Five Minutes with … Pierre Corbeil
SEPTEMBER 27, 2007

Olympic Stadium, Stade Olympique, the Big O, what ever you choose to call it, will be filling up with North America's top racers and fans this Saturday in Montreal.

By Danny Brault


Pierre Corbeil is the man behind the single biggest motorcycle race in Canada each fall, the Montreal Supercross. For 30 years now, Corbeil has brought in the best riders in Canada—and the U.S.—to the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec. From Ross Pederson to Jim Holley to Doug Henry to Carl Vaillancourt to JSR to just about every top SX rider from North America has competed at the Big O. This year, Corbeil has complied another star studded cast in the MX1 class, and the top Candian talent will battle in the MX2 division. We caught up with Corbeil to see what we can expect this weekend in Montreal …


RXC: Pierre, you must be getting excited for the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Supercross this weekend!
Pierre Corbeil: Yes, very!

So who is coming up to race this year?
All of the Canadians. We have Jason Thomas coming back; we have Joachim Rodrigues; we have Troy Adams, Brock Sellards, Ryan Clark, and Jeff Northrop.

What about in the freestyle show? Who will be competing in that?
The freestyle guys are Ronnie Renner, Ben Milot, Jeff Banks, Morgan Kaliszuk, and the fifth guy would probably be Robbie Madison from Australia.

What can we expect this year? Is JSR going to be on top of the box?
I sure hope so. I know he had a bad year with all of the bad luck you can think of. He wants to prove himself once more. I know he is training hard to be ready. He even called me asking for a track layout to build a replica in his backyard.

The track will be similar to last year’s, because I loved it. The supercross track was ,for my tastes, a little bit too technical. There was a section of three triples that only Dusty [Klatt] was doing properly and he was gaining three seconds per lap there. That’s not a good show. I prefer a less technical track where the top five or ten guys will stick together. That’s what I told him [Rich Winkler]; Ricky Carmichael is not going to be there, so there is no point in building a super technical track; it makes for a bad show. For the ATVs—they loved the track last year—so we are not going to change anything; the cars the same thing. With the freestyle show, we will stick with the two take off and landing ramps.

The Montreal layout usually changes from year-to-year, but it seems that you’ve found a happy medium for all of the racing that takes place.
Yes, yes. It took a few years for Dirt Wurx and Rich Winkler to size up the event in Montreal. They are used to building a supercross track for the top SX riders, now we ask them to compromise for the ATVs, cars and to think of the local riders who race supercross once a year. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.

The all-Canadian MX2 class is once again stacked with up-and-coming talent, such as the Medaglia brothers, Marc-Antoine Genereux, Tim Tremblay, and experienced indoor riders Ryan Lockhart, Johnny Montes and Simon Homans.

In your mind, right now Pierre, what is your vision for the perfect Montreal SX this year?
Oh, for me, the perfect supercross is very simple: I want four or five guys passing at every turn and on the last lap, JSR takes the front spot and wins! But, who knows what will happen. If a Quebecer wins, the crowd will be mad. And if a Canadian guy wins, like last year with Dusty, that’s what I wish for.

And that MX2 class, we have Ryan Lockhart, Tyler Medaglia, Tim Tremblay, Simon Homans, Colton Facciotti, Kyle Beaton, and more, so who is taking the win on the small bike?
I don’t know that and you don’t know that! [Laughs] There are five guys who can win that class! It was a runaway for Darcy [Lange] last year, and a runaway for Dusty two years ago, but this year, I would say [Colton] Facciotti.

I have a good feeling on Facciotti winning this year too, in either class.
Yes.

As you read on the website two weeks ago, a few riders and industry folk shared their favourite memories from Montreal. You’ve been there since the beginning, so I have to ask: what are some of your best memories from the Big O?
It’s hard to say; it’s been 30 years and to pick one moment…. I would say, a great moment was the first time we had a Quebecer win the race. That was Carl Vailancourt in 1994, when he won the Canadian-only race. That was the last year we raced a Canadian-only final, because then the Canadians were on equal grounds as the U.S. riders.

Any good Ross Pederson stories?
I remember a race with Jim Holley—that was 20 years ago. It was a two-night event, and the Friday night Ross won by a few feet on Holley. The second night, Holley won over Ross by a few feet and it was a battle to the last turn. All 40,000 spectators were cheering so loud you couldn’t hear the bikes.  I think that was the most exciting race in the stadium.

Another one, was when Brock Sellards won over JSR, which was `97 or something—I don’t remember the year. JSR was leading the whole race and Sellards was picking up on him. On the last lap, with a few turns to go, JSR made a mistake and Sellards threw him off the track and won. It was sad [that JSR didn’t win] but it was such an exciting race! I don’t think JSR is going to like that I put that as one of the highlights [laughs]!

Along with putting together a great line up of racers, Corbeil also bring in some of the world's top FMXers, including Ronnie Renner and Ben Milot, for the Montreal crowd.

Are there any changes to the program this year?
Racing wise, we are sticking to the same program. My job is to make JSR’s life difficult; he can win but he will still have a tough time. This is our 30th anniversary so we are going to make a special opening show with lasers, smoke and fireworks and a big rider introduction.

And I see Parts Canada signed on as the title sponsor this year. How did that deal happen?
I love that, because it’s a natural match. For our event, it is a prestigious sponsor and it gives us added visibility in English Canada, outside of Quebec. I’m pretty happy about that, and I think they are too. We are already working on the Pay-Per-View show and the TSN show, so it will be visible through Canada.

Well, I definitely can’t wait to see JSR and the rest of the top Canadians fend off the Americans this Saturday, Pierre. See you in Montreal!
Thanks.