By Danny Brault
G’day everyone and welcome to Northern Notes Number 5. This issue is dedicated to Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey, only because the best quote I heard at the Toronto Supercross was related to this strong and steady racer:
“He is the Toyota Camry of Supercross,” said Yamaha Motor Canada’s National Marketing Manager, Bryan Hudgin.
I agree with that; Dungey never quits, holds his value and doesn’t feel the need to do it with flash. ‘Camry’ Dungey rode solid in TO, finishing third in the 450 main event, and in the process made up five points on series leader Ryan Villopoto, who was suffering from a stomach ailment and took sixth. Dungey’s now 25 points back of Villopoto with James Stewart moving past Ken Roczen for third place in the championship. Certainly RV has a comfortable lead, but there are still five rounds to go and anything can happen!
I made it down to Toronto just time in for practice, but looking back I don’t think I watched more than three full laps. As many of you who attend Toronto every year can relate, the event turns into more of a social gathering than anything else. I kept my shirt on this year, but I made sure to catch up with plenty of good Canadian motocross folk who I hadn’t seen in some time. I shook hands with my former boss, KTM Canada’s General Manager Florian Burguet, and Race Manager, Andy White, met Ross “Rollerball” Pederson for the first time, crapped on Canadians who didn’t show up to race with Chuck Mesley, and shared some laughs with the ol’ RXC crew. I kept my eyes on every lap of the main events and most of the heat races, but for the rest of the time it was a chat-fest.
While searching for these mythical Rogers cell phone-charging stations in the Rogers Centre, I bumped into ‘Hard-As-Fig Newtons’ Mitch Cooke, who flew into Toronto from Nova Scotia with his better half. I told the former Pro he should be out there racing, but he just laughed and shrugged it off. “Man, I’m getting arm pump just looking at that track!,” he said. A few minutes later, the ‘Blackfoot East’ crew from Newfoundland and Randy McLeod from Freedom Cycle out of Moncton walked up and joined the discussion. Toronto really is a family reunion of sorts, bringing together moto-heads together from all corners of Canada. With the Rogers Centre under construction and unavailable to host supercross next year, here’s hoping Feld keeps a round up north with Montreal being the most logical and talked about destination.
If the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series does go to Montreal, I bet we see more locals signing up as Quebecers have a good history of supporting indoor racing. Andy White won’t have too many excuses for not supporting his guys as the KTM race shop is less than 30 minutes away!
After spending the afternoon watching practice from the cheap seats, I slithered my way into OTSFF’s suite to watch the night show beside Yamaha’s marketing guru, Bryan Hudgin. For those who don’t know Hudgin very well, except for when they come to him with their hands out and he’s forced to put on his business face, may be surprised to know he’s got a great sense of humour. We talked about all sorts of things including whether or not there is a ROI when spending big bucks on national contenders or spreading it across the grassroots level. It was interesting to hear how close Yamaha Motor Canada was to signing defending MX1 champ Brett Metcalfe before Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki secured his services with first-right-of-refusal and a truckload of cash.
While in the OTSFF booth, I caught up with their marketing and promotional rep, Brad Ewen. He was showing off some flawless images from the Rockstar Energy Drink OTSFF Team photo shoot and shared a little secret with me regarding one of them.
“Check out that poster of Kyle Chisholm. Notice anything strange?,” he said with a mischievous smile. “Hmm, not seeing it …,” I replied. “It’s not Chisholm—it’s Shawn (Maffenbeier)!”
So the secret’s out; OTSFF has bumped up Maffenbeier to race MX1 instead of MX2 … just kidding! Truth is, since Chisholm separated his shoulder while practicing at Chad Reed’s prior to the Daytona Supercross and isn’t quite ready to ride yet, the team had no choice but to dress up Maffenbeier in Chisholm’s gear and push him out on the #132 YZ450F. This type of thing happens quite frequently actually, riders filling in for injured riders. Last year while organizing the KTM photo shoot, we had to ‘get creative with two riders because of injuries’. Shawn Robinson filled in for Dusty Klatt, who was out with a knee injury, and at the last minute, Colton Facciotti broke a toe and couldn’t put his boot on so we tossed his jersey onto Kaven Benoit and had him drop his elbows for a few laps.
Back in 2005, Morgan Racing Yamaha needed a rider to ‘play’ Blair Morgan and Rob McCullough got the nod. It took the photographer an hour or two to rig up a system to keep McCullough’s round figure in check, but it all worked out.
After the Toronto race, I joined the mob over at the Houston Steakhouse and kept my mouth flapping with industry types and riders. I cornered Facciotti for a while, probing him as to why he doesn’t race Toronto Supercross anymore. His main reason for not racing is because the priority is winning another Canadian outdoor title and he hasn’t been riding any supercross tracks. I even tried bringing his new gear sponsor, Derek Farthing of Troy Lee Designs Canada, into the debate, nudging him on how great of a marketing opportunity it is to have Facciotti racing in front of 40,000 fans. I eventually gave up when no one was siding with my ramblings, but Colton did say, and I quote: “2015 bud, 2015. Let me get through a summer healthy and we’ll be out there.”
That was good to hear, but, that’s a long ways away and now we know that Toronto is not on the schedule in 2015. Maybe Detroit instead? That’s even closer to his Western Ontario home.
I stole a few more minutes of Farthing’s time asking some questions about the new line of Seven gear, which has the hands of Troy Lee and clothing engineers of Nike in the mix. I commented on how it looks like an Under Armour material, and Farthing noted that with Seven, they are actually testing a different type of unique, form fitting, compression material out in supercross/motocross before introducing it to a more mainstream market, such as football.
If you’re not too familiar with the new Seven gear, here’s a preview of their MX 14.1 edition gear line.
I’m not going to spend much time reviewing the actual race action from Toronto because it’s been more than dissected by now. However, my MXP colleague Chris Pomeroy sent over this detailed note that Ryan Villopoto posted on his website, detailing his extremely sore and sick stomach pains that messed up his day and night in TO:
“Hey everyone. Just wanted to send out a little message to let everyone know I am all good now and back on track after a crazy weekend. I woke up sat morning with gnarly stomach pain so bad that I couldn’t even stand up.
“I was able to push myself into a cab to get to the stadium to see if the docs at Asterisk could help me out but one look at me and they sent me in the ambulance to the hospital. After hours of enduring the pain and lying in a hospital bed trying to get some answers, the docs found nothing! Crazy to be in that much pain and they tell you that you’re fine.
“At that point I just knew I had to pull it together and try and make the night happen. I rolled into the stadium at 6:30pm with just enough time to put my gear on and make it to opening ceremonies. Pretty sketchy knowing my first lap on the track was going be in a race but it is what it is. We made it work and came away with some decent points on the night so all in all it was a good night. Can’t say thanks enough to all the people who made it happen and the fans for sticking by me. Next week it’s on! Back to the real RV!”
With the way Stewart rode in Toronto and two wins in a row, this final third of the series should be an interesting one.
While watching Stewart making some impossible leaps during the main event, I noticed how even when coming up a little short or jumping too far, his bike never kicked, bounced or did anything funny. No surprise obviously, as these guys and their teams spend endless hours dialing in suspension and every other nut and bolt on the bike, but I wonder if things would be much different if everyone was on the same equipment? Or if nobody could use something that wasn’t accessible to anyone else on the gate?
Seems the gap between privateer and factory racer is widening every day, what with one-off parts, custom built shocks and forks, and backyard supercross tracks. You still need to be able to ride the bike, especially in supercross, but maybe it would tighten things between more riders if some weren’t on NASA powered rocketships. Something to think about, I suppose.
Remember: if you’re not falling down, you’re not trying hard enough.