Observations from The Wastelands
JULY 20, 2007

By Steve Matthes
Photos by James Lissimore

I went back up to the Motherland this week to watch round six of the Monster Energy Canadian MX nationals at The Wastelands in Nanaimo, BC. After seeing this (ahem) facility, it’s pretty much a perfect name. All we were missing was a dude wearing a goalie mask and Mel Gibson looking for fuel.

I used to kind of live in Victoria, and I met my buddy Ron the fireman back then and he was nice enough to pick me up after riding the Ferry (the boat, not Timmy, although I have ridden the Dade City “Ferry” to mechanical glory many, many times) and take me around this weekend. He was racing amateur day on Saturday and despite him telling me that he usually wins, the pressure of me being there got to him and he folded like Japanese Origami.

The man-friend club has lost a member: Tyler Hazelwood has moved on from Blackfoot Yamaha. He was their transport driver and Blair Morgan’s man-friend. I honestly don’t think I have ever met a more passionate member of the man-friend society than Tyler. I will have to let our chairman, Alley Semar, know that we have a man down. Tyler would pretty much do anything for Blair and probably has. Here’s to you, fellow man-friend: may you be reunited with Blair one day, just you and Blair and a Fun-Mover.

This is where I would normally talk about the dust, the weeds and ask why Blackfoot kept their clear plastic awning shades down almost all weekend … Dailey says that there is a report coming from the track crew later this week so we’ll reserve judgment until then.  Sorry, I can’t wait.  The club got lucky in the morning with the overcast conditions but as soon as the sun came out it was a dustbowl.  The second motos were dangerous and I think the riders had a right to be upset.  Being that the track is on the side of the mountain and the track’s club is all volunteers I can understand why it happened.  But this is supposed to be a national and these problems aren’t supposed to happen at a national. 

Blackfoot Yamaha’s Jimmy Nelson came into this race with a slim lead and rode a smart and steady race to win his second title in the MX2 class. He went 1-3 on the day and never looked like he wasn’t going to win this thing. The state of Nevada now has three Canadian motocross championships to its credit—with his two and my 1990 Canadian 500cc Novice title—take that Florida!

Word on the street is that Nelson has already signed a Blackfoot 450 deal for next year as he has to move up now that he has successfully defended his MX2 title.

Kyle Beaton "Steve Matthes' guy" chases down Jimmy Nelson in the second MX2 moto.

BEATON, BEATON, BEATON—My guy Kyle Beaton won his first ever national on this day. He had the best time in practice and went 2-1 for the overall. He was so far back on the first lap in the first moto that I wondered if he thought it was a dead-engine GNCC start. He put his head down and charged to second place, almost winning. In the second moto he walked away with the win. His best time in the second moto was almost two seconds better than anyone else—that was hard to do on this [ahem] challenging track. I choked up when he thanked me on the podium… Well, not quite. I actually didn’t choke up—I was fine. And he never mentioned me either, come to think about it.

Weston “Harry” Potter doesn’t have a hometown listed on the results but he went 9-6 on the day in the MX2 class. I don’t know anything about this kid but a fifth overall gets him my really unique nickname. Bet you nobody else ever thought of that before.

The CMRC lets Intermediate (or B riders, for my American friends) ride the pro class for one day and it has been a good idea. I counted 15 MX2 Intermediates in the 40-man class this weekend. It just gets the kids excited to race and the opportunity to see where they stack up to the pros. One Intermediate rider, Kyle McGlynn, even finished top ten in the points this year in the West.

My buddy, Ron, was always telling me about this Andrew Belin kid. It was almost bordering on a weirdo-fan-obsession thing. “He has a real job!” he would yell into the phone to me, along with “When he crashes he gets up and goes faster!” etc, etc. I could hardly wait to meet this guy, except I couldn’t on Saturday morning because he was AT HIS JOB! But eventually he showed up and seemed like a good kid. He rode both classes and finished 11-DNF in the MX2 and DNF-11 in the MX1. He was charging hard every time I saw him also.

Belin was also Racer X Canada’s Factory Rider for a Day and the always-smiling Brett Dailey was busy helping out again. Man, it seems that Brett’s guys are always crashing or having bike problems that aren’t Brett’s fault. Belin got a bent caliper in one moto. Is it possible that a rider might turn Brett down? Kind of like a Sports Illustrated cover curse.

Me and my BFF, Danny Brault, decided to wander up to the snack shacks and get ourselves something to eat. The line was super long and I was almost thinking about skipping a meal (Ha) when our patience was rewarded with probably the best Poutine I have ever had. (Thanks, Danny, for not letting me succumb to that giant bowl of Kettle Corn.) Let me tell you, the Americans are really missing out on this French-fried gravy-and-cheese concoction. Kudos to the Nanaimo Poutine guys—I named the extra hole in my belt after you.

Eric Nye watched his championship hopes drift away when he went down in the first moto.

The 450, ummm Motocross, errrrrr MX1 class was very bizarre. It was Colton Facciotti’s race to lose. He was a second faster than anybody else in practice. He looked so, so good that I would have bet Ron’s house on him winning. After passing Josh Woods for the lead early in the first moto he proceeded to check out and was pulling away big time when he got a flat. The team pulled him in and changed it, then he un-lapped himself and finished 14th. In the second moto, he crashed on the start, got run over by Blair Morgan and was 30 seconds behind everyone else. He rode to a 9th place finish but I’m telling you, he was the best rider on this day.

When I walked the track, I saw ginormous rocks sticking out of the track. I’m sure that these massive things were just the tip of a mountain under the surface, they were that embedded in the track. There was shale sticking out everywhere and when I saw that Facciotti got a flat I was surprised to find out the team didn’t use a mousse foam insert. You can be riding on pillows in America and the tire guys make you use mousse no matter what.

The finish line flagger in the 1st MX1 moto was so sure that Facciotti had won the moto that he threw the checkers for Colt! It kind of robbed Jeff Northrop of the glory of winning the moto when he came around shortly after. They had to go to the Supreme Court to find out why this guy threw the flag, but it was all figured out in the end.

Simon Homans won his first MX1 moto and overall at Nanaimo going 3-1 to Jeff Northrop’s 1-3. Simon hasn’t had the kind of season that he’s capable of but maybe this will get him going. He rode a great race!

Like I said, it was a bizarre day as Homans, Northrop and Marco Dube all showed up and rode awesome. Marco pressured Simon the whole second moto and combined with the Pourcel brothers winning both classes in Europe it was a great day for the French on their national holiday! Damn you, David Vuillemin, for not completing the sweep! (And congrats on that sweet new Suzuki ride.)

Monster Energy’s Tucker Hibbert had a rough day; he was many people’s pick to win the title and went 5-31 in Nanaimo. He ended the series in seventh, which is for sure below where he’s capable of finishing. He was way back in the first moto before working back to fifth and in the second, he passed for the lead and promptly got a rock stuck in his clutch actuating arm, preventing him from pulling in the clutch. What a bizarre place for a rock to get in. Kind of fits the day!

Marco Dubé was going this fast at The Wastelands.

Here is a rumor that I am making up for 2008: Dusty Klatt signs with Cernic’s Racing/Monster Kawasaki for AMA SX and Canadian Nationals. Write that down in erasable marker….do it….do it.

A lot of people (myself included) were wondering how in the world  Marco Dube is second in the points and now we know: He rode good and seems to be in better shape than in years past. One thing I noticed at Morden and at this race, Canada loves KTM! I’ve never seen so much orange on the track before.

Series point leader Paul Carpenter lost a few points off of his lead to Dube but was okay with that. He got bad starts and when I talked to him after the race, he was happy to not get hurt and mentioned that he had never practiced—never mind raced—on this bad of a track.

Blair Morgan and I talked for a while about the Des Nations and I think it’s great that Blackfoot Yamaha has decided to bring the truck and support staff to the race. They are getting behind the team and dumping their own money into it to help Canada out.

Speaking of Blair, he must have broken a bunch of mirrors, crossed some black cats, stepped on a million cracks and broke a million mother’s backs as his incredibly bad luck continues. He was way back early in the first moto when Tyler Medaglia swapped out in front of him and cleaned out his front wheel causing a horrendous endo. After DNF’ing due to damage on his bike, he started the second moto with a bad gate pick, and ran over his teammate Facciotti in the first turn. After once again being way back he rode his little Prince Albert heart out to 7th. I would have bet Ron’s 1965 Mustang Fastback that he would be higher than 12th in the points this far into the season.

Blair also told me after that he was happy just “to be walking out of this place alive.” This was right after the Paul Carpenter comment and shortly before Brady Sheren told me that he was also “just pumped to not get hurt here.” About 20 minutes after this, Derek Sorensen the Monster Energy Kawasaki team manager told me that he “was embarrassed for Canadian MX.” And he said to make sure I quoted him on that. Seriously, no joking here, something needs to be done about this track next year.

I had a good talk with Billy Whitley, the owner of Monster Energy Kawasaki, after practice. He and I spoke about Morden, the CMRC and the comparison between AMA and Canadian racing. I got a little more insight about Morden and the team’s feelings. One thing I believe about Billy is that he wants the series to be better. He’s done a lot in the sport and hopefully he’ll share his ideas with the CMRC.

Pierce Chamberlain had his best non-Ontario ride to date going 8-14 for 9th overall. He got a great start in the first moto and in the second moto had a knock down, drag out battle with Kyle Keast for 30 minutes. If I closed one eye and squinted, I could’ve swore that I was at Gopher Dunes at an Ontario Provincial watching these two gladiators go at it. When they crossed the line they gave each other a high five, which was cool to see.

For the second MX2 moto, Marc Travers invited me into his production bus to watch the moto and see how they put everything together for the TV show. It was really interesting noticing how Mark is kind of like a coach, telling the camera operators what to focus on and also making all the cuts himself.  It gets pretty hectic in there and it made me appreciate all the work that goes into each show.  Marc’s a good guy and now I’m going to feel a little bad when I write my magazine column while critiquing one of the TV races.

Heidi Cooke won the ladies class, going 1-1 and I was very impressed with Missy Hackett, who went 2-2 as she was soaking up the jumps and seemed to have pretty good style around the track.

“Rocket” Rob Buydos and Steve “Dutchie” Van Zylen were calling me and giving me updates on what was going on south of the boarder in Unadilla. Apparently Tim Ferry was the fastest man there and should’ve won but fell in the first moto. He did capture the second moto victory, however. Rob couldn’t hear what I was saying after that as my tears of joy short-circuited the phone—and to think he called me this week wanting me to come out and clean his helmet and I passed it up. I could’ve been a part of history but instead I was in BC peering through some clear plastic trying to look at Jimmy Nelson’s bike.

Gray Davenport led the opening laps of the first MX2 moto, but fell back to third. He finished fourth in the second moto for fourth overall. Not bad for a guy who rides a burnt out KX250F all week at home.

Who is Drew Clegg? I dunno either. I saw him at Morden and he looked the part of a fast pro and this weekend he played the part. He ran 4th for a while before finishing 9th and backed that up with a 10th in the second moto. When I scroll down the points in the MX1 class, he’s the first guy I’ve never heard of. I asked around and a few top guys told me that he gets good starts and then gets “really wide.”  Do we have another Rollerball in the making here?

Josh Woods rode well again backing up his Calgary race with a 5-5 for 6th overall. He mentioned that he wants to ride the BooKoo AX tour again and then if OSTFF has a SX Lites program, jump into that for next year. I like Woodrow, I used to hang with him when I worked for Wey in 2002, and he’s a cool guy that has had some bad luck since being “the next hot thing.”

I raced for 17 years and was a mechanic for 12 years and I saw something this weekend that I’ve never seen before. In the pits, right by the all the teams, was a cigarette booth! That’s right, a little kiosk thing with a girl standing behind it selling cool, smooth tasting cigarettes. Unbelievable!! Whose idea was this? I never saw anyone by it all day—not even a French KTM rider.

Okay, people, I get a few reports that folks are upset with my observations on Canadian MX. It just so happens that I have probably gone to two of the worst races of the year and these reports reflect that. By all means, if you're upset about something write me an email and let me know.

The CMRC has done many great things for Canadian MX and just like the AMA, they can always get better. I just want the best for Canadian MX and have attended these 2 races on my own dime. I've been helping Carl Bastedo with the MXdN and I’ve also worked with Kyle Beaton to get him some extra support for this summer and beyond … all this from a guy that some think "hates Canadian MX?" Add in the fact that I talk about Rollerball in every third sentence and I would just say I'm a passionate fan blessed with the outlet to talk about things that are already great and need to be better.

Maybe if someone pushes the CMRC, the track promoters and the teams, we can all work and get this series better, that’s all I want!

Please email me your questions, concerns and complaints at matthes@racerxcanada.com