First off, let me wish everyone a very Happy Canada Day!!. I hope you all have a great day and have a good time celebrating this fine Country’s birthday. I was lucky enough to spend this past weekend at one of Canada’s finest motorcycle facilities, Moto Park in Chatsworth, Ontario. Saturday and Sunday were rounds 3 and 4 of the Moto Park Cup and boy was it fun. With over 400 entries each day, the weekend and the event was certainly a success, the track, the facility, the racing and all the cool prizes kept everyone happy and busy over the two days. I think everyone left Moto Park last night feeling like they got their money’s worth.
As someone who’s been riding at Moto Park since 1981, I can’t stress enough how far the track has come ever the years. After peaking in the mid 1980’s when the Grand Prix’s came to town, the track (mostly the dirt or lack of it) kind of stay the same and on each race day the window for the track conditions being good was very small. But with the addition of some new top soil two yeas ago and a lot of TLC, the Moto Park track has changed a lot. It now holds moisture, it can get rough and rutted, and can also remain in good shape even after hundreds of bike do hundreds of laps. This was certainly the case this weekend as even with sunny and warm temperatures, the track stay in perfect conditions for both days. The Moto Park crew did a fine job to keeping the track great for racing.
The pro class at Moto Park had some top riders entered and the racing was great all weekend. Although Liam O’Farrell won almost all of his moto’s in Pro and Youth, the young two stroke phenom Dylan Wright kept him honest all weekend. Wright is still an Intermediate rider but this kid is all pro, with confidence dripping from every inch of him, Wright was impressive and should be a force in the Eastern MX2 class beginning at Gopher Dunes in two weeks. While most of the top pro’s had lap times around the 1:48 to 1:45 range, Wright’s 1:44 was the best of the weekend. This kid is super and really fun to watch, it’s safe to say that I am a fan. All of the racing was awesome at Moto Park and congratulations to all of the big winners.
In other racing news, Kyle Biro and Ethan Ladd were multiple winners in the WCAN Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta. It sounds like they had perfect racing conditions out there and I actually miss that track from when it was part of the National Series years ago. I do remember it almost always being windy there and dust was a problem but the track was awesome and the racing was always good. For a complete list of results from the WCAN, the boys at www.insidemotocross.ca were all over it.
At the USA Nationals in Southwick it was cool to see Brett Metcalfe do so well in the 450 class. His 5-6 moto scores were pretty amazing considering he hasn’t been riding the series, I think it shows that although he’s obviously a great sand rider, the first four rounds of the Canadian series did a good job in preparing him for the speed of the USA series. It was also amazing to see John Dowd get a top 20 finish in his final race of his fine career. Dowdy has certainly done it all and he will go down in history as one of the greatest sand riders ever.
In some more big news from this past weekend, Team Canada was announced for the 2013 MXON in Germany. Here is a note from Team Manager Carl Bastedo:
“The Canadian Motorcycle Association has endorsed the team selected to represent Canada at the 67th running of the Motocross of Nations, (MXON). The event takes place in Teutschenthal, Germany September 29, 2013.More than 30 countries will send three rider teams to compete in the event. Germany won last years event in Lommel, Belgium, upsetting perennial Champions the United States and a very strong Belgian Team. With the event taking place in Germany this year the competition is expected to be fierce.
The Team Manager will be Chatsworth Ontario’s Carl Bastedo. He managed the Team from 2004 thru 2010. Canada failed to send a team to the MXON in 2011 and 12.
Riding for Canada in MX1 will be Brigden Ontario’s Cole Thompson. The 20 year old phenom has been competing as a Pro in the US National Supercross and Motocross Series events as a privateer with outstanding results. He won 39 US and Canadian Amateur Titles.
Canada’s entry in MX2 will be 23 year old Jeremy Medaglia on the Red Bull MX101 Yamaha. The Kemptville Ontario native competed for Canada at the 2010 Nations held in Denver Colorado. He finished 2nd in the MX2 Class in Canada’s National series in 2012.
The MX3 class will feature Canada’s first brother Team with the Red Bull KTM Fox Canada sponsored Tyler Medaglia. The 26 year old father of one lives with his wife, former Ladies Motocross Champion Heidi Cooke, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tyler rode for Canada in 2008 in Great Britain and 2009 in Brescia, Italy.
The Motocross of Nations is covered by more of the World’s Motocross Media than any other event and seen on television in 150 countries with an audience of 200 million. Information on the event can be found at www.motocrossmx1.com.”
So that’s it for this weekend, like all of you I am going to celebrate Canada’s birthday. Of course, that is after I go an soak in an Epsom salt because I am so stiff from two days of racing. Stay tuned this week for a really cool and informative interview I did with Dean Wilson, he’s healing up after another shoulder injury and he can’t wait to get back racing. Have a great day and again Happy Canada Day and Happy Birthday to the one and only Derek Schuster.