Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to the Easter weekend edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. Even though your area in Canada may still be experiencing winter conditions, we at MXP Magazine hope you were able to get out and ride on this first long weekend of 2018. Honda Canada’s Red Rider riding centre, Gopher Dunes, is now open six days a week with their main track and AX track. Hopefully the weather continues to improve and we can all get out riding very soon. Welcome to April!

We are now into April and at least the calendar tells us the winter is now over. This coming weekend the 2018 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series has their first eastern round as everyone will gather in Sarnia for Round 4 of the AX Series. After all of the interesting events of the opening two weekends, it will be refreshing to hit the east and see what the final three AX rounds will bring. The weather does not look great for Saturday in Sarnia, so here’s hoping for at least a dry day on race day as I’m assuming it will be an outdoor pit area. Anyway, we shall see everyone bright and early on Saturday morning in Sarnia for the amateur program. Here are the current point standings for the 450 and 250 classes:

With no real racing this weekend, there isn’t too much to talk about today. With our hockey season now over, and no racing yet to focus on, my wife and I took our son on Saturday to his first ever Toronto Blue Jays game. To be perfectly honest, I have never really been a baseball fan and Saturday was only the third Blue Jays game that I’ve ever attended. However, two years ago my son started to play baseball, and since then the game has obviously become a little more enjoyable to watch at all levels. As I sat inside the vast confines of the Rogers Centre, I couldn’t help but think about all of the years that this incredible building has held a SX and all of the excitement that goes with it. As anyone who has ever been to a Major League Baseball game knows, they’re not always that exciting. Yes, there are certainly moments that make you want to stand up and cheer, but the energy just isn’t even close to that of a supercross. The fact that these guys play 162 games in six months is pretty impressive as their season is definitely a battle of attrition. But so is any long season at the top level of any sport. Imagine trying to remain healthy and competitive in the 17 round Monster Energy Supercross Series.

I remember talking to Bobby Kiniry a few years back when he had just completed all 17 rounds of the supercross series, making almost every 450SX main event in the process. He said that the SX series was without a doubt the toughest series on the planet and he had the utmost respect for anyone who does it. He said that it’s almost impossible to remain completely healthy throughout the entire series. Even if you’re lucky enough not to suffer a serious injury during the series, by the halfway point your body is hurting, and every rider has something wrong with them. Between practice days during the week, press days at the track, and then all of the laps on race day, sooner or later the odds catch up to you and you end up having a crash or two. These little crashes may not break something, but a jammed thumb, a sore wrist, or a banged up knee can cause you a lot of pain, and yet you still have to get out there and ride. I know these baseball players are amazing at what they do, and while it’s definitely not easy to hit a 100MPH fastball or play 162 games in a season, there is just so much downtime during the game. During Saturday’s game I thought of what our top riders go through on a daily basis while the New York Yankees newest superstar, Giancarlo Stanton, didn’t get one ball hit to him in right field and makes roughly $120,000 per game. Anyway, I guess every sport is difficult in its own right and it all comes down to the sport’s main stream popularity.

Although the Blue Jays wasn’t quite as exciting as a SX, it was still a pretty cool family outing. As we made our way home (we live just over an hour from downtown Toronto) the vehicle was quiet, except for 80’s on 8 station I had playing on satellite radio. I’m sure I’m not the only person that this happens to, but do you ever hear a certain song and it just instantly takes you back to a specific time and place. Well, it happens to me a lot, and when the Def Leppard song “Hysteria” came on the radio, I started thinking about what was going on when this classic song came out 30 years ago.

In 1988, my racing season had already started by this point as back then a few of us Ontario riders competed each year in the Michigan Silverdome Series. This well attended series usually began in mid-March, and ran right up until the week before the old Pontiac SX. The purpose of this series was not just to get some early season racing in, but to also qualify for the massive amateur race inside the Pontiac Silverdome. The Silverdome Series featured not just some of our fast Ontario riders, but also all of the top riders from in and around the State of Michigan. It was an intense five weeks of racing on some of the best tracks I have personally ever raced on. Popular Michigan tracks like Morelands, Polka Dots, Bulldog’s and Iron Mustang’s were all part of the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LoJz0KgqJs

I can remember hitting the road for the long drive to Michigan right after school on Friday, racing for two days and then arriving back home late on Sunday night, and we did this for five weeks straight. Obviously, I was dragging my butt at school for most of the week, but I honestly loved the racing in Michigan and I really loved our family trips in our trusty old box van. In those days we would always travel and stay with Chris Randell and his family, as well as Chad Hartman and his family. We all had CB radios in our vehicles so we’d talk trash while speeding along the highways. It was just a fun time all around and I also remember that “Hysteria” was one of the only rock songs that my Dad would let me crank when it came on.

I actually won the 250B class in the 1988 Silverdome Series and then won the 250B main event on amateur day at the Silverdome. The Silverdome track was so soft and rutted in those days, I don’t know how the pro riders could jump anything. I raced this series in 1988, 1989, and then again in 1991. Each year was challenging and fun in its own right and it definitely made me a better all around rider. When I was lucky enough to line up for my first pro supercross at the Silverdome in 1993, I felt like I had graduated in some way. So for all you amateur riders out there, please try and enjoy every moment of your racing, even the long drives and the tough race days. For old guys like me who have to rely on thirty old memories, looking back on even the crappy days is fun.

So there you have it, a little trip down memory lane on this 2018 Easter weekend. I hope everyone had a great holiday and I hope that the beginning of April finds you healthy and happy. We shall see what the Sarnia AX brings us this coming weekend. Round 4 should be an exciting one in all classes. Stay tuned in to our Social Media channels on Saturday for updates from Sarnia, as well as the Seattle SX. Finally, if anyone is looking for a mint condition 2017 KTM 65, please email me at chris@mxpmag.com for details.