Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
MARCH 14, 2008 By Danny Brault


Old Mother Nature is a bitter old gal at times, isn’t she? But I don’t think bitter really sums up the weather she presented to the Daytona Supercross by Honda.

While 99 percent of the racers in Daytona were hating life, a few of them had to be smiling, like Canada’s own Dusty Klatt who holeshot his heat race, led some laps, won his LCQ, ran fourth in the main, and finished 13th for his best result yet; or privateer Jacob Marsack who finished third for his first ever AMA Supercross podium; or what about Torco Oils Honda’s Kevin Windham? K-Dub had to be smiling when he came around on the last lap to see Chad Reed’s bike giving up the ghost as he went on for his second win of the year.

Whether you were watching the race on TV or in person, I’m sure everyone was thinking Daytona `08 might just be the muddiest supercross, or race, ever. www.racerxill.com even posted their feature from their October 2000 issue titled “The Great Mud Debate,” to get some chatter going.

So what was the muddiest race ever? Well, a few notables that come to mind, for me, include the 2003 World Supercross GP in Seville, Spain, which was won by Kiwi Daryl Hurley; Walton 2001 when we were plagued with rain from the first amateur moto to the final pro moto on Sunday (that was where Chuck Mesley flipped his bike across the finish); and I’ll never forget that crazy day in Morden, Manitoba last summer.

As Ricky Carmichael said, Daytona may not have been the muddiest, but it was certainly the wettest SX ever. I’ve never seen so much standing water; it felt like I was watching a mud bog at Gopher Dunes, minus the red necks and Chevys. I stand firm that Morden is the worst that I’ve ever ridden or seen.

Daytona 2008 will go down as one of the muddiest supercross races ever.

photo: Simon Cudby

I’m really surprised we haven’t seen Suzuki City/OTSFF/Rockstar’s Tyler Medaglia in a Lites main event yet. Medaglia is putting in great lap times every weekend, but he just can’t slip through the qualifiers. In Daytona, he was just shy of making the final, finishing 11th in his heat and seventh in the LCQ behind Kyle Chisholm and Tyler Bowers.

It’s too bad the track was flooded, because I think RC’s track design would have offered up some good racing. It seemed to flow better than previous years, and the riders could really keep their speed up. It’s too bad the GOAT didn’t dust off his old RM250 two-stroke—he probably would have won the thing!

Reed’s been strong in the muddy conditions this year, winning A1 and coming within three corners of winning Daytona. The Yamaha rider was still going for the finish line double in the final laps, even though he had a huge gap over Windham, and was not willing to settle for second when the two riders were battling back and forth earlier in the main. I did think a few of Reed’s “short cuts” were a little unnecessary, and the AMA was right to dock him a position.

Team Toyota Yamaha/BlackfootDirect.com/Fox Racing’s Colton Facciotti kept his eligibility for supercross 2009 by qualifying 24th for the night show. Unfortunately, Facciotti called it quits when the rain hit. Apparently, he didn’t want to risk injury just to slop around in the muck so he packed it in. It’s too bad, as Facciotti has some serious mud riding skills. In fact, I believe the first supercross he qualified for in 2006 at San Fran was a mudder.

Steve Matthes was in Daytona … for a bit. The guy has no problem giving Canadian riders crap for not racing in the mud, yet he can’t even stick around to watch a race. Even though Matthes watched the main events from Tim Ferry’s couch, he still managed to write one of this funniest Obs this year. Check it out here.

Two weeks ago we ran a start shot photo for In The Moment of the MX2 class in Regina in 2003. We had a few readers take a stab at who was in the shot and Terry Hoffman offered this bit of moto-history:

"It's a ‘sea of blue’ at the start because Yamaha was the first to come out with the 250F and everyone else on the 125cc's were left in the DUST on the start. Blackfoot Honda had an `04 250F at the Calgary round in 2003 (but the ignition was removed so it was just a show bike). Ah yes, the death of the two-stroke... However, note that KD Beets is almost pulling the holeshots on the inside on a YZ125er!”

Good point, Terry. In my own personal racing experience, I remember pulling holeshots all the time in `01 to `03 on my 250F, and then, everyone moved over to the 250Fs and my starting prowess quickly faded; I went from a guy who started up front and went backwards, to a rider who simply went backwards … and backwards.

The Lites entry list for the Toronto World Supercross GP has been posted. It’s lacking at the moment, but a few talented Canadians are already signed up.

34 - Jeremy Medaglia, Kemptville, ON - Suzuki
38 - Kyle Keast, Lindsay, ON - Honda
56 - Shaun Skinner, Stuart, FL - Honda
58 - Kyle Cunningham, Fort Worth, TX - Honda
71 - Kyle Keylon, Brooksville, FL - Honda
86 - Michael Willard, Thornville, OH - Honda
109 - Matt Boni, Oviedo, FL - Honda
134 - Kyle Beaton, Surrey, BC - Yamaha
151 - Pierce Chamberlain, Puslinch, ON
186 - Broc Shury, North Battleford, SK - Suzuki
351 - Shane M Sewell, Westville, IN - Kawasaki
395 - Benjamin Ritter, St.Marys, PA - Suzuki
404 - Tyler Medaglia, Kemptville, ON - Suzuki
478 - Bret Loomis, Silver Springs, FL - Kawasaki
520 - Tony Gallo, Valley City, OH - Suzuki
566 - Logan Martin, Fairmont, WV - Honda
611 - Brady Sheren, Surrey, BC - Suzuki
927 - Travis Sewell, Westville, IN - Suzuki

Royal Distributing KTM’s Ryan Lockhart isn’t on the list, but he says his entry was sent in. “I had the track in Lethbridge dialed, so I should be okay,” he joked.

Chuck Mesley was planning to race Toronto as well, but Machine Racing is unable to provide him with a bike and he doesn’t want to lineup for a full-on supercross without some seat time on an actual “supercross” track. The Mez actually had a few interesting and funny comments this week in his My Take. I’ve also heard that Mesley is trying to find a deal with Chris Morgan’s Honda team, if they’re having one.

Even though he has yet to find support for `08, Pierce Chamberlain will still race the Lites class in Toronto on a borrowed YZ250F. Pico’s staying at Bob Preiss’ place in South Carolina at the moment, working hard to get in shape and up to speed after working all winter. His dad, Bill, tells me Pico might even work with Billy Liles, one of the original Team Green riders from 1982. (Liles was also the 250 AMA Rookie of the Year, after winning the Lake Whitney national, and he finished third in the 1992 500cc World Motocross Championships.) Chamberlain was hooked up with these contacts through vintage racer, Oscar Gaeten. If nothing comes to fruition, Chamberlain might just race his `07 YZ450F in the CMRC Ontario Provincials and select Canadian and American nationals.

Pierce Chamberlain is signed up for the Lites class in Toronto.

photo: Allison Kennedy

Destroyer Films picked a winner in their Go Pro Helmet Contest. Check out www.destroyerfilms.com to see who won, and be sure to tour around their new site. They have a cool archive section with all of the Ignition Racing/RXC Factory Rider for a Day videos, and you can watch a pretty cool promo they did for KTM here.

Jeff Northrop is using the break in the West Coast Lites schedule to get comfortable on his new KTM 450 SX-F. Norcal says the bike is working awesome, but he seemed more pumped on his “rock star” video on Racer X Films than anything else. The video features Norcal, Billy Payne, and Eric McCrummon of the Scarlett Vision Media Honda Team. Canadians Johnny Montes and Spencer Knowles are keeping Norcal company, as they’re preparing for the Canadian season. 

Derek Schuster finally figured out how to work his iMac, and with some help from our editor JTG and our web designer, Mike Almond, he cleaned up the www.gopherdunes.com website. Good job, Digger!

Blackfoot’s Dean Thompson informed me this week that JSR, Facciotti and Blair Morgan will be guests on CBC’s Test The Nation show. Yamaha Canada’s Bryan Hudgin sent us the details:

Martin from CBC contacted me, asking about any snocrossers I might be able to hook him up with for his show Test the Nation. The premise was that they wanted action sports stars to compete against average Canadians in these quizzes that they administer.  I said we didn't have a pro snocross team in Canada but if they were looking for the original extreme sport—professional motocross—they had come to the right place, with 5 time champ JSR, 2 time (I think) champ Blair Morgan and last year's second place finisher, Colton Facciotti.

Anyway, I called Dean Thompson and asked him to get in touch with the guys, see if they were available. The show was being shot on the 28th and they were all going to be in town for the TO SX on the 29th. I put Martin in touch with Dean and he put him in touch with JSR, Colt and Blair. Martin wanted to have some different age groups present and I thought the veterans JSR and Morgan as well as the kid Facciotti were a great sample.

I know JSR and Colt are planning on going and I think Blair is too so it should be a great representation of Canadian Motocross!

For more info on the show, check out http://www.cbc.ca/testthenation/

Jolene Van Vugt is now a high-flying FMX queen. She just returned from Vienna, Austria where she competed in her first FMX show. While Van Vugt’s known for her backflipping abilities, Vienna was the first time she jumped indoors. Follow this link for more.

Jolene Van Vugt takes flight at an FMX show in Vienna, Austria.

stevedensmore@industryonly.com

A few Canadian kids are kicking butt down at the AMA Parts Unlimited Spring Classic in Lake Whitney, TX. Team Green Xtreme’s Dean Wilson is on fire, despite just coming off a dislocated hip. Wilson won his Motocross B Stock moto, finished second in his Lites B Stock qualifier, and Motocross B Mod. Other notable results include Cernic’s Suzuki’s Cole Thompson second (to Eli Tomac) in his 85cc 14-15 Mod qualifier, and Gaerne Bronze Boot winner Dylan Kaelin’s seventh in his MX Lites B stock heat. To view full results, go to http://lw2008.tracksideonlineresults.com/

That's all for this week, folks. Thanks for reading!