Yamaha Motor Canada Presents The Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to another edition of the Yamaha Motor Canada Monday Gate Drop. This past Saturday at Moto Park, Yamaha Canada held its first Blu Cru Yamaha Appreciation Ride Day. It was a great turnout, and all of the Yamaha riders enjoyed a free lunch and a great day of riding. Look for the next Yamaha ride day coming up in Quebec in a few weeks.

While the Blu Cru riders were ripping up Moto Park on Saturday, the 2019 SXTour was kicking off inside the very spacious Olympic Stadium in Montreal. It had been almost ten years since I’ve been to the Montreal SX, so obviously I was very excited to be heading back. Last year I was in Japan during this race so, unfortunately, I had to miss this event when it returned to the Big O’. As soon as I arrived at the Stadium on Friday morning for press day, I was quickly reminded of the size of the building. For this event they only use about 75% of the floor so there was a lot of space unused. It’s hard to believe that the past Montreal SX events used almost the entire floor as well as going up into a mezzanine section. But with dirt and transportation costs in Montreal being extremely high these days, a smaller track and the pro paddock setup on the other half of floor seemed to work pretty good for the modern-day Montreal SX. For something a little different this week, let’s look at the good and the bad from the 2019 Montreal SX.

The Good:

I think the biggest positive to come out of Saturday night was it appeared that the crowd grew slightly from last year, and I think it has the potential to grow even more in the future. With the Toronto SX no longer, we need a large venue SX to get excited about in Canada. I think it looks good to the people outside of this country who stand up and take notice of events like this. After all, Montreal is the first official SX of the off-season. Also, it’s great for Jetwerx and the Triple Crown Series as this is by far the best attended round. Basically, it’s a win-win for everyone and I hope it’s back in 2020.

It was also great to see a few, fast American riders (I know Dean Wilson isn’t American) come to Montreal again as they definitely add some extra spice to this event. Justin Brayton, Malcolm Stewart and Deano are all great SX riders and it was cool to seem them attack the Montreal track on their full race bikes. I spent some time on Friday afternoon looking over their machines and they were definitely the real deal. From Brayton’s factory Honda complete with a hydraulic clutch, to Dean’s factory FC450 with the unobtainable 52mm WP front forks on it. These bikes were uber cool and it was great to see them in Montreal.

The racing itself was also great. Other than the whoop section and the section afterwards, there wasn’t really anything to separate the riders. Obviously, the trio of Wilson, Stewart and Brayton were at times a small step above the rest, but I must say that I was also very impressed with Phil Nicoletti’s speed in Montreal. Phil holeshotted the first two main events and could’ve easily won the first. I think having some of his American friends there to race against gave him a little extra motivation. When I had lunch with Phil, his teammate Shawn Maffenbeier, as well as Andy White on Friday, Phil had some pretty cool stories to tell about his racing and some of the things he’s been through. After taking a well-earned vacation a week ago, Phil appeared relaxed and confident, and it definitely showed in his riding. It was also great to see Dean Wilson riding so well on Saturday. This is the first time in a few years that Dean has a contract already signed for the following season, so he’s now relaxed and focused. Again, Dean had his full factory FC450 with him as well as his mechanic, leaving little doubt that he was most certainly prepared. 

In the end, Deano took the overall win in Montreal followed by Stewart, Brayton and Nicoletti. Cole Thompson was the top finishing Canadian rider, finishing 7^th overall. Cole looked smooth all day but lacked a little corner speed and intensity compared to the top four riders. In the 250 class, Dylan Wright won the overall with 5-2 moto scores. Yes folks, you know you’re in the groove when you win with 5-2 moto scores. In the opening 250 main event, Wright went down in Turn 1 and had to battle back from dead last. Jess Pettis easily won the first main and looked very smooth and fast while doing so. Luke Renzland won the second 250 main event and finished just behind Wright in the overall standings.

This year’s Montreal SX also had some amateur classes that got to race during the day. They had a class for the 50’s, 65’s, Supermini and Ladies. Each group was given a lengthy practice and two motos during the day and early evening. It was a great experience for all involved, and my son, who raced the Supermini class, had a day of racing that he won’t soon forget. So, the racing, the crown being back in Montreal, and even staying at the Universel Hotel again after a ten-year absence was all good. Now on to what wasn’t so good.

 

The Bad:

Thankfully, the good things about the 2019 Montreal SX outweighed the bad. I understand the thought process behind giving the fans a few more things to be entertained by, but Supercross in the 21^st century does not need dune buggies included. Even though the Montreal promoters only managed to find four buggies from the 1990s to race each other on Saturday night, they were still a complete mess. During the second car race (and I use that term very loosely), one of the drivers got all squirrelly, blew off of the track and landed on the first seven starting gates while the riders competing in the second 450 main event were sitting there. It obviously bent a bunch of gates, causing a long delay while they were repaired. When you have an event where there are professional athletes trying to earn a living, there is no need to have cars there. The ATV part of the show I understand, in fact the rider who won the ATV raced was an absolute god on his quad. I think I even saw him scrub over the finish line jump. He made racing a quad look like it was actually fun, something that is almost impossible to do. Also, the freestyle show was great and the fans loved it. My wife even made the observation that it seemed as if at least one rider crashes during the freestyle, the crowd goes crazy and they want more. Freestyle legend Ben Milot slid out after one of his jumps and the crowd went bananas. At one point the crowd got the wave going, the music was pumping; it was all good, except for the cars.

Another thing that wasn’t great was the track and how dry it was. The dirt came in very dry and the crew wasn’t able to keep moisture in it. I’ve never seen a SX track so dry and hard. Even though the crew worked on the track throughout the night, it just wasn’t meant to be. Because of the added ATV’s and off-road cars, the track had to be altered from last year, and most of it was just too fast, in my opinion. With high speeds and very dry and slippery dirt, the riders desperately tried to find traction all night long. By the final 450 main event, the track had pretty much had enough. Prior to the start I turned to Colton Facciotti, who happened to be standing near me, and said, “You know, there might a time in the future when you might miss racing but tonight probably isn’t one of them.” He just smiled and replied, “Nope!”

There were also a few riders injured last night. Although it wasn’t necessarily because of the track, it was pretty alarming. Tanner Ward crashed during practice and injured his wrist, Tyler Medaglia had a big get-off during his second practice session, Marco Cannella endoed hard during one of the races and was lucky to get up, then during the start of the second 250 Main, Jess Pettis went down in the first turn and suffered what could be a very serious knee injury. I saw Jess at the end of the night and he did not look good. This kid has been through so much in his short career that you can’t help but admire his resiliency. Hopefully his knee is just strained and nothing is torn, but judging by how much pain he appeared to be in, that could be a long shot. It was very touching to see so many riders and industry people come over to Pettis at the end of the night while he was sitting in the backseat of his parents’ rental car waiting to leave. His injured leg was stretched out across the seat because he couldn’t move it. Everyone from Dean Wilson to Dylan Wright came by, poked their head in the car and wished Pettis the best. Sometimes this sport can give us the highest of highs and we feel invincible, but at other times it’s the complete opposite and we cannot make sense of why. Get well soon Jess, the entire motocross industry is thinking of you.

So, that in a nutshell was the 2019 Montreal SX. As you can tell it was a pretty good event, and with a few little tweaks here and there, it will be even better in 2020. Visiting the city of Montreal is always fun, and when you have an event like a SX to go to watch, it makes it even more entertaining. Round 2 of the SXTour is on October 5 in Quebec City with the final round in Hamilton on October 19^th. In the 450 class, Phil Nicoletti continues to lead the Triple Crown Series points, and Dylan Wright has already clinched the 250 class. Finally, on Friday we released the latest issue of MXP Magazine with our new 6-time Canadian 450 Champion Colton Facciotti on the cover. This is by far one of my favourite covers that we’ve produced, and I think it’s a great tribute to Colton and his amazing career.

On Tuesday, MXP Magazine is headed up to Moto Park for the 2020 YZ model media ride day. I’ve heard great things about the new YZs and cannot wait to try them out. Later in the week we take delivery of the new 2020 CRF450R so also look for that test report next week.

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and a safe week riding, and thank-you for reading!