Northern Notes: Orange Adventure

By Danny Brault

You never know where life will lead you. That’s what I’m thinking as I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Terrebonne, Quebec (30 minutes north of Montreal), waiting for the 2014 KTM Orange Crush Adventure Rally to begin tomorrow (it’s Thursday night as I write this) at a sharp and depressing 6am (which means this lazy writer guy has to get out of bed at 4am).

But hey, I’m not complaining. As I said, you never know where life will lead you, and this weekend it’s led me to getting an opportunity to race the Orange Crush as a journalist, whereas two years ago, I was WORKING the event when I worked in KTM Canada’s marketing department in 2012. I can tell you working at the Orange Crush isn’t a lot of fun, but riding it sure is.

What is this ‘Orange Crush?’ It’s not the latest shooter drink at the bar, but an adventure motorcycle rally, relay race. There are more than 150 riders signed up, on all types of dual sport bikes (i.e. KTM Enduro 690, EXCs, Adventure 1190s, V-Stroms, BMWs, KLRs, etc) and riders are split into teams of 3.

The ‘rally’ begins at the SRA motocross track Friday morning, where many riders camped out overnight at the ‘bivouac’ as it’s called in rally racing (the pit area), and then runs north for about 500kms to Parent, QC, where everyone settles in for the night in this old mining town made up of a few shanty like motels, old railway track, gas station and not much else. On Saturday morning, we’re back on the bikes at 6am and then racing another 400kms across gravel roads, trails and ‘special tests’ to the town of La Tuque.

It’s considered a ‘race’ but it’s more of a fun event, and only a few take it too seriously. I will probably be one of them, and end up testing out the durability of the crash-bars on my KTM Adventure 1190, which KTM Canada has kindly loaned to me and two more journalists. It sounds like a big meaty motorcycle, but in reality, the 1190 is a sporty package and really is a high performance endure machine. You could rip a motocross track if you really wanted to. KTM has outfitted our bikes with knobby tires and we’ve lowered my seat 2 inches just to make things a little more comfortable. I’ve ridden a 990 before and thought it was a blast, so I’m excited to rip down Quebec roads and forests on this burly beast!

Our rally-relay-team is made of another journalist, Paul from Cycle Canada, and KTM ambassador, Dave Renouf, leading the way – this is awesome, because neither Paul or I have experience reading a ‘Route/ Road Book’ so things could get tricky. It’s not just who is the fastest who wins in rally racing – but you need to know how to navigate as well.

Keep track of our progress by following @mxpmag or @ktmorangecrush on Instagram. We’ll be uploading some pics and short video clips along the way. Or follow us on Twitter – @mxpmagazine.

While at the KTM Canada office today, waiting for my ‘factory’ adventure treatment to finish up, I caught up with race team manager, Andy White. He and his lead mechanic, Steph LeBlanc, have been busy since Walton, cleaning up race bikes and also preparing for the fast approaching Motocross of Nations in Kegums, Latvia on September 27-28. White won’t be attending the event, but LeBlanc is flying over to keep a close eye on the KTM’s of Tyler Medaglia and Kaven Benoit. Of course, we know Steph went through these machines with a fine tooth comb – twice – so our guys will be equipped with the best possible equipment at the world’s biggest race. The same goes for Facciotti and his Honda.

Maybe White opted out so he could donate more cash towards Team Canada? Ha, probably not and just kidding, but I learned today that OEM’s KTM and Honda Canada stepped up to support their riders and country, and Marin Bicycles is backing our boys as well at this year’s MXoN.

“Yep, Honda, KTM and Marin are all in,” said Team Canada MX’s manager, Ryan Gauld. “It’s awesome; everything is good to go!”

So, where will Canada finish at MXoN? Again, no predictions from me, but I think it would be an interesting picture seeing Team Canada up on the podium beside say USA and Germany … Ryan Gauld, Derek Schuster, Tyler Medaglia, Colton Facciotti, Kaven Benoit, Steph LeBlanc …. what a crew of misfits.

“If it happens, you know I’m getting naked [laughs]!” added their fearless team manager.

Canada’s best moto finish ever came with Oshawa, Ontario’s Mike Harden, back in 1985 at Unadilla when the Honda rider earned a 5th place finish.The best ever overall result was in 2007 at the Budds Creek MXoN, when Team Canada finished 8th overall with Blair Morgan, JSR and Colton Facciotti, all riding for the Blackfoot Yamaha team. Since then, the ol’ Maple Leaf hasn’t been raised as high as we know it all can. Everything’s in place in 2014, now we just need to “Tap it in … give it a little tap, tap, taperoo.”

Moto in the Mainstream! I found this cool mainstream news clipping in the Prince George Citizen, featuring Hayden Wolff.

“Hayden Wolff most likely won’t get a new bike from Kawasaki this year but there’s a good chance of a $3,000 cheque coming his way once the Prince George Motocross Association season wraps up this weekend in Quesnel.
The 14-year-old Prince George rider has a healthy lead over Joey Parkes of Nanaimo in the Team Green point race, leading the Canadian Motorsport Racing Club (CMRC) provincial series by 300 points over Parkes, and that’s a testament to Wolff’s consistency this season in the Junior MX-2, MX-3 and Schoolboy classes. He’s on top of the CMRC standings in all three classes in the northern and southern provincial series.
Read the full article here:
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/sports/wolff-in-hot-pursuit-of-motocross-money-1.1339850

All right, folks, I’ve got to go racing … thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!