Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
OCTOBER 12, 2007

By Danny Brault

Before we get into this, it appears that Team Kawasaki's James Stewart will not race this weekend at the U.S. Open of Supercross. He held a press conference just moments ago and he says he just doesn't feel ready to be back racing quite yet due to his knee injury.

I don’t look forward to this time of the year in Canada. There are no nationals, no supercross, no arenacross (other than the West Coast series in BC, which is just a tad too far for me to drive to), there’s really nothing going on in the Canadian motocross world. The only thing I have to look forward to each week is my Monday night men’s league hockey game—where I sniped two beauties this week, thank you very much.

Thanks to Steve Matthes, who hooked me up with a plane ticket and a place to stay at his Las Vegas home, I do have the opportunity to attend the Rockstar Energy Drink U.S. Open of Supercross this weekend. I owe you a hug and a cold beverage this weekend there SteveO! I’ve actually never been a huge fan of the U.S. Open because the track looks so small and tight on TV, and there is hardly any ever “racing.” But now that I’m going to be watching the event live from the press booth, stands, bar or where ever I end up, I’m starting to get excited. I might even throw down a few bucks on the race.

Joining Steve and I in Vegas is RXC photographer/ advertising rep/ my former landlord, Dan “Dave” Stenning. He flew down to Vegas last year for the race with expert parts changer, Shawn Porter, and the two actually sat down and ate breakfast with Kevin Windham, Tim Ferry, and Matthes. Aren’t they cool? If Timmy and Kevin are lucky, they might even get to eat a meal with the Frid’Eh Update guy. Hey, my mom thinks I’m cool!

Who’s going to take the $100,000 this year at the Open? Insert name after seeing entry list.

Tyler Medaglia makes his first appearance at the U.S. Open ... and in the official program!

 

Montreal Supercross winner, Tyler Medaglia, will be joining the fray this weekend in Vegas. Medaglia, who is fresh off his MX2 victory in the Big O, has been working his butt off on the Georgia Practice Facility’s supercross track with his mechanic, Steve Simms, and teammate, Josh Woods. Since the classes are combined this year (450 and 250), and there are 60 entries, it’s going to be tough for the Suzuki City/ OTSFF rider to qualify. Kyle Beaton was rumoured to be racing the Open too, but that isn’t going to happen. I did hear, however, that an AMA SX license is in the mail. If that’s true, we will most likely see “Beets” on the line at Anaheim 1.

Kyle Beaton finally got his supercross endorsement. Will we see him at Anaheim 1?

James Lissimore photo

Be sure to stay tuned to www.racerxcanada.com Friday and Saturday night, as I will be posting regular updates, results, and photos. Matthes is even going to let me try out “Observations” this Monday. So stay tuned for that fine piece of literature.

Now that I think about it, we do have a cool event coming up that everyone at RXC is looking forward to: the 2008 Racer X Canada Shootout. You may recall our online Shootout last fall, which featured opinions from top national pros, Chuck Mesley, Jason Burke, Pierce Chamberlain, Adam Deakon, and our health/ fitness/ life experience/ product expert, Rob McCullough. We will once again invite back all of the aforementioned, but Kyle Keast will be filling in for Deakon who is busy training down at the Millsaps Training Facility.

The Shootout will be mainly online oriented again, and we’ll be sure to bring out the video camera. KTM is bringing out their  '08 KTM 144 SX, and think it would look and sound cool to hear a few of the pros ripping around the track on the now-MX2-legal machine.

Any industry people who are interested in visiting the Shootout are asked to send me a quick email , letting me know which day (s) they want to attend and how many people are with them. We want to make this an annual gathering—it’s not a party unless everyone is invited. The Shootout will run on October 23-24 and each day will begin around 10 o’clock. The “Moaner” himself, John Nelson, will even be there! He told me that he’s been training and he thinks he can beat Mr. Universe (McCullough) in a push up contest. Those are big words, Motorcycle Man!

Did you catch Andy Bowyer’s Number Cruncher this week? If not, click here, and check it out. Bowyer is a big fan of Canadian motocross, and always asks me for a few Canucks to add in his column. I can’t wait for him to use #224!

 

Ryan Millar flew straight home from the Montreal SX to race the final Manitoba Provincial.

James Lissimore photo

 

Our Manitoba correspondent, Doug Engstrom, sent us a report from the final round of the Manitoba Provincial Series, which you can check out here. He also attached this little note about Ryan Millar that I found entertaining. Apparently, the 15-year-old did fly back to race after finishing 14th at the Montreal SX!

Hi Guys,
 
Attached is the report from the final Provincial round this past weekend.  I focused on the Series champs so if anyone is curious about Millar, since I made no mention of him, he made it back just in time to start his first Intermediate moto a lap down.  He almost unlapped himself before washing out in a turn.  In moto two, he walked away from the field as expected and just about killed me in the process.  I was standing on the embankment on the side of the finish line landing looking for a better angle to shoot the jump since it is so elevated, Millar comes flying up on a Pro as the hit the jump and the Pro does a big whip for the fans knocking Millar off the side of the jump directly at a wide-eyed me!  I got out of the way in a big hurry! Thankfully, I was paying close attention looking for a Millar scrub pic.  No real battle between him and Dunn in the Youth class on this day.


I feel like I’m saying thanks a lot today, but Doug deserves a hand for his efforts covering the Manitoba scene. Thanks, Doug! We don’t have anyone covering Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, or the Maritimes (now that Brett Dailey is moving away), so if anyone would like to or knows someone who is capable of reporting on a race and shooting photos, please shoot me an email  We want everyone across Canada to know what is going on in each region.

Speaking of knowing what’s going on, Blair Morgan sent us this link of a new indoor riding facility in Minneapolis that I had no idea was being constructed:

 

Ryan Lockhart is heading west for the Future West Arenacross Series.

James Lissimore photo

 

Guess who is back behind the wheel again? Ryan Lockhart. The Springhill, Nova Scotia rider is loading up the Dodge with a pair of Kawasakis and heading out to BC for the Future West Arenacross Series. Along with earning purse money, the Newf says he might spend a few hours in the SixSixOne headquarters during the week, collecting some income. Lockhart doesn’t have any big deals set for `08, but he says he wouldn’t mind doing his own deal, similar to Beaton. He’s also said he wouldn’t mind dropping back down to the MX2 class now that it covers the whole nine-round series.

Machine Racing Honda riders Kyle Keast and Chuck Mesley are also searching for support in 2008. They can always rely on John Nelson to take care of them (no matter what he says every winter), but Nelson—and Keast and Mesley—would like to see them find a home on a factory team.  

I love Vegas. Seriously. I’m burning every cent that I have and loving every minute of it. Funny thing to, I haven’t even gambled yet! Last night, a few industry people showed up at the lobby bar in the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino and bench raced late into the morning. I skipped out a little earlier though, as Matthes was passing by on his way home from his 18th Tragically Hip concert with his wife Angie, and I figured that it was in my best interests to get some sleep before two nights of supercross racing.

Nothing too shocking happened during practice this afternoon, other than Mike Alessi endoing in the whoop section in the second practice session. The new #1 guy on the Makita Suzuki Team looked pretty quick on the EFI RM-Z450 when he was on two wheels, however. It was good to see Kawasaki’s James Stewart back on the track (even though he won't actually be racing this weekend). I like how he’s choosing to run the #1 plate he won from his AMA/ WSXGP titles. Stewart also had a little get off in the flat corner after the whoops. Chad Reed was probably the next fastest guy; he was hauling through the whoops, said Matthes.

Cary Hart's new Hart and Huntington Team debuts this weekend in Vegas.

Can Mike Larocco win his second U.S. Open this weekend? Probably not, but his CR250 sure sounds cool in the tight confines of the MGM Grand Arena.

Mike Alessi had a get off in his second practice session, but walked away from it.

photos: Dan Stenning

And how about Mike Larocco rockin’ out the two-stroke CR250R! “The Rock” seems to be in a good mood for possibly the first time in his career. In fact, just before he went out for practice, I’m sure I saw him smiling. Jeff Emig and Damon Huffman also came out of retirement for the weekend. What do all three of these former champs have in common? They’ve all won the U.S. Open of SX.

Medaglia looked pretty smooth on the tight and slippery Vegas track, but it’s going to be a tough go with the world’s best supercross fighting for 12 gate positions. I sure would be pissed off if I got the far outside gate pick—you go ten feet and then run into the back of a berm.

I spoke to Bryan Johnson about coming this close to winning the Montreal SX two weeks ago. I asked if he pumped up or got nervous, because he lost two postions on the final lap, but Johnson says his `08 CRF450 started bogging and it caused him to slow down. Regardless, he was pretty stoked to be leading the race in front of 50,000 fans for 13 laps, and already has his plane ticket booked for next year.

Okay it's time for me to go spend some more money! Whoo!