By Danny Brault

It’s no secret that we’re going through tough times, not just in motocross, but also all over the world. The economy is slowing down and business is hurting. Motocross is not protected from this recession. It’s very much a reality in our sport right now. Teams’ budgets are being cut, dealers are losing support rides, and marketing departments are cutting back. Basically, we’re all tightening up trying to avoid a big sting.

During the last month or two, we’ve heard that top-10 riders such as Simon Homans, Marco Dubé, and Kyle Keast will not receive the support they deserve, not because no one wants to give them, but because there just aren’t enough jobs for the work force. Fortunately, a few new players have stepped in to support the sport and Canadian racers in the last month, to offset the scale.

KTM dealers, Orange Motorsports (Cobourg, ON) and RTR Performance (Kamloops, BC) are supporting the MX2 team of Ryan Millar, Kirk Haws, and Kris Foster. Orange is also helping out women’s racer Kristina Sundal for the CMRC Ontario Provincials and Women’s National Series. You can read an interview with Sundal right here.

Leading Edge Kawasaki, also out of Kamloops, is joining the MX2 fray as well. “With the new coast to coast format of the MX2 class this year, I felt I either needed to step up my program and contest the entire series or not race at all,” says owner, Jason Hughes in the press release. “Luckily, Kawasaki Canada stepped up huge and we had some great sponsors like Parts Canada and Monster Energy come on board that allowed us to create this new, improved team. We went out and bought a semi rig, got some great people involved and I think we’ve got some real contenders for the championship.”

Hughes is right in saying they have championship contenders. They’ve hired on proven winners, Teddy Maier and Nick Evennou, and will back BC kid Brock Hoyer again. Maier won motos and finished second overall in the 2006 MX2 West series for Richmond Racing Kawasaki, and Evennou won a moto and overall in Moncton last year with Team Toyota Yamaha/BlackfootDirect.com/Fox Racing. Hoyer is one of Canada’s brightest up and comers, finishing top-10 overall the last two seasons in the West.

It’s great to see the new MX2 series filling up; we now have five teams and 11 riders running the entire nine rounds: Royal Distributing KTM (3), Blackfoot Yamaha (1), Suzuki OTSFF/Rockstar (1), Leading Edge Kawi (3), and RTR Performance/Orange (3).

Where did that third rider come from at KTM? Well, the press release was issued yesterday: Ryan Lockhart is back on orange. The Newf actually captured KTM’s first national victory on his KTM 125 SX back in `03 in Deschambault. If he can regain his heart and do-whatever-it-takes attitude, I believe Lockhart can be a real contender in MX2. We may even see him at the Toronto WSXGP along with Yamaha’s Kyle Beaton who told me yesterday he’s racing Toronto.

Another rider joining the ranks of the unemployed is Pierce Chamberlain. He raced the entire MX1 series last year, finishing 12th in the series and earning national #15. Unfortunately, with budgets being slashed, Chamberlain (along with Homans and Beaton) has been left without support from Yamaha Canada. He sent this note along:

How are things going? I just wanted to ask you if you have heard of anyone looking for a rider for this season? I have had no luck so far getting any support, like many others. If you hear of anything please keep me in mind or maybe spread the word for me if you get a chance. Oh, yeah, I am leaving for South Carolina for six weeks to ride and train. It’s going to be great; I am staying with this really cool family and there are a ton of tracks there to ride at. My `07 race 450 might be my only bike this year if nothing works out [laughs]. I will do what I have to do I guess!

If anyone out there would like to help Chamberlain, please email me at dannyb@racerxcanada.com and I’ll be sure he gets in touch with you.

The nationals aren’t going to get any cheaper either. After reading the 2008 CMRC Pro Rider Package, I see that we’ll now have to pay for our transponders. The series will run AMB transponders, which attach to the fork tube, and they cost $240, or you can rent one each round for $35. I believe these new transponders work much better than the old boot ones, so hopefully we won’t see any timing issues this year.

The East Coast portion of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series kicked off last Saturday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Canada had two riders to cheer for, with Cernic’s Kawasaki’s Dusty Klatt racing the 450 class and Suzuki City/OTSFF’s Tyler Medaglia making his debut in the Lites class. Following Klatt’s 16th in Houston, many—including himself—figured he would move up a few spots in Atlanta. My prediction was a 12th. The rutted soil in Georgia proved too much for Klatt, as he struggled to put laps together during day qualifying. He managed to get good starts in his heat and the LCQ, but fell back in both. He was 13th in his heat and fourth in the LCQ—one spot ahead of Travis Preston.

Medaglia ran the 22nd qualifying time, respectively, to make the Lites night show. His night slowly fell apart, along with his bike. “[Sigh]…. I had the crappiest luck,” says Medaglia. “When we got there—I had done some testing on the bike during the week—everyone was getting dressed  and I saw something leaking from my bike. My kit shock was blown!”

“So we took it off and there was a brand new one put on and it wasn’t set up for me. I had a decent lap time but I know it should have been way better. Then the AMA did a random sound test on us, and they wouldn’t let us run without inserts. We put the insert in, and then on the line something happened. It was making a funny noise and then I took off and we don’t know what happened, but it had no power. Everyone thought it was the insert, but Nick figured it out and I’m riding it today.”

The Atlanta track was designed by Monster Energy Kawasaki’s James Stewart, and looked a bit awkward to me, with several 180 corners and dirt-walls. It seemed that the riders weren’t flowing, but Medaglia says he didn’t mind it. “It was good. I liked it; I had fun. To do the main rhythm sections weren’t too tricky, but the walls were kind of weird, just coming up to a straight-up wall.”

Despite my complaints about flowing on the track, it definitely produced great racing—which was Stewart’s goal—especially in the 450 class, which has been a sleeper since Stewart left.

Medaglia added that he’s excited to get onto his Rm-Z450 next week. “I’ve been riding a million laps on these supercross tracks, so I’m looking forward to get on the 450. I am so happy.”

Besides watching our boys lap times, I managed to catch Sunday’s coverage of the Supercross class on CBS. As everyone knows by now, Team Honda Red Bull Racing’s Davi Millsaps scored his first ever big bike supercross win. Millsaps took over the lead when Chad Reed endoed over a step-up early in the race. Reed was slow to his feet, and could only get back up to sixth. His lead over Windham, who finished second, dwindled slightly to 25-points. Tim Ferry sits third with 137 points, but he will miss Indy this weekend because of bruised ribs and pancreas that he suffered practicing this week. Ferry has been riding well, and he and Andrew Short put on quite the show in the final laps at Atlanta. First Ferry came into Short, and then Short struck back with a blatant block pass heading into the whoops. It was also cool to see San Manuel Yamaha’s Nathan Ramsey running third before finishing fifth. He sits sixth in points, ahead of Josh Hill, Nick Wey, and David Vuillemin.

While we didn’t have anyone actually at the race, Steve Matthes did a pretty good job transcribing what went down listening to the SupercrossLIVE Webcast. Read it here.

Are you getting Amp’d … I mean, Monster’ed for the Toronto World Supercross GP on March 29?!? We sure are. In fact, we’ve already reserved The Loose Moose Bar and Grill for another Pre-Race Social. Give’er time is 7 p.m. We’ll have MX videos playing, the whole place will be decked out in moto-décor, and we’re working on some creative ideas to get everyone revved up for SX in Canada. The Loose Moose isn’t hard to find; it’s on the north side of Front St. across from the Rogers Centre. And, as always, everyone is welcome—because it’s not a party unless everyone is invited!

Set your TV timer to Speed tomorrow @ 6 PM EST for SX Lites coverage from Atlanta, and tune into Supercross racing from Indy Sunday at 6PM EST on Speed.

We lost another track this week. It spears that a few folks in Kelowna, BC can’t live with three days of noise: click here to learn more

A job opportunity popped into my Inbox yesterday. Mike Clark, owner of MCExtreme, has been changing tires at event throughout Southwestern Ontario the last two years, but wants to focus on the shop this summer.

“I’m getting out of the track side support and I was thinking there may be someone that would want the package deal—trailer, tire machine, compressor, and generator. I would be willing to supply them with product for the season. We are putting all our efforts into the store this year. Here are some specs on the trailer:

2004 26ft Pace V-nose Vendor Trailer. Factory Options: glass counters, stainless tops, and double side door display.”
 
Thanks, Mike

If anyone’s interested, please contact Mike at mcextreme@bellnet.ca
 
Canadians invaded London last weekend for the final round of the Future West British Supercross Series. Kyle Beaton walked away with the Open win over Mike Brown, and Colton Facciotti and JSR went two-three in the Lites main event. Other Canucks in the mix were Coleton McLean, Kris Foster, and Brock Hoyer. JP O’Connell was there on Racer X’s behalf and sent along this great report and photos.

Another contributor, Stefan Paetow, checked in with KD Beets for this 5 mins with …

RXC: Welcome back to England!
Kyle Beaton: It feels good to be back over here and putting on a good show for all the British.

What have you been up to?
Just been racing West Coast supercross; I did four rounds and managed to qualified for two, so it was a good learning experience. I've just been in California and been training my butt off and trying to get ready for the season.

Are you going back to the West Coast when the racing goes back there or are you staying in Canada?
I drove home just before this race, and the next West Coast round is Seattle, which is just a four-hour drive from my home. So I'll do that and hopefully the Toronto World Supercross round, and hopefully I'll have something put together for the Nationals, and race those. If not, I might race the Outdoor Nationals in the U.S.

You haven't been to the UK in the last few years, where have you been?
Last year I just moved to California for six months. I didn't want to worry about any of the indoor stuff, just wanted to concentrate on the outdoors, just did a lot of testing and concentrated on preparing for the outdoor nationals. And this year I've just been in California. I've been there since New Year's, just plugging away and trying to get some supercross time. Since there is no West Coast supercross this weekend in America I decided to come over here and hang out with everyone over here and see everyone again. It felt good.

You certainly looked good out there, are you happy with tonight then?
Yeah, it was good. You know, I rode really well in the qualifiers, and I think I proved to a lot of people that I'm riding really well. I'm full of confidence right now and the West Coast Supercross series definitely helped me reach that next level.

See, I was about to ask you that question next [laughs].
[Laughs] It's a lot tighter out here; it's a bit of a different style but Dirt Wurx builds the track in the US and they build it here. They are technical but not as technical as supercross. I've just been riding lots and that's the main thing: riding lots of supercross and riding with a lot of fast guys. It just raises your confidence level so much.

What did you think of London then?
It's cool. We did a bit of sightseeing yesterday, we went up on that Ferris wheel bubble thing [The London Eye]. That was too high for me; I'm scared of heights that high! London was cool, there was a good crowd here this weekend, they cheer loud and I could hear them while I was riding. It felt awesome to get that win [Pro Open].

If that’s not enough KD Beets for you, then listen to his Podcast with Steve Matthes.

This helmet is the new JSR helmet for his film he’s working on. He will run this helmet this winter (Dubai) and he will run this helmet in 2008. Also Coors light is a new sponsor for the movie by Felix Trepanier. We all know that JSR is not happy to put a #5 on his helmet so I told him, ‘Hey! It's not the number 5, it’s your championship count!’ That’s why I put victory leaf behind the five, and I also put a crown with his championship year on the back, and the V on the top is for victory! lt seems that 2008 will be the retirement year of JSR, so, for myself, I think this helmet is a sort of tribute.
 

That’s all we’ve got 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!