Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
With the 2019 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown AX Tour Series being just four rounds over the span of one month, there really isn’t much time to catch your breath. Whether you’re a rider, a mechanic, or just a die-hard fan, this entertaining series has gone by very quickly. Since I missed the opening two rounds out west, Round 3 in Sarnia provided me the first opportunity to see the riders for the first time in 2019. From what I saw on Saturday night the riders that were in attendance looked primed and ready to race this season.
From talking to most of the riders about how they’re feeling at this early point of the season, 99% of them said that although they wanted to win one of these final AX events, the main goal was to stay healthy so they’ll be ready for the opening round of the MXTour on June 1st. As I listened to the riders talk in Sarnia, it brought me back to how my era of riders felt more than 20 years ago. Back then we had numerous warm-up events prior to the opening round of the Nationals, some were important and some were just local races. However, between provincial events and some early season AX events, a lot could definitely go wrong before our first meaningful National gate drop. As risky as the pre-national racing was for us back in the mid 1990’s, it accomplished two things that helped our confidence and racecraft. First, it paid some bills, and in some cases even gave riders the money they needed to get to the first National. We didn’t get any salaries in those days so the money we made from racing was the money we made…period.
Marco Cannella is one of the riders who is riding great and could do some serious damage in the upcoming MXTour Series. Photo by James Lissimore
The second important thing it did was get us race ready for the intense racing that Nationals always demand. With most of us, by the time we lined up for the first National moto of the year we had already experienced a plethora of gate drops and hours of wide open sprint races. Our focus, reflexes and confidence was razor sharp. If you look at the opening round results from 1997, you’ll see names like Morgan, Dube, Gauld, Burr, Wallin and myself. Even though that was Round 1 of the CMRC Nationals, all of us had just spent over a month battling every weekend. At that point the only thing different was that we were about to face four long National motos instead of shorter provincial races.
Is this a battle that we’ll get used to seeing in the 2019 MXTour Series? Photo by James Lissimore
The early season AXTour Series provides the riders of today with the same experience. Oh sure, in the back of their minds they’re probably thinking, “I want to win this main event, but man I just want to stay out of trouble.” It’s definitely a fine line that our top riders walk at this time of year as one mistake could jeopardize their final month of National preparation. However, with the format of the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series, it’s the burden they must bear. As risky as these early races may be for the riders, this is their job, and if last year was any indication, we’re going to see some incredible racing in the opening rounds of the MXTour next month, as most of these riders will be ready to race. For riders like Jess Pettis and Colton Facciotti, who are not racing the 2019 AXTour, I believe it pushes them a little more during their training knowing that some of their top rivals have already been racing. Either way, let’s hope this final round of the AXTour this weekend in Barrie is a safe one for all of the riders, and let’s hope we get to see two more main events as exciting as what we saw last weekend.
