Good day and welcome to another edition of the Honda Canada Monday Gate Drop. With the month of February coming to an end in a few days, spring and hopefully our 2019 riding season won’t be too far away. Before we know it, our tracks will be open and it will finally be time to fire up our bikes.
Before I get into what happened this past weekend at Ford Field in Detroit, let’s chat about the sad news about Jess Pettis that broke over the weekend. Early last week while doing some outdoor testing at Fox Raceway in California, Pettis suffered a massive crash that left him with a broken collarbone as well as a few internal injuries. I heard the news on Thursday from one of my reliable sources so I called Pettis to see just what had happened. He confirmed the bad news to me and said that he had undergone surgery the day before on his collarbone. As far as he knew everything looked okay and that his healing time shouldn’t be too long. When I asked him about his crash, he had this to say:
“I was out at Fox Raceway doing some outdoor testing and the day was going really well. With all of the rain that we’ve had out here the track was soft, but it was in great shape. Anyway, everything was going well and then I must have hit a soft spot on the face of a jump because all of the sudden I got kicked and went over the bars. It was a really bad crash, probably one of the worst I’ve ever had. Honestly, I was really lucky to just come away with a broken collarbone as it could’ve been much worse. I was going to race the East/West 250SX in Atlanta but now I’ll just have to heal and see where we’re at then.”
Due to some injuries he suffered last week in a bad crash, Jess Pettis will be off his bike for a few weeks while he heals up. Photo by James Lissimore
Unfortunately, injuries happen in this sport and sometimes the old saying “The faster you go the harder you crash” applies to our top riders. With the way that most riders push through the face of jumps these days in order to stay as low as possible in the air, it leaves very little room for error. Thankfully, Jess will heal up and be back on the bike in lots of time to get ready for the 2019 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown MXTour in June. Now, on to what went down on Saturday night in the Motor City.
The Detroit Supercross was not only Round 8 of the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series but it was also the second Triple Crown event of the year. The first was at Anaheim 2, and as a media person and fan in attendance that evening, I can honestly say that I love the Triple Crown format. As I stated in the days after Anaheim 2, this format is just so exciting as from the moment the opening ceremonies are complete, the gate drops on a meaningful main event. From there it’s just non-stop action until the final 450SX main event is done.
Austin Forkner was once again the dominant rider in the 250SX East class this past weekend in Detroit. Photo by Matt Wellumson
In the 250SX East class, this weekend we once again witnessed another dominating performance from Austin Forkner. This kid is just a beast and appears to be completely confident right now. Every part of his program is rolling right now and it will be very interesting to see if he can maintain this level of racing. With Forkner being so young I can possibly see a few mistakes in his near future as sometimes at his age your ego can begin to write cheques that your body can’t cash. But for now, we’ll just sit back and enjoy watching this kid as he’s just plain going for it. When a rider posts an Instagram video of them jumping a quad, on press day no less, you know they’re just a tiny bit confident in their current riding abilities.
Chad Reed had his best ride of the year in Detroit and ended up third overall in the 450SX class. Photo by Matt Wellumson
In the 450SX class, we saw a resurgence with Eli Tomac as he was the rider to beat in Detroit. Tomac admitted during the post-race press conference that he flew back to California last week and did some testing with his Monster Energy Kawasaki Team. I guess they found a few things as he said his bike was much better this weekend. Behind Tomac, the 450SX red plate holder Cooper Webb took second overall while the world’s fastest vet rider, Chad Reed, grabbed third overall on his JGRMX Suzuki. Reed will be turning 37-years- old in March so I’d say that it’s pretty amazing to see him still out competing against the kids. Does he have another main event win left in him? I would think that a lot of cards would have to fall into place during a main event for Reed to win one. However, Justin Brayton won last year in Daytona and Reed has always been such a confidence type of rider. When he feels good and his bike is working well, his confidence soars and he becomes a different rider. Pair that with his grit and determination and I think that if he did holeshot one of these main events he would do absolutely anything and everything to hold on to the lead. In the first main event in Detroit, Reed got off to a great start and even pulled the trigger on the quad jump in order to remain in a Top 3 position. To see him celebrating on the podium and to hear all of the Detroit fans chanting his name was just amazing.
The racing was just awesome in Detroit, and now the series moves to the new building that hosted the Superbowl earlier this month – Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. With Atlanta and Daytona coming up in the next two weeks, the racing will continue to be exciting. As I mentioned above when talking about Jess Pettis, this weekend is the first 250SX East/ West race of 2019 so look out for that. Here is the entire 450SX post race press conference where you can hear all about Tomac’s big win and Reed’s inspiring third overall:
Finally, this coming Sunday if you live in Southern Ontario, Lawrence Hacking is holding his annual Grand Prix de Snow in Campbellville, ON. This Husqvarna Canada sponsored event is just a ton of fun as there is racing, some great food, as well as a Husqvarna demo ride throughout the day. So, if you want to come out and do a little early March riding in Ontario, this event is the perfect one to attend.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has an amazing final few days of February, and if you’re headed down south to ride, travel safe and have fun. As I write this, every road in and out of my town is closed due to the winter storm that is happening. Let’s hope that this is Mother Nature’s last winter blast and that spring is not too far away. Have a great week and thank-you for reading this week’s Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop.
