Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to the official time of year that we call fall. Yes, the summer of 2014 is now over and judging by the colours of the leaves, nature definitely got the memo. Other than a few days here and there (more on this in a minute), the weather at this time of the year is usually pretty good. The bugs are gone, the humidity is almost non-existent and the tracks on most days are as moist as chocolate cake.

As much as this time of year is great for riding, if you’re a race promoter attempting to hold events, it can be a sketchy proposition. The first thing the event organizers are up against is that a large group of riders just simply either quit racing in the fall or cut their amount of racing down considerably. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a local track promoter for a second. With the fall entry numbers being what they are, and the entries during the hot summer not always great, our poor track owners pretty much have from April to June to enjoy some strong and healthy numbers. In those three months they might have two to three races tops to make any sort of money. This reality has forced most tracks to run events other than motocross at their facilities. Some of these non-moto events actually take less preparation than a motocross race so why wouldn’t these track owners take full advantage of it. For instance, I’ve never been to a mud bog but how much preparation can these take? I’m thinking that you just fill a big hole with dirt and water and say “go for it”. If it rains then all the better, it just means more mud!

The owners of Walton Raceway cooking up some food on Saturday evening. Thanks for a great 2014 Brett and Mark.

So this past weekend in Ontario, Walton Raceway was to host the next to final round of the Rockstar Energy Drink Ontario Provincial Series. To add a little spice to the weekend, the track was open for practice on Saturday and for Sunday there was a ton of prizes and money up for grabs. Not to mention a customer appreciation BBQ after practice on Saturday evening. Of course just as the stage was set for a great day of racing on Sunday, Mother Nature unleashed her fury and turned the perfectly groomed Walton Raceway track into a mess. After a lot of deliberation, it was determined that since the St John’s Paramedics couldn’t even make their way around the track the race would have to be cancelled. Even though no one was going to get to ride, in true customer appreciation spirit, everyone left Walton Raceway yesterday with a gift to again say thanks for a great year.

Apparently, even though all Twitter updates, texts, phone calls, etc. were made, some people weren’t happy with the speed in which the information travelled. Of course as it usually does now in our society, people took to social media to complain about Walton Raceway, the CMRC and how Ontario Motocross is broken. The best and most ridiculous posts I read was that we should bring back the CMA and that Walton Raceway is dead. Like really people, is that where we’re at, not one bit of sympathy for the track promoter that just had to cancel their race and lose a lot of money in the process? I know it’s a customer service business and sometimes the customers aren’t happy, however without these tracks, what are the “customers” going to do?

I’m sure John Nelson has some good suggestions about what Ontario MX needs. photo by James Lissimore

I get that Ontario motocross is experiencing some very difficult times and certainly there needs something to be done. What is the answer or answers? People by nature always seem to feel like the grass is greener on the other side. I guess it depends what you’re looking for when you travel to a race. If you have a child racing the 50cc class then your needs are definitely different than if you race Pro or Intermediate. This is part of what makes putting on races on a regional level so difficult, it’s a melting pot of different opinions and expectations.

So what is going to fix it? I think it’s going to take several people with varying ideas, including track owners as they’re the ones who are trying to make these tracks the best they can be so the riders actually have somewhere to ride. The one thing that isn’t needed is complaining because a track was forced to cancel a race [because of rain] and they were the last to know. Also, instead of complaining about what we don’t have, let’s be thankful for what we did have this past season. Now I can only talk about the Ontario regional races since I do live here but this past season we had some great spring series races at Gopher Dunes, two great weekends of the Moto Park Cup, some great races at Sand Del Lee and of course a very memorable Parts Canada TransCan at Walton Raceway. And this is just at the regional level; we also had three incredible National Series races in Ontario. I don’t know about anyone else, but to me this was a very good summer of racing and I’m sure a few other Provinces would love to boast that line up.

The course at this past weekends Red Bull Rocks And Logs looked like fun. photo by Mark Dzikowski- Red Bull Content Pool

photo by Mark Dzikowski- Red Bull Content Pool

So moving on from Ontario motocross to Endurocross in Calgary and the 2014 Red Bull Rocks and Logs event, Kyle Redmond was the big winner in the Pro class over Cory Graffunder and Geoff Aaron. In the Pro Women’s class it was Shelby Turner who took home the honors. It was by all accounts an incredible event with some great weather. Cool one-off events like this in Canada are awesome, hopefully we’ll see more in the near future.

So that is it for me this week. Please email me with any comments or suggestions at chris@mxpmag.com. In closing, I’d like to send some best wishes to Broc Shury who is currently in the hospital with multiple injuries after a bad crash. Heal up Broc and I hope you get back on your feet soon. I hope everyone has a great week and please ride safe. Also congratulations to Brent Worrall on the one year anniversary for his Canadian Moto Show! The show is on every Wednesday night and if you’ve never tuned in and listened then you’ve really been missing out. Brent always has a great line up of guests who love to talk and tell stories. Check out mxpmag.com tomorrow for a link to this week’s show. Happy One Year Anniversary Brent!!

Here’s to many more years on the air Brent!