Just as we were about to make this live, we received some breaking news from the CMRC. They issued a press release stating that: It will be mandatory for Canadian residents to race a Canadian purchased motocross competition bike if they wish to be eligible for series purse and/or manufacturer contingency funds awarded at the completion of CMRC's 2008 Monster Energy Motocross Nationals. 

You can read the full release here.  

We recently received some big news across the pond from Canadian journeyman, Doug DeHaan that we must share: he’s engaged! That’s right—Big D is taking the plunge. About a year ago, while racing supercross in Germany, DeHaan met a girl named Claudia, and they’ve been together ever since. She’s even flown over to watch him race AMA Supercross and Nationals, and she was there hugging him at the Walton TransCan after Doug won his first title in the Vet Master class. 
“We took a trip to Prague last weekend—that’s where we first met—and I popped the question,” said DeHaan. “And she said, yes!” DeHaan plans to stay in Vienna until spring and then head back to Canada to prepare for the Canadian Nationals.

DeHaan returns to work this weekend at the Sheffield Supercross in England, which features a great cast of North American riders, including Colton Facciotti, JSR, Ryan Lockhart, Mike Brown, Jason Thomas, and Jeff Alessi. CMRC Race Director Brett Lee is in Sheffield right now, assisting John Hellam’s Future West show and he sent along this note:

The Newf is here riding a Suzuki, as are Colton and JSR, who have brought lots of Blackfoot parts for their Yamaha's. Tommy Searle is here and should be pretty fast; they did some press thing. Rich Winkler from Dirt Werx is doing the track and the dirt looks really good. Jeff Alessi is here too. I asked if he was interested in finding a ride in Canada, but from the look on his face, he is not prepared for that fate yet!  Here is a quick link to their house photographer. sxpics.co.uk

Thanks for checking in, Brett. If Brett isn’t too busy sipping tea, hopefully he can send us a race recap from each night.

Here’s a link to the Sheffield Supercross website for more info, http://www.fwsx.com/riders.php

Ryan Lockhart has joined the workforce. The Newf made the 55-hour drive from his Springhill, Nova Scotia home to Rick Sheren’s pad in BC where he will reside while racing the Canadian AX Championships, and also working in the SixSixOne warehouse. Newf says it’s his first ever “real” job, but he’s enjoying it.

“It’s nice actually,” admits Lockhart. “I get up around six, go to work, then come home and Brady cooks me dinner. It’s a nice little routine.” I probed Newf on how much money he makes racing the Sheffield SX. He said it’s pretty good but he will have to miss three days of work. Words from a true workingman. A full-time job might be just what Lockhart needs to get that fire back. I think every rider needs to experience a normal 9to 5 job at least once during their career; it will make them realize how lucky they are to make a living racing motorcycles.

I bumped into OTSFF Suzuki’s Tyler Medaglia at a Halloween costume party last weekend at our ad rep, Jay Moore’s house (Tyler was driving, BTW, so no drinks). He sounds excited to get back down to Georgia to begin training for the AMA Eastern Region SX Lites Series. He’s also looking forward to making an impact in the MX1 class next year, where he will ride the full series for the first time.

Want to be like Mike? Or Matt or Tim? Then you need to order your official Royal Distributing/ KTM Canada/ Stoneridge AXO replica jersey. For $50 you can purchase either #11 Michael Willard, #12 Matt Barnes, or #27 Tim Tremblay’s jersey and all of the proceeds will go towards the Children’s Starlight Foundation. For a list of colours and sizes available, please contact Heidi MacDonald at hmacdonald@ktmnorthamerica.com.

For those of you unfamiliar with Montreal born five-time AMA road racing champ, Miguel Duhamel, check out this interview. I bumped into Duhamel at the US Open of SX, and with the help of Parts Unlimited’s Lou Lopez, asked me a few questions on his `07 season and his motocross background.

http://racerxcanada.com/news/3945/five-minutes-with-miguel-duhamel/

The fellas over at Destroyer Films have a new teaser clip posted from their This Is It DVD; it’s an interview with 2007 MX1 champ Paul Carpenter.

http://www.destroyerfilms.com/Destroyer%20Films/Updates/4D2032E4-D993-4DFB-A80F-2BFCF63BEB19.html

Speaking of Carpenter, Kyle Keast told me this week that the Canadian champ could have a bike available to him for the final rounds of the AMA Motocross Championships next summer. However, Keast would still need to be a supported Honda rider, since Carpenter’s Atomic team is on Hondas, and he needs to either earn some AMA points through arenacross or he says Brett Lee will send a letter to the AMA explaining Kyle’s credentials.

Keast is planning to run some of the local AMA AX rounds, and he’s working hard at the gym right now trying to slim down for the 250F-only series. We actually caught up with Keaster for a new feature on the RXC site, called “My Take.” Check it out here. If you have any suggestions on who would make another good “My Take” candidate, send in your suggestion to letters@racerxcanada.com and some possible topics to get their opinion on.


Darren Pilling, aka Pillow, passed along this cool link to a Toyota Tundra CrewMax his gang at Truxxx tricked out,

Lacking motivation to get out the bike? Maybe a few of these inspirational posters will help.

The new nine round MX2 series has created debate since its press release which was sent out over a month ago, and I checked in with CMRC’s Mark Stallybrass this week to find out why he decided to make the change. Now I have spoken to pretty much every team manager—Derek Sorenson, Andre Laurin, Dean Thompson, and Andy White—and all of them, except KTM Canada’s White, don’t sound too amped on the change. White says it is cheaper for him to hire two riders for one series, rather than field two riders on each coast as KTM has in the last few years. Everyone else says that now it’s too expensive to hire more than one MX2 rider, and to keep a 250F running strong for nine races. Cernic’s Kawasaki is actually only fielding two MX1 riders; they will not support an MX2 program. When I mentioned this to Mark, he had heard otherwise.

“Well, it’s funny you say that because I went to every team manager last year and they said they think it’s a good thing,” explains Stallybrass. “I’m the one who started the East/ West format, so I’m somewhat on the fence too. We’ve done it since 2000; I think it’s been seven years. There are a number of reasons. I think we’re ready for a change; we can always go back if it doesn’t work. The series is at the point now where it’s ready for this change; I think it will make for interesting racing with guys from the east and west competing. As for teams saying that they’re hiring only one rider, I guess we’ll see.  Cernic’s, yes I know that they are only an MX1 team, but then there are guys pooling together to race the entire series who would have never done it before. I’m anticipating that we are going to get an increase of entries from the teams at each round, as far as privateers goes, if you look at the entries at each round, there are only handful that do the whole four round series.”

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the series change works out next summer. It’s still early in the game, but I asked Mark a few questions on what’s in store for next year, such as purse, new sponsors, schedule changes, etc, which you can read about right here.

One thing Mark says he wants is for the series is to increase the media’s presence. We found that a little ironic considering the deal the CMRC signed last winter which limited access to the nationals for magazines.  Without sounding too critical, Mark also mentions how we need more outside-the-industry sponsors and to quit bleeding the manufacturers dry, but then he says the only way he can add to the series purse is by having the manufacturers provide more money. The only way Canadian motocross can move forward is for people to start supporting the people who support the sport. We are all in this together—riders, promoters, fans, mfgs, distributors, dealers, sanctioning bodies and the media.

Andy White gave some insight into his team for 2008. KTM will bring back Eric Nye to contest the MX2 series, and he will be joined by New Zealand’s Mason Phillips. Nye’s actually testing outdoor setups for the MDK KTM in the U.S., so he will no doubt be prepared when Ste-Julie rolls around. I’m not surprised to see Phillips in MX2, following his podium at the East/ West Shootout at Walton last year. White says Phillips normally rides a 250F at home, and he was actually going to race MX2 West last year if the eastern 450 rounds didn’t go well.

On the big bikes, Tim Tremblay will become their #1 guy, but they have yet to sign a second MX1 rider. Jeff Northrop is still a possibility, along with a few other names that White won’t release.

KTM will also be supporting a satellite-like team in MX2 next year. BC dealership RTR Performance and Ontario dealership Orange Motorsports will take turns supporting riders Ryan Millar, Kirk Haws, and Kris Foster, on their respective coasts. All three of the riders will be racing the Canadian AX Championships with RTR, and Spencer Knowles will pilot a KTM 144 SX in the intermediate classes.

One guy who might not be in the MX2 mix next season is former Blackfoot Yamaha rider Nick Evennou. Billy Ursic spoke with Evennou this week, who is currently nailing down shingles while searching for support in `08. Read Evennou’s 5 mins with here.

Looking to tryout the 2008 RM-Z250 and 450? Then sign up for Suzuki Canada’s demo ride day at the Tillsonburg Indoor track on November 14. To book a time, contact Andre Laurin at andre@otsff.com or Keith Hamilton at keith@otsff.com. You can also reach them by phone at 1-800-668-4473.

The Toyota AMA Arenacross Series kicks this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa. Several riders who have raced in Canada, including Chad Johnson, Keith R. Johnson, Jimmy Nelson, Denis Jonon, Kevin Johnson, Tyler Bright, Teddy Maier, Tiger Lacey, and Gray Davenport. For a full preview, click here.

Kudos to Brad Coles the team manager of the Label It Racing Team for hiring on Nova Scotia’s Davey Fraser. Brad now has national #23 (Fraser) and #20 (Jason Burke) under his rig for 2008. The team is already testing the suspension on their `08 bikes at Superior Suspension Settings (SSS) test facility in Frankford, Ontario. Fraser is the third member from our Ignition Racing / RXC Factory Rider program to get hired by a team for '08. Jeremy Medaglia signed with OTSFF Suzuki a month ago, and Ryan Millar has a support deal with KTM for next year.

Before I shut it down this week, check out this link. Our crew in the London office went through

 http://www.achannel.ca/london/news_49786.aspx