Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to another edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. This will be the final Monday Gate Drop of the month of June, as we now get to welcome in the official first month of summer. During the final western round of the 2017 Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals presented by Motovan yesterday in Regina, Honda Canada GDR Fox rider Dylan Wright finally had a race that he could be happy with as he went 3-4 for third overall. It was a great ride by Dylan and a great way to finish off the exciting western rounds. Now it’s on to Round 5 at Gopher Dunes where Honda Canada Racing and their home track GDR Fox Team will be front and center.

As I mentioned above, this is the final Monday Gate Drop of the month of June, and what a month it’s been in Canadian motocross. In the past 30 days, we’ve seen a handful of our fast Canadian amateur riders qualify for the most popular amateur race on the planet, the Loretta Lynn’s GNC, we’ve seen what has appeared to be record crowds at a few rounds of the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals, and saw the series welcome a new round with the first ever Pro National in Prince George, BC. There has been a lot of cool things happening for the past month and this was all with Mother Nature doing her best to put a damper on our sport in more than one part of this country. This coming weekend we say goodbye to June and welcome in the official first month of summer, and with that we wish Canada a very happy 150th birthday on July 1st. Happy Canada Day everyone, I hope everyone has a great long weekend.

As the CMRC Pro Nationals take a quick break this coming weekend before resuming at Gopher Dunes the following weekend, my family and I will be at Moto Park for the final two rounds of the 2017 New Era MP Cup. Hopefully the weather cooperates this weekend and we have a great two days of racing at one of the most famous tracks in Canada. The MP Cup events have grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years and I wouldn’t be surprised if this coming weekend is the busiest ever. With close to 1000 entries over the two days, riders from as far away as Ohio and Quebec will be travelling to Moto Park on Friday. With steak dinners, prize giveaways, fireworks, great racing, and of course, endless bench racing throughout the weekend, Rounds 3&4 of the 2017 New Era MP Cup will provide a perfect platform to kick-off the summer.

Moving from the talk of next weekend to what happened in Regina this past weekend, the Moto Valley crew finally had some perfect weather to work with for this final western round. However, after seeing how hard packed and baked the soil can get at this cool track, blue skies and sunshine doesn’t really make for perfect track conditions. Last year, the weather on Sunday was cool, overcast and with the occasional very light rain, and while it was miserable to stand there and spectate, the track was perfect all day and the racing was great. With the bright sunshine yesterday, it was almost impossible to keep moisture in the Moto Valley soil, but I must say that the track crew did their absolute best to keep the track good for racing. The final two motos on Sunday were rough, choppy and rutted. It was not a track for the weak and the riders had to remain focused at all times. This is exactly how a Pro National should be.

This weekend the track crew, just as they were last weekend in Calgary, was in a tough spot with the type of soil they had to deal with. As we saw in Calgary last week, when you have sun and wind, the dirt dries very quickly and then it becomes extremely hard packed. It was the same yesterday in Regina, and when it becomes like that and the track crew applies water, it turns the surface to ice. The only way to properly water the track is to rip it up again with the machines. This makes the dirt perfect, but it also resets the lines and evens out the race track. The crews have been told by the top riders that they want the tracks left rough and not groomed, so when you have the type of dirt that Calgary and Regina have, and the sun is out, it’s impossible to keep the perfect amount of moisture in the soil and keep it rough at the same time. At this level of racing it’s impossible to make everyone happy. The only way to properly judge a race track is by the type of racing it produces. Yesterday the racing was great, the lap times were the longest of the season and the riders really enjoyed that. Thank you, Regina Motocross Club, you were a great host for Round 4. Now the series takes a weekend off to recharge before heading to Gopher Dunes where only the faces of the jumps get fixed during the day.

As for the results yesterday in Regina, it was definitely heart break city for Yamaha and their Blu Cru. In the MX2 class, MX101 Yamaha riders Jess Pettis and Shawn Maffenbeier both had awful days at Round 4. Pettis, who came into 2017 as a title favourite, came into Round 4 with a sore shoulder after his huge crash last weekend. Well, things did not get any better for Pettis on Sunday as he eventually retired from the day with a broken collarbone. The good news is that Pettis has a few weeks to heal before the next race. The bad news is the next two tracks are the roughest and toughest of the series so a rider must be healthy if they want to succeed. His teammate, Shawn Maffenbeier, who came into Regina as the fastest MX2 rider so far this season (even though he wasn’t the points leader), had his usual rough day racing in his home province. In the opening moto, Maffenbeier, was involved in a bizarre incident when he got caught up in his bike after a crash and actually had to remove his boot in order to dislodge it from his bike. By the time he got going, he was way back and could only work his way up to 16th. In Moto 2, Maffenbeier got into second, but couldn’t catch Cole Thompson for the win. As the MX2 series heads east, Cole Thompson, thanks to his 1-1 moto scores yesterday, now has a 33 point lead. You have to hand it to Thompson as he may not have been the fastest MX2 rider in the west, but he sure got the job done and took advantage of every other rider’s bad luck. In Regina, Thompson was simply unreal on the hard-packed track and was easily the best MX2 rider on the day. I also have to give a mention to Honda rider Dylan Wright who rode the wheels off his CRF250 to finish in third overall. This podium finish will no doubt give Dylan some much needed confidence heading into the east. If he can get good starts and ride within himself; we could see Dylan on top of the podium before we know it.

In the MX1 class, it was another strange incident with Matt Goerke and his chain that cost him the overall and the sole points lead. While leading on the final lap of Moto 2, with only a few corners to go, Goerke had his chain come off. This happened in Moncton two years ago, and just like yesterday, Goerke was forced to be his own mechanic and put the chain back on. Goerke would go on to finish the moto yesterday in 6th, but it definitely ruined what could’ve been a huge points day. If you had told me that Goerke would beat Christophe Pourcel straight up both last weekend in Calgary and this weekend in Regina, I don’t think I would’ve believed it. History has shown that these two tracks have been Goerke’s worst of the series. However, this year he rode them incredibly and really was the fastest rider. Now, as the MX1 series heads into Goerke’s favourite track, he and Pourcel are tied in points and will share the red plate at Gopher Dunes. I cannot wait to see the Goerke/ Pourcel battle at Gopher Dunes. Both riders are great sand riders, both train in Florida, and both are human beings. That is where the similarities end as their styles are completely different. The way they ride, the way they see the track and the way they attack the track is night and day different. Watching these two contrasting styles should be very entertaining at Round 5. Throw in Facciotti, Alessi, maybe Benoit, Medaglia, and Epstein, and the next round at Gopher Dunes is going to be ragger!

Well, that is it for me this week and the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. I hope everyone has a great week and a very enjoyable Canada Day. In closing, everyone at MXP Magazine would like to congratulate Shelby Turner on her 2017 CMRC Western Canadian Women’s Championship. Turner rode great all series long and was a master of all of the different track conditions the ladies had to endure. Once again at Round 4, Turner faced some stiff competition from Lexi Pechout, but she held on to win her second title in a row. Great job Shelby, and a special thanks to Kristi Moore who dedicated a ton of time to make the series as successful as it was. The CMRC Eastern Canadian Women’s Nationals gets underway at Gopher Dunes.