Yamaha Motor Canada Presents The Monday Gate Drop

I’m not sure about the rest of the country, but in Southern Ontario at least it has sure cooled down since last weekend. As soon as the kids returned to school on Tuesday the temperatures dropped and now it’s really feeling like Fall. After the hot, dry summer we had this year, it’s looking like we’re going to have a great Fall riding season. I hope everyone was able to get out this weekend to do a little riding and maybe even some racing.

My weekend was spent at the track as on Saturday my son and I did some supercross riding at our home track, and then on Sunday we travelled an hour north for him to race in the second to last Tag Metal AMO Ontario Provincial event at Moto Park. Under cool and partially cloudy skies, the track at Moto Park was perfect yesterday, and even though the turn out wasn’t great, the racing was good and everyone there appeared to have fun. The mini track especially was busy as kids were given the green light to practice after their motos. Is there anything more enjoyable than watching little kids taking part in sports and loving every minute of it? It was great to see so many kids ripping motos on both the mini track as well as on the main track. Anyway, thanks to Moto Park and AMO for a very enjoyable early Fall day of racing.

Moving on to the 2019 MXON and with Canada not sending a team in 2019, I’m fully cheering for Team USA. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but their team of Jason Anderson, Zach Osborne and Justin Cooper is taking their MXON prep to a whole new level for this year’s event in Assen. Anderson flew overseas last week to begin his preparation; Osborne flew over this weekend and Cooper will be following shortly. With the Assen track looking absolutely miserable to ride, Team USA and the rest of the Nations are going to need as much preparation as possible to succeed in the deep sand. I think it’s great that Team USA is committing themselves in this manner as I’m sure none of them want to spend almost a month in Europe at this time of year. All three riders have just come off a long summer of racing and this is supposed to be their off-season. However, when the gate drops in Assen I’m sure all of this preparation that Team USA is doing will be very evident on the race track. If Canada isn’t going to be there then I’m cheering for our neighbours to the south.

So, after an entertaining summer of racing in the great outdoors, this coming weekend the 2019 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series is heading back indoors as Round 1 of the SXTour will take place in Montreal. As you all know, the City of Montreal has a long history of supercross racing, and if the walls of Olympic Stadium could talk, it would sure have some glorious stories to tell. If you’ve never been to the Montreal SX you should try to go at least once, because both the city and the race itself are a lot of fun. I’ve been lucky enough to attend the Montreal SX both as a racer as well as a fan and I can tell you that I love this event. In fact, I’d like to think, and hope I guess, that I’ve pretty much seen it all inside Olympic Stadium as I have a novel’s worth of stories from there. For whatever reason, the Montreal SX is one of those events that always produces some very memorable moments.

The first time I ever attended the race was as 13-year-old spectator in 1986. That year the Montreal SX was a two-day event in late May, and with no roof and rain pouring down, the first night was a mudder. Since I had been entered to race the 80cc support class a few weeks later at the Toronto SX, my Dad figured it would be cool to fly to Montreal to watch and soak in some Canadian SX vibes. It was a fun weekend. I remember Guy Cooper and his Team Tide Honda winning one of the main events. I also remember heading down to the indoor paddock and it just being a mass of mud and water as everyone was trying to clean their bike. Sadly, I crashed a week later at a local race and broke my wrist so I wasn’t able to race the Toronto SX, but it was sure fun to see the Montreal SX in person for the first time.

Little did I know at the time that just three years later I would be lining up on the starting gate in the 250 class for my very first pro SX. The Montreal SX in the fall of 1989 was stacked with riders like Jim Holley, Tom Carson, Ross Pederson, Al Dyck, Keith Turpin and Carl Vaillancourt. Since it was my first SX and only my third pro race since moving up from Intermediate, I obviously had zero idea where I’d fit in. All I knew was that my speed was good, and at 16 years old I was loaded with confidence. During the week leading up to Montreal, Dave Gowland, who at the time was Ross Pederson’s mechanic, brought Ross up to my SX track to practice. I’d never met Ross before so when this living legend showed up at my house, I was eager to talk and ride with him. I even recall that my parents took me out of school early so that I was able to ride with Ross. At that time my track was pretty technical, and as Ross and I rode together it took him a while to get all of the jumps dialed. At the time Ross was in the later stages of his Hall of Fame career so riding SX was something he only did because he had to. His forte was muscling his Suzuki around an outdoor track for 35 minutes, not trying to time a triple jump. He was also still fairly fresh from his broken pelvis that he suffered just 8 months prior at the San Diego SX. So, to say that he appeared a little uncomfortable on my SX track would’ve been a slight understatement.

Riding with Ross that day was a great experience, and I actually gained a lot of confidence from it. Seeing him struggle with certain sections made me feel like I knew what I was doing and that I was going to be fine in Montreal the following weekend. The one thing I didn’t really think about that day, and I probably should’ve, was that Ross rode about 200 laps. They may have not been the smoothest laps, but he rode and rode, and then rode some more. Ironically, a few days later, I ended up 6^th in the main event while Ross was right behind me in 7^th. I was obviously pumped with my result while Ross was ready to kill someone. That was my best result in Montreal, as for whatever reason I couldn’t duplicate it or even better it. However, I loved each year that I lined up and I’m really looking forward to this weekend. My son is even racing in the Supermini support class in Montreal so that is going to make this year’s event feel even more special.

As I mentioned, over the years there have been many memorable moments from the Montreal SX. From the 1991 race being cancelled the night before because a piece of the stadium fell to the ground, to Dusty Klatt’s dominating performance in 2006, to JSR’s final win in 2008, I could go on for hours. This year we’re going to watch Malcolm Stewart, Dean Wilson and Justin Brayton battle our Canadian series regulars on Saturday night. With Colton Facciotti now retired, our Canadian hopes rest firmly on the shoulders of Cole Thompson in the 450 class. I know Cole is healthy and has been training hard at his home SX track, so hopefully he can get off the gate well and battle with the imported stars. With SX, freestyle, amateur racing, ATVs, and off-road cars, there is most certainly going to be something for everyone inside Olympic Stadium this weekend.

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope all the kids out there had a successful first week of school, and will have an even a better one this week. If you live in Ontario then don’t forget about the Yamaha Blu Cru rider appreciation day this Saturday at Moto Park. All Yamaha riders get to ride for free and will be served a free lunch to enjoy. Thank-you for reading, and thanks to Yamaha Motor Canada for their continued support of my Monday Gate Drop. Have a great week!