Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
It’s been a tough week for the sport in Canada. The Triple Crown series ventured to a new track that has
not gotten very good reviews. A small boat load of injuries has struck both the amateur and pro classes.
Lastly, we lost a friend within our pits named Greg Bell (very close with Kyle Beaton and the Knowles
family from BC). Sometimes that rule of three is around us more often than not, and these three
incidents suck on all accounts.
It’s not if; it’s when. If you choose to race a dirtbike, the inevitable reality of breaking a bone, having a
very scary crash, or simply hitting the dirt will happen. I was reading through my fellow MXP columnist
Scott Donkergoed’s blog this week, and he shares many of the same thoughts we all do in racing. We
hate to chat about it, but it’s real. We hate to see it happen, but it does. We always want to control or
fix it, but we can’t. In many ways, that is scary and tough to soak in. But it’s also the reason most of us
do it. It’s what feeds that adrenaline rush we all enjoy when blowing up a berm, leaping some jump that
has haunted you, or maybe, just maybe, all the work and risk has led you to meet your
wife/GF/BF/husband (which has been known to happen from time to time). Pushing the limits of breaking
bones or potential hospital beds is a reality, but taking that risk can lead to incomparable highs.
I’m a pretty huge fan of Jess Pettis. I love the road he has taken to becoming one of the greats in
Canadian MX. I’ll always remember Walton (I believe 2012) during a Supermini moto: he and Westen
Wrozyna were battling for the lead. Wrozyna made a very aggressive move for a couple of teenage
racers. It put Pettis to the ground. I’m not sure if he remembers this moment, but after we did our
podium interview, you could see he was upset about the pass. It wasn’t dirty but over-aggressive for
Supermini class standards. That’s not what this memory is about. Once the interview was done I
ventured back up in my skyjack to watch the next race and looked down on the top 3 in the class as they
all got placed in impound. Jess and I caught eyes as he looked up, and I semi-yelled down to him: “That
was an awesome ride, you should be proud, and you owe Wrozyna one.” He acknowledged it with
respect and a head nod. From that moment on, I was a fan. At this moment, Jess is in a bed questioning
everything that he’s done, again. He crashed at Rd2 and looked to have broken his elbow. This will likely
erase him from the 2022 season, and once again, all the talent, the toughness, the mindset, and the
hard work put in has been halted again by a crash. I don’t see this closing the career on Jess, but deep
down, his mind and body are telling him, “Dude, this has to stop. We can’t take much more.” The mind is
powerful, but Jess’s toughness is likely more powerful than that. He is much like Adam Ciancarulo in the
US. Great for the sport, an ambassador for a brand, and one of the greats you could be proud of your kid
to look up to or aim to become one day. Like Donk shared in his column, “When you break it all down,
this sport’s top athletes are truly remarkable human beings.” Jess, it’s time to be remarkable again.
Nothing is cooler and more attractive than a big comeback…..
There is a stigma that motocross is cool. Dirt bikes are cool. The way we all dress has a cool style to it.
The hats made specifically for the sport are cool; the gear, the logos, and the entire package is just cool.
This draws folks to it like flies on poop. It’s always been that way. I remember in 1998 when we pulled
my race trailer into Lethbridge with Yamaha, Fox, and all the logos on the trailer. The party started
almost before we parked the van and headed into the motel. The “cool” sport has entered the town so
let’s get it on.
Now, for a guy like me that was a Pro racer with all the cool stigma surrounding the era I was in, I’m on
the side of working to ensure the cool sticks around all the time. There is a lot of damn work that goes
into a race weekend. Of course, the potential of making solid money is there, and that’s a high
percentage reason we do that part of the job. But the risk in it all blows the hair back of some that have
just bought a track, want to hold a national, look to become a promoter, or, as I keep calling it, be part
of the “cool” gang. Without guidance, you can get yourself in a hot water position within the
community. We’re small, but our voices carry far. Being able to put on a good event is simple when you
sit down and look it over, but pulling it off is a tough deal. Like a machine, there are many moving parts,
and shit can go sideways quickly if you aren’t on top of things. It’s always easy to say this or that; you
could have done it this way or that way. I’m guilty of that like many others. RD2 of the Triple Crown
series was a tough national on many levels. I understand why Drumheller wanted it and why Triple
Crown went to it. As I stated in the podcast with Newf and Ken, it can only go up from here if it is to
become a staple on the national tour.
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