Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
MARCH 21, 2008 By Danny Brault


One more week, folks, and we’ll be hanging out at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, watching the best supercross riders in the world battling for supremacy in the Monster Energy Supercross Series FIM World Championship!

To kick things off, Live Nation is offering a ticket discount for Gold level seating. Follow this link to purchase four $40 Gold seats for $100 ($25 each) and you will save $60! Enter the promotional code 4PACK.

Let’s pack the Rogers Centre and show the world how much Canada loves supercross! We want these events to keep coming back!

And don’t forget to slip into The Loose Moose next Friday March 28 between 7PM and 2AM to enjoy some bench racing and cold ones at the Racer X Canada Pre-Race Party. Everyone’s welcome to come hang out—and don’t worry, there won’t be any shirt ripping or shirtless antics. (I’m a changed man and Ryan Lockhart will be getting good night’s rest for the race.)

You can watch the final lap of Josh Hill's first SX win, by clicking on the link below.

photo: Doug Engstrom

During the night, we’ll also pick a winner from our GoPro Helmet Hero Camera contest. Ryekasport has been generous to award one person with a GoPro Helmet Cam (the same one Josh Hill wore during his Minneapolis win). All you need to do to enter is email me (dannyb@racerxcanada.com) one 30-second video clip of yourself, someone else, or something involving dirt bikes. Heck, it can be anything—but we’re going to pick the most entertaining and creative video once all of the submissions are in. Remember, next Friday is the deadline, so start filming now!

Also, check out this link to watch footage from Hill’s win, a heat race battle with Reed and Millsaps, and Broc Hepler on the Yamaha test track. To learn more about the GoPro Camera, go here. Royal Distributing (1.800.265.2970) has the GoPro camera in stock right now.

Cernic’s Kawasaki’s Dusty Klatt hasn’t had the season he or anyone else expected thus far in supercross. It obviously didn’t help that Klatt hurt his shoulder and collarbone three weeks before the series opener, but with five races under his belt and a 13th as his best finish (in the mud of Daytona), it’s well below what he’s capable of. Klatt is missing that aggression we saw so many times on a Blackfoot 450, and is struggling to make into main events. Granted he put in one heck of an effort in the mudbath at Daytona, but the next weekend in Minny, he just snuck through the LCQ after two riders crashed. I’m sure Klatt isn’t satisfied with his results so far, and neither is his team.

I caught up with Cernic’s team manager, Derek Sorenson, to get his take on Klatt—and Gibson’s—performance so far. It’s a pretty candid interview, and Sorenson doesn’t hold back. He admits, though, that he’s not only frustrated as a team manager, but as a Dusty Klatt fan as well.

Who knows, maybe next weekend when the series visits his home and native land, Klatt will turn things around and give’er!

Dusty Klatt's not the only one frustrated with his supercross results - his fans are upset too. Everything from his confidence to hair style to fan accessibility has been a topic of discussion this year.

photo: Engstrom

Congrats to Suzuki City/OTSFF/Rockstar’s Tyler Medaglia for qualifying for his first Supercross Lites main event in Minneapolis! I know TM was getting impatient with how things were going through the first three races, so he has to feel relieved now. Like Kyle Beaton, TM now has Conky off his back, he knows what he needs to do to qualify, and he can start shooting for better results in the main. Read his 5 mins with to find out just how his weekend went.

Medaglia’s another rider looking to impress in front of his local fans. With his sixth-place finish in Toronto last December, Montreal SX win, and racing this winter, TM should be a podium (and top Canadian) contender. Tyler’s younger brother, Jeremy, is on the Lites entry list but he said in an interview this week that he won’t be racing.

“We were thinking about it and I was going to get a new practice bike because my bike is getting a little tired,” says Jeremy. “I wasn’t going to start riding supercross until I got the new bike, because I didn’t want to take a chance of something happening on the jumps. I didn’t get the new bike when we planned to, like two weeks ago. I just got it two days ago so I don’t think I have enough time to get ready. I had a talk with Andre [Laurin] from Suzuki and he thinks it’s best if I hold off and continue preparing for the outdoors because, really, there’s not much point in me doing Toronto.”

Click here for the Lites and KTM Junior SX Challenge entry lists.

Brady Sheren and Kyle Beaton are flying in for Toronto. Sheren will be racing Jimmy Albertson’s Suzuki City/OTSFF RM-Z250 and Beaton’s getting support from Don Valley North Toyota MX. This marks the return to SX for DVN, as they sponsored Damon Bradshaw when he won the 1988 CNE Supercross. Stop by the dealership and ask when Kevin Moore is making a comeback!

In last week’s Update, I wrote about the muddiest races I’ve ever saw, and Moto Park’s Carl Bastedo added a few of his own.

“I'm amazed no one told you about the 1980 Toronto Supercross and the 1981 (?) Atlanta Supercross. Those where the two worst I remember.

Jeff Ward’s mechanic, Bevo Forte, lifting race winner, Donnie Cantaloupi out of the clay to take the race-shortened win in Toronto was priceless! I think he was the only rider still moving. The 81 Atlanta event didn't have the bogging clay Toronto did but it was just a sea of mud and water.”

Thanks for the history lesson, Carl! Sorry for leaving those out, but I wasn’t even born until `83!

Speaking of the Daytona mud, some were upset to see Blackfoot’s Colton Facciotti opt out of the night show after qualifying 24th. As a fan, as I was saddened too, since I would love to see Facciotti in the Supercross mix. It wasn’t Colton’s decision, however, says BF’s race director, Joe Skidd.

“For the record, it was my final decision to not allow Colt to ride the Daytona night show. Colt, being a racer and a very cooperative TEAM member, would have done whatever was asked of him that day.
 
“Being 24th fastest (faster than some seeded riders) with only 8 laps on the track (3 without goggles), I'm sure he would have done well provided the following:

1) Nobody landed on him while attempting jumps with take off ramps resembling greased glass.
2) His bike did not get submerged while choosing mystery lines through 3 feet of standing water.
3) He did not get struck by lightening.
 
All of which were clear and present dangers; safety first on this team.

“For sure, [as a fan] I would have liked to see that too, but not at all cost if you know what I mean. At some point the brain needs to override instinct or whatever you want to call the need to compete …
 
If there is "blame" out there in the MX world for Colt not riding, the blame is entirely mine, not Colt's.”

Thanks for the explanation, Joe. We’re looking forward to seeing you, Colton and the entire team in Ste-Julie!

Steve Matthes has been showing his buddy Fireman Ron around SoCal this week. Here’s what they got into …

Thanks Danny, and for the first time since the first week of January, there is no Supercross this weekend and for that I say, Thank God! I'm enjoying my weekend off with my buddy Ron. Ron is from Victoria and came down to hang with me, you might even say we're buddies. Ron is a serious racer back home and decided to stock up on everything he could possibly need for his assault on the Vet class in BC. So that meant me calling in some favors and getting Ron some deals. So he has a bike, tires, oil, kit suspension, chains, sprockets, tubes, graphics, gear, and boots to get him through the season.
 
This also meant a road trip to SoCal and some riding. We first went to Enzo Racing (who is my suspension company of choice, btw) and Ron bought some forks and shock! Then we drove down to Maxima to get some oil and have lunch with none other than Ron's late teens hero, Ron "The Dogger" Lechien. The Dogger hooked him up and told us some great stories in the process. His dad’s office at Maxima has a ton of old helmets and win ads and such so it was a trip down memory lane for Ron. Then we went for lunch and Maxima paid (thanks Danny!) and we heard some more good ones about RJ and the 1984 250 title chase. Ron wanted a picture with the Dogger to comemorate the day and here it is...

Ron and Ron at Maxima Oils. Try and guess which one is the legend?

photo: Steve Matthes

 
After that it was riding at Milestone MX Park and we had a great time there moto-ing down. Yesterday we went to Perris and rode and look who we ran into...

Wow! Is that a Cudby? Nope, that's an official Matthes print of the Sher-Dog!

photo: Matthes

 
Brady Sheren was in the house and looking pretty good. We chatted about his '08 Canadian national plans. He was there with his new coach Donnie Hansen (who for some reason had a construction vest on) and Donnie looked like he was kicking Brady's ass, which is what Sheren needs. He needs to get hit with a stick on his knuckles, right before he goes to the gate. Get'em mad!
 
It was funny; I was riding and came up to this wall on the track followed by a double. I thought to myself that it was cool that the designers put a wall up, just like the SX's have had lately. Then Brady came around and launched off of it and landed on the downside of the double, wayyyyy down there. So much for the wall. Riding with the fast guys makes you realize how good they are, y'know? I didn’t jump it btw, although I did air everything else out on the track on my Kawasaki/Enzo/Moose Racing/Pro Circuit/Renthal/Maxima/Michelin machine. YES! More free stuff with that mention.

Tim Ferry is still riding himself back into shape, but rather than sit at home, he helped out Weege and Holley with the webcast. Look how nervous Villopoto is taking the mic from Red Dog.

photo: Engstrom

 
After that we stopped by Pro Circuit and I gave Ron the VIP tour of the place and he thought that was pretty cool. John Mitcheff was building RV a 450 for practice, we chatted about that and RV's wrist and last race. You could really tell I didn’t work on the PC race team as you could eat off the floors it was so clean.
 
Today we are going to Mesquite, UT as they have a pretty sweet track there. Ron is a riding machine and is whipping me into shape like Apollo did with Rocky in the third one.
 
You might recall in my Observations from Minneapolis I asked for everybody to submit a vote for the next podcast guest. Well, Danbro never changed the Machine Racing poll to reflect my question like he said he was going to so we'll leave the voting open. So far this is what it looks like:

Damon Bradshaw -18 (I got his digits a few weeks ago and he knew the show)
Rollerball - 12 (The Rollerball people are very adamant about this)
Davey Coombs - 9 (Lots of "Ask him about TFS please")
Bunny the Donkey - 7 (It will be hard, but if anyone can get a word or two, its me!)
John Nelson - 5  (Please no one tell him he's losing to a donkey)
Jason Wiegandt - 0  (HAHAHAAHHAHAHAH)
 
I professed my love for Journey in my last Observations column and I didn’t appreciate the hate mail that I got from you people. I thought I could counter-act that with this letter from a true moto-celebrity—we seriously need to get a Journey buzz going. We need a political action campaign. We need a rally. The band is quickly sinking into a gray (not black) whole where today's kids don't know which 80s band is which, and hence Journey is being lumped in and confused with many inferior bands of the same era. This is like Back to the Future, if we let the memory slip too far than they will disappear from the picture altogether and the world will forget they ever existed.

Here's the problem. At least three times during the 2008 calendar year (not even 25 percent complete yet), I've heard someone confuse Journey with Foreigner. Yes, the bands may come from the same "genre," but that's where the comparisons end, and in fact, you could argue that the comparison ended before it even began because in reality there is NO COMPARISON between Journey and Foreigner.

In motocross terms, Foreigner would be like the fast, stylish guy at your local track, while Journey is the smooth, fast, stylish pro who is dominating the AMA Nationals. Same style yes, but they're not even close to equals in effectiveness. Confusing the two would be like someone saying, "Yeah, I remember Jeff Mataisevich, he's one of the all-time greats. Or am I thinking of Jeff Ward? Man, I don't remember which was which."

We need to get those old Journey songs back out there so everyone will remember how awesome those guys were.

And while you're taking votes for the podcast, kill two birds with one stone and get Josh Hill on there. He actually went to a Foreigner concert and thinks the band is awesome. Get him on the show and then educate the young man (and the listeners) on the air. And I sure hope no one votes for me.
 
Wow, Matthes, thanks for whatever that was.

Jeremy Albrecht is the newest guest on Matthes' Shift Racing Podcast Show.

Billy Rainford informed us of an interesting post on www.mxforum.com. We contacted Frazier to see what these “Shannonville test riders” are for.

“I am building a new section on the MX track and I am also planning on changing a few things for the season so I want some riders at the track so they can test the jumps to make sure that they are the right lips and landings. I do have a really good idea as to what is changing but I would be open to suggestions from the riders so that is another reason that I want them there when the upgrades get done.”

If you’re interested in helping out Frazier redesign the Shannonville track (located just east of Belleville), send him an email to frazier@shannonvillemx.com.

I think is a great initiative by Frazier and the Shannonville facility. Everyone knows how much us riders like to "whine" when there's something goofy, one lined or unsafe on a track. By having a few riders of varying abilities "test" a track, I'm sure it would help create a track everyone enjoys.

Throttle Jockey has started a channel on You Tube. Their first film, of many more to come, is of the Blackfoot Yamaha team. http://www.youtube.com/user/GLAB1986

Don’t forget to tune into SX Lites action tomorrow at 6 PM EST on Speed!

Have a fun and safe Easter weekend! Thanks for reading!

Machine Racing Honda's Kyle Keast is prepared for the Toronto SX. He's been working 60-hours a week, kinda going to the gym, and the only thing keeping him going are is Tim Horton's double-doubles and Tim Bits.

photo: Johnny Silegren