By Danny Brault

There have been some monster rumours floating around for some time now, and we can finally let the biggest cat outta the bag: Monster Energy is the official title sponsor of the 2007 Canadian Motocross Championships.

CMRC President Mark Stallybrass had been speaking with Monster for a while and the energy drink company actually wanted to be involved with the series last year, but they didn’t have a Canadian distributor. That’s changed for this year since Pepsi picked them up. The last title sponsor of the series was Export A back in 2004 but that ended with legislation which prevented tobacco companies from promoting sporting events. Having a major corporate sponsor is a vital piece of any major sports series, one that brings in big bucks and adds creditability.

“We can take it to another level,” says Stallybrass on the signing of Monster Energy. “As far as series money, it was too late for Monster to look at that. It will allow us to advertise and promote the series, at each respective round, that much more. I can hire more staff to improve the presentation, the signage, and the way each track looks.”

Monster is also teaming up with Canadian Kawasaki and Vision One Motorsports to support a team in the Canadian Nationals. Billy Whitley and Derek Sorensen will be managing the team, who has Paul Carpenter and Jeff Gibson running the MX1 class and Tucker Hibbert racing the MX2 West.

Last Saturday night in Detroit was a memorable evening for one New Zealander, heart breaking for one American and a so-so evening for one Canadian.

The Eastern Region Lites series was Yamaha of Troy’s Ryan Morais’ championship to lose and he lost it, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. Morais held a three-point lead over Monster Energy/ Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Ben Townley and an eight-point lead over Townley’s teammate, Darcy Lange, heading into the final round in Detroit.

The super consistent Morais showed Townley a wheel several times in their heat race (while Lange took off with the win over Kelly Smith), and it was shaping up to be an intense main event. Morais’ title hopes were looking up when he got a second-place start behind Ryan Dungey with Townley running fifth and Lange way back in 18th, but then he stalled it on the second lap. The stall allowed Townley to ride by and move into second-place while Morais could only manage fifth-place.

That gave Townley six more points than Morais and his first AMA championship.

I tend to cheer for the underdog and it really was heart breaking to watch Townley drop his bike and throw his hands in the air as Morais rode off the track, understandably disappointed.

Even though Morais or Lange didn’t get the championship (or a main event win) they still have to be happy with how well their SX season went. Neither rider was really considered a title threat before the series began, but it wasn’t long before they proved their worth.

“I felt good,” said Lange after the race. “In my heat race, I had really good times and I felt comfortable. I got a really good start—I felt good, I wasn’t nervous. It wasn’t like the championship was mine to lose but I just had to go out there and try everything and then after the start [in the main event], I was like, ‘Man, this sucks!’”

Lange was upset with his 10th-place finish in the main, but his Pro Circuit boss, Mitch Payton, says the final race is never the factor in losing a title.

“The championship is never lost at the last race; it usually happens somewhere along the way,” Payton told Darcy. “You rode an awesome series.”

Despite his lackluster finish in Detroit, Lange still held on for third overall in the series, but he still didn’t seem impressed with that.

“It doesn’t matter—you don’t get a bonus for third. Next year … next year.”
 

Oh, and if you were able to take your eyes off of #101, 116, or 105, you would have seen the #62 Makita Suzuki of Ryan Dungey ride a perfect race for his third AMA SX Lites win. Dungey was probably the fastest Lites rider in the East this year, but an 18th in St. Louis, DNQ in Daytona and 21st in Orlando held him back to fifth overall in the standings—one spot behind MotoworldRacing.com/ Yamaha’s Branden Jesseman.

For those that didn’t skip the 450 main to beat the traffic, we got to watch Monster Kawasaki’s Tim Ferry keep his teammate James Stewart honest for 10 laps. Ferry rode awesome all night, winning his heat race, and then nearly taking second in the main until San Manuel Yamaha’s Chad Reed passed him on lap 13. Speedy Reedy never looked too speedy until those final seven laps and it was too late as Stewart was well on his way to his 11th win of the season. Stewie now has a 38-point lead over Reed.

With only two rounds remaining, it’s hard to believe that Reed is so far back. If you can remember back to the first round of the WSXGP, when Reed fought off multiple attacks from Stewart for the win, it appeared that it would be another perfect storm. Unfortunately, it has turned out to be a perfect season for Stewart instead.

The AMA SX series heads to Seattle this weekend, which marks the return of Dusty Klatt and Brady Sheren. Click here for all of the race links brought to you by M2R.

You can get your fill of SX this weekend by tuning into SPEED today at 1:00 PM EST for 450 coverage from Detroit and Sunday at 4:00 PM EST for Lites action and then change the channel to CBS at 6:00 PM EST for Supercross action from Seattle.

Back to Lange: I spoke to him about this year’s Motocross Des Nations and whether or not he would race if he was asked to. He sounded positive—even more so if he thought he might be able to race a Pro Circuit bike—and said for Carl Bastedo to call him. Here that, Carl? Get on the horn!

Morgan Racing’s owner Chris Morgan and team manager Rick Rundberg were roaming the pits in Detroit. I had heard talk of Morgan working with a Honda car/motorcycle dealership, but Chris says he won’t have anything to share for at least two months. He then added that Morgan Racing may race the Montreal SX.

Bench racing is in full swing for the Canadian Nationals … or, should I say the Monster Energy Motocross Nationals. There’s been constant debate over who is going to surprise us this year—Colton Facciotti or Mitch Cooke. Both riders are obviously highly skilled, but their mental game has always been debated. From what I hear, both parties are working hard on their weaknesses in `07.

Rundberg and Steve Matthes went back and forth on who they thought would land the lowest national number come Walton—Rundberg taking Cooke and Matthes taking Colt—and there is now $20 on the line. 

You would think Matthes has more than $20 to wager, especially after working for this baller down in FLA.

Speaking of the Canadian Nationals, Canadian Motocross Radio, hosted by Marc Travers and Brian Koster is back for '07 and we are proud to support the radio show this year. The first show is scheduled for Monday May 21st at 9:00 p.m. ET and it's at a new home so follow the link to canadianmxradio.com.

After watching the very uneventful Detroit race, and then seeing the results from the Spring Series race at RJ Motorsport Park in Barrie, I think it would have been more entertaining watching Mesley, Medaglia, Hall and South Africa’s Kerim Fitzergald duking it out in the Pro GP class. Click here for a full photo report from the race.

Davey Coombs put together an interesting piece for his column, Reason for Being, in the May `07 issue of RXI. Coombs explained several incidents where top professional riders crashed hard on the first lap of practice and how it can influence kids. Instead of enforcing the Leatt Brace or other safety devices, Coombs, the AMA and MX Sports came up with a solution to limit these crashes.

“The yellow caution flags will be waving throughout the first lap of every practice on Monday afternoon [at Loretta Lynn’s],” wrote Coombs. “We will remind the riders to take it easy, have a look around, and to not jump anything until they have completed at least one full lap around the track.”

The CMRC’s regional coordinator, Brett Lee, came across Coombs’ column and it motivated him to slow things down too. So at the first Ontario race at Gopher Dunes two weeks ago, Lee had Derek Schuster and Justin Petker lead the junior classes around the track for the first lap.

“We just did it for the junior classes, since they take off for the first practice,” says Lee. “That way, for everyone else watching, it would influence them to be patient and figure out the track before going wide open.”

CMX held it’s first race at MotoPark last weekend. You can watch video coverage from the event thanks to Mike Davis’ YouTube video he posted at http://www.mxforum.com/. 

With the outdoor season just four weeks away, many of the West Coast riders were warming up at the second round of the Four-Stroke Nationals at the Glen Helen race track.

It was a chance for Star Racing Yamaha’s Dusty Klatt to see where he fits into the mix. He proved his speed with a second and third moto score at the two-day event. He was up against riders such as Brett Metcafe, who took two moto wins, Chris Gosselaar, Daniel Sani who joined the Star Racing team, Jimmy Albertson, Steve Boniface, Andrew McFarlane, Michael Lapaglia and many other fast young AMA stars.

For results go to http://www.4strokenationals.com/. You can check out photos from the event here.

Canadian Women’s National champ Jolene Van Vugt checked out the new RXC office yesterday. The Suzuki OTSFF is preparing to defend her #1 plate this summer in the Women’s National Series; she and the OTSFF crew were out at RJ Motosport Park earlier in the week for a photo shoot. It was Jolene’s first time back home in London since February and she has a lot going on, including jumping out of planes from 3,500 feet above.

“I can’t say too much right now,” Van Vugt explained. “But you’ll find out shortly and in the fall in the next Nitro Circus video. Let’s just say we’re doing some filming!”

From Texas to Utah to Alberta to Travis Pastrana’s home in Maryland, Jolene has been just about everywhere this winter. She’s excited about the Women’s series this summer and think we’ll be seeing different faces on the podium each weekend.

I read in DC’s Racerhead last Friday that MotoworldRacing.com’s Justin Brayton will be moving up the 450 class outdoors. His team manager Paul Lindsay and Yamaha decided they needed another blue thumper in the premier class, so Brayton got the nod. This instantly fired up the forums, since Klatt is a 450 specialist, has a 450 Canadian National Championship to his credit, and Brayton doesn’t have any real results on the big bike.

I know Dusty isn’t too enthusiastic about racing the 250F this summer—but he’s going to have to work through it—so this deal with Brayton probably isn’t going over well with him.

Dusty just needs to put his head down and have faith that everything will work out how it’s supposed to. Heck, World champ Ben Townley or Chad Reed weren’t even offered 450 rides when they first came over.

And speaking of having faith, Brett Lee forwarded me this email from Josh Snider:

Team Faith is back in Canada again for the 2007 CMRC National Motocross Championships!

Since 2003, Team Faith has brought their ministry to Canada providing chapels after riders meeting, motivating and strengthening the motocross community.
Team Faith in Canada will be run by the Snider family, with myself, and mechanic Jesse Gregg committing to the entire national series in the MX1 class. Aaron Snider in his first year with Team Faith will be committing to race half the series in the MX1 class for the Eastern Nationals.

For 2007, Team Faith devotionals will take place on Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. The devotionals will be held at the podium or in a non-disruptive place where we can gather. The idea of an evening message is to create a relaxed, inviting environment where conversation can be made.  At select events, devotionals will be held by a guest speaker that will share their testimony of Christ's work in their life. Otherwise, myself or my mechanic, Jesse Gregg, will share a motivational message of Christ that all of the riders can relate to.

Sunday morning at 7:45 a.m, after riders meeting, Team Faith will then deliver a short, encouraging, motivational message to the riders to start off their day. Team Faith chapels are open to anyone who would like to attend.

For more information about Team Faith's ministry visit our web site at http://www.teamfaith.com/ or if you’re interested in helping or supporting Team Faith in Canada contact myself at: motox147@hotmail.com.

Here’s a quick list of regional races going on this weekend across Canada:

CMRC
Southwestern Ontario: Auburn Hills Spring Classic (Sunday)
Manitoba: Melita Spring Series (Sunday)
Saskatchewan: Moose Jaw ANQ (Sunday)
BC Mainland: Whispering Pines – Kamloops Hi-Point Series(Saturday)

CMA
BC: Agassiz 661 BC Championship (Sunday)
Ontario: Turkey Point National Enduro (Saturday)

CMX
Ontario: Burnt River MX/ ATV Provincial (Sunday)

MMRS
Ontario: Cochrane’s (Saturday practice/ Sunday race)

Finally, we would like to express our sympathies to the Zuest family and their friends. Last Sunday night we lost Gary Zuest of Milton, Ontario, who was a member of the Canadian MX family for a number of years. Gary succumbed to an in operable brain tumour. .