By Danny Brault

Merry Christmas everyone!

The festive season is upon us. In just two more sleeps, Santa Claus will drop down the chimney (which hasn’t been cleaned out yet), place presents under the tree (plastic, of course) and fill our stockings with sugarplums—or coal if your name is Tyler Evans—before grabbing his cookies and milk (no wonder Santa is so round and jolly) and continuing on with his worldwide journey.

When I was younger, I was the typical Christmas kid. I would try to stay up all night long, hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa, but I could never stay awake long enough. I knew he existed, however, because who else would have eaten my cookies and milk I left out on the kitchen table and the carrot I left for his reindeer? Actually, the carrot never did get eaten…

My favourite Chrismtas gift? That would have to be the gift I mentioned in last week’s Frid’Eh Update—a brand new 1989 Honda XR50! What a beauty. I was only six-years-old when I found it waiting patiently under the tree, and it felt like I was just given a factory ride. Unfortunately or fortunately—it depends on how you look at it—Christmas Christmas isn’t just about receiving gifts for me anymore. I wouldn’t blink an eye if I didn’t receive anything. Seriously. After I moved away from home to go to college three years ago, my thoughts regarding Christmas changed, and now when I return home for the holidays, just being with my buddies and my family brings me joy that no material item could give. Wow, that sounds like a line from a cheesy Christmas card, but it’s the truth.

For a week straight, my friends and I camp out at my parents’ place night and day (mom and dad are always thrilled about the company, especially after my friends have a few too many egg nogs), playing pond hockey into the wee hours of the night, sledding through the trails with the $200 junkers we fix up, and then we cap off our fun-filled week by celebrating the New Year together. After all, that’s what Christmas is all about: being with friends and family.

I do find it’s increasingly difficult to get revved up for that magical day, December 25th,  without snow on the ground. Damn global warming. We had a big dump of snow two weeks ago in London, but that melted away within two days. It has made for great riding weather, though. In fact, Rob McCullough, the Coles brothers (Brad and the better looking brother), the Burke contingent, Derek Schuster, Steve Chary and I went out for a rip last Saturday. As strange as it sounds, I thought it was one of the best riding days of the year. It was cool, the dirt was perfect and Steve had the track groomed up as well as Rich Winkler and the Dirt Wurx crew did in Toronto.

Brad Coles and Jason Burke are busy testing equipment for the rebirth of the Label It race team. Coles, who has run small race team before with Burke, Pierce Chamberlain, Joel Saarits, Bobby Thompson, and McCullough as his riders, is putting together an MX2 East squad for 2007. Burke and Adam Deakon will headline the team, while Burke’s cousin, Marcus Burke, will race the intermediate class and some MX2 East rounds. Not too much is confirmed yet, but the team will race Hondas and wear FXR gear. Brad’s also picked up a new Ford F-350 and fifth-wheel trailer to house his riders and mechanics.

The rumour mill continues to churn on the forums, and the latest talk is that Nova Scotia’s Mitch Cooke will race an RM-Z450 for the Suzuki OTSFF Rockstar Energy Drink team. If that’s true, that means that OTSFF may have four full-time MX1 riders: Cooke, Ryan Lockhart, Gavin Gracyk, and Josh Woods. That’s an all-star lineup, which could translate into a Suzuki MX1 win at Round 1 in Ste-Julie, Quebec (their first since Gracyk’s sweep at Walton in 2005, when JSR was injured). And when the series swings westward to Morden, Manitoba, OTSFF’s MX2 East rider Tyler Medaglia will switch to the 450. We may see five factory Suzuki MX1 riders for the four western rounds!

No, wait … scratch that. Make that six to eight because Milo Christie has signed on as the team’s B rider along with the likely additions of Peter Raymer and Broc Shury. The B status means that they are responsible for travel but once they get to the track, they will have full support of Suzuki OTSFF. It’s great to see Christie, who chased the entire nine round series last year on his own and earned national #19, has found some added support for 2007.

With Buddy Ford Productions taking over the Canadian National Supermoto series next year, we may even see a factory Suzuki rig in those pits too….

Let’s return to that Cooke rumour for a moment. There has been an interesting thread going on over mxforum.com regarding Cooke’s season with the Honda Canada Blackfoot Fox Racing team. It turned into a heated debate that even brought Cooke out to make his first ever post on the online message board.

Here’s a brief recap of what went down between the Cooke and Blackfoot camps that has lead to everyone weighing in on who’s in the wrong:

Blackfoot gave Cooke and Dusty Klatt everything they needed to race competitively in the AMA Eastern Region Lites series last winter. While Klatt adapted to the stadiums, Cooke struggled to find his comfort zone—even though he looked awesome on the track. Eventually, after a couple of rounds of not making the night program, both camps decided that it was in their best interest to focus on the Canadian Nationals. So Mitch packed his bags and headed home to Nova Scotia.

Other than a podium at the opening round in Ste-Julie and a third in the first MX2 and MX1 motos at the River Glade national in Moncton, Cooke’s summer was marred with injuries (he broke his foot at Round 2 at Gopher Dunes and then re-broke it one round after his Moncton return) and he was only able to race two rounds of the nine round series. Known for saying what is exactly on his mind, Cooke made it apparent that he didn’t want to race a 250F anymore. So when the Montreal Supercross came along, Mitch was left without Blackfoot support, but he still made it the Big O in his van with his worn-out practice 450 bike. The relationship was officially over.

It appears that we now have the situation behind us and it boils down to a combination of miscommunication and difference of opinion. Both parties are back on the track for the ’07 Nationals and that is excellent news for Canadian motocross.

While we’re speaking of the east coast, here’s your Canadian Fact of the Day:
The Halifax Gazette was the first Canadian newspaper to be published in what would become Canada. It first hit newsstands on March 23, 1752 and ceased publication just thirteen years later.

The snocross season is underway, and Blair Morgan Racing’s Blair Morgan and Iain Hayden are off to a decent start. At the X-Games qualifier in Duluth, Minnesota, Morgan finished ninth in the Pro Open and fifth behind Hayden in the Pro Stock class. For info on the World Snocross Association race schedule and results, visit http://wsaracing.com/.

A verdict has been reached with Tyler Evans and Keith R. Johnson’s fiasco at the Vancouver WSXGP two weeks ago. It appears that Evans has thrown his last punch and if he does so again, he will be suspended from two races. He was also handed a $1,000 fine.

Following a disappointing performance in Vancouver, KTM’s Marco Dubé stole the show at the Munich Supercross in Germany. Dubé went 3-1-1 in the 250/450 class over the three-night event, beating riders such as Jason Thomas (who won the first night) and Rodrig Thain. EBS Kawasaki’s Ryan Lockhart made the main on Friday night and finished sixth.

If you’re looking for some moto-entertainment during the holidays, try these links

http://www.miniclip.com/games/motocross-fever/en/ and http://www.teagames.com/games/tgmotocross/play.php

Also, be sure to check out RXC photographer James Lissimore’s slideshow from his best shots from 2006.

James Lissimore's Best Shots from 2006

Looking to get some riding in over the holidays? You’re in luck because there are a couple of options in Ontario and Quebec. The new indoor track at Chesterman’s Farm Equipment in Tillsonburg (just 20 minutes south of the 401) will be open every day except for Dec. 24 and 25. Owner Dave Chesterman says the dirt is drying up nicely and should be perfect for the holidays. To contact Chesterman’s, please log on to their website www.chesterman.ca.

There’s also the Quebec Indoor AX track in Des-Monts. We spent some time at that facility last winter and track owner Yan Gendron does a wonderful job of grooming the track. Please email Yan at axdm@hotmail.com or try him at (613) 282-5713. Follow the link below for some photos of the facility:

http://racerxcanada.com/news/1367/arenacross-des-monts-indoor-motocross-track/

Will Topete scooped everyone on the first photos of Brady Sheren on his Wonder Warthog Racing Yamaha. The photos were posted just yesterday so click here to check them out.

One last link, backflip guru and Canadian National champ Jolene VanVugt sent us this link of an online interview with Travis Pastrana. Look closely—all the riding footage is Jolene perfecting the flip into the foam pit.

Well, I can hear the horn honking now; it’s time for me to head back to ma and pa’s for some Christmas turkey!

And finally, here is our Christmas card created by our multi-talented Creative Director, Dan O'Shea. Merry Christmas everyone!