Greetings! I hope everyone had a great weekend as we’re definitely into the hottest part of our summer. This past weekend the 2024 Triple Crown Series was at the beautiful Sand Del Lee track and boy was it hot! Even though Gopher Dunes is widely considered the most challenging National of the Triple Crown Series, in recent years the SDL National has taken the cake as the hottest of the year. With the abundance of trees that surround the track, the warm air gets very stagnant and by noon it feels like you’re in a sauna. As it was, last weekend at Gopher Dunes, Round 5 was another suffer fest. Also, in the week leading up to the race, the Ottawa area received a lot of rain so, the paddock area at the track was a mess. This made parking challenging for everyone, including the teams, amateur racers, and spectators. However, the rain did help the track for Sunday’s race, and thanks to Kevin Tyler and his MX101 crew, the track was the best that I’ve ever seen it. The loamy sand had good moisture in it all day long, and it got just the right amount of rough. Every rider I spoke to last night had great things to say about how the track turned out for both motos.
Now to racing and the results from Round 5 of the Triple Crown Series. In the 250 Pro/AM class, Kaven Benoit came into SDL clinging ever so slightly to a four-point lead over his much younger rival from the USA, Drew Adams. So far in this series, Benoit has done pretty much everything right, except for being able to match the raw speed of Adams. Yesterday, with the points lead on the line, Benoit once again put himself in great position off the start in both motos, as he was right on the rear tire of Adams. However, the same thing happened in both motos as Adams took a couple of laps to survey the track, before really twisting the throttle and pulling away from Benoit. There was nothing Kaven could do as he simply cannot ride that fast without making a massive mistake. If you compare the opening 450 moto and the second 250 Pro/AM moto when the condition of the track were similar, Adams was going the same speed as Josiah Natzke and Jess Pettis. This kid from Tennessee is the real deal and the speed he’s showing us has been very impressive. Also, I could be wrong but Adams KX250 looked and sounded different this weekend. In talking to a few people, we all agreed that it’s possible that now that he has a good shot at winning this title, Pro Circuit has given him a motor that is closer to what their team riders are using in the Pro Motocross Championships. We all know that Benoit’s KTM and Racine’s Yamaha are two of the fastest 250s in the class, but yesterday, even off the start, Drew Adams bike looked like a green rocket ship. I spoke to Benoit after the race and he said that he’s doing everything he can, and that hopes in the end that his experience will be the deciding factor in this championship. Over the years, history has shown us that Benoit could end up being correct. In my opinion, Adams has far exceeded expectations this summer, and obviously he’s the fastest rider in the 250 Pro/Am class by several seconds. However, to beat Kaven and win this title, he has to deal with a few challenging things in the coming weeks. First, he has to get through this weekend in Riverglade, where strange things always seem to happen. Then, Adams has to find success in Deschambault, where he’ll be going against not just Benoit, but the thousands of Benoit fans that will be there. This “us-versus-you” atmosphere, will no doubt be a new experience for the teenager. Finally, after the next two challenging rounds, Adams also has to make it through the week at Loretta Lynn’s; where he’s the favourite to win both Pro Sport classes. If he makes it through all of that, and enters the final round at Walton with a comfortable points lead, then he deserves to win this title and good on him for finding success at such a young age.
Other 250 Pro/AM class riders who had some solid results yesterday were Tyler Medaglia, Wyatt Kerr, Sebastien Racine, and Dylan Rempel. All four riders rode strong in both motos and didn’t appear to be affected too much by the heat. Of these four riders, I think Racine probably had a podium finish, or even better in him, but poor starts and mistakes cost him dearly. In fact, after the second moto he had to go to the hospital to get X-Rays done on his foot. They came back negative, but it still sounds like he’s torn some ligaments, and that will no doubt be causing him pain in the remaining rounds. Anyway, while the lead two were gone in both motos, we did witness some entertaining battles inside the top ten.
In the 450 class, the KTM duo of Jess Pettis and Josiah Natzke sure put on a show yesterday. While Natzke got the better of his teammate in the opening moto, Pettis came back with a vengeance in moto two and rode his best race of the season thus far. In the early laps of the second moto it appeared like Natzke was going to pull away and not only take the OA win on the day, but also inherit the points lead for the first time in 2024. But after a few laps, Pettis stole some good lines from his teammate and found some solid flow. From there, he reeled Natzke back in and within two laps, he made the pass and pulled away. To me, the five laps Pettis put in after he passed for the lead were the most impressive of the day. His pace was fast and he put Natzke in a position where he either had to find another level of speed, or simply settle for second. As a rider when the conditions were like they were yesterday, you have a maximum pace that you know you can sustain for 25-30 minutes. Anything above that and your heart rate rises and you begin to get hot, and sometimes overheat. Natzke knew exactly what his maximum level was and he did his best to limit the damage and live to fight another day. If you pushed too hard last weekend or this weekend, you could do enough damage to your body and energy levels that it will affect you for the rest of the series. Behind Pettis and Natzke, Preston Kilroy rode well to finish third in both motos. In moto two, Kilroy went down on lap one and had to charge from way back. I love watching this kid ride as he’s smooth as silk and very fast. Also, I thought Parker Eales and Payton Morningstar rode strong in both 450 motos. However, even with all of the talented riders on the track, it was sad not seeing Dylan Wright and Mitchell Harrison out there. Both were in attendance but out for the remainder of the series with injuries. Dylan finally was able to get an MRI last week and the results came back better than expected. From talking to a few people yesterday, the doctors don’t think he’ll have to have surgery to repair his left shoulder, and most likely time and physio will be enough to get it back to 100%. This is great news as I think it’s always a good thing to avoid surgery, especially when it comes to a body as complicated as your shoulder. I know, the gate drops at each round, regardless of who is on the starting line, but it still felt weird to not see a couple of our top riders out there. Especially Dylan, who has always put on a great show at SDL in front of his friends and family.
Speaking of Dylan Wright, when he does return to racing he’s going to have an all-new 2025 CRF450R to ride, and last week I was fortunate enough to spend a day riding this new bike at Ironman Raceway in Indiana. I had a great time and the folks from Honda treated us journalists very well. I flew to Indianapolis early on Wednesday morning and was met by my personal driver, who then took me to the host hotel. On Wednesday evening, the group of us made the trek to an indoor Go-Karting facility where we were provided dinner, as well as the official presentation of this new and exciting bike. Hunter Lawrence was there and he spoke for a while about how Honda was able to take what they learned from the 2023/24 factory team bikes and apply it to this new model. Trey Canard also spoke at length about the testing process, and how for the first time, the factory in Japan really leaned on the race team in the USA for direction with regard to the 2025 model. I had a great time and riding the following day at Ironman was like a dream come true. The track was in perfect condition and the bike was.. Sorry, you have to wait until Wednesday for my official review as there is an embargo on any bike review info until then. All in all, it was a great few days and thank you to Honda Canada, as well as Honda USA for making it possible.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and I hope you’re enjoying your summer so far. In closing, I also want to congratulate Eve Brodeur and Sam Gaynor on once again winning the Thor WMX East and FXR Pre-Mix classes this past weekend at SDL. As I mentioned last week, both talented riders have had to deal with a lot of off the track issues this season, so it’s great to see them rising to the occasion and finding success. If you’re planning on attending one of the final three rounds of the 2024 Triple Crown Series, make sure you get there early to watch both of these classes. The racing is exciting and the pace inside the top five is very fast. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
