Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Well, that was one heck of a week in Canadian motocross! We were all over the map with good news as well as news that was just downright confusing, to say the least. As far as the good news went, we had a great PR from the Cobequid Racing Team as they announced their new deal with Parts Canada. This is a solid deal and I think if we look back over the past 20 years I don’t think there’s a company (outside of the OEMs) that has done as much financially for Canadian moto as Parts Canada. From team sponsorship, to event sponsorship, to just about everything in between. Parts Canada has been a major partner in our sport. It will be cool to see Tyler Medaglia, Mitchell Harrison, as well as Eve Brodeur all wearing Thor MX gear and Alpinestar boots and helmets. In other news, Ken Roczen announced that he will race a HEP Suzuki in 2023, as will Kyle Chisholm. In fact, Chisholm was quoted as saying that before he signed with Suzuki on Friday, Roczen had called him to say that the bike is awesome! If Roczen is happy and comfortable on his new RMZ450 then that could mean trouble for everyone else in the early rounds of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Series. I’m not sure if Roczen is a 450SX title threat, but I feel like he will win races in 2023 and that is great for Suzuki and the RM Army.
Also, KTM announced that Kaven Benoit is coming out of retirement to race a two-stroke next year in the 250 class. When I originally heard this news a few weeks ago, I assumed that he would be racing the new 300 EFI two-stroke in the 450 class but I guess that is not the case. Good on Benoit for wanting to come back and have some fun and good on KTM Canada for supporting him. Benoit will be fast on this bike, and we know he loves the tracks in the east. I’m sure there will be a plethora of cool videos featuring Benoit released this summer as I know Red Bull Canada is fully behind this adventure. This definitely adds a little spice to next year!
In the downright confusing news category, I’m not sure what was going on in Carl Bastedo’s head when he sent out the tweet he did late last week. I’m not going to repeat it, but it was a reference to the World SX Series going to Vancouver in October of 2023 (which is really cool news in itself) and how difficult it has been in the past to draw fans to BC Place. Anyway, Carl’s tweet was ignorant, and a lot of people let him know it immediately. Apparently, Carl was on his way out as the Manager for Team Canada at the MXON anyway as he sent in a resignation letter a few weeks ago. As I said, I’m not sure what possessed him to go that far off base with his tweet, but he did and now he has to live with it.
So with Carl sadly going out in a ball of flames who is going to take over the challenging task of putting a team together to send to France in 2023? I mean, as a country we’re well past just not sending a team as that would not only be a disservice to our talented group of riders, but also to all the people who worked so hard to get Team Canada to this event in recent years. As you can imagine going to this event, especially when it’s in Europe is incredibly expensive, and with our industry most likely heading into a small recession next year, can we as a sport in Canada afford to take money out of it simply to send a team to France for one weekend of racing? Regardless of how prestigious it is? As I said, we pretty much have to go, but where does the money come from, and then who takes over as Team Manager to organize everything? Well, the obvious person is the woman that we sometimes refer to as the Queen of Canadian Moto and that is Kourtney Lloyd. As you recall Kourtney ran Team Canada for three years straight (2016, 2017, 2018) and she most certainly deserves another go at it. Also, since Kourtney has been away from this process for a couple of years, so she’s had time to reflect on her past experiences and think about what worked and what didn’t work. She’s also not just the Queen of Canadian Moto, but she’s also the Queen of organization and I know whenever I’m talking to her, she makes me feel like I should be more organized. So while she may not be able to cook garlic bread without burning it (inside joke), Kourtney is the perfect person to take over this project and I would also love to see her name, and Sir Paul Kingsley as her assistant. Kinger has not only been the head referee at the Canadian Nationals for a long time, but he’s also been Mr. MXGP since I can remember and having him help out with Team Canada would be a great way to honour his service to Canadian moto. He’s even been to the track in France where the 2023 MXON is being held, so he knows the area. There you go CMA…Let’s have Kourtney and Kinger run this show and then the rest of us will do whatever we can to help out.
For the past number of years, I’ve been writing a feature that I like to call the “Golden Elbow Awards” where I come up with my picks in a few different categories. From individual awards like “Rider of the Year”, to other awards such as “Track of the Year”, “Team of the Year”, “National of the Year”, “Event of the Year” as well as “Moto of the Year”. It’s always a lot of fun, and since I consult a few people to assist me with my picks, I always enjoy the process. So without any further delay here are a few of my Golden Elbow Awards for 2022.
Track of the Year: Walton Raceway at The Walton TransCan
In years past, this has been a difficult award to choose as we have so many great tracks in Canada. However, for 2022 there is one track that stood out a little more than the rest that I attended this summer, and that is Walton Raceway and how it was prepared for the Walton TransCan. In the weeks leading up to the 30th Anniversary, Walton TransCan crew decided to truck in multiple loads of sand to mix in with the traditional hard-packed clay that the track is made up of. As any track owner will tell you, trying to change the consistency of the land’s natural soil can be a risky task and many tracks don’t even bother. But, the Walton crew wanted to do something special for this historic TransCan and when everyone showed up in August, the track was covered in a thick layer of sand. Now, it wasn’t all roses for the track crew and the riders, as some early week rain left the sand heavy and wet and the clay underneath saturated. So for the opening practice sessions, the track was a mess and a few of the younger classes struggled to even make it around. But with the sun shining, the track dried quickly and by the time the opening moto of the week was on the starting line, conditions were prime. Even as the last few motos of the day hit the track the conditions remained solid and this is why I’m handing out this award to Walton Raceway. The sand that the crew had put on the track is what made the difference in those dreaded late motos each day at the 2022 TransCan. Even as the sun beat down on the track all week long the conditions remained raceable and we didn’t see the dust that we sometimes do during the final races.
Event of the Year: Triple Crown Series SX/AX Tour
For this award, I had to go with multiple events and I chose the Triple Crown Series SX/AX Tour races at Gopher Dunes, Sarnia, and Calgary. I love indoor racing and I’m a big proponent of this series for racers of all ages and skill levels. In my opinion, if a young rider is searching for a reason to try their hand at indoor racing look no further than the pro class and where some of our top riders have gotten opportunities to travel and race in faraway lands. With the exception of Dylan Wright and his five MXGP events last fall, indoor racing has been very kind to a few of our riders. So please learn to ride SX/AX at a young age and then keep it going as you get older and gain more experience. Each of the Triple Crown Series indoor events had its own cool factor to it. Whether it was Gopher Dunes and its outdoor SX vibe under the lights, or Sarnia and its packed stands, then Calgary was just awesome with its venue and large amateur turnout. I know it’s costly for the teams to do extra racing in the fall, so hats off to the ones who dug deep into their pockets and made it happen. As I said, I love these races and that is why I’ve chosen them for the Event(s) of the Year.
National of the Year: Riverglade National
This was another tough category as all of the Triple Crown Series rounds were just awesome in 2022. We saw a return to races in the west and although I didn’t attend any of the three west rounds, I heard good things about them all. The two rounds at Walton Raceway were entertaining, Gopher Dunes was its usual nightmare for the riders, and as always, Sand Del Lee and Deschambault provided some incredible battles. However, for 2022 my pick for National of the Year goes to Riverglade Raceway. I chose Riverglade for a couple of reasons including track conditions, as well as the fact that the series hasn’t travelled to the east for two years. Everyone in the series loves heading east to Moncton, and in turn everyone in Moncton and the surrounding area loves when the series comes to town. The people always come out in droves to watch the racing at this round, and with the large grandstands and spectator access to the infield, the Riverglade round is very fan friendly. Also, this year the track crew ripped the Riverglade deep before practice, so by the time the gate dropped for the opening moto the ruts were deep and the track was challenging. Watching our top pro riders and WMX riders navigate the deep ruts was pretty cool, and it reminded me of watching a national from the USA when they used to rip the track deep. I heard from a few riders that the Riverglade National was the most challenging of the series without a doubt.
Moto of the Year: We have a tie
When I look back to the summer of 2022 and think about all of the great motos that I witnessed, there were way too many to pick just one. So to be fair, I decided to narrow it down to three motos from this summer. The first winner of this award is pretty much all of the Eastern WMX motos beginning at Walton One and continuing to the final round of the series at Walton Raceway. Every moto we got to watch exciting battles between Eve Brodeur and Jamie Astudillo and sometimes they remained only bike lengths apart for an entire moto. In the end, Brodeur took the title, but it wasn’t without some incredible resistance from Astudillo.
The second winner of the Moto of the Year award goes to the third and final 250 moto at Round 4 at Walton Raceway. With the shortened motos that day, all of the riders were letting it hang out for the entire moto and that definitely added to the excitement. In the final 250 moto that day Mitchell Harrison, Ryder McNabb, and Jacob Piccolo went at it from start to finish and their battle had all of the fans on their feet cheering at the fences. It was an amazing race and when the checkered flag flew it was Harrison who used his experience to sneak out a big moto win.
Finally, the third recipient of this award goes to Dylan Wright’s come-from-behind moto at Sand Del Lee in July. Dylan entered that moto with a perfect moto score and even though he completely messed up his early laps, there was nothing that was going to get in his way of remaining undefeated. In most of the motos this summer we saw Dylan ride smooth, precise, and very calculated. However, in this moto, he dropped the hammer and everyone there that day saw Dylan’s true speed. It was pretty amazing to watch, at times he looked like a red freight train that refused to stop. In the end, Dylan took the lead at about the 25-minute mark and never looked back.
Team of the Year: Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing Team
This choice was an easy one as this powerhouse team took home both the 250 and 450 Triple Crown MXTour Series Championships. For Dylan Wright, winning the 450 title was no surprise, as he came into the summer as the clear favourite. For Ryder McNabb, this was his first pro title. Although the series didn’t quite start off the way he wanted in the western rounds, he fought back in the east and proved that he was the best 250 rider of the summer. Of course, it takes a village to win championships, and both these talented riders couldn’t have done without a great team behind them. The one thing that I think we can all agree on, is that the GDR Honda Team knows how to win titles. Derek Schuster runs a tight program that never leaves anything to chance. Their moto wins and titles most certainly don’t come by accident and with Dylan Wright and Jacob Piccolo under their tent for 2023, they are once again the team to beat heading into next season.
Rider of the Year- Dylan Wright
This was another award that was fairly easy to pick. For the first time ever, a rider went undefeated in our pro national series. Throughout the summer Dylan Wright was clearly the fastest rider in the 450 class, and while his wins came relatively easy in the opening five rounds, adversity did rear its ugly head at the mid-point of the 450 series. As I mentioned above, he had to come from behind in the final moto at SDL, and then a week later he had to fight through the pain of some broken ribs that he suffered in a mid-week practice crash. As Dylan told us in a post-race interview that he almost didn’t race in Riverglade as the pain was horrific and he was struggling to breathe. However, like every champion, he battled through it and remained perfect right to the end of the series. Dylan Wright is a beast and I don’t think we’ve seen a rider this determined since Ross Pederson back in the 1980s. I’ve mentioned before that in my opinion Dylan Wright is the best all-around rider that Canada has ever produced, but I haven’t had a chance to explain why I think this. So look for a story soon where I lay out my reasons for thinking this. Anyway, congratulations to Dylan Wright and to all of the winners this year. It was a great 2022 season and I cannot wait to see what happens next year!
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great final two weeks before Christmas. I will be back next week with a pre-Christmas Monday Gate Drop however, I may take Boxing Day off. But before I go this week I’d like to pay tribute to my parents for a moment. Back in the spring my wife and I bought their house and the 63 acres that go with it. This is the farm where I grew up and where we have our two MX tracks, as well as our new SX track. My Mom and Dad bought this property soon after I was born, and during my second year on this earth, they built their dream home. For over 48 years they’ve called this place home, until we purchased it from them in April. Since then they’ve been living with us (on and off) while waiting for their new residence to get built, a very nice basement apartment at my sister’s house in Ancaster, ON. Well, this morning they pack up and with tears in their eyes drove down our driveway for the final time and onto their new home. A few months ago my Dad recited to me the story of the first time they ever drove up this driveway to look at the property in 1973. At that time it was just an old barn foundation as well as an old beat farmhouse. They tore it all down and rebuilt everything and then called it home for almost five decades. Now it’s our turn to call this home and to make our own memories here. As with any older home, there’s a long list of things to do and upgrades to make, but that is part of what makes this adventure so exciting. Now, I’m sure they’ll be back to visit soon and they will no doubt enjoy returning for a visit, but when they do they won’t be coming to their home, they’ll be coming to our home. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments please email me at chris@mxpmag.com.
