Round 8 – Riverglade MX Park Moncton, New Brunswick, Race Preview

The eighth round of the 2017 CMRC sanctioned Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals presented by Motovan goes this weekend at the Riverglade MX Park in Moncton, New Brunswick. The stop in Moncton is the second of two Maritime races before the series moves on to Quebec, then Ontario for the last two rounds. Riverglade is hard packed, with rich, red, east coast soil, which provides good traction but gets clumpy after it is freshly tilled. The corners develop inside and outside ruts, and the clumpy nature of the soil is enough to throw riders off their line as they set up for a turn.

MX1

Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha’s Matt Goerke has the red plate and a 19-point lead going into this weekend’s event, and has only finished off the podium at one round this season, the opener, where he was fifth. Goerke has finished on the podium in Moncton in each of the last two seasons, and won a moto here in 2015. It Matt can keep doing what he has been doing all season for the next three weekends he could soon be looking at his third national title. 

Coming off his worst result of the season, where he finished outside the top 5 for the first time, Rockstar Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel sits second in the series standings. Pourcel is the only one in the MX1 class to have won more than once this season, and has three wins to his credit. The former World Champion has also finished fifth or worse three times, and will have to start winning motos if he wants to catch Goerke to win the series championship.

Rockstar Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel has three wins to his credit this season,

 

Last year, Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing’s Colton did not line up in Moncton after being injured the weekend prior at the Pleasant Valley race. Facciotti’s momentum came to a halt last weekend when he crashed at the start of the first moto and finished ninth, his worst result this season. Colton sits third in the championship and is 42 points behind the leader. Facciotti cannot afford to finish behind the two riders ahead of him in the standings if he wants to win his fifth national championship.

Monster Energy Alpinestars Kawasaki’s Mike Alessi has been in the fight for championships at every level of the sport, and knows that sitting fourth in the standings, 52 points back. He can only control what he does and must start winning races. Alessi finished fourth at Riverglade last year and will be looking to find the magic he had there in 2014 when he swept both motos.

The only rider in the top 5 who has not won this year is Royal Distributing Motovan Piller’s Race Team’s Tyler Medaglia who sits fifth in the championship standings. Last weekend’s fifth place finish was the first time this season that Medaglia was not the top performer on the newly formed Royal Distributing Motovan Piller’s Race Team. Tyler was fifth last year in Moncton, and fourth in 2015, and sits 2 points ahead of Dillan Epstein in the standings and 5 behind Alessi.

Royal Distributing Motovan Piller’s Race Team’s Tyler Medaglia sits fifth in the MX1 Championship standings.

 

Rounding out the top 10 in the series point standings are Nut Up Industries Kawasaki’s Dillan Epstein in sixth, Royal Distributing Motovan Piller’s Race Team’s Kyle Chisholm in seventh, Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha’s Tim Tremblay in eighth, Redemption Racing’s Cade Clason in ninth, and Royal Distributing Motovan Piller’s Race Team’s Nathan Bles in tenth 

 

MX2

It’s not very often a rider will finish 1-24 on a weekend and take possession of the red plate but that is exactly what MX101 FXR Yamaha Team’s Shawn Maffenbeier did last weekend. Maffenbeier had the red plate after Round 1 but saw it back on rival Cole Thompson’s KTM a week later, just as it happened in 2016. Shawn has won four times in 2017 and has been the fastest rider in MX2 this season, His misfortunes have been overshadowed by those of his two biggest rivals in the class, Cole Thompson and Josh Osby. With both Thompson and Osby out for the season, this is “Maff’s” championship to win, but if the last few weekends tell us anything it’s that this thing is far from over.

Redemption Racing KTM’s Josh Osby is second in the series standings but will not line up again this season after having a high-speed collision with Dylan Wright last weekend while battling for the lead. Osby would probably be leading the series if not for colliding with Wright over the finish line jump and going down hard in a violent crash that forced him to be taken to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with a lacerated liver and broken ribs.

 

MX101 FXR Yamaha Team’s Shawn Maffenbeier will have the Red Plate for Round 8.

 

Moving up one position in the series standings after last weekend, and now sitting third, is Nut Up Industries Kawasaki’s Ryan Surratt, only 28 points back of the leader. Surratt has been the best off the gate in the class this season and has been getting better each weekend after coming into the season recovering from an injury.  With three rounds and six motos left this season, and the way Ryan gets off the line, don’t be surprised if he is in contention right until the end.

When the series moved to Quebec for Round 6, KTM Canada Thor Racing’s Cole Thompson had a 40-point lead and looked like he was going to repeat as MX2 Champion in 2017. At Motocross Bon-Conseil, Thompson came together with Jacob Hayes and injured his thumb. Although he did salvage points at Round 6, and hung on to the red plate, he was forced to call it quits for the season last weekend after going out for one lap during practice. Cole is scheduled to have surgery on his thumb, and race fans may have seen “Tommy Gun” line up for the last time in the MX2 class as the rumours have him moving up to the MX1 class for 2018.

Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing’s Dylan Wright sits fifth in the series standings, 33 points off the lead, and has a lot of momentum going into this weekend after finishing on the podium at the last four rounds. Wright finished second in Moncton a year ago, and after what has gone on in the MX2 class over the last few rounds must feel he still has a shot at winning the title. Dylan loves the tracks in the east and his past results show why, so don’t be surprised if this young gun finishes on the top step of the podium very soon.

The Riverglade MX Park in Moncton will be the eighth of ten rounds of the 2017 Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals presented by Motovan before new champions are crowned. Maritime race fans are very excited about having the opportunity to have two weekends of racing in the east again this year.

If you haven’t already purchased your tickets you can buy them online easily at www.mxnationals.ca/tickets. If you are in another part of the country and are unable to attend the race, you can see all the action live by downloading the free Conx2share app or logging on to www.conx2share.com to live stream every moto on either your mobile phone or computer.

 

 

The MX2 Class has provided a lot of great battles in 2017.

 

MX1 Point Standings 2017 after 7 Rounds

 

1. Matt Goerke (Yam) 368

2. Christophe Pourcel (Hus) 349

3. Colton Facciotti (Hon) 326   

4. Mike Alessi (Kaw) 316

5. Tyler Medaglia (Hon) 311

6. Dillan Epstein (Kaw) 309

7. Kyle Chisholm (Hon) 254

8. Tim Tremblay (Yam) 232

9. Cade Clason (KTM) 213

10. Nathan Bles (Hon) 195 

MX2 Point Standings 2017 after 7 Rounds

1. Shawn Maffenbeier (Yam) 328

2. Josh Osby (KTM) 307

3. Ryan Surratt (Kaw) 300

4. Cole Thompson (KTM) 298

5. Dylan Wright (Hon) 295

6. Jacob Hayes (Kaw) 236

7. Casey Keast (Yam) 229

8. Davey Fraser (Hus) 213

9. Jess Pettis (Yam) 205

10. Hayden Halstead (Yam) 204

Links and social media:

 

Web:                            www.mxnationals.ca

Event info:                   www.mxnationals.ca/event-info/

Tickets:                        www.mxnationals.ca/tickets/

Facebook:                    www.facebook.com/CMRCMX

Twitter:                       @CMRCRacing 

Instagram:                   @cmrcmx

YouTube:                     www.youtube.com/user/cmrcracing

Live Streaming:           www.conx2share.com Twitter – @Conx2share

 

About Rockstar:

 

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