on this beautiful circuit.

Kaven Benoit had a good weekend results-wise, but everything else that happened in Ulverton he hopes to put behind him. Despite extreme emotions between the fans and Vince Friese with Benoit stuck in the middle, the KTM rider rode through the poop to finish 1-5 for second overall. He now has a 42 point lead over Friese heading into the final around at Walton Raceway this Sunday.

We know how passionate Quebec fans can be but this past weekend things may have gone too far when they showed their displeasure with the American Vince Friese. Of course, Friese had something coming to him after giving Benoit a hard time on the track in many of the rounds this year, but that stuff should stay between the riders and not involve fans or other people at the track. It should be dealt with by the race officials.

Colton Facciotti nailed both MX1 holeshots in Ulverton. Almost looks like the first corner at Glen Helen!

It’s a breakout year for Ontario’s Nathan Bles! The young rider came into the eastern rounds with minimal bike or training time but that hasn’t hurt him on the results board. Bles always gets a good start and is capable of riding the top guys’ pace for the early laps. That helped him to 6th overall with 4-8 moto scores in MX1. He’s now 10th in the series and should stay there if he keeps it going for the final two motos at Walton.

Colton Facciotti chases down Mike Alessi in the second MX1 moto. Facciotti bettered Alessi on this day taking second overall to Mike’s 11th and now holds a 44 point lead (almost one entire round) with one more race to go.

Shawn Maffenbeier hunting down Vince Friese in the second MX2 moto. Look at the width of this track. Although, as good as it looks, most riders said it was the roughest track of the year and really forced the riders to focus on every bump – and not to hit the worst of them!

Shawn Maffenbeier took his first MX2 moto win and overall of the year at Ulverton. Only two more points and Maffenbeier could finish second in the championship!