Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Good day and welcome to another edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. Before I get into the news of the day, I want to thank Honda Canada Racing for their continued support of not just this column but also the sport in general. As we saw last week, their star rider, Colton Facciotti, was back in Ontario for a few days to do some suspension testing before heading back down to GPF to continue his pre-season training. Colton will remain down south until mid-May getting himself prepared for the tough summer ahead. From what I know of Colton Facciotti, I would guess that he is very motivated and confident for the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals. Armed with the all-new 2017 CRF450R, as well as a new young teammate in Dylan Wright, I’d say Colton and his GDR Racing Fox Team will be very tough to beat this year.
One Canadian national team that has already been racing for a few months is the Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha Team. They have been in the USA racing the highly competitve Amsoil AX Series with Matt Goerke and Chris Blose. Both riders have had some success on this side of the border in the past few years. Goerke is a two-time MX1 Champion, while Blose easily won the Canadian National AX Tour title last year. In the Amsoil AX Series this year, Blose has definitley been the better of the two riders as he has a ton of AX experience. This past weekend in Sacremento, Blose won both main events in dominating fashion. It was a remarkable weekend for this Canadian based team, and with just a few rounds remaining, this should give them a huge boost.
These two have been a pretty good team in the 2017 Amsoil AX Series.
So with the Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha Team dominating in Northern California, a few thousand miles to the east, controversy rang loud in St. Louis. In the 250SX East class, Red Bull Troy Lee Designs KTM rider Jordon Smith took his second win in a row after a great battle with Joey Savatgy. Zach Osborne, who was really in a must win situation, could only muster a third overall in the main event after battling the flu all week. This series now takes a few weeks break and won’t resume until April 29th in New Jersey.
After last weekend’s drama in St Louis, I can’t wait for the gate to drop in Seattle. Photo by Matt Wellumson
In the 450SX class it was business as usual for Eli Tomac; he grabbed the early lead in the main event and never looked back. The Kawasaki rider is definitely on a roll as he now has seven wins on the season. Behind Tomac is where the drama really took place as Ryan Dungey, who was doing his best to keep Tomac in sight, ran into a stubborn lapper named Chad Reed just after the halfway point of the main event. After trying to get past Reed for a few laps, by the time Reed let Dungey past him, Tomac was long gone. Did Reed’s behavior change the outcome of the race? Would Dungey have been able to catch Tomac and make the pass? I’m guessing the answer is no to both questions, but sadly we’ll never know. I made a few calls last night to try and find out exactly what caused the feud between Reed and Dungey; these two have never had issues before, so what gives now? The information I was able to obtain was that it all started a few weeks ago at either Daytona or Indy, then last weekend in Detroit when Dungey threw a big elbow on Reed as they headed down the start straight during the main event. This caused Reed to veer to his left and crash pretty hard as they appraoched the first turn. Obviously, this made Reed very upset as no one enjoys being foreced into a first turn pile up, and then have to DNF the main event. I’m sure this incident made Reed ride a little more aggressive in their heat race on Saturday night as he once again battled Dungey very hard. Reed’s aggressive riding didn’t seem to amuse Dungey. During his post heat race interview, Dungey made some very questionable comments regarding Reed, adding even more fuel to the fire. All of this played into Reed’s obvious road blocking actions on Saturday evening. As they say, payback is an absloute *&@#%!
We see this type of behaviour in other sports, especially in our national sport, hockey, it happens all the time. It’s an accepted part of the sport of hockey as no one hardly ever bats an eye, unless that payback is excesive in nature. However, in supercross it’s deemed completely unacceptable; the messege boards have been blowing up ever since with fans calling for Reed’s head on a platter. Definitley a little much if you asked me, but that is the nature of our society today. Well, here is my take on the incident.
Chad Reed did his absolute best make life miserable for Ryan Dungey during the main event. Photo by Matt Wellumson
First of all, why is this such a big deal? If you put it into context, whatever it was, Dungey did some things to make Reed mad. Whatever those things were it was obviously something big as I doubt Reed would get upset over nothing. Then, when it mattered the most, he decided to pay Dungey back by making it very difficult to lap him in Saturday’s main event. As I said earlier, did it change the outcome of the race? I would say no as I doubt Dungey would’ve been able to find a way around Tomac without knocking him off the track. Reed was most definitley in the wrong when it comes to proper racing etiquette, even though rules state that a lapped rider is supposed to just hold their line while the faster rider will find their way by. Any racer knows that it’s best to just move the heck out of the way, especially on tight SX tracks when the championship battle is being played out. However, this should also serve as a learning experience to Dungey to not make unnecessary enemies when you’re battling for a championship. Dungey is clearly stressed as he’s been watching his points lead slip away for the past month, speed wise and aggression wise, Dungey is currently no match for Tomac. Even if each main event feature just a two rider race with Tomac and Dungey, Tomac would still find a way to win right now. If Dungey wants to win this title then he needs to take his anger from Saturday night and direct it towards his riding this coming weekend. He’s never been a rider who’s enjoyed riding out of his comfort zone, and for riders like him the anticipation of having to do so is a very stressful endeavour. With a possible mud race in Seattle this coming weekend, all bets could be off as anything could happen. If Dungey can hold on and win this 2017 SX title, we may all look back at the incident on Saturday night and thank Reed for waking Dungey up, instead of calling for his head on a platter.
Eli Tomac didn’t seem to mind all of the drama going on behind him as he just rolled on to another victory. Photo by Matt Wellumson
Regardless of who’s side you’re on from Saturday night, this is all great news for the series as any press is good press. With just a month left, this year’s Supercross Series is setting itself up for a fire wagon finish, something we haven’t witnessed for a number of years. So that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and I hope you all ride safe. In Ontario at least, the spring riding conditions are shaping up nicely. Gopher Dunes is in great shape and Moto Park was also in very good condition on the weekend. Have a great week and thanks again to Honda Canada Racing for all of their support.
