Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to this week’s Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. I hope everyone had a good Remembrance Day yesterday, and for the sake of our Armed Forces, both past and present, I hope you had a moment to stop to pay tribute to all of them. Both of my Grandpas contributed to the Canadian war effort during World War 2. On my dad’s side, his father worked at Westclox in Peterborough and he built timers for bombs that were used by Canadian soldiers and our Allies. On my Mom’s side, her father served mostly in Italy during the war and was ironically part of the motorcycle regiment. Both of these fine gentlemen passed years ago so on November 11^th my family honours them and every other member of our Armed Forces.

With that said, let’s move into the news from this past week. If there was one positive that came out of the Quebec City SX last weekend, it was that it sure put this country front and centre in the most talked about motocross subjects around the globe. Even with the AUS-X Open SX going on in Australia, I still had some friends from there email to ask what the heck was going on in Canadian motocross? The pass heard around the world has certainly given everyone a lot to talk about during the past week. And while talking and debating is never frowned upon in a democratic country like Canada, the incident between Cole Thompson and Colton Facciotti has certainly divided this nation. All week people took to Social Media to either condemn Cole’s aggressive pass on Colton or to say that it was just a racing incident. There was the odd ‘sitting on the fence’ comments, but for the most part the conjuncture was either Team Cole or Team Colton.

Then, on Friday afternoon, the MRC Rules Committee, who had been talking all week, decided that Cole Thompson would not receive any type of penalty or discipline for his final corner pass in Quebec City. Even though this news came down late on Friday, it kick started yet another firestorm of Social Media posts as people weighed on the committee’s ruling. My phone was also ringing off of the hook (definitely not what anyone wants at 4:30 on a Friday) asking for my opinion. I told everyone that I spoke to that I wasn’t surprised that Cole didn’t receive any type supplementary discipline for his pass on Colton. It’s not because of his last name, or the fact that his family runs the show. The members of the board, as well as our officials, are very smart, non-biased people who have more integrity than that. I figured there would be no penalty simply because there wasn’t enough evidence to overrule the Head Referee’s decision at the event. Even the videos of the pass that have surfaced can have people thinking that it was either dirty or just a racing incident. From my understanding, the board looked at everything they could get their eyes on and in the end they couldn’t find anything to make them think that Cole deserved any further punishment. Was this the right call? I guess in the end it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks as the decision has been made.

MRC Press Release:

November 9, 2018

Brigden, On – As stated on Monday in the MRC press release, The Rules Committee would deliberate all pertinent information in regards to the final corner incident between Honda GDR rider Colton Facciotti and Red Bull Thor KTM rider Cole Thompson.

The MRC Rules Committee was presented the video footage, the Referee’s incident report, concerns from involved parties and all pertinent rules towards the incident. At the end of the deliberation, it was a unanimous vote to not overturn the referee’s decision on the pass. In summary, there shall be no penalty levied for aggressive riding on the last corner pass.

In the interest of full disclosure and to eliminate any thoughts of bias in this process the members presiding over this incident were; Ian Hayden, Larry Northrup, Todd Kendel, Brent Shury and Todd Sharpless.

For more information on MRC please visit: www.mrcracing.com

Like I mentioned above, I wasn’t surprised that Cole didn’t receive a penalty, but I am a little shocked! I’m not saying that it was a dirty pass or that Cole Thompson is a dirty rider. Passes like that have been going on since motocross racing was invented and they will continue to go on for years to come. Also, I love watching Cole ride; he’s one of the riders that I can just sit and watch ride all day long, and I happen to think his mechanic is one of the coolest dudes around, but that is another story all together. Anyway, the only reason I feel that Cole should’ve received something, like a small fine, a docking of a position, or even probation, is that at the very least his pass was careless and it resulted in another rider getting injured. I know Cole didn’t go into that corner with the intention of knocking Colton down or injuring anyone, but he did. To not give him at least something sets an awful precedence moving forward. I also feel it sends a bad message to our amateur riders that you can do something like this to a fellow rider with no consequence. If you look at how other sports like hockey, for instance, handles situations like this, in most cases a player’s injuries are taken into account. If a bad hit on the ice causes a player to get injured and miss games, then usually the discipline to the player that delivers the hit reflects that, even if they some feel that it was just a ‘hockey play’. I don’t know, I wasn’t on the phone calls with the rules committee so I cannot comment on what was discussed or how they reached their decision. They are smart individuals and in the end we have to trust that they made the right call. As I said, I’m not surprised, but I am worried at the message this sends moving forward.

I even reached out to Tyler Medaglia over the weekend to get his take on it. Tyler has obviously been around for a long time and he’s been on both ends of aggressive racing like we saw in Quebec City. Tyler had this to say on the incident as well as Friday’s ruling. “First off, I didn’t really like the pass in Quebec City. I’m all for being aggressive and even going for a last corner pass on someone, if I wasn’t then I wouldn’t be a racer. However, given the situation and who was involved, I thought it was completely unnecessary. Cole didn’t need to win that main event to maintain his solid points lead, so why be so aggressive to the point where you cut across some ruts and go out of your way to make contact with another rider in the worst possible spot. When the contact was made, Colton was in a very vulnerable spot as he was accelerating towards the face of a large jump. To me, that is careless on Cole’s part and I think in that situation you have to show a little more respect to a rider like Colton. I have no idea how a rules committee can overlook that and I wish something more would’ve been done last week.”

Well, obviously Tyler’s view is clear on the situation and it is consistent with what I said about the pass last week in this column. However, Tyler also agreed that we have to move forward and put the events of Quebec City behind us. I also had a long chat with Colton late last week and by the sounds of it he’ll be fine moving forward. He’s obviously very disappointed at the outcome of Round 3 of the SXTour, but he knows it could’ve been a lot worse. He’s now looking forward to some time off before the calendar changes to 2019.

Now we look ahead to this coming weekend in Hamilton, where ticket sales should be going very well. Our society is a sucker for controversy, so with that in mind I’m sure a lot of people will flock to Hamilton on Saturday evening. With Colton out for the final round, Matt Goerke way back in third place, it almost seems certain that Cole Thompson will win the first ever Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series this coming weekend, as well as the $100,000 prize that comes with it. This incredible bonus is the first of its kind in Canadian motocross, and let’s hope we see it for years to come. The track this weekend in Hamilton from what I’m told will look at little like the AUS-X Open SX track from this past weekend as a section will go under the stands and out of sight from the spectators. I don’t know about you but I find this really exciting and it should be very cool to see live. This final round might be missing a battle for the 450 title with Facciotti out, but it will still provide some exciting racing as the riders go for one final shot at glory.

Then, as the lights go out on the Hamilton race, everyone will be turning their attention to 2019 and where we’re headed next year. I’ve said this a few times in the past few weeks, but I honestly believe that 2019 is the most important year we’ve seen in a long time in not just Canadian National motocross but also regionally across the country. How will the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series look in 2019? From what I’m hearing it will start a little later in the spring and might contain one less outdoor event. However, which track goes is still unknown, as is the direction of each round’s amateur events. We expect a schedule for 2019 to be out very soon so everyone involved can begin planning for what is to come. But first, I’m very excited for this weekend in Hamilton and the conclusion of what has been an extremely interesting and entertaining 2018 season. I don’t think anyone can argue with that statement. I hope everyone has a great week and I will see you all in Hamilton this Saturday. Thank-you for reading this week’s Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop.