Monday Maniac #9
By: Ryan Gauld
Man, what a crazy time of year it is for us at MXP. The first issue is closing and will launch very soon; most will see it in the mail mid-March. You would think putting a mag together would get easier as I’ve ploughed through more than 30 since being with MXP (joined in 2008). This is not the case. Finding pics, interesting stories, getting the crew to hit the deadlines and then putting it all together for our designer to put his magic hands to work can be challenging. It’s not hard work, like construction, mining, or oil rigs, but the hours you spend sitting in front of your PC pile up faster than empty Big Mac containers beside the Finn when we travelled to Florida in 1999 (Finn lived on Big Macs in Florida because they were two for $2 back then. He would kill four a day with ease. YUMMMY!!!) I would say that on average each mag has about 100 hours of work into it on my end. That’s not adding up all the others that work for MXP (Brett, Frankie, Charles, Petro, etc.) It’s crazy to think about but it’s what we do.
This is exactly what I look like right now, except I’m in pyjamas instead of a suit. LOL
This weekend the Atlanta Supercross took place in Georgia, which is one of the most popular rounds of the Monster Energy Supercross Series. Over 70 thousand people showed up to see another solid night of SX racing. Ryan Dungey, aboard his trusty KTM 450, rode off to the win after making a pass on Honda’s call-up, Cole Seely. Dungey had some close calls at the end when Ryan Villopoto started to close the gap, but Dungey and KTM hung on for their second win of the 2012 season. I was glad to see another win from someone else other than Villopoto. He looked to be on the verge of dominating the series after a three race win streak. He now sits 10 points up on Dungey for the championship lead. JGR’s Stewart came across third after another horrible start. When is the real James Stewart going to show up? I’m over watching this guy who just seems to be another rider on the gate now. Where is his amazing speed, his ability to jump something no one else has, his attitude of “losing is not what I do”? I wonder which James will show up in St. Louis?
Roger DeCoster and Ryan Dungey fist pound after another big win.
Photo by Rich Shepherd
Barcia seems to have this whole repeat as champion deal figured out. He managed to take his second win of the season and has a good points gap already because the racers behind him have been all over the place in the first two rounds. The Lites East is a tad weaker than the west, for sure, but the racing has been kind of crazy so far. Unfortunately, Canadian Cole Thompson didn’t make the main event. He looked okay at the start of his heat but stalled the bike in the first turn. Then in the last chance, he was riding great just behind the lead pack, but the Kawi rider in front of him rode like a full pylon and blocked Cole from making a move to the front. It’ll be interesting to see how he will rebound this weekend. Will his great performance in Texas to mediocre ride in Atlanta play any head games with this young stud? Or will he just brush it off to bad starts and bad luck, and come out swinging to grab an even better finish than 9th like he did at Round 1? Once again, we will run a contest this weekend on Cole’s finishes. Last week nobody won so here we go again (I had over 50 entries). If you pick his heat and main event results correctly you will win a sweet MXP prize pack. E-mail gauldy@mxpmag.com to enter. Good luck and Cole “Just give ‘er.”
How will Cole fair in St. Louis after a rough weekend? Email me with your contest pics for a chance to win an MXP prize pack.
As I started to say at the beginning of this blog, we are putting the first issue of 2012 to bed. This issue is full of goodies from amateur interviews, a look back at the very first Toronto SX in 1980, the real Blackfoot story, and so much more. Putting it together made me get a little nostalgic. I dug through some archives and found some old covers we ran back in the day. I feel that is one of the best parts of our sport – looking back at the golden days. Here are some old covers I dug up:
Brock Hoyer donned the first issue of 2009.
Ricky Carmichael even scored an MXP cover. I’ll bet it’s his favourite. Hahaha
JSR showed off his new blue colours back in 2007 when the Blackfoot team made the switch from Honda to Yamaha.
Dusty Klatt sure did assassinate the competition back in 2006
Travis Pastrana doing what he does best upside down.
One of our Photo Annual covers
Our designer, Pete Marcelli, decided to make this after I rode the Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki in 2010 at Ste-Julie. LOL
Since we are doing a sick Blackfoot piece in the next issue, I got this e-mail from Jason Mitchell on what he’s been up to since retiring from racing:
Hey guys…
I have not been sleeping for the past 6 months. Since we retired we have basically sold everything from the team, and the building is for sale. Dean at Blackfoot Direct has absorbed most of the racing tools and equipment plus parts into Blackfoot Direct and now has an Off-Road Service Centre in the back of BFD. Guys are lining up bringing in motors, having their suspension serviced, and adding accessories to their bikes. That has been good.
Once I came back I had all this time on my hands…LOL. Been in the business for 37 years and always worked sales and marketing, other than a year running the service department. It is common knowledge that our service department had suffered over the last number of years. Jeff Mason, who has been a loyal employee for the road race and the MX team, has come over to the dealership to assist in a complete transformation of our service department.
Basically we started in the end of October and designed a complete gut of our current service department, and came up with a new plan and re-named our department, “Blackfoot Certified Service” I call it “Re-defining Powersports Service” No team can have success without a new mission statement “One team – One Plan – One Goal”.
Over the years of racing I had the opportunity to be in some really cool race shops. They were spotless with extensive cabinetry, lighting and organization. In order to put this together at our dealership we teamed up with Rousseau Storage Solutions who has done a lot of auto dealers across Canada. We first met the team from Rousseau, which is located outside of Quebec City, at one of the races a few years ago. We had discussions with them about being part of a project of building an actual full-on race facility. This did not materialize although it did for our dealership, which in the long run will prove very beneficial for our customers in providing them with a professional environment while we work on their bikes. The work benches, tool chests, storage systems and racking absolutely re-defined our service department.
Basically we gutted every tool, bench and part and moved it out of the department right after the bike show in Calgary. From painting the walls and doing Stonhard on the floors, a complete lighting and electrical review, upgraded exhaust fans and air make up systems, designing engine and suspension rooms, installing storage solutions for all the necessary shop supplies, installing an oil system that pumps directly to each service bay to the final install of all the Rousseau cabinets.
Besides the physical changes we also have developed a new service menu for our customers, developed new job descriptions, reviewed policies and procedures and are currently assembling a team of experienced service technicians and staff.
We wanted to bring some of the heritage of our race team into our new Certified Service Department so we hung up all our number plates from the past 12 years in MX racing, brought out a special helmet collection as well as our championship road race plate and team leathers. The department now feels a little like our old race truck so Jeff and I are at home.
We are looking forward to re-defining the level of service from our dealership as well as the industry.
Thanks
Hope al is well,
Jason Mitchell
Great to hear from you Jason. This new plan sounds awesome for the shop and your business. Thanks for the pics as well.
That’s all I got for this week. Oh wait, I almost forgot. I got a nasty email from, well let’s just call him, “Froto.” It was nice to see that he found enough phone books to sit on so he could reach his keyboard. It was a pretty nasty email so I’m assuming he asked a parent if it was ok to say such things. Hopefully “Froto” will be allowed out past his bedtime this summer and not looking for that damn “ring” so we’ll see him at the races. It would be even sweeter if he was able to talk without the pacifier in his mouth. Maybe that’s why I got an email instead. HA!!!
Thanks for the nasty email little fella!! LOL