Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
When you look back at this past year in Canadian motocross there are many great stories and many great performances. In both the amateur and pro classes, we all witnessed riders push their limit on the racetrack while battling for moto wins and championships. As we’ve done for the past five seasons, this is the time of year that Palms sits down to compose his annual Golden Elbow Awards that celebrate the memorable moments from the past year. Whether it was Dylan Wright’s title runs in the 250 AXTour and MXTour Series or Phil Nicoletti’s Triple Crown Championship, there were multiple moments that will leave people talking for years to come. For this year’s Golden Elbow Awards, let’s now look at the winners of the 10 categories.
Mike Alessi tries to cool off after a very hot moto at Sand Del Lee. Photo by James Lissimore
Multiple times in the past, the winner in this category has been the very challenging Gopher Dunes National. Racing at Gopher Dunes is never easy, and that task gets even more difficult in July when the conditions are hot and humid. This past summer, Round 4 at Gopher Dunes was most certainly a tough race for all of the riders, as was the cold and muddy Minnedosa National. But our pick for the Toughest National of 2019 goes to Round 5 of the MXTour at Sand Del Lee. Although this race has always been a challenging one, this summer when the sun came up on race day it was hot…very hot! It was one of those summer days when you had trouble even breathing as the air over top of Sand Del Lee was extremely muggy and stagnant. For this reason, the MRC was forced to take the precaution of shortening the second motos by five minutes, something that was welcomed by the riders and pit crews. As you may recall, there was a lot of drama that day as Mike Alessi and Phil Nicoletti had their altercation. Perhaps every rider was a little more on edge because of the weather conditions? Regardless of what happened on or off or the track, every rider did their best to get through this incredibly difficult race day without incident. In the end, every rider made it through in one piece and on to the next round in Moncton. Congratulations to Sand Del Lee on winning this Golden Elbow Award, and we all look forward to celebrating their 50th Anniversary in 2020.
