Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
MAY 25, 2007

By Danny Brault

This is it, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Well, not quite yet, but in 48-hours the gate will drop for the first round of the Monster Energy Motocross Nationals in Ste-Julie, Quebec. BTW, does anyone else find it odd that Canada or Canadian doesn’t show up in the official title? How will people know that it’s not the Iceland or Kazakhstan MX Nationals?

I guess when they hear our “too Canadian” (that’s what Tim Ferry says) TV analysts they’ll figure it out.

It feels like we say this every year, but it looks like the series is going to better than ever, at least rider wise. The obvious pick for the championship has to be Blackfoot Yamaha’s Jean-Sébastien Roy, who already has five titles. Like Ricky Carmichael, you would be a fool to bet against The King of Canadian MX. Yes, he is on a new bike; yes, he has a baby girl; yes, he is coming off an injury last fall—but he’s still the same Fast Frenchman with that same desire and dedication as always. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s on the same great team he’s been with for six years.

I believe there is a handful of riders who can challenge JSR and steal a moto win here and there, but as far as putting it together for a nine round series, I’m not sure if anyone has the potential. The real battle will probably be for second place between Mitch Cooke, Blair Morgan, Colton Facciotti, and Paul Carpenter.

Western privateers Milo Christie, Josh Penner, Andrew Belin and Howie Spencer are making the trip out to Ste-Julie for the MX1 class. Let’s hope that Christie and Penner’s time in Quebec goes much better than their visit last May when they had everything but their souls stolen.

KTM Canada's Michael Willard (2005 MX2 East champ) has to be the favourite in MX2 this weekend in Ste-Julie.

photo: James Lissimore

Machine Racing Honda’s Kyle Keast will make his return in Ste-Julie. Not many people know this, but Keaster busted his collarbone four weeks ago practicing and just got back onto the bike this week. Lack of seat time is never a good thing, but it’s hard to bet against the big heart of Keast. Here’s hoping things go well in Ste-Julie and we see the #30 CRF450 out front again at Gopher Dunes!

Check out the pre-entry list on www.cmrcracing.com to see who else is racing Ste-Julie. You might notice the names Eric Soby and Jacob Saylor, who are both signed up for MX2.

Steve Matthes sent us the latest on the Sorby debacle, along with his thoughts on the second round of the Toyota AMA Motocross Championships in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania …

This week the AMA series goes to Mt Morris for another action-packed race. Will James and RC have another epic battle? (Yes.) Will Ben Townley and Ryan Villopoto get together for more side by side racing? (Yes.) Will Tim Ferry win Mt Morris again, just like he did in 1995? (Doubtful.) Will Rollerball make a comeback and get fifth overall like he did in 1985? (Highly doubtful!) Will Jason Lawrence show up and do something dumb? (Very good chance.)
 
I like this track; it’s not great for viewing but always keeps the guys close. There have been some great battles in the past and I'm sure this weekend it will continue. I'm on my way to Morgantown, West Virgina to check out the Racer X offices, try to sit in DC's chair and pretend I'm him and harass "Bad" Billy Usic. Maybe Weege is there and I can get him to guarantee me more then 30 seconds of airtime on this weekend’s webcast. Also, tonight is the Racer X party somewhere in Morgantown that will consist of 800 dudes and four girls. Should be a great sausage party. But I don't care because I'm married and madly in love.
 
Looking forward to Parts Unlimited's 'Rocket" Rob Buydos and his legends’ parade lap and retro bike show this weekend. He has managed to get Roger DeCoster and RC to do one lap together on RM 250s. He also lined up a whole bunch of cool riders and bikes for the guys. Not so sweet was the 1993 KX 500 for Mike Fisher that we picked up last night—and I got the honour of prepping it for Fisher. I was back spinning wrenches, and if you have the webcast and you hear "Mike Fisher is pushing his bike back to the pits; it wouldn't even make it a lap,” just know that I have screwed up again.
 
Guess who called me last night? Eric Sorby! Him and I talked about a few things, including how he heard that I was screwing him on his Canadian ride. We have both cleared the air and I'm not sure what really happened, but the bottom line is this: He is in Canada right now and racing St Julie for Simons Homans Racing Yamaha. When I asked him if he has ridden the bike, he said no, but is looking forward to getting used to it. He has been riding outdoors with Stewie and says that he feels good and outdoors isn't as crucial as far as bike set-up. That’s all I got on this deal. If he wins this weekend, remember: I set this whole thing up.
 
You sure did, Steven.

South African import Kerim Fitzgerald is looking forward to his first Canadian national.

photo: Allison Kennedy

Sorby—and Saylor—will definitely spice up the MX2 class, which really did need something added, since we don’t have many “big” names in the mix. Other than Michael Willard, Nick Evennou, Tyler Medaglia and Tim Tremblay, there aren’t any title contenders. On a positive note, with the absence of Hired Guns from the U.S. it should open the door for some Canadian kids to make a name for themselves.

My darkhorse pick for MX2 is South African Kerim Fitzgerald. The 20-year-old came over to Canada two months ago and was battling with Ontario’s best in the Provincials at Gopher Dunes and Auburn Hills. I rode with Fitzgerald at Chuck Mesley’s ranch last Friday and couldn’t help but notice his corner speed. He will have a much faster bike this weekend (he rode a bone stock YZ250F at the provincials) and considering the fact that he is the South African champ, he’s more than comfortable with the added pressure of the bigger races. Off the bike, he’s a super polite kid, friendly and, if you see him at a national, stop by and say hello.

Tune into Canadian MX Radio this Monday to here candid interviews from the Ste-Julie weekend. Last Monday, hosts Marc Travers and Brian Koster did a great job, speaking with Mitch Cooke, JSR, Ryan Gauld, Steve Matthes and Darcy Lange. If you missed the show, you can still listen to it and all of the past Canadian MX Radio shows on their archive page.

I was supposed to post an interview with Travers on the Friday before the show, but got caught behind in magazine duties. My apologies, Marc.

I spotted this cool bit on Canadian Women’s National champ/backflipper/crazy woman, Jolene Van Vugt. We’ll see her on the line this weekend along with Heidi Cooke, Jocelyn Killough, Jessica Foster, Malerie Prochnavy, and a host of other fast women, as it’s the first round of the Women’s Canadian National MX Championships.

I also have a darkhorse in the blue-plate class: Kristina Sundal. The two-time Walton champ spent a year recovering from knee surgery and returned to racing part-time last year—she missed Walton because of illness. I wasn’t at Port Perry last weekend for the Eastern Ontario ANQ, but looking at the results, she bested Van Vugt in both Ladies motos.

And there is more than just racing to get excited about this weekend in Ste-Julie. Friday night Buddy Ford reserved the Circuit 500 Go-Kart track in Montreal for an industry race. We’re calling it the “The Ste-Julie Prequel: The race before the race.” Our clever senior editor Allison Kennedy came up with the name. We only have 50 spots available for drivers, but everyone reading this is welcome to attend and see some of your favourite Canadian racers in a relaxed atmosphere before they get into serious mode on Sunday morning.

Alberta racer Darren Sharuga took a hard fall in Alix last weekend. Supposedly, Sharuga was on the gas, but crashed in a rhthym section, hit his head hard and suffered memory loss. Be sure to keep Darren and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Our roaming photographer, James Lissimore, was at the opening round of the AMA Nationals in Hangtown last weekend. Star Racing Yamaha’s Dusty Klatt was caught up in a pile up in the first Lites moto, but put on a charge in the second moto to finish 11th. Not bad. To view a full report from the race, read Steve Matthes Obs or Lissimore’s photo report.

Still don’t believe the Leatt Brace works? Then read this note from Gregory Lamey Sr:

For those who are on the fence about purchasing a Leatt-Brace, take a good look at these photos. The Leatt-Brace may have saved my son’s life.
 
Back in April at Raceway Park's practice track, (by the way, I want to thank Raceway Park for there assistance that day, a real first class facility), he was exiting a whoop section when he got kicked over the bars.  The bike cart wheeled behind him and landed directly on his back.  It is hard to say what would have happened without the Leatt-Brace but I am very glad he had one on.  When you, your friend, your child or loved one is getting ready to ride, look at the exposed spine area between the chest protector and the back of the helmet.  This is the area the bike landed on my son and as you can see by the photos it smashed the brace.  My son ended up with a shattered collarbone which required surgery with a plate to fix—but he came home with me that night!

Good Luck to all and be safe!
 
Greg Lamey SR, father of Yamaha Motor Canada/Arnprior Sportland rider, Gregory Lamey JR. #991

The Leatt Brace may have saved Greg Lamey Jr. from more than a broken collarbone.

Our French connection Bruno Menard sent through his 2007 national predictions. Have a boo …

Bruno`s 2007 Monster Energy Motocross Nationals Riders Analysis.

MX1

Team Toyota Yamaha/BlackfootDirect.com Fox Racing

Team leader and five-time Canadian champ Jean-Sébastien Roy is now the proud father of a two month old baby girl. He got badly injured just before the Montreal Supercross last September and did not ride up until about two months ago. His transition to the Yamaha YZ450F has been an easy task for him and he said he is at about 85 to 90 percent coming into the first round. JSR will be running up front this year; he should be able to hit the podium week-in week-out and win his sixth title.

Blair Morgan was going really fast during the team’s test session in Morden just a month ago. He is finally entering a season injury free and he has never been this prepared coming into a MX season. We are expecting to see the Blair Morgan of 2002 when he gave JSR a run for his money, won quite a few motos and even beat Roy in Québec.

Colton Facciotti is entering this season as an underdog … some sort of super underdog. The 19-year-old is riding something else than a Kawasaki for the first time in 19 years. It is no secret that the Richmond Kawasaki’s were not as reliable as the Blackfoot bikes and everyone is anxious and ready to see what Colton can do on his new powerful Yamaha. He spent the winter in California training really hard for the summer. Facciotti did not ride any supercross after Christmas in order to focus on the nationals which is a good idea as he will be concentrating on the MX1 class battling guys like Roy and Morgan—what a team! Colt has always had the speed but not the consistency. His hard work this winter will show and he should be able to fight with his teammates. Let`s just hope that he will finish all 18 motos.


KTM Canada (multiple teams)

Jeff Dement signed with KTM Canada at the Montreal Supercross. Dement has raced GP’s in the past few years before returning to the states where he was adding top 15 finishes in both MX and SX. Unfortunately, for the Texan, he hurt his thumb early in the SX season and has been out since then. We would have expected Jeff to be on the podium a lot this summer but no one really knows about his condition. We’ll have to wait until this weekend to find out about him.

Marco Dubé will be racing with the #5 plate this year. He spent a lot of time racing in Europe just before Christmas and then he entered two supercross races. Dubé has been training and testing lately, as well as riding some local arenacross. I’m not going to write any more infos on Marco. He has not been riding up to his potential these last few years and he is almost always riding hurt. I think it is fair to say that we cannot expect more than a top 10 overall for Dubé this year.

Matt Barnes is back for his third year with the KTM team. After spending two seasons focusing on MX2, he has now moved to what seems to be his favourite class. We saw him race for the top five last year on the West coast but it should be harder this year as the field is a bit deeper. He spent the winter racing arenacross and as far as we know, has been injury free for the first time in a couple of years as he had a broken neck last winter, and leg problems the year before.


Rockstar Suzuki OTSFF

If you have not heard about Mitch Cooke’s winter than check this website—and the past issue. Mitch spent three weeks in Georgia, a lot of time in Dubai, then a week at home, then some time in Europe. Georges Jobe, a five-time World champion, has taken him under his wings and Mitch should be ready to rock. The last two times that Cooke finished MX1 motos he hit the podium. With the kind of winter that he spent we can expect him to be a lot more consistent and we all know what he is capable of. Just like Facciotti, he is coming in as an underdog but we should see a lot of him on the podium this year.

Ryan Lockhart has been doing everything this winter but he broke his collarbone when practicing at GPF in Georgia. His condition makes me believe that he will have a tough time getting top 10 finishes this year.

Josh Woods is back for more Canadian action. He raced Calgary for OTSFF last year but did not do very well. He also raced Montreal where he got fourth but many people think that he should have gotten second behind Klatt if it wasn’t for his bad start. Woods is a very talented rider; he’s won MX2 titles in Canada and he’s been on the podium south of the border. He has the potential to podium, but his results have been weak for the past two years.

Monster Energy Cernics Kawasaki

Paul Carpenter is without a doubt a title contender. He spent most of his winter finishing top ten in the Supercross class in the states. Do I have to say anything else? All right. He won the Four-Strokes Nationals when the 450’s were weird to see at the regular Nationals. He has been a Factory Kawasaki rider but his performances on the 250F were not very impressive. It seems like he was born to ride a 450. He’s the American version of Mitch Cooke.

Jeff Gibson. That’s about it. He has had a decent supercross season but I always feel like he could push harder and go faster if he wanted to. I think that our top Canadians have him covered on our home turf. Maybe he will read this and get mad, and then he’s going to start pushing it really hard … maybe.

Homans Racing Yamaha

Simon Homans is holding the number four plate. His steady finishes earned him yet another ride with Yamaha even though they are mainly supporting the Blackfoot team. He tried to qualify for Hangtown this past weekend but he did not qualify. He elected to skip every Quebec arenacross this year. I bet he just wanted to make sure he would not get hurt and he could spend more time on outdoor tracks. Simon is faster than 99 percent of you think he is but he almost never uses all his speed. No one can blame him since he always end up doing better than people would expect due to his consistency. I would have to say Homans is just going to be a top ten guy this year but he will probably end the season in sixth overall.

Wild Cards

Kyle Keast, Chuck Mesley and Pierce Chamberlain. We all know they can surprise us as they have all shown signs of great speed. From past results we could expect to see them to top five a couple of motos. Let’s just wait and see what they will do this year but it’s hard to imagine them finishing ahead any of the riders I mentioned before.

Johnny Montes will be racing a privateer Kawasaki for JNR Motorsports. Expect him to entertain lots of people and accumulate decent rides throughout the MX1 series.

Other riders who are expected to do the entire series are BC`s Milo Christie on the OTSFF Suzuki support ride and Howie Spencer. Both of them will be driving more than they`ll ride this summer. Andrew Belin and Josh Penner are also making the long haul.

Machine Racing Yamaha's Trever Hall will be in the mix in MX2.

photo: Allison Kennedy

MX2 East

The defending champion Kyle Chisholm has a deal with the Motosport Outlet Kawasaki team in the U.S. and we won’t be seeing him up in Canada this summer.


Royal Distributing KTM Canada

Michael Willard has been busy since he got second overall in the MX2 East last year. He won the East-West shootout in Walton, scored points at a few US Nationals, competed at the US Open of Supercross, raced the two World SX rounds in Canada, qualified for most mains of the West SX series, including Seattle on a 125 two-stroke. I’m sure you’ve heard about that. Then he raced the 125 again at the Prequel in Glen Helen, which has to be the worst track for a 125. This past weekend, Willard went 23-27 in a very deep field at Hangtown showing that the 2005 champ will be the one to beat in this year.

Tim Tremblay will be joining Willard on the KTM team. Tremblay got a podium at Sand Del Lee on a stock 250F and got convincing top tens on a 450 in Walton. The kid is all about motocross and he has improved over the winter. Just like Homans, he skipped the arenacross races in Quebec to focus on the outdoors. We hear that he is very fast on his new KTM and he’s looking to be on the podium at every rounds.


Team Toyota Yamaha/BlackfootDirect.com Fox Racing

Nick Evennou now knows what it takes to win in Canada after struggling last year on his Homans Racing Yamaha. Being on the Blackfoot Yamaha is a huge step forward for him and it will put him up front with Willard. Evennou is now injury free and ready to win. Will he pull a Jimmy Nelson?


Homans Racing Yamaha

Eric Sorby … We do not even know if he is going to show up or not. [Ed note: Sorby is on the entry list.] If he does, it should be on a Homans Racing Yamaha and he should also be battling up front and getting a lot of TV time as he will probably be fighting for positions, literally. The Frenchman is now James Stewart’s man friend but we are hoping to see him to spice things up a little. Sorby actually has the talent to win the MX1 title but it seems like he is easy to distract.


Suzuki OTSFF

Tyler Medaglia is Rockstar Suzuki OTSFF’s hope for the East. He hurt himself during a photo shoot but it should not affect him this weekend in Ste-Julie. Tyler entered most of the East SX rounds and spent his winter at GPF. He was top Canadian in the Lites at the Toronto SX and he hit the podium at Sand Del Lee in `06 so hopefully he will keep on doing well on Canadian soil. We expect him and Tremblay to be battling for third behind Willard and Evennou. 

MX2 East Wild Cards

Trevor Hall could be a spoiler as he was ultra fast at the Ontario provincials. He was able to beat Medaglia so who knows what’s going to happen this weekend.

South Africa’s Kerim Fitzgerald is sporting the Red Bull lid and, like Hall, he will be on a YZ250F. I honestly have no clue about this rider as he only managed to get fifth overall at an Ontario provincial in Gopher Dunes. But then again he has a Red Bull helmet! Let’s just rank him as a possible spoiler.

Matt McGuinness raced at many Amateur Nationals over the winter and lived in Georgia for quite a while. Although he has never really put much emphasis on the Canadian Nationals, he drove all the way down to Ste-Julie this past weekend only to find out that he was not allowed to ride because he did not have a stock pipe. I’m not sure what to expect from this Ronald McDonald look-a-like but I would not be surprised to see him in the top ten.

Jeremy Medaglia is the Racer X Canada Factory rider for the weekend and he has the potential to get inside the top ten.  He scored some points last year and the young man is obviously one year older this time around and it will show.

Ryan Gauld is out for the first two rounds with an injury. He was looking forward to this season after surprising himself last year but he will have to wait before he can show the world that he`s not just a good TV reporter.

There are many more good Canadian riders that will be top ten contenders and I apologize for not mentioning their names but I got to stop somewhere. I hope we will see lots of new talents up front this year and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a good season! If I hurt anyone’s feelings with my expectations please prove me wrong.

Wow! Those are pretty reasonable predictions, Bruno. Adding to your thoughts, here are my picks for the podium in both classes:

MX1
1. JSR
2. Cooke
3. Morgan

MX2
1. Willard
2. Evennou
3. Fitzgerald

If you think you know who will win Ste-Julie this weekend, then vote on the Machine Racing poll to the right.

Okay, race fans, time to head to Quebec. Stay tuned to www.racerxcanada.com all weekend for updates, race results and photos.