Saturday night in Nanaimo would bring the final round of the 2005 Thor/Parts Canada Arenacross Championship. The series certainly brought it's share of spills and thrills and Saturday's racing would bring proof of this. With Ryan Lockhart and Marco Dube electing to not race the final weekend and major crashes on Friday night that resulted in injuries to Milo Christie, Broc Hoyer and Kody Hargreaves, Saturday's field would be reduced to only six riders.

Champion Again!: Darcy Lange doesn't need to put away that number one plate just yet as he clinched the 2005 Canadian Arenacross Championship with a dominating performance in Nanaimo. Darcy won every heat and every main event of the weekend and left no doubt who the fastest arenacross rider in the country is, if not the world.

Colton Facciotti came into the weekend neck and neck with Darcy Lange in the AX2 points standings and was looking to clinch his first arenacross championship. Unfortunately, he would not be able to match Lange's torrid pace and an engine failure on Friday night would seal the inevitable. Still, the young Richmond Kawasaki rider proved throughout the series that he is Canada's next big indoor rider and will now move on to the Supercross series to see how he stacks up against the best in the world.

Canadian Freestyle Whiz, Jeff Banks, signs autographs after another successful demo that saw him overcome a questionable takeoff to perform several large back flips and other tricks. Banks' halftime freestyle demo was certainly a hit with the crowd and he drew a rather large following back in the pits.

With Friday's injuries reducing the field to six riders, Yamaha mounted Joey Richards would capitalize on his consistency and race both main events. Even though he was off the pace of the top 5 riders, Richards gained a lot of experience in these west rounds and will be looking to put that to use when the West Coast Arenacross series starts up again in January.

Kyle Beaton takes the far outside gate for the final main event of the series. After a strong showing in the AX2 main that saw him place second behind Darcy Lange, Kyle would run in third for most of the Open main right until the last lap where he would go down in the whoops. Despite taking a while to get up and get the bike started again he would still place fourth due to the fact he had lapped Kris Foster and Joey Richards before the final lap.

Brady Sheren has crashed out early at the start of a few big series races in recent history but not this time! He proved that consistency is key in any series and he used that consistency to score a fourth and a third for the night and locked up third overall in points for the series. Now with arenacross finished, Brady will be training hard as he prepares for World Supercross and the West Coast AMA Supercross Lites series.

As in Calgary, this weekend's racing also featured a Big Dog Class (Adults on 50cc bikes) that drew quite a number of competitors. This guy deserved bonus style points for racing an old Honda Z. How cool is that?

Kris Foster pounds the whoops on the big KX450F: Though not intending to race the open class machine this weekend, an engine failure during practice on his KX250F forced him to compete on the big bike for the evening. A bit of a handful on the tight track, it was a good learning experience for the up-and-coming Kawasaki rider who will be competing in the Vancouver SX next month.

The AX Open podium: This would also end up being the series podium as Lange, Facciotti and Sheren would go 1-2-3 in the final points, making it a clean sweep by Richmond Kawasaki. As the series comes to a close, there have been plenty of ups and downs; great battles, unexpected upsets, scary crashes, emerging superstars and an arenacross legend returning to form after a summer off to recuperate. Future West set out to build a National Series that would bring the best talent from across the country together to establish a legitimate Canadian indoor series. With more riders heading south to compete in U.S. Supercross than ever before, it would be hard to argue that they didn't accomplish their goals. With opportunities like this series, the future of Canadian motocross on a global scale looks stronger than ever.

Ed note: Racer X Canada would like to thank our contributing photographers and writers James Lissimore and Doug Engstrom for their excellent coverage from Winnipeg, Calgary, Chilliwack and Nanaimo. Racer X Canada was the only Canadian magazine to cover this series in its entirety and offer coverage for the online community, showing our commitment to our Canadian racers and enthusiasts. Please support our website and magazine and subscribe to Racer X Canada—subscribers save $60 off the 12 month newsstand price. Advertising inquiries can be directed to Jay Moore or Brett Dailey.