Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
JUNE 27, 2008

By Danny Brault

The road trip continues. This week the rig is in Raymond, Alberta for the 11th Annual Western Canadian Amateur Motocross National. Chuck Mesley, James Lissimore and I made it into Lethbridge late Monday night after we finally got some laundry done. (Is it a little too greasy to be wearing the same socks for three days?)

Lissimore and I have been working together covering (and racing) the WCAN since 2006. That year, my eyes were opened to some of the young talent from the western provinces. I remember watching KTM riders Ryan Millar, Spencer Knowles and Todd Sewell battling back and forth in the 85cc classes (and now they’re doing it again in intermediate) and BC’s Shane Wiebe and local hotshoe Luke Firth battling for the Gaerne Bronze Boot in intermediate (which was won by Firth). I’ve also watched vet legend Pete De Graaf dominate the Vet Master and Plus 40 classes and Kyle Beaton showing Dustin Hayes, Drew Clegg and the rest of the pros the fastest way around Temple Hill.

The Temple Hill track features some new corners and hills in the "sand section." Man, does this track get rough!

photo: Brault

So do results at Temple Hill lead to success elsewhere? I think so. Beaton started racing Raymond before he could spell motocross and is now an established pro winning motos at the national level. Wiebe, who won The Boot last year, is becoming a points getter at the nationals. Millar, Sewell and Knowles are all top intermediates in their respective regions, Clegg, Hayes and Firth have had their moments at the nationals and De Graaf, well, he’s still kicking butt everywhere he goes—he’s even testing out road racing this summer.

The Temple Hill track definitely does a good job of building boys into men—and girls into women. Top End Promotions’ Gerry Nelson does his best to make things as rough ‘n’ tough as possible. In fact, last year, in an attempt to prevent the locals from having an advantage, he decided to change the direction of the track at midnight before Day 1! I’m not really sure which direction is the “normal” way, but this year the track is running backwards from last year. It’s not any easier, that’s for sure. I don’t think they have even groomed it from last year! That’s cool, I don’t mind the rough stuff, but I will admit that there needs to be more water laid down before the racing starts.

Unfortunately, The King of the Hill, Kyle Beaton, won’t be defending his title this year as he’s taking time off and doing physio all week in Calgary on his bruised shin. That’s too bad as I put down $85 that Mesley would dethrone teeny, tiny Beets this year. (We didn’t put any injury clauses into our wager so I think I should still get the money, but Beets disagrees.) Label It’s Jason Burke and Davey Fraser showed up in Raymond. Burke won the opening Youth moto yesterday morning, and then disaster struck. Three corners into the first GP Pro moto—after a handful of guys collided in the first corner, me being one of them—Burke came over a tabletop and smashed into a barrel full of water that’s used to water the track. The impact threw Burke off his Honda and left him with a chipped bone in one wrist and sprain in the other. (We’re still waiting to hear the full diagnosis.) It’s unfortunate, obviously, especially since Burke is holding down eighth in the MX1 series. But that’s racing, I guess.

Stay tuned for more photo/race reports from Raymond.

BC's James Moran has been the story of Day 1 in Raymond. Riding an RM-Z250 and CRF450, Moran went 1-2-1 through the MX2, MX1 and GP Intermediate classes. Ryan Millar took the other win in MX1 Intermediate.

photo: Brault

The Monster Energy Motocross Nationals have two weekends off before resuming at The Wastelands in Nanaimo, BC on July 12-13. The break will no doubt prove valuable for Team Toyota Yamaha BlackfootDirect.com Fox Racing’s Colton Facciotti who says he’s still not 100 percent yet. Judging by the way Facciotti has ridden in Morden and Regina, I have a hard time believing that but if he is telling the truth, the rest of the MX1 class has to be nervous. I’m sure Tyler Medaglia, Dusty Klatt, Blair Morgan and gang are capable of taking it up a notch, but they need to go up a few notches to reach Facciotti’s speed right now. He’s just that fast—and fit.

Suzuki’s Medaglia still has a 17-point lead over Facciotti in the series and he’s doing everything in his power to maintain it. In Regina, Medaglia made some aggressive moves on Morgan and Jeff Northrop, leading to some words between TM and Northrop afterwards. Morgan also mentioned on Canadian MX Radio that Medaglia was popping out of ruts in the first moto. From my vantage point, I couldn’t see any of this, but in the second moto, I sure didn’t miss Northrop retaliate when he bumped Medaglia pretty good in the corner before the whoops. Not sure who is in the wrong here, or if anyone is—but it makes for good racing!

Monster Energy Cernic’s Kawasaki’s Dusty Klatt is still trying to figure it out. I spoke to him before the first moto and asked him what’s up. He didn’t really have an answer but his comments were encouraging. Read Klatt’s 5 mins with … here.

Is that Brian Shute from the movie Vision Quest? Ryan Lockhart gets busy working on those quads.

photo: Brault

It was nice to see Simon Homans finally catching a break. The Yamaha rider rode okay in moto one, finishing sixth, but cranked it up notch in moto two, passing Klatt two corners in and going on to finish second. Homans didn’t have the easiest week leading up to Regina. He was practicing on a borrowed bike from FXR’s Aaron Wiebe, showered me with poop water at the FXR Ride Day, and then had an altercation with Chuck Mesley while pulling into the pits on Friday. Fortunately, Homans made amends with everyone, worked on his own bike between motos, and showed us that he’s still one of “the” guys. Good job, Simon! You can read more about Homans’ ride at Regina here: http://www.racerxcanada.com/news/4973/five-minutes-with-simon-homans/

Simon Homans was impressive in Regina, finishing second in the second moto. His podium speech was insiring as well. Make sure you check out the TV broadcast from Regina.

photo: James Lissimore

In the MX2 class, Tucker Hibbert went 2-1 for his second overall, Kyle Beaton won his first moto of the year, and KTM’s Eric Nye was solid again and extended his lead in the championship to 38 points over Aron Harvey. Speaking of Harvey, the Blackfoot rider is improving each weekend. He’s finally acclimated to the Canadian conditions and has been on the podium in the last two races. Despite crashing and hurting himself in moto two, Beaton remains third in the series ahead of Jeremy Medaglia. For some reason, the 250F class is always the most exciting in any country. In fact, right now there are only 15 points separating second (Harvey) and sixth (Ryan Lockhart) in the Canadian series.

KTM's Eric Nye holds a solid 38 point lead in the MX2 championships.

photo: James Lissimore

For a full recap of racing from Regina check out our Race Report here. Also, don’t forget to tune into the Racer X Canada/Destroyer Films Moto Show. Mr. Personality, Steve Matthes, joined us on the show this week and he did a wonderful job. As good as job as Ryan Gauld? You be the judge! I like sharing hosting duties with both and hope we see them both back soon:  http://www.racerxcanada.com/motoshow08/



Royal Distributing: Enter to win a 2009 KTM 250 SXF!


Here are a few words from Matthes….

Well my traveling continues. After going to the first four AMA nationals, I took my off week and turned it into another road trip. As I'm sure most of you know, I went to Regina for the CMRC National and I have to say that I had a great time. The racing was a little boring but, hey, you can't always get Anaheim '86. The poop-shows that I witnessed in Morden and Nanaimo last year are distant memories now. I thought the track prep left a lot to be desired on Saturday and Sunday morning and after exchanging some emails with Gerry Davis of the Regina club, I still think that same thing but I now understand where the club was coming from at least.

I just think that these clubs that want to hold nationals should go "balls-out" (my favorite term lately) and do whatever they can to prep the track and facilities to the max. I know they're volunteers but maybe not racing on amateur day, devoting someone to the track and working with the CMRC would produce the results that we see out east. I know that Kevin Tyler at Sand Del Lee isn't working with a cast of thousands but he gets it done.

Bottom line, except for a couple of sessions where I thought track prep wasn't suitable for the best riders in Canada, the day was great. Good turnout of fans I think also.

Blackfoot's Colton Facciotti is the man right now. He was very impressive and has to feel pretty good about his chances going into his home track of Nanaimo. Tyler Medaglia was also good; it was his worst scoring race of the year and he got second! I should've written more about Simon Homans in my Observations column as he got third overall and was his own mechanic and everything.

MX2 was KD Beets’ race to lose and he unfortunately did just that. Like I wrote in OBS, he'll figure it out soon and show everyone what's up. Eric Nye was solid, Mason Phillips was very good and Ryan Lockhart showed me that he has "stuff" together as well. Jeremy Medaglia was also very fast but had to come up from the back of the pack.

Kyle Beaton and Tucker Hibbert battle it out in Regina.

photo: James Lissimore

 
Also in Regina, I ran into a guy named Darcy Lawrence of the famed "MotoSask" magazine and he gave me none other than the VHS copy of my dice of death with Blair Morgan at the 1989 Saskatoon Mini-Stade. What a classic tape! I'm working on getting it converted to DVD and up on YouTube soon. After watching it, I'm seriously thinking of calling up my dad and asking him why in the hell he made me ride 80s. I'm like six feet tall! I was 16 at the time and way too big for the bike. Anyways, I grab the holeshot and check out on the number 17 Kawasaki, the announcer making note that "He's a little bigger than some of the other kids in the class" and when I come up on this lapper that is probably 9 years old, we collide and I almost fall (except for the fact that I can stick my feet out and just stand there). Blair uses this to his advantage to get by me and the crowd is going crazy and the biased announcers are all excited. But being the four-time Manitoba champion (for you Mark R) that I am, I ride over my head and catch up to Blair on the last lap. On the tricky, single-to-flat ground jump, I pull up beside the snowmobile god/multi-time Canadian MX champ and have the inside and force him almost off the track and go on to grab the win! It was a great victory that would've made me feel good about myself if my wife Angie wasn't cracking up over how I was two feet taller than anyone else on the track. If anyone knows how to make a DVD into some sort of file that I can put on Youtube, email me at matthes@racerxcanada.com. I'm telling you guys, it's pure gold!
 
A rider that a lot of Canadians are familiar with, Sean Hamblin, has been picked up by factory Yamaha for the next three races because Yamaha has two injured guys and one who's struggling with off track stuff and when he's on the track, his pants are falling off. Good for Sean! It's just like 2002 when he was picked up by Factory Suzuki mid-season. When I spoke with Sean, I asked if it's worth it to drop his sponsors, lose privateer money just for three races but he told me that it'll be for all year because the bike is so good he's going to kick ass. Go get 'em Hambone! I'm glad for the guy and I'm sure he's going to be smarter with his lifestyle this time around.
 
Onto the night race in Colorado. It sure will be nice to get home on a Sunday also. I bet the guys in Colorado get more spectators than in the past because it's Saturday night and the past races have been blazing hot. I'm looking forward to it—something different, and I guess the first two motos are going to be broadcast live on http://www.motocross.com/ (and same day TV coverage on SPEED). I'm doing the webcast with Kevin Kelly and Weege. My job will be the pit reporter, trying to get the scoops from the mechanics, which isn't easy. I can remember being interviewed a few times when I was a mechanic and you're so into the race, you wish the dude with the mic (now me) would just go away because you can't watch your guy and somebody's screaming into your headset about your rider’s seat falling off (What? That was just me?)

Anyways, I highly doubt that anyone is going to listen to us in the first motos so we're going to try some new stuff out to see if anyone is actually listening. Should be fun!

I'm also now a "blogger,” whatever the hell that means. The guys at motocross.com seemed to think that people might be interested in reading my thoughts. I'm new to this whole blogging thing but I get paid for it and they said I can talk about whatever I want. Seems like a sweet deal to me! Check it out sometime...

So that’s it! I want to thank all the people that stopped me this past weekend to tell me they enjoy my Observations column. I appreciate it and will try to keep doing it as long as people are reading.

Thanks, Steve!

Regina wasn’t the only big off-road race going on in Canada last weekend, the Cornergrass Endurocross kicked off in Compeer, Alberta and Shane Cuthbertson sent along this report and photos:

If you are looking for a unique event—Corner Grass is one race that must be experienced to believe! Take a dirt bike deprived farm boy, give him a mower, a six-pack of beer, let him loose, and Corner Grass is what you get. The course master somehow weaved the sweetest grass track known to man into a quarter section and then invited his buddies out to play. Along the way, these off-road wizards needed more of a challenge. Enter tractor tires, power poles, rocks, cement culverts, sand—pretty much anything farm boy could get his hands on.  Now you have eight km’s of grass track and two endurocross tracks to contend with during your 14-minute lap! Check out the photos for a sneak peek at what you might see or better yet, what you might look like!

Jason Schrage railed the Cornergrass course and took the overall win by carding 1-1 scores in each of the 1 hour-15 minute motos.

Pro MX’er and Vet Phenom, Robin Dohlman, was back in action defending his 2007 Corner Grass title.  He was not successful this time and finished outside the top 5.

Aerial view of the grass track.

photos by: Charla Cuthbertson and Dirt TV

That definitely looks like a good time, Shane! Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

Next week is a busy one for racers in the East and West. The beautiful Sand Del Lee facility in Munster, Ontario is hosting the first ever Eastern Amateur National MX Championships from July 2-5. MX101 has been working overtime to put together one heck of an event. Kevin Tyler is ensuring the track is up national standards and they have a lineup of great prizes and awards, including trips to GPF and MTF, Royal Distributing holeshot awards, and a cash prize from MXForum.com for the hardest charger. And there’s plenty of off-track entertainment planned for each night. Check out our “Everything You Need To Know About The EANMC” feature or http://www.eanmc.com/ for more info. 

The Sand-Del-Lee facility is already in good shape for the EANMC on July 2-5.

In the west, riders have a chance to earn some big coin at the Brent Colelough Canadian MX Open on July 1-2 at the Wild Rose track in Calgary. The pro classes boast a $15,000 purse and there is 100 percent payback for the Ladies A and Vet Master classes. This is the perfect event for pros who are following the national series to earn some money and get in some riding time before Nanaimo. Check out http://www.wildrosemx.ca/ for details.

Well, that’s all for this week, folks. I wish I could spend more time on the Update this week, but I’m beat from a long day at the Temple Hill Motorcycle Park—the racing didn’t wrap up until 8 PM!

Thanks for reading!