Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to another edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. After a long winter and almost five months of cold weather, spring is finally in the air and now checked off on our calendars. Since this column is sponsored by Honda, here is what they displayed this past week at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show in Japan. Even though this is just a prototype, is this what Honda’s version of their full motocross Electric Bike will look like in the future? It certainly has all of the high-end parts that come stock on their current motocross line-up. Even though this bike could be 2-5 years away from full production, Honda sure caused quite a stir when they unveiled it last week.

The first item I’d like to talk about is Round 12 of the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series from Seattle. With wet weather being a common sight for this race in the past, this year the sun was out and the temperatures were perfect for racing. The only downside in what was very good race conditions was that the Seattle track was dry, very dry, and they had to chase the track all day long. However, like I said, usually mud is the big issue in the Pacific Northwest so I’m sure the riders didn’t mind a super dry track.

Considering the near perfect racing conditions in Seattle, there sure was a lot of drama coming out of the Emerald City. First up was Chad Reed’s big crash on the opening lap of the 450SX main event. Reed had been fast all day, and since the Seattle track featured a long and difficult whoop section, he was definitely Top 5 material as the gate dropped. However, a small mistake as he entered the first rhythm section quickly turned into a season ending mistake as Reed ended up crashing and getting landed on by another rider. He was taken to a local Seattle hospital, and when he was released, with the list of injuries he sustained in the crash I’m sure the entire motocross world said “OMG.” Reed’s eight broken ribs, broken scapula and collapsed lung were certainly indicative of getting landed on by a 230-pound motorcycle as well as a 180-pound rider. While his injuries will all heal up in due time, you have to wonder if this is sadly it for the two-two.

For a rider who has never raced or ridden recklessly, Reed has sure had some big crashes and some really serious injuries over the years. You think back to Millville in 2011, Dallas in 2012, San Diego in 2014 and now this one on Saturday night. All of these crashes were high energy impacts that left Reed in severe pain. I guess the big questions are, how much more he can he take at 37-years-old and how much does his body have left to give? Selfishly, I’d love to see him race in 2020 as he still has the ability to go fast and entertain the fans. However, like everyone, Reed’s career will end at some point. It’s just a matter of when, and more importantly how it ends. This sport is brutal in nature regardless of age or skill level, but incidents like the one we saw in Seattle proves why we don’t see too many top riders racing into their 30’s.

Knowing Chad Reed’s resiliency and his love for racing dirt bikes like we all do, I personally think you’ll see him race once more supercross series in 2020 for the JGRMX Suzuki Team. For JGR, I think it’s a win-win situation as the team definitely gets a ton of press because of their 37-year-old rider. With their other 450SX rider, Justin Hill, struggling to find any type of consistency, Reed was busy putting together a very solid season in 2019. For Reed, I’m quite sure that he won’t want his career to end on such a stupid little mistake that cost him so large in Seattle. Thankfully, when he reflects on this crash, I’m sure he’ll conclude that his error wasn’t caused by his age or inability to still race at a high level. It was simply a mistake that any of the top riders could’ve made on the opening lap of a main event. For now, though, his first order of business is to make it home and heal up. With a collapsed lung, Reed is unable to fly back to his Charlotte home from Seattle. So according to his Social Media feed, he and his mechanic will begin their long drive home later on today. Oh, the joy’s sometimes of being a professional athlete sometimes! He also posted on his Instagram today that his goal will now be to make his 250th start six weeks from now in Las Vegas. This guy is such an animal!

The other bit of drama that we saw on Saturday night came from the race winner Marvin Musquin as he docked seven championship points after the race for jumping on a red cross flag. According to the new rule regarding jumping on a red cross flag that was introduced in 2017, Musquin was still given the race win, but his penalty was with points earned, thus the seven-point reduction. Here is the rule as it’s written and Musquin’s incident falls under 9-C of the rule:

A. During practice and qualifying, the loss of the fastest lap time during that session.

B. During Heat or LCQ races, the loss of number of positions gained, plus two additional positions in the final results for that race.

C. During a main event race, if no positions were gained, the penalty will be the points and purse equal to two positions in the final results for that race plus two additional points.

D. During a main event race, if any positions are gained, the loss of number of positions gained plus the points and purse equal to two additional positions in the final results for that race, plus two additional points.

E. During a sighting or cool-down lap, a fine as determined by Race Direction.

F. If at any time Race Direction determines that it was not a blatant violation of the rule, a warning or fine may be issued.

Whether you agree with the ruling or not, at least the rules were followed and Musquin was issued a pretty severe penalty. With just five rounds remaining in the SX series, he now trails his teammate Cooper Webb by 14 points. Anything can happen in these remaining races but I think it would take a major mistake by Webb to throw the championship away now, especially if his competition is going to keep making dumb mistakes like the one we saw from Musquin on Saturday night. The red cross flags were clearly visible when he came around so I’m not sure what he was thinking. Anyway, it cost him and now we move on to Houston next weekend.

As I mentioned in a story on Friday, my son and I headed to Gopher Dunes last week for their opening day of riding. The track was in good shape and it looks as though the same can be said for this coming week. Spring is here right across Canada and I’m quite sure everyone is happy about it. We also have the opening round of the 2019 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series beginning in less than two weeks in Abbotsford, BC. Compared to last year, I feel like there hasn’t been as much hype surrounding the opening round. With Colton Facciotti waiting until the outdoors to make his season debut, Cole Thompson has got to be the favourite to once again win the AXTour title in 2019. We all know that Cole will be very fast in these opening rounds, that is a given. The interesting story will be with riders like Matt Goerke, Phil Nicoletti, and Shawn Maffenbeier, all of which will be racing a 450 in 2019. Will these riders have anything for Cole Thompson and his incredible indoor skills? Only time will tell as the four round AXTour is fast approaching. On Wednesday we will be breaking down the entire AXTour right here on mxpmag.com.

So that is it for me this week. Thank-you for reading this week’s Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. I hope you have a great week and a safe week of riding. Finally, last night I watched the newly released movie “The Dirt” on Netflix. For all you 1980’s fans out there, this is the story of 1980’s rock band Motley Crue. Obviously, there was no Social Media back in those days so all of the stories were either hearsay or released on the news. All I can say after watching this bio-topic movie is that I’m surprised some of these ‘80s rockers made it through that decade alive. If you watch it you will see that a few barely did make it out alive. Have a great week everyone!