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Yamaha Motor Canada Presents The Monday Gate Drop

When I spoke last week about the fast escalation of this Covid-19 pandemic, I also made mention that things could get a lot worse before they got better. Well, it certainly appears that we haven’t yet seen the worst of Covid-19 as each day more and more people are getting sick, and unfortunately, we’re hearing of more deaths. Yes, these are interesting times that we’re living in right now and the hardest part is that no one can predict when it’s going to be over. Are we talking a few weeks, a month, two months, a year, what exactly are we looking at here? My optimistic feeling is that over the years, history has shown that mankind almost always rises to the occasion when faced with desperate events. I remember a scene from the movie Apollo 13 when the brain trust at NASA was trying to figure out how to safely return the Astronauts back to Earth despite their almost crippled spaceship. When things looked about as bleak as they could, the men and women of NASA put their heads together and found a way to get the job done. “Failure is not an option,” shouted Gene Kranz as he demanded his team to quickly find solutions. In the end they did, and now it’s time to do it again!

In our small and tight-knit motocross world, all racing events are currently on hold. In an interview late last week with Jetwerx CEO Justin Thompson, he told me that in all likelihood the Triple Crown Series will not begin until Round 1 of the MXTour in Calgary. He also mentioned that a press release will be out later this week to clarify everything and give everyone some much needed direction. Justin was confident that at some point this year we will get the entire Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series completed, even if all of the indoor events have to be run in the Fall. This, I’m sure, is music to everyone’s ears as we need all the good news we can get these days. So was the announcement late last week of the revised Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Series schedule in the USA. With so much uncertainty right now, it was great to have something to look forward to. The revised Lucas Oil Pro Motocross schedule has the series now beginning on June 13th in Florida, then moving on from there. The final round is now scheduled for Fox Raceway in early September. Hopefully this new schedule will remain unchanged, however at this point who knows?

The next schedule that will have to be determined are the remaining rounds of the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross Series. With the outdoor series being pushed back until June, this does give the SX Series more time to finish. Recently, there was some talk that the completion of the SX Series may not be until the Fall, after the outdoor series has completed. However, in talking to a few people in the USA, there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for running the outdoor series and then going back to SX afterwards. Most would rather find a way to finish SX then go on to the outdoors, even if that means pushing the start of the Lucas Oil Series even further down the line. As with everything right now, though, it’s all in a holding pattern as we just don’t know when we’ll be able to get back to somewhat of a normal life.

At least our top riders are able to keep training as they wait to see when racing in Canada will begin.

So, how is everyone doing out there? How is your self-isolation and social distancing going? It certainly is an adjustment as the overall feeling of freedom has definitely changed. When my family and I go out to the grocery store or to get take-out at our favourite restaurant, there is an eerie feeling on the roads and in the stores, as thankfully there aren’t as many people. Yesterday, I saw a photo of the Los Angeles area during rush hour late last week and the highways were basically empty. I know that obviously there are people out there who could do a better job of staying home and away from people, but I do find it amazing that we’ve been able to adapt so quickly. As I write this, the Province of Ontario announced that starting tomorrow at midnight, all non-essential businesses are to close for at least two weeks. Now, I’m not exactly sure what they’re going to classify as essential but this is going to result in more bad news for our economy. I know it might be needed, but as I said, this situation appears to be getting worse before it gets better. I’m also not sure what this means for businesses that currently have most of if not all of their staff working from home? I know my wife’s company has set up all of their employees to work from home so it’s pretty much business as usual for them. In fact, they haven’t missed a beat. Also, the IOC finally announced that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan will be postponed and will be moved to next summer. With athletes not being able to properly train and with so much uncertainty surrounding travel (and pretty much everything else), moving the Olympics to 2021 makes perfect sense. Anyway, I guess we just have to take everything day by day and do our best to cope. Things could always be worse.

Here is a screenshot of our latest cover. This issue hits newsstand later this week.

 

So that is where we all stand in this messed up world. From an MXP Magazine point of view, our first issue of 2020 is going to press tonight. Here is preview of our new cover. As always, there is a ton of great stories in this issue, including a story written by Mike McGill on the successful career of Carl Vaillancourt, as well as a look at the new OASA E-Bicycle Race Series. These races will take place this summer at well known Ontario MX tracks like Moto Park, Gopher Dunes and Walton Raceway. Also, we have no new races to talk about right now, so each day on www.mxpmag.com we’re taking a look at some of our Canadian Pro Nationals from the past decade. Finally, look for an interview later this week with Feld Entertainment’s Sean Brennan as he will hopefully give us an official insight about when SX might return. As always, I hope everyone has a great week and I hope everyone remains healthy. We’ll all get through this, and like I said, failure is not an option! Have a good week and thanks for reading.

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