Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
With the off-season now upon us and our racing season quieting down, we once again have tracked down Ryan Lockhart to ask him some more important and entertaining questions. As most of you know, Ryan has been in this industry for over twenty years and during that time he’s been a rider, a mechanic, a riding coach, and most recently the Brand Manager over at Matrix Concepts Canada. Ryan knows a lot about a lot of things and he’s always a great guy to talk to. Here are this week’s 3 Q’s with Ryan Lockhart presented by Matrix Concepts Canada.
MXP: Hey Newf, the West Coast received some devastating weather this week and it’s led to numerous floods and road washouts. First off, are you and your family and safe. Second, I know there are more important things to think about right now than racing dirt bikes but on Wednesday you had to announce the postponement of the upcoming rounds of the Future West AX Championships.
RL: Yes we are all good here. The floods are out towards the Valley so we did not get affected here as far as water goes, but people have gone crazy and have been cleaning out the grocery stores, etc. There is no way in or out as of right now to the Lower Mainland. Hopefully, by the end of the weekend things will start to improve but the effect this will have on the supply chain will last for a long time. We did have to move the final two weekends of the Future West AX Championships to January. It was the right choice as Chilliwack has been hit hard and the barn is full of evacuated livestock. Hopefully, this plan will work out for January but with the ways things have gone in 2020/2021, there is no guarantee on anything anymore.
MXP: Dylan Wright is back home now after his MXGP adventure but next week he’s heading back to Europe for the Paris SX. I’m hearing that the Paris SX track is going to be tamed down a little so it shouldn’t be too technical. How do you see Dylan doing in Paris?
I feel like you never know what level of difficulty track you will get at these European events but I think Dylan will do fine either way. I hope he goes in not feeling too much pressure and rides safe and smart. The goal would have to be inside the Top 10 as I feel with the field this year is very reachable for him. He’s not known for his SX skills but we all know he can do it. The last time he raced an overseas SX in Geneva he was really fast but the technical whoop section gave him some trouble. With a few of the MXGP riders scheduled to race in Paris next weekend I do think the track will be tamed down and the whoop section, if there is one, will be relatively easy. If that’s the case then look for Dylan to do really well!
MXP: Looking back at your career and all of the bikes you raced, which bike was your favourite and also which bike was the coolest as far as the trick parts it had on it?
I would have to go with 2004 when I was part of the Blair Morgan Yamaha Team. My YZ250F that year was one of my all-time favourite bikes for sure. It was my first year on a four-stroke and I always will remember how easy it was to ride. We ran Enzo Suspension so the thing handled great and Yamaha 250f was so fast out of the box in those days. A close second was the 2012 Machine Racing YZ450F I rode while filling in for Kyle Keast, that bike was fast and so easy to get good starts on.
As far as having trick parts I would go with my 2005 Richmond Racing Kawasaki. We had great support from Pro Circuit so we all had A-Kit suspension and a lot of other cool PC Parts. Sadly those bikes broke non-stop but they sure looked good (laughs).
