Monday Gate Drop

Hello and Happy Monday to everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend! If you live in Ontario, I hope you stayed dry and warm. My weekend was good as my family spent it doing two of our numerous favourite activities: hockey and motocross. I personally love both of these sports, there definitely seems to a direct correlation between the two. It seems you’re seeing more and more kids these days that are very talented at both hockey and motocross. In Ontario, for instance, we have Sam Gaynor, Jack Reid and Connor Stevenson (just to name a few) who all play AAA Hockey. At any age, this isn’t an easy task for the player or for the family as it involves a lot of commitment from both. Unfortunately, at this time of year the two sports overlap and we don’t see these kids at the track as often because hockey becomes the priority.

As we move into October, this is the month that outdoor racing in Canada must come to an end. This was the case yesterday in Southwestern Ontario as we all gathered at Gopher Dunes for the final round of the Rockstar Energy Drink Ontario Provincial Championships. This series began back in late May and ran from Paisley, to Walton, to Sand Del Lee and to Gopher Dunes. Under cold and mostly grey skies yesterday, riders lined up for one final race before calling it a season. The racing on both the mini track and the big track was pretty good and even if some races weren’t that exciting, announcer Dave Bell, as always, made it sound like it was the best race of the year. Where would Ontario motocross be without people like Dave Bell? He’s been around for what seems like an eternity, he attends almost every race regardless of who is running it, and he can make a battle for 20th place seem like a last lap battle at Anaheim One. He’s just a good guy and we should all be thankful that he loves this sport and is still such a huge part of it. Thank you Dave for all you do!

After the fine day of racing yesterday, everyone congregated under the Wiseco pavilion for some food, drinks, hugs from Derek Schuster and the Ontario Provincial awards. Considering the cool temperatures, it was a pretty good time as it gave everyone a chance to chat, and in some cases, say their fond farewells before the long off-season sets in. There was also the announcement that Ryan Gauld will take on the job of overseeing amateur motocross in Ontario in partnership with the CMRC. Definitely in the short term this will be a great thing for the Ontario moto scene as Ryan is fresh off his successful MXON Team Manager stint and will no doubt be putting most of his focus on this new task over the winter months.

This job is a tough one, for sure, as you’re in charge of the needs of many different groups of riders. What the 50cc class needs is different than what the Junior class needs or what the Pro class needs. Making everyone happy is impossible. Ryan’s job will be trying to organize things so no one feels left out or neglected. However, it sounds like he has a plan going forward and he’s motivated to improve racing in Ontario. It seems like a win-win for everyone, including Ryan. It will be very interesting to see what unfolds in the next five months before the gate drops on the 2015 season. If anyone has any questions or suggestions on what they would like to see at the Ontario races, please email me at chris@mxpmag.com. Since we’re all a part of this big motocross family, I think we should all continue to work together. Like Ryan mentioned yesterday, I also remember the 1990s and early 2000s when there were 600-800 entries on a given day including 20-25 Pros lined up on the gate. While those massive numbers might be gone forever, there are definitely improvements that can be made to attract a few more riders to this sport.

Earlier I mentioned the sport of hockey. For the last two years I’ve been coaching my son’s team so I’ve had to take a few coaching clinics. During these clinics, representatives of the OMHA (Ontario Minor Hockey Association) speak about some of the things that have been done in the last few years to get more kids playing the game. You wouldn’t know it but apparently a few years ago their numbers began to drop. At first they thought it was just related to the tough economy, but after some research it was determined that some families were feeling left behind and were deciding to put their money and energy to other sports. The OMHA’s response was multi-levelled. Not only did they reduce registration fees slightly at the Mite, Tyke and Novice levels (this is hockey’s entrance level programs) but they also introduced a new coaching and teaching strategy so all levels of minor hockey are taught the sport differently now. The thinking behind this is that if you can try to make all kids feel better about playing hockey then there is a better chance they’ll stick with it. As I said, minor hockey isn’t a lot different than regional motocross with so many different divisions and levels to try and accommodate. It’s also a customer service business and at the end of the day they have to be happy. The province of Ontario has a rich tradition with regards to motocross, great riders, great tracks and a quality group of enthusiasts have been around for a long time. Together, with everyone involved (track owners, riders, families, sponsors, the CMRC and now Ryan), let’s get the excitement back in the pits on par with the excitement we see on the track when our kids are out there battling for the pure love of this sport.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. Before I go I must say that my son and I huddled in front of our computer on Saturday evening to watch the Red Bull Straight Rhythm from California. I must say that we loved this event and we watched it right until the end. It was a lot of fun and very entertaining, I’ve always loved watching the top riders in SX pick apart these sections during the actual SX series. To see an event where it was just one long Rhythm section was awesome. Congratulations to Red Bull and to James Stewart, who still after all these years can go to a level above anyone else when he wants to.

Finally, on Friday we posted this cool Fox Racing video from the 2014 MXON. The video feature the world’s top Fox riders who competed in Latvia for their country. Not only did they show Ryan Dungey and Chad Reed, but it also showed our own Tyler Medaglia and Kaven Benoit. It was pretty cool to see two of our Canadian heroes in the same video with the other top riders on the planet. Here it is again in case you missed it:

I hope everyone has a great week and from all of us at MXP, Happy Thanksgiving this coming weekend. Also, congratulations to all the Ontario Provincial Champions who were crowned yesterday at Gopher Dunes. See you in April!!