Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
In this edition, we focus on current Canadian MX2 championship leader, Kaven Benoit
By Danny Brault
Could Kaven Benoit be the the next JSR? The King of Canadian Motocross Part Deux?
We should get through this series before jumping to any conclusions, Benoit is only leading the series with six rounds to go. He hasn’t won anything yet, and we’ve seen that Vince Friese will literally do anything to stop him. Shawn Maffenbeier and Jeremy Medaglia are both still in the hunt for the MX2 title, but Yamaha’s Maffenbeier has yet to win one, while Medaglia hasn’t had too many strong finishes out of the gate this far. Although, winning the muddy moto in Regina proved that the Leading Edge rider is still in this thing and will soldier through the worst, if that’s what it takes.
Defending Champ Austin Politelli could be further up in the points but he’s holding down a modest fourth in the standings after coming in a little slow from a broken femur in January. We’ll let him go by with that excuse. A collarbone, two broken wrists … bad, but a femur is one of the worst. At the end of the day, Politelli is only 20 points out of the lead, which isn’t too bad at all with 12 motos to make up ground.
Just to show you how TIGHT the MX2 championship is this year, after four rounds of racing, the 7th place rider (Medaglia) is only 28 points back of the leader, Benoit. That’s not a huge gap; granted it’s big, but it’s far from over. Don’t put a fork in it yet, Sparky.
So all that being said, with how competitive and deep the field is, and we’re nearing the halfway mark, what is KTM’s Benoit doing that the other guys aren’t to stay out front in the motos and the championship? It may have helped that Jeremy had a late move to Kawasaki, which interrupted his program. He’s one that likes to stick to the plan so no doubt he’s had some time adjusting. He will probably be a regular podium guy from his Regina win to the final moto at Walton.
Unfortunately, Regina didn’t go too well for Benoit and he left with zero points. Photo by James Lissimore
But hey, as I’m typing this out and eating graham crackers and honey greek yogurt, I’m thinking this is motocross and no excuses: Benoit is the leader right now because he has the best results. That’s what matters, right? The gate drops, the BS stops. In fact, despite DNFing the Regina moto, the Royal Distributing KTM Fox Racing rider still has a 9 point lead over Maffenbeier in the series. You know he’s feeling pretty good, especially when considering last year he didn’t even make it to the East due a knee injury while practicing at home. Benoit’s been in second and third in the points before, but leading the series is a different feeling.
He won’t tell you, or maybe he will but you need to speak a bit of french, but Kaven feels like he should be leading and winning all of the time, almost no matter where he races, so he won’t sound too excited or surprised. He understands there is a lot of racing left and doesn’t over-think things.
“I don’t think too far head at all,” he says. “One race at a time is all I can do. It’s not going to be easy though, everyone is going fast this year. Politelli, Maffenbeier, Friese and Jeremy are going to be strong in the east.”
Normally it’s Benoit and Medaglia brewing a battle, but this year it’s Smartop MotoConcepts Racing’s Friese (and Friese is also pushing Medaglia’s buttons … it’s a three way of sorts I guess), who is trying to stir the pot with the locals and has been greasing it in on Benoit specifically.
“In Calgary, during practice off the start, he cut right across on me,” Benoit says. “It’s not even aggressive riding, it’s just stupid things that I’ve never seen any real champion do before. He is trying to play games, that’s what it is. We had good respect between everyone up here until he came in.”
Benoit leads the MX2 series with 9 points over Shawn Maffenbeier and Vince Friese, who are both tied in points. Photo By James Lissimore
In speaking with Benoit, he doesn’t hold back and admits he’s not happy with Friese, who is rubbing a lot of riders and team managers the wrong way. Poor old Andy White apparently took the brunt of it at riders meeting when Friese challenged him to a fight because White questioned his riding maneuvers on one of his riders, Benoit. We won’t get into those nuts and berries here though, but it’s certainly adding to the excitement and energy at the nationals.
Going into the East, Benoit brings a different weapon to the table, and Friese and the rest of them better like the smell of smoke and lots of it because you know Benoit’s going to be pinned on his KTM 250 SX two-stroke! That’s right, Benoit’s confirmed that he is, indeed, switching to the Smoker for the six eastern rounds because most of them are soft and sandy and that’s what a light, barky 250 begs for.
“Yeah, I’m riding the two-stroke in the East; that was the plan and we’re sticking with it,” he confirmed. “I was actually riding a two-stroke between some of the western rounds just to stay sharp on it.”
When he said that, I wondered if it does take some time to get comfortable going from two to four-stroke or back again, but not for the Quebecer. “It’s pretty easy actually. I can go from one to the other and feel comfortable; my brain works with both now. I like both two and four-stroke so there is no problem.”
The next question would be: is the two-stroke going to help?
“Oh yeah, especially now in the east with the sand. I can’t wait for Gopher Dunes,” he adds. “It wouldn’t be so much an advantage in the West and I could win on my four-stroke in the East too, but in the sand it helps.”
THEN AND NOW: If you have time, take a quick look back at what Kaven Benoit was doing in 2012:
Film by Felix Trepanier of TAXI Productions
The East is of course the ‘home’ of Benoit, as he lives about 1 hour east of Montreal (which is about 6 hours east of Toronto, which is about 60 hours east of Vancouver), and not only do four of the six rounds feature sand and cater to two-strokes, but two of them are in his home province of Quebec: Deschambault and Ulverton.
Quebec’s a meca of motorsports in Canada and for them to have two Canadian motocross national rounds makes perfect sense. There will be great crowds at both and it should encourage Benoit to give it his all in front of his friends and family. And don’t think he will get nervous and choke because of the pressure to perform; the guy has won Quebec nationals before and even in front of 40,000 screaming frenchmen (and women) at Olympic Stadium during the Montreal Supercross.
It’s been confirmed that Mike Alessi has been practicing at Deschambault for extra seat time before the nationals visit there in a few weeks (and he’s also sneaking around to Sand Del Lee, Walton, Gopher Dunes …) and I thought maybe, just maybe Benoit and Alessi ran into each other and had an all out practice war.
“Nope, I never saw him,” he says. “I didn’t know he was going, just saw some pictures on Facebook. That’s cool though, it will help him when we go there for the race.”
That was more of an interesting side note, but what a year to have two rounds in Quebec!
If Benoit is still leading come Deschambault and Ulverton, it could create a riot. For sure if it was the final round and he won it, but instead we’ll probably get some good Coors Light fueled PG13. It’s also a big thing for KTM Canada with their headquarters being less than two hours from each facility, and they definitely appreciate being able to share their team’s experiences with friends, sponsors and staff with a race in their backyard.
So … is this the year for Benoit? C’est bien.
It could be, but even if he doesn’t win the title and completely flops this next part of the series, he can hold his head high for a stellar beginning to the season. Benoit’s been the most consistent with three podium overalls at four rounds and five top three moto finishes (two of them wins). Had it not been for a pure, bad, muddy, bad luck motocross incident at Regina, Benoit’s points lead could easily be slightly more than 9 points, as it is right now, with six races to go.
Quebec loves motocross and it’s healthy for them and Canadian motocross to have a hero representing that region. The ironic part is, if Benoit does make it happen, it will be on the same stroke as the last Frenchmen who won a Canadian Championship …. I can see the ad now: “Frenchmen only need two-strokes.” Sorry, pardon the pun, but that’s a goody!
