Hello, and welcome to the Frid’Eh Update. This week’s edition comes from the office of former Factory Yamaha Canada rider, Scott Lockhart. That’s right, I’m at the home of the Lockharts in Springhill, Nova Scotia! This is where the story all began: first with Scott and then Ryan, and now the youngest Lockhart, Brad, is well on his way to carrying on the family’s tradition of moto stardom.

 

The Maritimes have a rich history with motocross, and we’re in town this weekend to catch a piece of it as Richard Strang and crew have organized the Josh Damery Arenacross in the small town of Sackville, New Brunswick. There’s a decent rider turnout so far and a few locals even took in the pre-race action from the stands. For a backyard arenacross, the track is impressive and should provide good racing in all classes. The favourite in the pro class has to be the Newf, but Davey Fraser looks quick, too. If Fraser can calm down and keep it on two wheels, we might have ourselves a race. Stay tuned for updates over the weekend.

 

While we’re on the subject of Maritimers, I had a chance to speak with one of their favourite sons, Mitch Cooke, on Monday. Cooke had just returned from his six-month stay in Dubai, where he once again ate sand, hung out in palaces, and played hide and seek with monkeys and cheetahs. Read his 5 mins with … for more info on his winter training adventure. It doesn’t look like the Suzuki rider will be joining us in Sackville this weekend, sorry to say. But look for the H.A.F. rider at the first local race in Clyde River, NS on May 4.

The Sackville AX track is on par with most AMA Arenacross layouts. Lockhart and Fraser are the only two going triple-double through the rhythm section.

Little Newf, Brad Lockhart, will take on his big bro and the rest of pro gang tomorrow night.

Ryan Lockhart and Richard Strang have put a lot of effort into the track. Strang has a big passion for motocross, and he's basically taking on this whole event himself, with the help of friends, of course.

There's no shortage of technicality, as Davey Fraser demonstrates.

photos: Danny Brault

 

I’m disappointed in myself for not making it out to the Detroit SX last Saturday. I really don’t have any excuses for not showing. Fortunately, RXC had a presence (not sure of the calibre, however) with Dan Stenning and Steve Matthes, and our newest contributor, Billy Rainford, tagged along. Todd Kuli was there too, and he's a semi-representive for RXC as well; he’s provided a few articles along the way. BTW, Todd, when are we going to see that new Unruly with Kuli column?

 

I really didn’t think I would miss anything in Motown, as The Chad looked stronger than ever following a convincing win in Dallas, and Ryan Villopoto is back in top form. Boy, was I wrong; Ford Field turned into train wreck. First, there was Reed’s big get-off in practice that left him gurgling blood and sent him to the hospital. Somehow, the two-two was deemed okay to race and he made it back in time for his heat race. Two laps in, however, Reed rode off the track, grabbed his mechanic, and headed back to the San Manuel rig. The tough Australian once again fought through the pain of a broken scapula, separated shoulder, and chest trauma (my sources say those are his injuries), and used his provisional to race the Supercross main event. Reed didn’t go out and surprise everyone with a holeshot and podium (like he did at A1 last year when he was hurt), but he rode well enough to finish 12^th and maintain a 16-point lead over Kevin Windham in the series.

 

Reed’s misfortune opened the door for someone else to step through for a win. And that rider was Honda Red Bull’s Davi Millsaps. The Georgian now has two wins this season and sits third behind Windham in the series. Who finished second? Tim Ferry! It was nice to see the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider on the box for the first time since Houston two months ago, but it also meant we’d have to listen to Steve Matthes go on and on about how amazing Ferry rode. Matthes even managed to sneak a 5 mins with … Ferry up on racerxill.com. Ferry did ride well, though, and I’m happy to see the #15 take second. I wonder when Matthes will enlighten us with the full list of who his second favourite riders are?

 

The action didn’t stop there. After winning the first three rounds of the East Coast Lites series, Torco Oils Honda’s Trey Canard had a solid grip on the championship. It was big surprise for the rookie, as Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto was the obvious favourite, but he was suffering from a wrist injury and limited seat time. After a miserable start to the series with a DNF in Atlanta, RV2 went 2-2-1-1-1 while Canard went 1-1-4-4-10. Despite Villopoto’s DNF he is now only three points behind Canard with one round to go in St. Louis this weekend. That proves that anything can happen in racing!

 

To see what else got Matthes excited in Detroit, read his Observation Column. Also, check out Rainford’s Photo Report for some photos of hot chicks and witty captions.

Chad Reed is a soldier.

photo: Billy Rainford

 

Cernic’s Kawasaki had another weekend they’d rather forget. After hearing how well Dusty Klatt raced in Dallas, I was excited to see him continue his roll in almost-Canada. Sadly, the Klattster was never a threat after he took a good header in his heat race that surely stole some confidence. If I were Billy Whitley or Derek Sorenson, I’d have given Dusty his KX450 and sent him to Gopher on Sunday to have some fun and build confidence. Although, my guy, Kyle Keast, looked more than ready for a battle….

 

Tyler Medaglia was back in the SX show at Detroit, but failed to make the cut. From what I hear, the Suzuki rider wasn’t racing his own bike, fell down several times, hurt his ankle, and just didn’t look like himself. I think Medaglia’s just going through the growing pains of AMA SX.

 

I watched the race on Speed Sunday night, and I couldn’t believe how technical the track was. David Vuillemin designed this puppy, which also featured softer dirt which was similar (but not nearly as bad) to Toronto.  Like every other rider who has designed a track this year, DV12 rode well and finished well with a seventh.

 

You can catch Lites action from Detroit tomorrow @ 6 PM EST on Speed, and Supercross racing from St. Louis Sunday @ noon on CBS. Check your local listings.

 

The race I chose to attend, the Gopher Dunes CMRC Spring Classic, didn’t feature ravishing 30-second board girls or the glitz and glamour of AMA SX, but it was nice to finally watch some outdoor motocross and say hello to the local community. I had a bet with Rob McCullough that Keast would lay the wood to Jay Burke, but it never materialized. Label It Honda’s team manager Brad Coles said Burke’s bike broke down shortly after our wager. How convenient....

So without Burke, Pierce Chamberlain, Chuck Mesley, Ryan Gauld, or Trever Hall in the mix, it was a runaway for K-Dub, Kyle the Welder. The Honda rider won all four Youth and GP Pro motos by a mile. I know I praise Keast a lot, and his Ontario rivals were not there, but he does look leaner and meaner than I’ve ever seen him. One constructive criticism, Kyle: please go up a gear and get off that damn clutch! There’s a reason they call this guy the Beast or Dozer, because he absolutely rides the life out of a dirt bike. I guess that’s why he’s fast and I’m not.

"The Dozer" Kyle Keast is healthy, fit, and ready to race.

photo: Brault

 

Edge Performance Kawasaki’s Kyle Stephens is now a professional MX racer. I’m not sure what I think of this. Obviously, Kyle’s ability and speed are never in question, but his age certainly is. Watching Stephens race his #573 KX450, I couldn’t help but think of DC’s podcast when he discusses the problem of riders turning pro too young. DC doesn’t agree with the minimum age requirments, which is 16 in the U.S., and believes that kids need more time to grow, not just on the bike, but in life too. In Canada, you can turn pro at 14. That’s far too young, in my opinion. At 14 years old, kids are just moving into high school and I don’t think they are strong enough physically or mentally to be banging bars with Lockhart, Cooke, Keast, Burke, Homans, Klatt, Facciotti and others. Certainly, riders like Beaton, and Facciotti, who did turn pro at 14, have achieved success but like DC says, what happened to everyone else?

 

While we're on the subject of controversy, let's check in with Steve Matthes...

Thanks Danny (I think), this week should be the start of a great three week stretch in the AMA Supercross series. We have the east coast getting settled this weekend in St Louis (I think Ryan Villopoto is going to take care of business), next week in Seattle we have the west coast (You Vancouver people better not come down and watch unless you went to the now departed WSX rounds, then you're allowed) coming down between hippie boy Jason Lawrence and angel boy Ryan Dungey, good vs evil! And in all of this Chad Reed goes and crashes hard in a crash we've all seen and is hurting bad going into the last few rounds. Now remember that he used a provisional to get into the Detroit main event and he has one more for this week if he can't ride, then he has to make the main by himself. How he got 12th in Detroit is beyond me and if the title comes down to 2 points between him and Kevin Windham, he'd better mail some thank you cards to Josh Summey and Paul Carpenter, who both went down on the last lap and gave CR two more positions.

I got word that Reedy wanted to do a podcast and I tracked him down and he said next week, so look for that sometime later in the week. Should be good! Send your questions to matthes@racerxcanada.com and I'll try to get some of them covered in the interview. (No Bigwave, you can't take a picture of his wife's bum).

As far as the Canadian riders are concerned, OTSFF's Tyler Medaglia has already announced that he is done with supercross and will focus on the CMRC Nationals. In Seattle we should see the return of Brady Sheren and everybody's favorite gnome, K D Beets. And that leaves Dusty Klatt. DK needs to get some confidence and I hope it comes this weekend. I want him to do well because if he can show American teams that Canadians can compete, there will be a rush to hire more guys from the great white north. It's just not "happening" for our guy but maybe the (projected) mud in Seattle can help him end the series on a high note. Remember the mud at Daytona?

I got a few letters this past week about my Observations from the Motor City and the fact that I was bagging on the Arenacross guys and never mentioned Gray Davenport. They're right, I did forget to mention the almost half-Canadian rider from Utah. He's made both Lites main events and finished 11th in one of them. One of his fans told me that he has no ride for the Canadian outdoors but is planning on showing up and doing well, hoping that a team will pick him up. It worked last time, right? I'm too lazy to look and see how he did the last few years but I think it was pretty good. Keep an eye on him come St Julie. [Ed note: Actually Steve, he finished fourth overall in the MX2 West series last year but the CMRC national results only go back one year anyway so....] 

I did a podcast interview the other day with a real mx legend. You'll have to wait next week till you see who. The point is, we were talking about the "Legends" lap that happens at three USA nationals a year. It's just a time where the fans can give back to the riders who helped build the sport to where it is today. A chance for fathers to tell their sons that the old dude riding around out there was his "RC" back in the day. Anyways, wouldn't it be good to do this at our Nationals? We could get Carl Vaillancourt at St Julie, Doug "Sweeper" Hoover at Gopher Dunes, maybe Al Dyck back west, you get the idea. Paging Brett Lee..... (Remember if this works out and it's cool, it was my cdn-mx hating 
butt that thought of it!)

Thanks Steve, now we will pass it on to Brett Dailey who is still living in the lap of luxury down in New Zealand.

Thanks Danny. Well folks, I'm finally hooked on the FIM World Motocross series. My buddy Mike Harnden has been talking my ear off for the past ten years about the world championships but it's never really grabbed hold of me. Other than some terrific memories from the Motocross of Nations in Lierop in 2004, I haven't followed the scene to closely as I always seem to get swamped just keeping up with Canada and the USA. Maybe it's my move to New Zealand that makes me feel more connected to the GPs? Eager to attend a round, I had a look at the calendar and, with the exception of South Africa, they are all held in an area about the size of Ontario. Okay, that might be stretching it a bit, Ontario is pretty big, maybe Alberta.....you get the point. I was closer to the GPs when I was in Nova Scotia! Maybe it's just because I'm excited to see how New Zealand's Josh Coppins will do this year? Get this, I emailed Coppins to thank him for doing the podcast with Matthes and he replied to my message on the night of the first GP in Valkenswaard. I could see someone like Ryan Lockhart or Kyle Beaton doing that here in Canada but try to get a fan response like that from the top AMA guys!

Round 2 of the GPs is this weekend in Bellpuig, Spain. It's a hard packed track, a stark contrast to the deep sand in Valkenswaard, so expect the results to mix up a bit (with Coppins out front of course!). To build on Matthes' idea above, I see that they are holding an FIM Veterans World Cup in conjunction with the GP, which includes David Thorpe and other stars. Um, Brett Lee, are you on the phone yet?

Belgium's Ken de Dycker comes into Bellpuig with a healthy 12 point lead in the MX1 class thanks to a dominating performance in the sands of Valkenswaard. De Dycker is a big tall guy, who almost dwarfs his RM-Z450 but he sure schooled the field in Holland. Coppins is coming off a recent foot injury but was looking good in the first moto, working his way up to third before a late moto collision with his teammate, David Philippaerts, when Philippaerts tried to pass the kiwi for third. Let's assume that there were some words from the team between motos.... Coppins swept both motos in Bellpuig last year, by the way.

 

Is that Big-D, Doug Von Dehn? Belgium's Ken de Dycker leads the MX1 World Championships by 12 points leading into Round 2.

photo: Max Ludwig, courtesy Racer X

In the MX2 class, KTM's Tyla Rattray won both motos easily. Dusty Klatt will remember Rattray as Klatt holeshot his MXoN qualifier over Rattray back in 2004 and led the moto for a few laps! Anyway, it was Rattray's first win in almost two years. Rattray likes the sand and defending MX2 champion, Tony Cairoli, likes the hard pack so expect a great battle this weekend.

I'm a big fan of Media Zone's live online coverage of the GPs. The timing is perfect for me as I was able to watch the coverage from Valkenswaard late Sunday night New Zealand time while the AMA Supercross Live broadcasts are on Sunday afternoon here and I always seem to be out of the house. Anyway, if you're looking for some outdoor motocross action, it's very cool to be able to watch live video coverage from so many different countries. The most comical part from the Valkenswaard broadcast was when they sent two girls in Fox shirts out to interview the riders on the line before the moto. One girl obviously knew her moto and asked good questions while the other one just kept asking the rider about the weather! Again, the GP scene must be more relaxed. I could see Ryan Lockhart saying hello to the camera a few minutes before the gate drops but try to send a girl up to Chad Reed when the 30 second board goes up and see what kind of a response you get. Bring on Round 2!

Finally, a big tip of the hat to Matthes who lined up the Icon, David Bailey, for his most recent podcast. He's one of my all-time favourite riders and personalities and I'm so happy that he's back in Racer X writing his montly column. Bailey has a terrific memory and offers his opinion on some good current topics along with his battle with pressure sores and covers Broc Glover, Bob Hannah, Jeff Ward, Ron Lechien, Mark Barnett, his years with Team Honda and even touches on the Rollerball! I've really enjoyed these podcasts but I admit, this is the best one yet. Hope you have an hour because you won't be able to pause it. Click here to listen.

Thanks Brett. Albertan Renee Turner sent along this note from the first round of the Alberta Endurocross series….

 

The first ever Eldorado RV Endurocross race captured the true skill level of off-road racers.  With many different obstacles and a variety of classes, this was a great way to spend an afternoon. “This was the most challenging race”, local pro MX racer Luke Firth said. Luke pulled off a third spot in the pro class, chasing local Provincial Off-Road Champion, Jason Schrage. First place went to Jason Thomas of the UK, who took a commanding lead. Jason Thomas will be spending the next six months in Canada racing the Off-Road Hare Scramble series and a few local motocross races.  He was drawn to Alberta when he saw a picture of a rider in the mountains and wanted that experience for himself. 

 

This was a dynamic and exciting event, executed and supported very well.  Hats off to the KMA Club, Over the Bars club and Top End Promotions.  This race will definitely set the standard when it comes to extreme Off Road Racing in Canada and other clubs.

Shane Cuthbertson and his new ride, a Husaberg 450, finished fourth-place at the first round of the Alberta Endurcross Series.

photo courtesy of Renee Turner

 

Here’s a cool link sent to us from Nippon News. It’s the debut of pre-production 2009 motocross bikes and factory prototypes from the All Japan Motocross Championship opener. http://www.nipponnews.net.

Remember that photo we used in our Table of Contents in the Rollerball issue, of the beautiful track we used for our 2008 MX Shootout? Well, the owner of that dreamland, 18 year old Kyle Carruthers, has started his own clothing line, Roost Clothing. His site is now up and running and he's ready for business. He's also already supporting Canadians 
Kyle Keast, Johnny Silegren, Pierce Chamberlain, and KD Beets. Check out his online store here: http://roostclothing.com/.

Washington’s Kevin Urquhart sent us an email this week, asking if we knew anyone interested in helping him out in Canada this summer. Urquhart finished inside the top-10 consistently in the MX2 West series last year, finished sixth overall, scored a third in a moto at Regina, and earned national #35. If someone out there would like help out Urquhart, shoot me an email at dannyb@racerxcanada.com and we’ll get him in touch with you.

 

Well, that’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

You're not done yet! A free 2009 KTM 250 SX-F would be nice, wouldn't it? Check out www.royaldistributing.com to find out how you can win one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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