It doesn’t take a motocross genius to notice how much has changed in our sport in the past few decades. Not only have the bikes changed dramatically, but so have the tracks and the way that riders ride them. When four-strokes were introduced to the common rider in, let’s just say, 2001, for argument sake, riders all of the sudden didn’t have to put things like carrying speed through corners at the top of their check lists. With a simple twist of the throttle on a four-stroke, a rider had power and traction to spare, and at the time, it didn’t take riders long to become lazy. Fast forward to now and riders in almost every class have adapted and the racing has once again gone back to how it used to be. I’m not saying that two-strokes are making a comeback (although I think every rider should ride a two-stroke until they’re at least 16), I just feel that riders of today have figured out (once again) that in order to gain the advantage on their competition, they have to extract every ounce of speed out of the track and their machines.
Young Jake Tricco is one of our top amateur riders who is also very smooth on his bike. Photo by Summer Denzler
Having been at the races this past summer in almost every province, I’ve been lucky enough to watch many of our top amateur kids. I can say that without a doubt our young riders are some of the most talented that I’ve ever seen. You see, when I was a young up and coming rider, if you took the top ten amateur riders, only a few had really good style. Only a few knew how to jump well, and some were limited by the type of track conditions that they were racing on. Today, 99% of our young phenoms are good at just about every aspect of riding and their style is impeccable. Whether we’re talking about some of our mini riders, our supermini riders, or our young riders that are riding bigger bikes, they way they ride and the way they envision the track is far ahead of anything I’ve ever seen. So with so much parity with both rider and machine these days, what is there to separate riders and why are some still simply better than others?
Thanks to his smooth and efficient riding this summer, Tanner Ward was able to make a few trips to the podium. Photo by James Lissimore
This past weekend while attending the 2017 Baja Brawl with my son, I was able to sit and watch a few of America’s top amateur riders. With the Baja Brawl now being one of the top amateur events on the calendar, many of the Loretta Lynn’s top ten finishers were in Michigan that weekend. When you get many of these ultra fast kids on the same track and racing in the same conditions, it’s fairy easy to spot the subtle differences that separate them. When you’re dealing with a half a second here or a half a second there, a rider has to ride a near perfect race in order to stay out front. One of the issues with this is that riders feel this ‘need to be perfect’ pressure. We all know that when you’re trying to be perfect on a rough race track, you end up being anything but. At Baja this past weekend, two riders in particular really impressed me. One was Team Green Kawasaki B rider Seth Hammaker and the other was our very own Tanner Ward. In Hammaker’s case, the way he rode his Kawasaki 250F was a thing of beauty. He was smooth, fast, and most of all, completely efficient. His riding reminded me a lot of Justin Cooper’s last year at Baja and we all know where Justin is now. With Hammaker, there were no wasted movements on the bike, he carried speed into his turns, he transitioned well through his turns and flowed into the exit. Over the jumps, he stayed low and maintained his speed, but he didn’t throw ridiculous, energy sapping scrubs. Even though he was racing a 250F, he still managed to keep his RPMs low and used his power wisely. Even though Seth and his competition were just seconds apart on the track, the Team Green rider was very, and here is that word again, efficient. Tanner Ward was riding the same way this past weekend and it was awesome to see just how far the KTM rider has come in the past year. Not that Tanner wasn’t fast before, it’s just now he looks so much more confident on the bigger bikes, and he’s able to make the bike do exactly what he wants. Tanner has become so much more efficient on the bike, and he was the fastest rider at Baja Acres last weekend.
All summer long Shawn Maffenbeier didn’t waste any energy on the bike as he took home his very first Canadian MX2 Championship. Photo by James Lissimore
Today’s riders need to be fast, fit and determined to be the best. Even though so much has changed in our sport, the recipe for success hasn’t. The riders who win are the riders who not only have all of these intangibles, but they have also figured out how to be completely efficient on the motorcycle. This past summer I also got to watch our newest MX2 Champion Shawn Maffenbeier race from coast to coast. Shawn was not only the fastest rider this summer in the MX2 class, but he was also the smoothest. Again, the most efficient. I loved watching him ride this summer and I think that he is one of our top pros that our younger generation should try to emulate, both on and off the track. So next time you go riding, instead of trying to just go fast, slow down and work on being smooth and efficient on your bike. It may take some practice, but sooner or later your results will no doubt improve.