MXP: Hey Newf! You mentioned last week that Team Canada had a great chance last weekend at Glen Helen to win Gold at the Dubya World Vet Championships. Well, after some solid results they did bring home gold! What are your thoughts on their performance?
RL: Yes even after some injuries to the original A team they pulled it off with Brock Hoyer, Todd Minnie and Julian Cerney. Congrats to them as all three guys were consistent. The World cup race was a bit strange this year as it seemed there were not as many teams entered and there was even some drama with the Italians cheating. From what I heard they put a different guy on the bike for the second day to try and beat the Canadian team haha. Kind of wild but then again nothing surprises me these days.
MXP: The 2024 AMO AX Championships is coming up fast. How are things looking for the opening round, and what Pro riders are you expecting to line up and race?
RL: Things are all on track for it to shape up to be a good couple of weeks. Gauldy is starting the drive on Monday and track build will begin on the following Monday. There is not much change from last year as far as the plan and program. The most important thing is to build a good race track and then the rest will fall into place. As far as pros go, it’s a huge bummer that Tanner Ward got hurt last week as he was coming. Pros that are confirmed as of right now are Quinn Amyotte, Wyatt Kerr, Parker Eales, Devyn Smith, Noah Porter, Liam Dodds, Colin Jurin. I’m sure there will be more that I haven’t heard of yet but my expectation would be 12-15 which would be great.
MXP: It’s the off-season in the USA right now and most riders have been on vacation for the past month or so. However, things are heating up with new rider signings, more overseas races, and riders beginning their preparations for the 2025 season. We know you love race season, but do you love this time of the year also when the anticipation begins to build for next year?
RL: Yes this year is always exciting with the new signing and off season races. It seems like this year there is lots of racing to follow between WSX, Australian supercross, Paris Supercross, German Supercross and AMA arenacross. There is no shortage of things to watch and all of those races I mentioned build the hype for A1 in January.
Bonus Question:
MXP: It was announced today that Jess Pettis and the KTM Canada have parted ways. It’s pretty rare for a rider and team to win a title together, and then go their separate ways. What are your thoughts on this split?
RL: Rare for sure but it happens. Riders get it in there heads that change is good and I would agree with that. Is the grass greener on the other side? Well I guess time will tell. The real winner in this is MX101 and Yamaha as they get the title contender that they have been search for and also get to run the number 1 plate. I’m almost more interested to see what or if KTM makes a move to get someone to replace Jess or they just stick with Natzkie? Either way its cool that we have some off season silly stuff happening. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks as I have a feeling that there are going to be some other big announcements.
