Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
After a long and very hot weekend in Southern Ontario, the 2018 Gopher Dunes National is now part of Canadian moto history. For the last two weeks, very warm temperatures have settled over Ontario and they certainly helped make the first two eastern rounds of the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown MXTour Series very challenging. Thankfully, the riders and teams have a weekend off to recover and rebuild before Round 7 in Moncton, NB. It’s actually hard to believe that we now only have three rounds remaining in this series, the summer is definitely flying by. Anyway, back to this past weekend at Gopher Dunes.
The new version of the Gopher Dunes track provided some great racing on both Saturday and Sunday. Photo by James Lissimore
As it has been for the past 30 years, the track this weekend at Gopher Dunes had everyone in the paddock talking. While every track on the MXTour series is challenging in its own right, none command the respect that Gopher Dunes does. In the weeks leading up to this race each year, the riders and teams always have to make special preparations to combat the difficult conditions. The riders change up their normal routines and mechanics alter their machines set-up just so they can not only have success at Gopher Dunes, but to also survive it. To me, the national at Gopher is like a very difficult mud race, you either have a good day, or a really bad day. Also, when it’s over, some riders are satisfied with their day, while others are left shaking their heads and wondering what happened. However, each and every rider is excited that it’s over for another year.
I’ve always enjoyed the Gopher Dunes National for many reasons over the years. I like watching how each rider attacks the track during the day, I like how it’s a true test of brutality and elegance almost at the same time. Also, since the track is just two hours from my house, I get to see a lot of awesome moto people that I’ve known for over 30 years. The Gopher Dunes national has become more than just a race on the calendar, it’s turned into an event built around one of the toughest tracks on the planet. Speaking of the 2018 version of the track. Last fall, Gopher Dunes made some significant changes to the track layout, the start was moved, a few sections were altered, and some big jumps were added. Since last fall, the crew has continued to remodel the track and when everyone arrived for the national this past weekend, they were able to get their first glimpse of Derek Schuster’s new masterpiece. Every track crew knows how difficult it is to completely change their track around, especially if they have an in ground watering system. So good job to the Gopher crew for rolling the dice and trying some new stuff.
Jess Pettis rode like he was on rails on the rough Gopher Dunes track. Photo by James Lissimore
In talking to people on Friday, I got the sense that everyone was just a little skeptical regarding how the track would be for racing the following day. Too many big jumps seemed to be the consensus as a few new booters were added. My only concern was the finish line jump and the big landing that was built up. The jump looked more like a massive double than the big table top that it used to be, and with the way the face deteriorates during a long national moto, my feeling was that it would get dangerous. They’re were a few close calls on this jump during the racing on Saturday, but thankfully I didn’t see any big crashes. As for the rest of the track, I thought it turned out great for Saturday’s racing as well as Sunday’s Parts Canada Amateur Open event. In speaking to the some riders after, almost everyone was complimentary to the new track. Of course, a few that didn’t like it were the ones who didn’t have a great day in general, funny how that works. However, just as Gopher Dunes is each and every year regardless of the track layout, by the second set of motos the conditions were extremely tough and every rider out there just wanted to survive.
The winner of the 250 Pro/Am class Jess Pettis, was the only rider on Saturday to make his results look like a walk in the park. I don’t know where he was riding in the weeks leading up to Round 6, or whether he was just mad at his DNF at Sand Del Lee? Whatever it was, Pettis destroyed the 250 class on Saturday and looked super cool doing it. I spoke to Pettis a little during the final 450 moto about his day and he was obviously pretty happy with how his day went. He mentioned that he hadn’t really done anything special coming into Gopher, he just felt relaxed and really motivated to win. He also said that once he knew his speed and his lines were good enough to pull away early in both motos, it just gave him a huge boost in confidence. It was cool to see a rider ride the way Pettis did on Saturday, I love it when a rider makes winning both motos look easy. Unfortunately, like it always seems to happen at tracks like Gopher Dunes, when one top rider has a great day, others don’t. As everyone in attendance witnessed, for the first half of Moto 2 Shawn Maffenbeier’s bike was spewing white smoke while he was charging from the back of the pack. Now, as everyone knows, these bikes very rarely self-medicate and when Maffenbeier’s bike stopped smoking, his moto and his time at the top of the 250 point standings were done for the day.
Liam O’Farrell came out of retirement at Gopher Dunes and finished 9th overall in the 450 class. Photo by James Lissimore
Behind Pettis was Josh Osby who just seemed to ride smart all day long. Tanner Ward finished up in third in what was his best race of 2018. Dylan Wright soldiered his way to fourth in one of his hardest rides of the season. In both motos Dylan lost his goggles, and in Moto 2 he rode almost the entire race with no visor. His 3-6 moto score maybe doesn’t look great on paper, but it was pretty remarkable. Hayden Halstead was another rider who has enjoyed the past two sand races as he once again finished inside the Top 5 at Gopher Dunes. It was also good to see Ontario Intermediate rider Jake Tricco crack the top ten on Saturday. He rode hard all day long and his 13-10 moto score was good enough for tenth overall. Tricco just recently turned 16 years old so he’s one of, if not the youngest rider on the gate. I don’t really think sand is his strongest surface by any means, so for him to hold his own in the 250 class the past two weeks is pretty good. I expect him to be a little better at Moncton as well as at Walton. I also think it’s great that he’s racing these east coast rounds as I believe he’s building confidence that his riding is right where it should be, but he’s also getting his eyes opened to know where he needs to get to in the next few seasons. Both of these lessons are very important as he gains some much needed experience.
Finally, after struggling for most of 2018, Dillan Epstein put it all together and won the opening moto in the 450 class. Photo by James Lissimore
In the 450 class, it was an up and down for most of the series regulars. Points leader Colton Facciotti rode smart all day to finish in third overall. His closet rival Matt Goerke, just lost the first moto to his teammate Dillan Epstein, and then had his bike quit running in Moto 2. This DNF cost Goerke a ton of points as he now sits back in fifth overall. With all of the issues that some of the riders faced, the day belonged to Tyler Medaglia as he went 4-1 to win his first 450 national in ten years. In fact, his last win a decade ago was at Gopher Dunes if you can believe that. Tyler’s Team Manager Adam Robinson and I spoke last week about how well Tyler has been riding this summer and we both agreed that a moto win was most likely in his near future. Robinson also talked about how comfortable Medaglia is on the green bike and that his confidence appeared to be growing each weekend. The win also moved Medaglia into second overall in the 450 points, as the series moves to his home east coast race in Riverglade, NB, a track that he has always ridden well on. I also have to mention that Liam O’Farrell came out of retirement and finished in an amazing 9th overall. Liam has been riding and training for about a month I heard, but certainly not full time. So, to come to Gopher and finish so well is pretty incredible. I’ve always been a Liam O’Farrell fan as he’s not only a great rider, but also a quality guy off the track as well.
Here is a great Blake Breton photo of how the Gopher Dunes track looked prior to Round 6.
So that was the day at Round 6 at Gopher Dunes! The moto winners were Jess Pettis, Dillan Epstein and Tyler Medaglia. It was a great day of tough, old school racing, and the large crowd loved every minute of it. As I mentioned above, the MXTour series now gets a weekend off before resuming on the east coast. Colton Facciotti will head into Round 7 with a 25 point lead in the 450 class, while Jess Pettis now leads the 250 Pro/Am class by 8 points. These final three rounds should be some of the best racing we’ve seen in Canada this season. My family and I also stuck around for the Parts Canada Amateur Open yesterday at Gopher Dunes, so look for a recap tomorrow. The temperatures were about 40c, but the racing was good and every rider who lined up deserves a ton of credit. Have a great week and thank-you for reading.
The riders and teams now get a weekend off before the next round in Moncton, NB. Who can forget at Riverglade Raceway when Matt Goerke had to stop and put his chain back on? Photo by James Lissimore
