Good day and welcome to the first Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop of May. Before I get into the news of the week, let me first start off by thanking Honda Canada Racing for their continued support in 2017. With their Honda Canada GDR Fox team all set to compete in the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals this summer, we should be seeing a lot of red at the front of the pack in both the MX2 and MX1 classes.
Eli Tomac definitely wasn’t himself on the challenging New Jersey track. Photo by Krystyn Slack
As I’m sure when all of you witnessed the race on Saturday evening in New Jersey, you probably wondered if the drama of the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross Series is ever going to end. Well, after a crazy night of racing at Round 15 (in both classes), I guess the answer to that question is yes, but we’re going to have to wait until next weekend in Las Vegas. In the 250SX East class, all of us thought Joey Savatgy had survived NJ in one piece and would be taking the red plate into the final round. However, within an hour of the main event concluding, the AMA determined that Joey had re-entered the track illegally after his crash. The penalty for Joey was a very stiff five positions in the main event results, and more importantly, the loss of the points lead to Jordon Smith. It was a devastating blow to Savatgy’s title hopes as he must now head into Las Vegas as the hunter, instead of the hunted. With the combined 250SX East and West format at the final round, anything can happen.
After his incident in the main event, Joey Savatgy will head into the final round trailing Jordon Smith by one point. Photo Krystyn Slack
In the 450SX class it also drama, drama, and more drama as Ryan Dungey and Eli Tomac once again were front and centre in the headlines. When the gate dropped on the main event, the jammed packed Met Life Stadium witnessed Jason Anderson rocket to the lead. Anderson’s time in the lead was short lived, though, as he washed out the front end of his Husqvarna on lap two. With Anderson out of the way, the crowd roared with excitement as Eli Tomac took over the lead and tried his best to pull away. With Ryan Dungey right behind him, Tomac then did something we haven’t seen him do since the opening rounds of the series: he made a mistake. With the pressure of the red plate acting like a cerebral backpack, Tomac cross rutted a left hand corner and crashed. It was an unbelievable sight, and even though the television coverage of Supercross is top notch these days, the camera couldn’t catch Ryan Dungey’s eyes popping out of his head! For the past few months, through all of his struggles and all of his calculated riding, this was the moment that Dungey had been waiting for. I’m sure that during the week while preparing for each race, the people closest to Dungey have been reassuring him that if he just stayed the course and used his experience as his greatest asset, that sooner or later Tomac would make a major mistake. Dungey has done exactly what an experienced champion is supposed to do, he’s performed the best he could with the situations that have been presented to him, he’s been patient, he has said all of the right things, and now, thanks to all of these internal attributes, he now has a great chance to win his fourth SX Championship.
Now, there is still one race to go, and as I said above, anything can happen. As we saw on Saturday night, the only thing we can expect is the unexpected. I for one never thought in a million years that Tomac would react to the immense pressure he was under like that. He simply made a small mistake and went down, and then when he remounted and began his charge forward, he just couldn’t get the same flow that we’ve seen from him in 2017. I’m sure Tomac thought that when he got up and started going that he would be able to pick off guys fairly easily. But, the track on Saturday night wasn’t Salt Lake City, or Seattle. It was a miserable, tight and rutted mess. It was a perfect Dungey track, and certainly not a Tomac track. I think anyone who has ever raced a motocross bike knows how Tomac was feeling during that main event. Once you get on the struggle bus, it is sometimes hard, or even impossible, to get off. All of the sudden, the bike isn’t going where you want it to, your stress level begins to build, and before you know it, your race is going exactly how Tomac’s did in New Jersey. His race was a costly disaster, and now with one round to go, Tomac’s destiny is not his to control. With nine points now separating these two riders and a ton of KTM/Husqvarna allies in the 450 field, Ryan Dungey is in a very good spot as the series heads into Las Vegas.
After playing second fiddle to Eli Tomac for the past few months, Ryan Dungey finally put it all together in NJ and took back the 450SX points lead. Photo by Krystyn Slack
Finally, I’m not sure what everyone expected to happen in the closing laps on Saturday night. However, in my opinion, that is why you have teammates and friends on the track. Of course Musquin was going to let Dungey by, and what is wrong with that? Dungey rode very well to stay with Musquin for the entire race, so good on Musquin for being a good teammate. I’m sure if Musquin had a big lead then he would’ve carried on and won the race, but his lead was small as the white flag came out and he did what any good teammate would do. I actually can’t believe that Josh Grant didn’t slow and let Tomac by in the closing stages of the main event. I know Grant had a little bit of a lead over his teammate but that extra point could come in handy this weekend, especially since Tomac just needs to finish in a tie with Dungey to take home this title. Anyway, we’ll see what happens this weekend at the final round in Las Vegas!
From the breathtaking excitement of the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross Series to the bleak and depressing weather that has engulfed Southern Ontario for the past month, this has been one of the wettest Aprils in history, and this past weekend was no different. Yesterday was so cold and wet that AMO had to cancelled their race at Moto Park. It’s awful when any race has to be cancelled as so many people are counting on them to happen. The good news though, is that if you were really looking forward to racing this weekend then head to Gopher Dunes for the CMRC race. I’m sure I’m not the only rider out there who is happy that this wet month of April is now behind us.
Well, that is it for me this week. In closing, I’d like to pay tribute to one of the greatest racers of all time. Exactly 23 years ago today Ayrton Senna died in a crash during the first few laps of the Imola Grand Prix. During his long Formula 1 career, Senna represented everything that a racer should be. He worked extremely hard, he was successful, he gave back to multiple charities throughout his career, and he was simply magical both on and off the track. His life was taken from him way too soon and today we celebrate his life. He wasn’t a motocross racer, but like most of you reading this, Ayrton Senna just loved to race and that made him one of us. I hope everyone has a great week and let’s all get ready for the final round of one of the most exciting supercross series to date!
Here is a cool photo of ex Ontario pro rider Brian Kelly getting it done during a cold and wet bicycle race this past weekend.