Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
The team was eager to get back to racing after Walton and a weekend off from racing. Arriving at Sand Del Lee the facility looked amazing. But, Mother Nature was going to make it another tough weekend for the third weekend in a row. The rain had started on Thursday and persisted into Saturday.
Due to the immense amount of rain on Saturday morning the decision was made to have a meeting by the race officials. It was decided to cut first practice and only run one qualifier per class for gate positions. As well, the Motos on Saturday were shortened by 5 minutes leaving the 450 class with 25 minutes + 2 laps.
Qualifying in the mud went really well with Phil Nicolleti getting P2, Shawn Maffenbeier P3 and Sam Gaynor P6.
Heading in to Moto 1 the track was completely saturated with water with some sections having spots of standing water. Out of the gate things looked great for all three Yamaha’s at the front of pack. When Nicoletti came around the exit of turn 1, he clipped another rider and went down. Within three corners off the start, Maffenbeier took the lead and Gaynor sat in 5th. Due to the mud, Phil was forced to take his time remounting, needing a change of gloves so he could hang on and mount an impressive charge to catch the lead pack. Maffenbeier was leading out front getting chased down by Dylan Wright. They would battle for the lead after the halfway mark when a small mistake by Shawn on the challenging track allowed Wright to slip by.
Maffenbeier finished in a well deserved 2nd place, Nicoletti crossed the line in 6th and Gaynor finished in 8th. Rain kept falling for the rest of Saturday never fully allowing the track to dry up.
Sunday morning finally brought sunshine and a light breeze. But the damage to the track had already been done. It was going to be a muddy morning practice and first Moto.
When the gate dropped it was one again three Yamahas at the front. Nicoletti took the early lead and never looked back. He led the entire Moto, unchallenged. Maffenbeier got into second and was able to pull a significant gap on 3rd place; he finished in 2nd. Gaynor rode a solid Moto finishing out 10th place with a sore shoulder from an early morning crash in practice.
As the guys lined up for the third and final Moto, the track was in the best shape of the weekend. It was dry and it was rough. When the gate dropped it was once again a Yamaha freight train around the first corner. Nicoletti led wire to wire putting in smooth and fast laps. Maffenbeier battled back and forth with Wright for second place. At the checkers, Wright led Maffenbeier by .7 of a second as Maffenbeier never stopped pushing to close the gap even in the final laps. Gaynor rode a hard Moto and earned the 7th position.
Sand Del Lee Round 4 Weekend Results
1st #9 Honda DYLAN WRIGHT
1st 3rd 2nd 67
2nd #54 Yamaha PHIL NICOLETTI
6th 1st 1st 65
3rd #3 Yamaha SHAWN MAFFENBEIER
2nd 2nd 3rd 64
4th #2 Kawasaki MATT GOERKE
3rd 5th 4th 54
5th #5 Kawasaki TYLER MEDAGLIA
5th 4th 5th 50
6th #10 Husqvarna KEYLAN MESTON
4th 6th 6th 48
7th #28 Yamaha SAM GAYNOR
8th 10th 7th 38
Series Results after 4 rounds
1st – DYLAN WRIGHT
1st 1st 2nd 1st 260
2nd – PHIL NICOLETTI
2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 236 (-24)
3rd – MATT GOERKE
3rd 2nd 4th 4th 207 (-53)
4th – SHAWN MAFFENBEIER
5th 6th 3rd 3rd 202 (-58)
5th – TYLER MEDAGLIA
4th 4th 6th 5th 195 (-65)
6th – SAM GAYNOR
6th 9th 8th 7th 149 (-111)
