By Danny Brault


Some of you out there have probably heard a rumour, that Racer X Canada is ceasing the publication of our printed magazines. Well, it's true. Coming Spring 2008, Racer X Canada is launching RXC 2.0 - the new definition of the digital motocross magazine.  From the number of visits we get to our website, you have shown us that you want your Canadian MX information as soon as possible.  With our new format we will be able to deliver it to you first, keeping you even more up-to-date on news, interviews, and gossip in Canadian MX!

We firmly believe that we're the best Canadian MX magazine. Our stories, covers, and advertisements have always been focused on Canada and our racers. We've always done our best to go behind the scenes and into the heart of the sport to bring our readers something you can't get by simply watching a race or reading a race report. In no way will that change.

We're taking everything you've come to expect from RXC, both in print and online, and we're giving our readers something they have yet to see. We've spent months going over concepts, ideas and plans for our new vision, and it will be unveiled to the public in Spring 2008, most likely around the Toronto World Supercross GP on March 29. With this new platform, readers can access all of our daily features—and a monthly digital issue (unlike current digital editions)—for no cost. We'll be bringing you monthly features, rather than bi-monthly, and the entire site is intended to bring the reader inside the race. The future is here, and you can be a part of it with racerxcanada.com!

To our RXC subscribers, thanks for your continued support. Please check your mailbox in the coming days for a letter with the details about your print subscription.  Now, back to business ...

The powersports community came together for the annual Indy Dealer Expo last weekend. It's one of the biggest parties for the industry, with every media group, company, and dealer in attendance. Some celebs in the house were Jeremy McGrath, Carey Hart, Brock Sellards, Kelly Smith, Brian Deegan, Davey Coombs, and Denny Stephenson, to name a few. There were tons of cool new products, including EVS and SixSixOne's new neck braces. I missed most of the products as my eyes kept focusing on the hot girls holding the items.

I'm sure the biggest question everyone wants answered is: did Canada beat USA in the Racer X/ Corona Hockey Classic? The answers is yes, yes we did. It wasn't an easy battle, however, the Yanks were up on talent and kept us honest throughout the game, but Canada snuck in a few late biscuits to win 6-3. I'm surprised USA didn't test for performance enhancing drugs, as our captain, Rob McCullough, had more HGH in him than Ben Johnson, Roger Clemens, and the entire Tour de France lineup combined! Just kidding. McCullough is just a really good hockey player, as shown by his hat trick in the first game and his four goals in the All-Star game on Sunday night. My apologies to Jason T. Griffiths for not shutting down Captain Freedom in the All-Star match. The best part of the weekend came when some defencemen on the USA team caught me with my head down, knocking the wind out of me, and causing me to lose all of my dinner. Nice!

A big thanks goes out to Tusbaki's Greg Brannick for organizing jerseys, our title sponsor Corona Honda Racing, for making sure the players had some cold drinks on Sunday night! Scott Wallenberg also deserves some love, as well as all of our sponsors. Can't wait for next year!

I ran into former factory wrench, Teddy Chatterson, who was hanging out with Xtreme Toys' John Roney. Chatterson wasn't happy with last week's In The Moment, which featured Chatterson getting pummeled by Chuck Mesley in a boxing match at the Calgary national in 2003. "I think we should have a rematch," said Chatterson. “I’ve been working out pretty hard lately, and I hear that Mez is getting a little soft [laughs].”

You hear that Mesley? I say the two come out swinging at the Gopher Dunes national!

For another look at Indy, check out Matthes’ Obs from Indy—and Weege’s Obs from Houston—here.

Before we made it into Indy, McCullough, Brad Coles, Jay Burke, and I ventured to the NEMX indoor track in Andover, Ohio. The facility is impressive, to say the least. The building itself is 80,000 square feet; the track is at least one and half times the size of a typical AX track; there are heated change rooms; there is a pro shop stocked with consumable goods, and they even have a 17-man concrete starting gate! The folks at NEMX were kind enough to loan us two hours to put together a report for RXC Tested (coming soon) and we had an absolute blast. The track layout features two tabletops, a rhythm section with two different options, whoops, tall berms, and what’s really cool is that they till the flat areas of the track.

Following our ride day, we made way over to Amhurst to tour KTM USA’s headquarters. Once again, we were impressed. KTM definitely lives by their “ready to race” philosophy and commitment to racing as the whole operation is like one big race shop. KTM’s Paul Dixon was kind enough to show us through the offices, the huge hard parts warehouse which houses the trickest goodies available, the Orange Technician Training Facility, the race shop where off-road mechanics were busy building David Knight and Taddy Blazusiak’s race bikes, and we even got to sit on Mike Alessi’s outdoor KTM 450 SX-F. It’s hard not to bleed orange after witnessing the passion KTM shows towards motorsports.

Every trip features some sort of inside joke, and our Ohio/ Indy adventure was no different. This time Burke’s “hooliganisms” earned the most laughs.

The first one came after McCullough asked Jay how much fuel was left in the truck, to which he replied “Half a quarter.” Apparently they don’t teach fractions in Hamilton. Next was Burke’s response to Coles when asked who was at a VIP party on Saturday night in Indy. “Just a bunch of everybodies,” said Jay. Finally, the next two came after Jay experienced his first hang over. “I’m having a rest stop,” his reply when asked if he was sleeping in the backseat, and, “I’ve never stayed up so late, drank so much, and feeled so bad.” I think it’s safe to say that Jay won’t be working for the RXC editing department anytime soon.

Okay, let’s talk get some bench racing going here.

The Houston round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series was a big one for Canadians: it was the first time this year that more than one Canuck made the big show. Fun Center Suzuki’s Brady Sheren was the first to make the 22-man Supercross Lites main event, and then Cernic’s Kawasaki’s Dusty Klatt grabbed the holeshot and final transfer spot in the Supercross LCQ to advance to his first ever 450 final.

Both riders had mid-pack starts in the main event, with Sheren finishing 19th and Klatt finishing 16th. Unfortunately, for Sheren, just as he built up some momentum, he now has a two-month break before the final West Coast round in Seattle.

“I am flying to Colorado on Thursday to race an arenacross,” Sheren told us this week on racerxcanada.com. “Our team is based out of Durango, and that’s where the arenacross is. The shop owner, Lyle, and his wife, Tonya, want us to fly out there for him. We’re going to do some press deal on Thursday. Then I will fly back to California on Sunday, and fly home to BC on Monday to hang out with the family and Newf. I will be there for ten days and then come back to California and start riding outdoors.”

To read Sheren’s full interview, click here. It’s cool to hear that Suzuki rider has been working with Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hansen’s father, Donnie.

For Klatt, his result has built a foundation to build off of in the second half of the 450 series. I thought it was interesting to hear Klatt hint that while he was satisfied with his ride in Houston, he feels he still has more to offer.

 “Realistically, when I am at 100 percent I know I can do better than that for sure,” Klatt said. “I still wasn’t feeling like myself out there so as soon as I can start riding like myself, it should be full on. I just have to keep on training and getting at it, and hopefully, I can keep on making the mains and move forward.”

Cernic’s team owner, Billy Whitley, believes that Klatt can be a top-10 guy before the season wraps up. To read Klatt’s full interview, click here. My prediction for Klatt this weekend: he will set a top-20 lap time, qualify through his heat, and finish 12th in the main.

Things really couldn’t have gone much better for the Cernic’s team and Whitley in Houston, with Klatt and Gibson qualifying, Gibson scoring his best finish yet with a 12th, and Whitley’s son, Parker Dean, finishing third in the KTM Junior SX Challenge. We can’t wait to see this crew return to the Monster Energy Motocross Nationals in May.
 
This Saturday, the supercross series moves into Atlanta for the first round of the Eastern swing, which means we’ll get to see Suzuki City/OTSFF’s Tyler Medaglia in the Lites class. The kid from Kemptville, Ontario is looking for a good result after racing a few rounds last year, winning the Montreal Supercross, racing the Rockstar Energy Drink U.S. Open of Supercross, and spending countless hours on GPF’s practice tracks. Our sources down south are saying that Medaglia is becoming faster, smoother and more aggressive everyday, so we’re excited to see what the #404 Suzuki has in store. My prediction for TM: the 25th fastest qualifying time, he will finish seventh in his heat race, have an okay start in the main, and finish 18th.

The obvious favourite in the East has to be 2007 West Coast and Outdoor champ, Ryan Villopoto, but I’m sure Josh Grant, Kyle Chisholm, Matt Georke, Trey Canard, Ryan Sipes, Kyle Partridge, Ryan Morais, Branden Jesseman, Nico Izzi, Martin Davalos, and the rest of the lightweights won’t make it easy on him. Wait, who am I kidding—Villopoto is going to lay a beat down! I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. After watching that kid ride at the MXoN in Budds Creek, I have a hard time believing anyone can hang with him. But it is racing, and anything can happen.

Click here for the Lites pre-entry list and here for the Supercross class.

One racer who would like to race the East Coast series, but probably won’t, is 2000 125 West Coast Canadian champ Sean Hamblin. RXI’s Eric Johnson caught up with Hammy for this week’s Between the Motos.

I WILL TYPE THIS ALL IN CAPS SO YOU DON’T FORGET WHEN SUPERCROSS HITS THE TUBE THIS WEEKEND.

SATURDAY @ 10 PM EST ON SPEED: SUPERCROSS FROM HOUSTON

SUNDAY @ NOON EST ON CBS: SUPERCROSS FROM ATLANTA

Also, you can tune into the SupercrossLIVE webcast with Jason Weigandt and Jim Holley and keep track of results and lap times on AMA @ The Wire.

Jay Moore passed along this cool video from Factory Connection Canada’s Revalved TV. It’s our product consultant, McCullough, testing suspension with FCC in Quebec. The old man actually looks pretty quick in the sand.

Destroyer Films has a new slideshow up on their website, www.destroyerfilms.com. The DF lads have a great for still shots too. “We put up a slideshow from our road trip this summer.  It's a little late but I think you'll like it … especially the wicked guitar pickin’ that goes along with it [laughs].”

The Eastern Amateur National Motocross Championships website is up and running at www.eanmc.com. The Eastern Amateur National, to be held at Sand Del Lee in Munster, Ontario, kicks off from July 2-5. MX101 is expecting to draw riders from the Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Regions, as well as Quebec, the Atlantic Region, and New York. We’re excited to see another amateur national added to the schedule, and what better facility than SDL. The crew there, led by Kevin Tyler, Steve Dool and Johnny Grant have done an amazing job updating the track, parking area, and overall appearance of the whole place.
 
We caught up with Blair Morgan Racing’s Iain Hayden and Blair Morgan for this week’s 2 Tribes. The duo was in Valcourt, Quebec last weekend and were looking to finally find some good luck, especially since they were in Bombardier’s backyard. Unfortunately, things didn’t go much better. Morgan was the top finisher with a sixth in Pro Open and ninth in Super Stock; Brett Turcotte finished behind Morgan in both finals.

“We’ve had better; we’ve struggled all year with equipment being number one,” said Hayden on the weekend. Like Morgan, the Espanola native is looking forward to getting back to the dirt. “I’ve been talking to Andy [White] and he came over to the race in Valcourt. As always, he’ll fix me up some bikes and stuff. I’ve been with them for a long time. I like riding them and get along with everyone.”

Well, that’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Oh, remember to click on www.royaldistributing.com for your chance to win a 2009 KTM 250 SX-F! It’s a lot cheaper than buying a bike.