By Brett Dailey

The Blackfoot team has gone through a lot in the past year from switching manufacturers, building new bikes and a new team and moving into a new race shop. This has been a challenging year for Blackfoot as well as they have had to deal with injuries and DNFs—unfamiliar territory for the past few years. They have been called upon to support Team Canada and not just a supporting role—Jean-Sebastien Roy, Blair Morgan have been chosen for the team. Add in Colton Facciotti as the alternate and now the possibility of building a bike for Dusty Klatt as well and they may have to field the entire team! Let’s get behind this hard working crew as we near the Motocross des Nations and let them know that we appreciate their hard work and dedication to Canadian motocross.

RXC: First of all, congratulations on the MX2 title. How does it feel?
Dean Thompson: It feels amazing. That one was for sure dedicated to Yamaha. We are stoked to have Yamaha behind us and to have them step up to the plate and support us this year and have faith in us. That championship means a lot after the way the year has been going and having a few issues. There’s been a lot of changes for us but being able to bring one championship home means a lot to us.

I know you are really tight with Jimmy, so how does it feel to have him win back-to-back titles.
It’s amazing. The kid is just an absolute pleasure to work with. He doesn’t know anything besides winning and he brings his A game every week. He knows that the guys at the shop are putting in 110 percent and he does the same thing. He knows when to be smart and he showed that today [Nanaimo national where Jimmy wrapped up the title]. He is a true champion and it’s a pleasure to have a rider like Jimmy Nelson on our team.

They recently announced the Canadian Des Nations team. How does it feel to have such a major involvement?
It feels awesome. If we didn’t do it, we’d be thrown under the bus [laughs] but all joking aside, it is a pleasure to do this once again also for Yamaha. It’s all three Yamahas. Dusty, even though he’s not on our team, he’s like family to us. To have the comfort level, and to be able to bring the semi down there, and have the majority of the crew there, it is the best opportunity ever to put in a good showing for Canada at the Des Nations—being on the home turf basically, even though it’s in the U.S. It’s so close it’s almost something you have to do.

Obviously it has to be a lot of work for you, building bikes for the program, crossing the border and all of the issues that go along with that. How are you going to get it all done?
The country is always behind it but what a lot of people don’t think about is that we are contracted to do 10 races and in order to be able to do this right, you need to put 110 percent effort into it also. There are obviously substantial costs to do this race, it’s not just roll the truck up and use a bunch of free parts, it’s for real, it takes effort, it takes money and it takes time and it takes a lot of planning. We don’t have a ton of time but we will do the best we can with the resources that we have. We need Canada to get behind us also.

How is it going to affect your preparation for Montreal SX?
We haven’t done any supercross testing yet, that’s one of the concerns we’ve always had with Des Nations. A lot of other countries have a break right then and in the U.S. they have a few weeks before the U.S. Open, but for us the timing between Walton and Montreal is extremely tight. Unfortunately, the guys will have no break; strip down and do supercross testing right away. It’s going to be a lot of long hours, and the guys are tired already. It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be a lot of work, and we’ll get it done as always but it’s going to be a lot of long nights for the guys unfortunately.

You have a new manufacturer this year and that’s a lot of extra testing that you haven’t had do in prior years. How is everybody holding up?
It’s been a hard year, the crew, everybody behind the scenes, feels the same. It’s a completely new beast. It’s a whole new motorcycle, it’s a great product, but it is new for us, there’s no arguing that. You’re learning as you go. We had to go through all that. It has nothing to do with one bike is better than the other, it’s just going through the whole process, you have to take your lumps. We’ve learned a lot and hats off to the guys, they’ve worked really hard. What I think some people have lost focus of is they have seen the domination of Blackfoot in the past, JSR, Dusty Klatt, there were only three times in five years we didn’t get the overall, it was domination and we always had good luck. Everything always went our way. This year, we have our issues, but if you still look at it, JSR went 1-2 in Ste-Julie, he was leading at Gopher Dunes, Regina, first overall, last weekend in Calgary, another overall, here in Nanaimo, another championship. It’s tough and it’s really hard for the individuals sometimes to deal with it. You’re used to winning, and then you’re up against topics like, what’s it like not winning? Well, we are winning; we’re just not dominating like we have. A lot of guys have come up from the states [this year], and the depth is actually deeper. Last year, Dusty and JSR were checking out, winning motos by a minute, it’s a lot different. Dusty is gone, JSR has been hurt and Carpenter and a bunch of other guys have actually come up here to play. I think the team has done pretty well under the circumstances. We didn’t know what was happening at the end of last year.

Are you bringing the rig to Des Nations?
Yes, we are.

Is there any concern there?
It costs a lot of money to be able to do the bond and all of that, we’ve done it for U.S. Supercross, we know what’s required for crossing the border. It’s just a lot easier if we do it ourselves.

How does the MXdN funding work?
Hotels and transportation are covered. Everything else has to be fundraised. The onus is on the team right now. All the fingers are pointing at the team that we should go. But our budget is for 10 races and everything beyond that is out of our pocket. In order to have a good show and a high-quality team for this country, it needs to be properly funded. I can’t emphasize that enough.

So Des Nations is Sept 23 and Montreal is Sep 29. Basically, you have to get down there, race, and be back by Wednesday or Thursday. It seems like a lot of pressure. Did you consider saying no?
Yes, we’ve had a lot of unplanned costs this year. However, if we said no, we would be hated. There was tons of pressure. Did we not want to do it? Well, everyone is pretty burnt out for sure. When it comes to pressure, like that, sometimes you wish you were not the best. When you are the best, the expectations are up there. It’s a lot of pressure.

Who do you want to thank on the team for making all of this work?
Oh for sure, Joe [Skidd] and Andrew [McLean] and Jeff [Mason], Pete [Keeping], those guys, man, they have honestly put their lives on hold for this team. There is a lot of hard work for everyone. My hats off to them for putting their all into it. When the chips were down, they just worked harder, instead of working until midnight, they worked until two, instead of coming in at eight, they came in at six. That is the type of guys they are. They never, ever, ever gave up when things were tough, they just kept working harder and every week the bikes are just a little bit better. Look at Colton now, he’s got the confidence, but it’s also because the guys have figured out new things. Everyone is working so unbelievably hard. I can’t thank the team enough and Yamaha, for not putting any extra pressure on us. They are happy, they are true enthusiasts of the sport and they are just as happy to be part of this, as we are to be part of them, and all the sponsors we’ve had for years and years and years have stuck by us and we can’t thank everyone enough. Even the media, the media has been so positive, and that’s been influential. The media also put the pressure on, get behind these guys, don’t let them go away.