Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
OCTOBER 5, 2007

By Danny Brault


The Montreal Supercross celebrated its 30th anniversary last weekend inside the Big O, and everyone was invited. Actually, while everyone referred to this year’s Montreal SX as the 30th event, it’s really only the 29th. In 1991, the roof of Olympic Stadium collapsed and the race was cancelled. Then again, if you really want to get technical, it’s been 31 years since the Montreal SX began in 1977. The promoter of the event, Pierre Corbeil, basically said made they compromised and decided to call this the 30th Annual Montreal SX. I think we can all live with that.

I’m not sure what the atmosphere was like when Jimmy Ellis won the first Montreal SX on his Can-Am in `77, but I have to think that the event, atmosphere and competition has grown. Its no wonder the Montreal SX is the longest standing indoor race in the world—and the single biggest race in Canada; Corbeil and Buddy Ford bring in a star-studded lineup each year, and always do their best to give the 50,000 fans a “show.”

While I’ve watched Montreal on TV since I was 10-years-old, I’ve only seen the race live three times (2004, 2005 and 2007), but I think this year’s event was the best yet in my experience. The MX1 class was stacked, with nearly ten riders running on the same second in lap times, JSR was back, Facciotti was riding both classes, and Canada’s best showed up for the MX2 class. It was a little disappointing that last year’s winner, Dusty Klatt, local hero Marco Dubé, and Blair Morgan were all out with injuries. I was chatting with Corbeil today, and he was upset that Klatt wasn’t able to race. As much as he hates to say it, Corbeil says that JSR is at the end and he needs a new Canadian star, someone the crowd can expect back year after year. Like Ross Rederson, Carl Vaillancourt, and then of course, JSR.

 

Here's how you thought Montreal would go down...

 

We agreed that Facciotti and Klatt both have the potential—and also Tyler Medaglia—and were surprised that Facciotti didn’t do better. But there’s not much you can do when you start outside the top 10 and have only 15 laps to catch guys like Ryan Clark, Bryan Johnson, JSR, Jeff Northrop, or Eric Sorby.

I believe that next year will be a different story. If Klatt and Facciotti are healthy come September, and don’t have any contracts preventing them from racing, they will get Canada back in the winner’s circle. And let’s not count out JSR; he’s still the winningest rider at Montreal with four wins and one win in the all-Canadian 250 Final in `95. When that French Canadian crowd starts to get loud, JSR gets going.

 

JSR is still king in Montreal.

Tim Dailey photo

 

The King of Canadian MX didn’t have the best result in Montreal last weekend, but it wasn’t because of lack of speed. Right from practice on Friday, JSR looked determined to get his Blackfoot Yamaha YZ450F into the winner’s circle, especially after missing last year’s race because of injury. In his heat race, JSR had everyone going crazy when he block passed Sorby and Johnson in the second corner and then hucked the triple while everyone else doubled. On the second lap, Sorby repassed JSR in similar fashion, and it allowed Johnson to sneak by. All three riders stayed within a bike length of each other until the finish.

In the main event, JSR started just outside the top five, but then slid out on the second or third lap and he was unable to get through the pack to the leaders. While a sixth probably wasn’t what JSR, or the fans, were expecting, but The King still put in a solid ride, considering that he hasn’t ridden indoors since Montreal `05.

I’ve always wondered if Doug DeHaan could win a Montreal SX. I mean, the guy has more supercross experience than anyone in Canada, but he can never get a start. As usual, DeHaan was smooth and consistent and finished second Canadian in 10th place. Originally, DeHaan was supposed to ride for Morgan Racing and their new LMG Team, but things fell apart at the last minute when Morgan was caught up in a legal battle. I don’t have any details regarding the matter, so I’m going to keep my nose out of it until I hear the facts.

Other Canadians who made the MX1 main were Facciotti, who finished 12th after a coming off the line around 20th, Pierce Chamberlain impressed me since he hasn’t ridden indoors since this time last year, and Suzuki OTSFF’s Mitch Cooke was out there riding away his fears.

I spoke to Cooke throughout the weekend, and even though he looked and felt better each time out, he just couldn’t ride without thinking about the head injury he suffered in Calgary. While it’s understandable that someone would show caution after a serious head injury (except maybe Travis Pastrana), it’s weird to hear someone as naturally gifted as Cooke say “I’m scared out there.” The H.A.F. East Coaster is already looking forward to `08, and he has a flight booked to Dubai next week. It doesn’t sound like he will be training with Georges Jobe again, however. Cooke thinks he’s learned as much as he can from the 10-time World champ, but Jobe will continue to receive updates on Mitch’s continued progress.

Tyler Medaglia took his first Canadian moto win in front of 50,000 fans in Montreal.

James Lissimore

 

Ryan Lockhart (6), Simon Homans (4), and Jay Burke (34) lead the pack in the All-Canadian final.

Tim Dailey photo

 

While OTSFF didn’t have the biggest presence in MX1, they sure made a statement in the MX2 class with Ryan Lockhart’s holeshot and Tyler Medaglia’s win. Heading into the race, Medaglia had probably the most time on a supercross track, but it was hard to bet against Facciotti who has four podiums, a win at Montreal, and has qualified for a few AMA Supercrosses. TM rode a mistake free main event, however, and got out front early and checked out, while Facciotti was left battling through the pack to finish third behind Homans. In the final laps, it looked like Medaglia might lose the lead when a few lappers got in his way through the rhythm section and Homans was hot on his heels, but he held on to it. I asked TM if he was nervous at all in the last few corners, but he said he didn’t even notice Homans was so close.

It’s been a pretty successful year for Medaglia on his first factory team, with some notable rides in MX1, third overall in the MX2 East, and now a win on the biggest stage in Canada.

“To get that win, in front of 50,000 people, it was the best way to do it,” Medaglia says. “Coming into it, I figured I would have won an outdoor event first. But I’ve been working really hard and having so much fun with this supercross thing, I’m glad it happened that way. It was good for the sponsors too, instead of winning in front of maybe 10,000, it was good to do it at the big show.”

Medaglia is back on the supercross track at GPF until Thursday, working hard for the Rockstar Energy Drink U.S. Open next weekend in Las Vegas. If you’re going to be in the area or you are looking for info on the event, just go to http://ussx.com/.

The Medaglia news doesn’t end there; Tyler’s younger brother, Jeremy, is now also a member of the Suzuki OTSFF Team. Jeremy signed on with them two weeks ago. He says with the support and guidance Tyler’s received from Andre Laurin and the team, he just couldn’t turn down the offer. I give a lot of credit to Andre for signing Jeremy; while the 17-year-old is fast, he is the team’s only MX2 rider for `08. He also goes through parts and bikes faster than Randy goes through a box of burgers. That’s some serious weight to put on Jeremy’s shoulders, but like his brother, he’s very determined to succeed in this sport.

Derrick Medaglia has given us a few funny observations on his sons, Tyler and Jeremy, but I asked Tyler what he and Jeremy share in common and where they’re different.

“I’m more social than he is; he sort of sticks to himself," says Tyler. "I’m more outgoing. For riding, he has a really aggressive style and hangs off the bike. I’m more of a smooth, 450 kinda rider. When it comes down to it, we’re both serious and we both hate to lose [laughs].”

In only his second supercross race, Jeremy battled with Kaven Gregoire, Jason Burke, and Brock Hoyer, before finishing 10th. Jeremy will soon be joining his brother at GPF to prepare for the Canadian Nationals.

For a full recap of the Montreal Supercross, check out the SixSixOne Photo Report.

Also, be sure to see what MX1 winner, Ryan Clark, thought of the event this year right here.

 

Ben Milot beat out Ronnie Renner in the freestyle competition.

James Lissimore photo

 

It was cool to see French Canadian FMXer, Ben Milot, take the loudest applause and win at the Big O this year. Milot and Ronnie Renner led the FMX charge, and at the end, the two wrestled each other to the ground in a staged fight. Milot’s new DVD, Invasion 3, was released at the supercross and last night, Felix Trepanier and gang threw a party at the Radio Lounge in Montreal to celebrate the new vid. You can watch the trailer here. Even JSR made it out to the Lounge for a couple of drinks!

The Invasion 3 premiere party went down last night in Montreal. Even JSR showed up for a drink!

Along with the memorable moments inside the Big O each year, there are just as many or more made outside the stadium in the Universal Hotel, the infamous afterparty club, Millenium, or at the 24-hour Go Kart track. This year, many of the after hours memories took place at the Red Bull shindig in The House Nightclub. Similar to the Thor/ Parts Unlimited party Sunday night at Budds Creek, the evening started out slow but by the end, everyone was sleeveless or shirtless. Brett Dailey’s favourite memory of the night came when MX1 winner, and one of the more serious racers, Ryan Clark, stepped out of The House sans shirt. I’m not sure what is provoking this shirt-ripping chain of events, but it sure does make for some good laughs.

Hey Danny, this is Canaan Halka. Me and Scotty Thomason packed his 450 in the back of my Pontiac vibe and drove 11 and a half hours to make it to montreal. Hopefully these pics get us out there!  We're doin this all privateer style with the help of some sponsors of course, but we still need all the exposure we can get! i sent a couple photos hope they work for you! Thanks, Canaan Halka.

 

There wasn’t as much silly season gossip going on as I had hoped from Montreal. Here are a few things I did catch: Blackfoot doesn’t have any interest in signing on Kyle Beaton for `08; Ryan Lockhart is riding Kawasakis now and is driving to BC next week for the West Coast AX Series; Josh Woods may be back with OTSFF next year--and has taken on a rider management role for the team, helping riders like Tyler Medaglia at GPF; Karel Benoit is skipping the ice racing season to train in SoCal; and Jeff Northrop is talking with KTM about a 450 ride, but he also told me he would be happy riding for Montes’ JNR Motorsports/ G. Bourque Kawasaki Team for some start money. (Although, Norcal isn’t sure if he will run the pre-print numbers next year.)

A while back, we posted a note about searching for Blair Morgan’s track on Google Maps and we received some tips from Jarrett King on how to locate Blair’s track and others around the globe.

Okay, so I know that you posted something about this subject weeks ago but it just occurred to me that I have something cool to contribute. Danny mentioned that you could find satellite photos of Blair Morgan’s track on Google Maps. I’m assuming that Blair might have been referring to Google Earth instead? Thus:
 
Google earth has something called Google Earth Communities. It is kinda like MXForum for geography nerds. You can link items to each other and create location icons based on coordinates. So you could (just as an example) click one link to display the exact location of every single motocross track in the world (if someone put the database together). There are already links to every airport, skyscraper, body of water, seismic event, etc….
 
The great part is that you can also link that to the track websites and even www.panoramio.com so that you can check out panoramic pictures and images of the area. So yeah, call me a computer nerd all you want, but first download Google Earth and check out the link that I created and tell me what you think (it’s also viewable using Google maps).
 
 http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/523773 (I even managed to find the factory test tracks in so-cal).
 
All that is needed is the coordinates and the link can be updated. Go ahead and forward this on and I will update it with any MX track sent my way. After all, how many tracks can there be in a country of 33,390,141 people?
 
 Jarrett King
GP MX Association
www.gpmotocross.ca
Peace Motocross Association
www.pma.ab.ca
** Home of CMRC Riders Drew Clegg and Kyle McGlynn **


Thanks, Jarrett. Hopefully we can start a catalogue of Canadian MX tracks and find some place to ride!

Guess what yesterday was? It was Steve Matthes’ birthday!! From everyone here at RXC, HAAPPPPYYYY BIIRRRTTTHDDDAAYYY, STEEEEVVEE!! I’m stopping into the Matthes crib next week, so I will be sure to give him his birthday spankings. (I will admit, that sounded a bit ….. )

Matthes was giving me a hard time for not having the Frid’Eh Update online earlier (which he does every Friday), so I told him to shut up, be patient, and write something while he’s waiting. So he did …

Here is something I put together … you're welcome.

Well, folks, the 2007 Rockstar Energy Drink U.S. Open is a week away as you read this. It's being held in my hometown of Las Vegas and for as long as I've been coming to this race, it's still weird going home and sleeping in my own bed. It's also cut down on my post race gambling and drinking which may not be a bad thing.

This year Danbro and "Dave" Stenning are coming down and staying with me, and I'm thinking that my gambling and drinking may come back to pre `06 levels. I've had the talk with Danny about the sleeve ripping and I hope he understands that inside a casino, security will not find it amusing.

As far as the race, everybody is still waiting to see if James Stewart shows up. He's still recovering from his knee injury and my sources at Kawasaki say they are not sure yet either. I also heard through the grapevine that RC may not show up; I don't know why and I don't know how valid the rumor is but it's out there. If James and RC don't show, then look for Chad Reed to be the favorite. I think that with Reed’s inactivity and the fact that Tim Ferry and Grant Langston have been riding and practicing at a high level, we might see some good racing at the front. If #7 and #4 show up it's going to be on!

For the first time ever, the guys at Live Nation are allowing 250F's in the race with the 450 guys, so we'll see if the smaller bike will help with the tight track. There are a ton of guys that are pre-entered and some riders are not going to see the night show, as timed practice will eliminate 20 or so guys each night. Too bad we're not going to see Ryan Villopoto go head to head with the big boys. My pick for the best 250F guy? Dan Reardon.

Other rumors out there: Travis Preston is being courted by MDK/KTM for 08; Carey Hart is fielding a team that’s sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink and he's having two 450 guys and a couple of Lites riders. The interesting thing is the team is doing AMA SX and then going to Supermoto instead of the nationals. The names that have been attached to his team are Preston and Troy Adams. Kyle Beaton came this close to getting into the Open but the AMA thought that this race format shouldn't be his first pro race and I can see their point. Look for Beets to be on the line at A1. Morgan Racing is pursuing Troy Adams as well to come up to Canada for `08.

 

Our 2007 RXC Total Devotion winner, Kyle McGlynn, sent along a kind note and newspaper clipping this week:

I wanted to send you a copy of the thank you we put in the local paper.  We also just read the November issue of Racer X Canada. Again, I can't thank you and the magazine enough for the exposure and for your support this year!

Kyle McGlynn. Wembley, Alberta

Thanks Kyle and we can't wait to ride at MTF!

A few Updates I ago, I wrote about the lack of fall racing in Canada/ Ontario. It appears I wasn’t alone as fellow reader, Jarid Savoy, from Maine agrees:

In the August 16th version of Frid’Eh Update, you wrote about the lack of fall racing in Ontario. I no longer live in Ontario, and I have never raced the Motovan  Provincial series, but I find myself agreeing with you on the issue. After looking at the schedule I found it very odd that the MX scene just shuts down after Walton. Like you pointed out in the update, September and October are some of the best months to go riding and racing in. Here in Maine and New England, both the NESC and Maine Motocross Series have Spring, Summer and Fall series’. Personally, I think it would be easier on the wallet if the series were spread out through the spring, summer and fall. Maybe more riders need to step up and voice their opinions to make it happen.

I have actually spoken with several riders on the idea of spreading out our Provincial series, which is the most followed series of the Ontario CMRC scene. Everyone seems to agree that they would like the schedule to be spread out, so families can have “normal” weekends and lower the cost of racing and constant traveling. It’s also been brought up that when we do have a weekend off from the Provincials, an Amateur National Qualifer (ANQ) is held so riders still don’t really get a weekend off. A suggestion I’ve brought up to the promoters and Brett Lee, is to run half the classes as a Provincial one weekend and the other half the next weekend; same with the ANQs. I think this would benefit everyone: riders wouldn’t need to be at the track every weekend, and it would guarantee an equal rider turnout for each promoter. As it stands, we have so many entries that most of the provincials are run over two days and it can make for a long weekend.

On that note, if any CMRC member—or member of any race club for that matter—has concerns, suggestions, or ideas, call up your race director, club president or whoever and make your voices heard. It is called a “membership” for a reason.

Freestyle motocross is coming to London, Ontario, on November 3 at 7:00 PM. The FMX World Series of MX features international pros from FMX and BMX, all together under the John Labatt Centre roof. Tickets start at $20.50, and you can find how to purchase them at www.johnlabattcentre.com.

If anyone is looking for an official Team Canada MXoN sticker to add to their collection, or if you want more, just send in a self addressed/ postage paid envelope to:

Racer X Canada
285 King Street, Suite 410
London, Ontario
N6B 3M6
(519) 457-2178

Be quick—quantities are limited!

As most of you know, Gavin Gracyk's father, Gary, is in the final stages of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). He’s been given less than a year to live, but over on www.pitracer.com, they’re saying an organization has found a treatment that has a 33 percent success rate. Unfortunately, health insurance doesn’t cover the experimental treatment. Supposedly, the treatment will clean out Gary’s system and rebuild his muscles. $10,000 needs to be raised for Gary to undergo the treatment, and everyone can help out by sending Paypal donations to webmaster@pitracer.com.

Gavin is also still searching for a SX/ MX ride in the States after finishing 9th overall and top privateer in the AMA Nationals. So anyone out there has interest in a hard working and talented rider with a great personality, email ryan@cycra.com.

That’s all for this, folks! Enjoy your turkey and naps this weekend!