Blair Morgan waits for his podium interview at Sand Del Lee

By Brett Dailey, photos by Allison Kennedy

You have to admit that we are lucky here in Canada. Two of our greatest athletes, Blair Morgan and Jean-Sébastien Roy are now in their 30’s but they are still at the top of their game. That makes for interesting interviews because they are full of experience and they aren’t afraid to share their opinions. For Morgan, he’s coming off one of his strongest seasons ever with an X-Games snocross championship and third overall in the Canadian nationals. With his professionalism, maturity, speed and, of course, raw speed, Morgan brings an element of integrity to our series. Now gearing up for his third-straight appearance for Team Canada at the Motocross des Nations, Morgan is healthy, confident and ready to repeat his record-setting performance from Lierop, The Netherlands in 2004. We caught up with him shortly after a pit bike ride on his new Thumpstar.

RXC: Your season started off a little slowly at Ste-Julie with a 5-7 but you just kept getting better and better and stronger and stronger and the season progressed. How did you do it and were you happy with the way the season ended for you?
Blair Morgan: Yeah, I’m pretty happy with the way the season ended up. Going into the year, I was shooting for top five overall and to hopefully sneak in a few podiums. I just got more and more comfortable with the bike as the series went on and then I just set my goals a little higher each weekend. A lot of guys got hurt as well so it’s hard to say how things would have turned out [if the field was healthy] but I think toward the end of the year, I would have still got third no matter if anyone was hurt or not. I felt really strong—I wish I could have felt as strong as I was at Sand Del Lee and Walton at the first round—that would have been nice. But I’m happy with the way it turned out. It was kind of a last-minute thing with Honda Canada Blackfoot and those guys just scrambled around for me at the beginning of the year and as the year went on, they had more time to help me out and work with me so it turned out well.

Regarding your comment about the field, did you expect so many people to have bike problems and injuries?
There were a lot of riders that got hurt. One of my goals this year was to not get hurt … not only because it hurts [laughs] but also I didn’t want to jeopardize my snocross season because I’ve come into the last couple of seasons injured and I really wanted to come into this season injury free and win some championships and more races.

So you must be feeling pretty healthy and strong now.
Yeah, I’m feeling really, really good. I’m taking some time off the bike right now. Although, I did a local race here in our hometown last weekend and raced six motos, rode pretty hard and felt good. Other than that, I’m just riding this Thumpstar minibike right now, which is cool, something different.

This is your third year in a row on the Motocross of Nations team. Are you excited?
I am excited to go there and ride. I’m a bit leery about Colton [Facciotti] because I didn’t think he would be ready for the race after breaking his collarbone and having a serious injury. I’m sure he’ll be fine at the race and maybe be feeling healthy but he won’t be riding for a month so I think he will be a little bit off.

Well, he obviously showed good speed this year on a 450 so hopefully he can recuperate fairly quickly.
Yeah, I hope he rides well too. Sometimes it seems like if things aren’t going his way, he kind of doesn’t care and will pull off. Hopefully he goes there with a good attitude.

Do you know anything about the event yet?
I went to the website to have a look at it. From what I’ve heard, it’s supposed to be a really nice track. Hopefully it doesn’t rain and turn into a mud race.

Are they shipping your bikes?
No, we are getting some over there.

I guess you are hoping they’ll be better than last year?
Yes, I don’t think the bikes could be worse than last year. I’d rather ride my Thumpstar than last year’s bike. [Laughs]

Will we see a repeat of your performance in Lierop?
I hope so. I feel good again, like I did there. Last year, I felt like I let the team down. I just wasn’t comfortable on that bike and I didn’t get very good results but hopefully I can just push it, get in that A final again and do better than last year—somewhere between what we did in Lierop and last year. If we get around 12th or something, that would be cool.

Morgan capped off his national season with a strong 3-3 at Walton.

Well the U.S team looks pretty weak so they should be easy to handle.
Yeah, exactly, I’ve been watching those guys. They are going to destroy everyone, I think.

What are your feelings about Blackfoot’s announcement after Walton?
Well, I knew about all that stuff for weeks before Walton so it wasn’t a big surprise when they announced it. I guess I’ll wait and see what they are going to do and if they have a team next year then I am interested no matter what brand they are with. I think they have the personnel to make the bike work well no matter what it is. Joe Skidd and Andrew [McLean], Anthony [Turner], Peter [Keeping], they work hard on fine-tuning everything. They have the right guys working for them for sure.

Your mechanic, Anthony Turner, lives near me, here in Nova Scotia. How did everything go with him?
Awesome. Anthony was awesome this year. The first time I worked with him was the Friday before the first race and it totally worked out well. Total professional guy; my bike was perfect every time. I had the best feeling clutch out of all the guys [laughs]. He’s coming with me over to the des Nations and we have Montreal as well.

Regarding the rumours about Klatt going to the United States, you have a lot of experience racing in the States and you have done well. Any advice for him?
Well, I have talked to him in the truck and stuff but yeah; I hope he does get a decent ride down there. I think he was a little tentative in the supercross series—he probably knew he could do better and thought he could do better. I think if he gets a full-on ride down there that he will commit and just be one of the guys down there. When you are sitting on the line with all of those top names … if he gets down there and is a top name, his mindset will be that he should be up-front and running with them. Hopefully it all works out well for him. He definitely has the speed—and the natural talent he has is beyond any other rider that has come out of Canada. The guys that did well in the States like JSR and Ross [Pederson] were kind of workhorse guys where they worked hard to do well. I think Dusty has more natural riding talent so if he works a little more on that, I think he will have a deadly combination.

Let’s switch gears to snocross. Do you have your plans finalized yet?
Yes, basically, we will keep going the way we have for the past five years that we’ve been with Ski-Doo. We extended our contract with Ski-Doo for two more years. The machines are unbelievable and I’m happy to be on the best of the best.

What do you want to win the most this year, the WPSA title or the X-Games?
Both; I want both. For sure the X-Games because that’s a huge one but I haven’t won the WPSA titles for a few years so I would like to win some more races and win the championship. The past few years, I have kind of been off-and-on with injuries so I haven’t put in a full good season. If I had to pick between the two, I think I would rather win the championships and a lot of race wins rather than the X-Games. The X-Games is a bit of a crapshoot; there is a lot of luck involved. Hopefully it goes well and I get a good start. But the way I am feeling now and the way things have been going through the summer, I have a lot of confidence going into the year and I think it will just carry on.

Sounds like you had a good season.
Yes, I had a lot of fun this year. We had pretty good tracks all year. Last year all of the tracks were rained out but we had good weather at most of the races this year and all of the tracks were pretty good. Sand Del Lee, I think, was my favourite of the year.

Is that right? Kevin Tyler and the gang will be excited to hear that.
Yeah, I’m wearing my MX101 t-shirt right now as we speak.

Oh no! Really?
I thought the race was supposed to be on TV today. I kept turning the TV on and I was like, ‘Oh no, baseball!’ I kept on checking but there was always baseball on and I almost lost it. I think, for sure, that was the best track this year. Other than the broken line and the water puddle in the back, it was cool—I liked that track. It kind of reminded me of my track at home.

Who do you want to thank for this season?
Definitely everyone at Blackfoot, Honda, Fox and all of the sponsors. Jason Mitchell, Joe Skidd, Dean [Thompson], Andrew McLean, Anthony Turner, Pete [Keeping], even John Balducci—he prepped my bike a few times when Anthony came in late from Halifax. They are all top-notch guys there. Also my family and friends for all of their support. When I was riding with my friends in the spring they were all saying, ‘You’re going to do good this year, I just feel it, I know it.’ So that was kind of neat. Again, my family and my wife for letting me ride whenever I want and letting me do whatever I want while she stays home with the kids. I’m going into snocross soon and hopefully I have a successful year like I did this summer.

How are things going with your kids?
Well, I have to be a little more on schedule with my life now. Before I could just decide at the last minute what I wanted to do but now we have a big white board where we have to write down what we are doing each day. [Laughs]

Well, we tied you up for a quite a while here so good luck at the des Nations and we will see you in Montreal.
Thanks.

Dusty Klatt, Jean-Sebastien Roy and Blair Morgan completed a 1-2-3 sweep
of the 2006 MX1 podium for Blackfoot Racing.