Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Good morning and welcome to another hot summer edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. The summer of 2018 is in full swing right now and it’s definitely time to get out to enjoy what these next few months have to offer. If you live in Southern Ontario and you want to experience a fun day of riding, then head out to Gopher Dunes. Not only do they have a famous track to ride, but they also have a large (shaded) trail system through the trees. There is something for everyone at Gopher Dunes and that is why Honda Canada has chosen it as one of their Red Riders Ride Centers.
It was great to see the 2018 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown MXTour Nationals back at Sand Del Lee. Photo by James Lissimore
I guess I will begin with the largest event from this past weekend in Canada, Round 5 of the 2018 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown MXTour Series in Sand Del Lee. It was good to have this track and facility back on the national schedule. Just like Budds Creek in the USA, it’s never a bad thing to have an event close to your Nation’s Capital. I didn’t realize until last week when I was trying to find the track’s address on their website that Sand Del Lee has been around since 1970. We always talk about historic tracks like Riverglade and Moto Park in this country, but Sand Del Lee is an age-old gem as well.
As it always seems to be at this round, the racing in the 250 Pro/Am, and 450, as well as the Women’s class, was great all day long. During each moto there was no shortage of battles and the fans in attendance were definitely entertained all day long. Let’s begin with the 250 class as it certainly had the most drama. All of the action began moments before the gate dropped when local SDL hero Dylan Wright got a little too eager and dumped the clutch on his GDR Fox Honda about 1.5 seconds early. He mowed over the gate and obviously grabbed a pretty decent holeshot. Thankfully, this rarely happens in pro motocross, although Dylan has now been guilty of it twice (remember Kamloops a few years back). I thought at that point there would be a full restart, as did most of the other riders who knew the #12 left early. In Dylan’s defence, (he said his gate moved so he went) I saw more people this weekend jump the gate than at any race in my life. I lost count of the number of amateurs yesterday that either got stuck in the gate or did what Dylan did and just mowed over it. There was definitely something up with the gate as it appeared to be twitching all weekend. Anyway, back to Dylan Wright.
Round 5 was anything but boring for GDR Fox Honda Rider Dylan Wright. Photo by James Lissimore
While Dylan was leading on the first lap of the opening moto, Head Referee Paul Kingsley and his assistant Daryl Murphy were on their headsets discussing what was going to happen when the riders came around. I thought it was going to be a full red flag, as did most in attendance I believe. In fact, some mechanics were already reprepping their rider’s gate in anticipation of a restart. However, new for this year is a rule that says that in this situation, the rider in question will instead receive a black flag and then will be held on the side of the track for ten positions, and then released back into the race. This is definitely a situation where you’re never going to make everyone happy, and that was the case here. Some thought there should’ve been a full restart, some thought Dylan should’ve been held longer than he was, and some thought there should have been a restart with Dylan facing backwards, with his bike not running and one hand on top of his head. Oh wait, that last one was John Nelson’s suggestion and he might have been joking! My thoughts are that when it’s just one rider who jumps the gate and not a bunch, anything you can do to prevent a full restart is best. Starts are the most dangerous part of a moto, so in my opinion you want to avoid them at all costs. If you do a restart then you’re almost punishing 39 others for one rider’s mistake. That to me isn’t right. Apparently in the USA they do a timed penalty where at the end of the race they just add 30 seconds to the rider’s complete moto time. So if the rider in question wins by over 30 seconds then they still win the moto. I do like that rule better than the black flag rule that we saw on Saturday, simply because it creates a less dangerous situation during the hectic first lap. When Dylan came around and was given the black flag, he obviously slowed and tried to make sense of it, while 39 other riders were wide open behind him. This situation could’ve caused a major accident and that would’ve made an already difficult situation much worse. So Dylan was held for about five seconds and then rejoined the race around 12th. He then charged hard and got himself back up to second. By the final lap, he was right on the rear wheel of race winner Joey Crown. It was a great race win by Crown and an even better charge by Wright.
Moto 2 in the 250 class was a little less controversial as Jess Pettis simply checked out and won by over ten seconds. This made up for Pettis’s first moto DNF. Wright once again came from behind and finished in second. His 2-2 moto score gave him his second overall win of the 2018 season. Joey Crown had his best race of the season and finished second overall, while Shawn Maffenbeier finished third and extended his points lead in the process. Next weekend at Round 6 at Gopher Dunes will no doubt be a pivotal round in this series as the conditions are extremely hard on these 250 machines, as well as on the riders themselves. With temperatures expected to be over 30c this could be one of the hottest Gopher Dunes races to date.
So far, Dylan Wright’s national season has been one big adventure, to say the least. With three DNFs, a trio of overall finishes outside of the top ten, and after this weekend two overall wins, he’s not exactly been the poster child for consistency. However, he has been one of the most exciting riders to watch by far in this 2018 MXTour series. Like a tough guy on a hockey team, Dylan Wright is the rider that you hate racing against, yet you want him on your team. He reminds me of Tom Cruise’s character ‘Maverick’ from the movie Top Gun (if you’ve never seen this movie, please stop reading this and go watch it immediately. It’s one of the best of all-time). Anyway, there is scene in this movie where Maverick hasn’t been playing nice with his fellow pilots as they battle to see who the best of the best is. In one particular scene Maverick’s closet rival “Iceman” confronts him and says, “Every time you go up in the air, you’re dangerous! I don’t like you because you’re unsafe.” After this, Maverick replies with an in-your-face, “That’s right Iceman, I am dangerous.” It’s a classic scene from a great movie and I can totally picture the same type of conversation happening between Wright and one of his fellow riders after a moto where Wright has made yet another aggressive pass. I know his fellow riders hate racing against him. I would’ve hated him when I raced also, but you have to admit that Dylan Wright is exciting to watch, and that is great for our sport. I mean, how many riders in the history of our sport have received a black flag for an infraction and then went on to win the overall in the same day? Write that down as it will no doubt be a motocross trivia question somewhere in the future. As I said, love him or hate him, you can’t deny or not love the determination that Dylan ‘Maverick’ Wright rides with each weekend.
Now that is one happy Team Manager. Photo by James Lissimore
In the 450 class, Dylan Wright’s teammate, Colton Facciotti, also had quite the eventful day as he took his third win of the season. In doing so, Facciotti will take back sole possession of the red plate heading into Round 6 at Gopher Dunes this coming weekend. On the track, Colton’s 2-1 moto scores looked fairly routine as he battled with the likes of Kaven Benoit and Tyler Medaglia to win the overall. However, off the track, Colton’s win was anything but routine as he once again battled through illness to win Round 5. I’m not going to go into what was bothering the points leader; let’s do what hockey does and call it an upper body issue, but it was serious enough to cause Colton to not get a lot of sleep on Friday evening. But, like every great rider does on difficult days like this, Colton somehow blocked it all out and managed to win the overall and build a seven point lead heading into Gopher Dunes. Behind Colton was a hard charging Tyler Medaglia, who I think is riding better than he has in years. Kaven Benoit, who won the first moto on Saturday (his fifth in a row), suffered a first turn crash in Moto 2 and had to battle back from dead last. It was an unfortunate result for Benoit who has certainly been on a great roll as of late.
Is it just me or is Tyler Medaglia riding better than he has in sometime? Photo by James Lissimore
So now we head into what will most likely be the most difficult national of the year. With hot and humid conditions expected for Saturday at Gopher Dunes, the riders and their machines will be put to the test. This could be the pivotal round of the series as after Gopher Dunes, there are only six motos remaining in each class. With a newly designed Gopher Dunes track, the racing should be exciting on Canada’s toughest circuit.
In closing, I must also mention the first round of the Eastern Parts Canada Amateur Open Series began yesterday at Sand Del Lee. It was a great start to this new and exciting series and every rider in attendance enjoyed themselves. This Sunday will be Round 2 at Gopher Dunes so make sure you come out and check it out. My son was especially excited about yesterday as his big trophy barely fit in our truck for the drive home.
That is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and a safe time riding. Stay cool, stay hydrated, and don’t get thirsty my friends. I hope to see everyone at Gopher Dunes!
