Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
FEBRUARY 15, 2007
By Danny Brault
This is a big weekend for the Canadian motocross industry. Once again, we will put national pride on the line as we contest Team USA at the annual Racer X Indy Hockey Game. Actually, since RXC
has been involved, we have yet to lose a single game against the Yanks.
That three-year streak will surely continue this weekend.
Stocks are rising for the Leatt Brace. The company, who
released a revolutionary design for neck protection in motocross this
past summer, has been the talk of the town across the forums and the
phones for the past two weeks.
It began first with David Bailey’s intense and emotional video on www.vitalmx.com,
where he expressed his thoughts on the brace and basically called out
the sport’s best—and most influential—riders to begin taking spinal
cord protection more seriously. Did it work? It sure did. Monster
Kawasaki’s James Stewart and the GOAT, Ricky Carmichael will be testing out the Leatt Brace as well as the Alessi brothers, Wonder Warthog Racing, SoBe/ Samsung Honda, and many others.
Click here to check out the thread from Mototalk and here for the Breaking news item from www.racerxill.com on Bubba and Ricky testing out the braces.
The CMRC’s Brett Lee has always been an advocate for safety
(even though you would never guess that if you’ve been around a
campfire, at a birthday party or gone to a stag with him), and Bailey’s
message “Stand for Something” really hit him hard. He spoke with me at
the London Motorcycle Show last weekend, and he's toying with the idea
of making neck protection—as well as chest protection—mandatory in CMRC
racing in the near future.
“It wouldn’t be limited to just the Leatt Brace, but to neck collars or
whatever,” said Lee. “I just want to get people thinking about it
more and have them become more aware.”
I sent the link of Bailey’s video to Kyle Keast this week and, after watching it, he said he will be wearing a Leatt model this summer. Dusty Klatt
and his Star Racing teammates tried out the brace this week as well,
and Klatt plans to wear it practice for now to become accustomed to it.
Blackfoot Yamaha’s Dean Thompson sent us an email, too, saying that they will testing the brace with their riders:
Blair has one and JSR is getting one. We had sent an email to all of
our riders suggesting that they seriously look into riding with one. We
attached a picture of Chris Wheeler geting put into the air ambulance,
as this was something the team will never forget. It is of great
importance to us and we are pushing all of riders to wear them this
season. Yes, we have been talking with Brett [Lee] about it. I
think it is very important. I am also looking into carrying them
at Blackfoot Direct. We think it is important that our team
endorse safety as the rash of injuries the past few years is really
giving the sport a black eye. If riders like JSR, Blair and
Colton wear these it will send a strong message to the young riders and
is very positive for the sport!! Joe [Skidd] even ordered one for
himself!
Dusty Klatt will wear the Leatt Brace during practice for now. photo: James Lissimore
Atlantic Canada is also on the move to help the sport’s second biggest issue: noise.
RXC’s Brett Dailey caught up with Blaine Prest, owner of the Mill Hill track, to get his thoughts on reducing noise at his track.
“Noise is a critical issue that we face with the introduction of the
four-strokes, particularly with an aftermarket exhaust, and even a lot
of them with the stock exhaust system,” says Prest, who is a pro rider
in addition to a track owner and is also very active with the racing
association in Atlantic Canada.
“Trying to be responsible within the community that we operate in,
essentially we went on a hunt for an alternative or a fix. What can we
do to resolve this issue? We had tried a couple of different ways to
deaden the noise that weren’t entirely successful. We then came across
an ad for the dB Dawg in Racer X Canada,
actually, and started to do a little bit of follow-up on the product.
From the information I have been able to acquire, it seems like a solid
product. I’ve talked with the manufacturer in Ontario and they assure
me that there are no issues with the retention of temperature in the
exhaust; the amount of horsepower that is affected is negligible for
our purposes. It’s a product that only makes sense: less noise, same
amount of power, happier neighbours.
“To me, the product seems acceptable—it reduces noise, the price is
good, the installation is easy, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
I sat down and talked with some of the members that we typically have
riding and practicing at our facility and the decision was made that we
are going to mandate it for this year. One of the key things that we
discussed was with regards to running either a stock silencer or an
aftermarket silencer. Our interest is in decreasing the most
significant amount of noise possible. So, when you have a stock system
that’s rated for 96 or 97 decibels and we add the dB Dawg, we will have
an accurate test at 94 or 95 decibels. When we use an aftermarket
system that tests at 102 or 104 and we install the dB Dawg, we are
still going to be at 98 or 100 decibels and those three or four
decibels add a substantial amount of noise at those levels. The higher
you go, the more effect those one or two decibels has. With that in
mind, we have mandated a stock exhaust with a dB Dawg inserted.”
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Atlantic Canada is a fan of the noise reducing dB Dawg. |
Prest was one of the two-stroke holdouts, due in part to noise concerns, but will make the jump to a 450 four stroke this year. He chose the Yamaha YZ450F which, as noted in our 2007 450 shootout, has the lowest stock noise level of the 450s. He says that Yamaha should be commended for redesigning their stock exhaust system to reduce noise levels below the 99dB AMA limit. However, he will still run the dB Dawg in his muffler.
“I have worked far too hard on this track to lose it over something silly, something that we can manage. The Atlantic region is going to step up and get us a proper decibel reading system so we will be able to test noise at the races at the proper RPM and have a proper tripod, the whole set-up. I think it’s an awesome move forward for us. I also intend to have a few reducers around in the trailer because I’m going to be very strict with this—no dawg, no ride.”
Call Ignition Racing at 905-683-3785 or info@ignitionproducts.com for more information on the dB Dawg.
Check out www.atlanticmx.com for the response from the Eastern community on Prest’s new rule.
As I mentioned above, last weekend was the London Motorcycle Show. Frank Schuster of Gopher Dunes ran an ATV demonstration (his patience ran out more than once) and the Thames Valley Riders held a dirt bike demo on the other side of the Agri-Plex. It was pretty cool to see how many people stopped to watch the riding sessions and how many people wanted to learn how to ride a couch, I mean, quad. I think I even saw Ping sign up!
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Frank Schuster (left) and Johnny Knoxville (not the actor) teach the basics of riding a four-wheeler. Cool little track! |
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Frank's Angels: Even the Hooters' girls got on the throttle! |
Wow, already 1,217 words into this week’s Update and I still haven’t mentioned Dusty Klatt, Doug DeHaan or Brady Sheren’s SX results. It must have been a boring weekend in Houston—yeah, right!
Well, for our troops, nothing too notable occurred, other than Dusty’s best finish yet on the West Coast with an 11th in the Lites main. You can read the Star Racing Yamaha rider’s report on Houston and previous rounds by clicking on his website, www.dustyklatt.com.
As For Sheren and Big D, they are still hunting for their first main event of the year. If Brady doesn’t make it in this weekend, we won’t see him on the line again until Seattle on April 28th—possibly with Kyle Beaton beside him.
The real story of the weekend was from Yamaha of Troy’s Jason Lawrence’s ride in the Lites main. The colourful kid made quite an impact on the unbeatable Ryan Villopoto for the lead. J-Law said in an interview on www.racerxill.com that he feels his corner speed and starts are there, he just needs to get through those whoop-dee-doos faster.
SoBe/Samsung Honda’s Kevin Windham finally showed a hint of his potential this year, leading a few laps of the 450 main event. Stewart and Reed both had terrible starts, but eventually worked their way up to take the top two positions, with the Floridian edging out the Australian.
Our man behind the curtains, Steve Matthes, slacked off last weekend and didn’t attend Houston. And now he thinks he’s going to find a spot on the bench in Indy and not behind it. Oh, wait, he was somewhat productive this week, check out his interview with “Too Trick” Al Dyck.
This just in from Allison Kennedy. New human alert:
Hayden Lee: 8 pounds, 4 ounces
Born Thursday, Feb 15 to Matt and Cheryl Lee
So much for breaking the boy streak in the Lee family….
Unfortunately, my cable has been acting up, and I have been unable to catch the last few SX rounds on TV. And since I will be in Indianapolis this weekend skating circles around Scott Wallenberg, I will miss another SX airing. For those of you do have time to watch SX, set your timer to Speed for 6:00 p.m. EST on Sunday. You can also catch last week’s Lites action from Houston Saturday at 6:00 p.m. EST on Speed.
As everyone knows (and for those who don’t), Darcy Lange will be racing the East Coast series for Pro Circuit Kawasaki. In Fact, the three-time AX champ is testing his trick KX250F this week.
"We broke in my race bike on Wednesday. It was friggin’ awesome!” exclaimed Lange following his first test tession . Check out Allison Kennedy’s Five Minutes with the BooKoo champ.
Something you may not have known though, was that Darcy’s long time mechanic and man friend, Ian Woods, was named BooKoo AX Mechanic of the Year. Congrats, Ian!
Another Canadian who will be on the line for the opening Eastern round in Atlanta, as well as the next three rounds in St. Louis, Daytona, and Orlando, is OTSFF Suzuki’s Tyler Medaglia. The Kemptville, Ontario kid has been burning fuel everyday on GPF’s supercross track and is anxious to test his skills in race conditions. I thought he might be getting bored being down at the same track everyday, but that hasn’t been the case.
“I really don’t find it that boring because supercross is new for me. Just to go out and do everything every lap is a challenge, to do it for 20 laps, “ said Medaglia earlier this week.
After his sixth-place ride in Toronto back in December and a month spent training at GPF, it will be interesting to see how Medaglia stacks up in the East. He says feel great, has improved his speed through the whoops and hasn’t been far off the pace of Kelly Smith.
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Tyler Medaglia (57) rubs shoulders with Troy Adams on the line in Toronto. |
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photo: Allison Kennedy |
Medaglia's 450 teammate, Mitch Cooke, has been kicking butt
over in Dubai. Cooke's been in the Middle East for close to a month now
and he's getting one-on-one lessons from five-time World MX champ, Georges Jobe.
Rumour has it that Jobe may even follow Cooke back to Canada, to help
him out for the first Eastern round of the Canadian Nationals.
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Not a fan of the sand (yet), Cooke's time in Dubai will no doubt serve him well at the Gopher Dunes national. |
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Jobe has Cooke under some unique training methods. |
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photos: JF Trottier |
Dear Racer X Canada,
This email is in response to Danny Brault's request for retro moto-photos with a story.
As there has been talk of Rollerball stories of late on your site, I was able to dig out this great pic of the champ lounging about his factory Kawasaki pit. It is the summer of 1981 at Austin Raceway in Manitoba. Be sure to check out the factory trimmings like the elaborate Kawasaki banner fencing in the foreground, the custom awnings, trick trailer-camaro combo transport, and natural beach-like pit area. The number one plate sure looks nice though, doesn't It? Something we don't see much of as champions tend to stick with their regular numbers these days.
As Austin was a fairly long track made completely of loose sand,
it tended to be hard on rider fitness and engines/clutches. Austin was
the third of a five round series on the national circuit that year.
Motos back then were the classic 45-minute variety with the 250cc and
500cc classes running that day. In the first 250 moto, Rollerball had
well over a minute lead on the field when approximately 200 meters to
the finish he RAN OUT OF GAS. Who runs out of gas at a motocross event?
The long moto in the sand and probably engine mods really used up the
fuel in that Kawasaki. He tried to push the bike to the finish, but
because of the loose sand and it being the end of the moto, he had to
wait for fuel to arrive. It took some time to get fuel from the pits
and get the bike across the line. It also seemed like an eternity
before someone came through to take the win. That racer was Mike
Harnden.
The 1981 Canadian Factory Kawasaki pits.
So what is a racer to do if he fears running out of gas? HE MAKES A
PIT-STOP. Who makes a pit-stop at a motocross event, especially when a
Canadian national title is on the line? In the following 500cc moto,
Ross pulled off the track on the start straight to fuel up which still
unfortunately cost him first place in that moto. Rollerball still did
well in the overalls, but you sure don't hear of that happening too
often.
I am impressed to see how motocross has evolved in Canada ever since
visiting the Walton National back in 2000. I had not paid attention to
motocross for about 15 years as the last year that I raced was 1985.
Huge trucks and pit areas with bustling mechanics and sponsor banners
as far as you could see. It was very exciting. Opportunities for
Canadian racers are better than ever. Every young Canadian racer should
have the confidence to know that hard work and dedication will pay
off. I also thoroughly enjoy the www.racerxcanada.com website for
all the updates, results, and news about Canadians in motocross around
the world. Keep up the great work.
Cheers,
Robert Evans
Thanks for the note and photo, Robert! The racing scene in Canada
certainly has changed. I sure could have used a pit stop at the
Riverglade national this year, but I would have been going for a cool
refreshment rather than fuel!
If anyone else has a retro story and photo to share, please pass it along to letters@racerxcanada.com or snail mail to:
Attn: Racer X Canada
1093 Brydges Street
London, Ontario
N5W 2B5
Okay, I need to get this stick taped and these skates sharpened for the big tourney this weekend. Go, Canada!
