By Brett Dailey

Best show of the year in my opinion! Great calls from Johnny Montes, Chuck Mesley and Mason Phillips and even a couple of RXC and mxforum guys! It was a long one so here are some sound bytes for your reading pleasure. 

“He’s obviously just doing it for fun now … because there’s just no way I think it will be competitive.”
“He is JSR so I guess we can’t knock him but I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking on the two banger but hey, impress me!”
Ryan Gauld on JSR’s rumoured decision to race a big bore 2-stroke at the Montreal SX

“That track offered up some high speed thrills and spills. That back straight they were actually pulling away from cars on the highway—and the speed limit out here is like 110 so everyone and their Grandma—Great Grandmother—does a buck forty, so it’s sweet, people boot it out here.”
Brian Koster on the high speed GP section at River Glade

“He’s like a stretched JSR.”
Koster on Colton Facciotti’s riding style

“I think everybody at River Glade, at the start of the second MX1 moto, was just kind of sitting on pins and needles because Facciotti got the holeshot, Klatt got into second place real quick and then Klatt came up and pressured him a little bit and so now we’re thinking, OK here we go, we’re going to have the moto we’re waiting for. But as Klatt said on the podium, he said, I just don’t have the fitness to run with Facciotti because I haven’t been able to ride because he’s got a broken foot.”
Marc Travers on the highly anticipated Facciotti/Klatt showdown and Klatt’s foot injury

“Thirty years Saturday was the mark, thirty years for me in this business. I have never seen that track as sweet.”
The Voice of Atlantic MX, Larry McCaw, on the River Glade track conditions last weekend

“Did you talk to Joe Skidd today or something? Did he call you to tell you to pump up his stuff? [Laughs]”
Gauld to McCaw after McCaw’s observation that Facciotti’s suspension was working much better than his competition

“I’m a snoopy kind of guy. I gotta know this stuff. This is my life and this is my family.”
McCaw on why he knows so much about the riders and their families

“JSR just sounds like the boss of all bosses … the Capo di tutti capi.”
McCaw on JSR after JSR took the call at the hospital to let McCaw know that Blackfoot’s Aron Harvey was doing well after his surgery to mend a broken femur

“No person shall race or drive furiously any horse or other animal on a highway.”
CMRC’s Randy Hall from his “Did you know?” spot on CMR discussing some outdated legislation in the MTO handbook

“Well I was telling Keaster he’s looking pretty good. I guess No Fear hooked him up with some new gear so I was making fun of him. I was like, ‘Hey Keaster you’re looking pretty good today, you’re looking pretty sexy out there.’”
Atlantic Motoplex Yamaha’s Johnny Montes joking around with the riders on the starting line—trying to loosen everyone up

“It’s tough to go race nine rounds.”
Montes on his financial decision to race the Atlantic series rather than follow the national circuit

“When I was younger, I was like, man I don’t want a trophy, give me the money. You know? I wanted to get out and ride against better riders and try to push myself.”
Montes on the abundance of Junior racers at the track these days and the lack of Intermediate and Pro riders.

“That was the grossest thing I think I’ve ever seen. I was standing right beside where that happened. It was bad; I had to walk away. I can take crashes pretty good and see people being hurt but I had to walk away. It was pretty gnarly, his leg was somewhere where it shouldn’t have been.”
Montes on witnessing Aron Harvey’s crash.

“You go to the races and … there’s a couple guys that get a salary but most of they guys are just going off what they make every weekend. I mean you never know if you’re going to have a good weekend, you never know if you’re going to have a bad weekend.”
Montes, who finished 10th overall on the weekend, on his decision to work toward a permanent job with The Boilermakers Union. 

“Congratulations to all of those riders. That’s awesome; I can’t wait to see you guys at Walton. I will be shaking all of your hands when I see you. Way to go boys, way to go Canada.”
Gauld on the very impressive results from Canadian riders at the 2008 Loretta Lynn’s Championships.

“You know what? The only thing I want to do is beat you.”
Chuck Mesley’s comment to fellow Ontarian Jay Burke on the line at River Glade.

“I had to tell the girlfriend I made a little bit less so she didn’t make me fly home and pay for the whole thing myself because I said I didn’t want to waste all the money on a flight home for three days. I had to bargain with her to split on the plane ticket with me so I couldn’t tell her I won $2,300. I only told her I won like $1,800. [Laughs]”
Mesley after winning $2,300 in two days at the Brent Colclough Memorial Canadian MX Open in Calgary, Alberta.

“Some guy wanted to fight me and then his buddy settled him down because I was going to go knock him out outside.”
Mesley on an altercation at a bar in Calgary while at the Default concert.

“I was kind of bummed because I didn’t want Montes to beat me [laughs] because he was chirping me all day because he got a faster lap time than me.”
Mesley after crashing in River Glade and watching Montes go by while trying to restart his bike.

“I’m impressed with Team Canada. We’re looking pretty good I think.”
Lindon Crowe on the results from Colton Facciotti, Dusty Klatt and Tyler Medaglia at River Glade.

“I’m proud of that; I’m proud of that trophy.”
Danny Brault asking Ryan Gauld for his Sand-Del-Lee trophy back.

“He won’t beat the number eight bike, we all know that.”
Brault on how Nick Wey will do in the MX1 class at Sand-Del-Lee

“You gotta just tell him to go on the first gate drop. He likes to go when it drops and then it bounces back up and goes again.”
Gauld on Keast’s constant struggles with starts.

“As of tonight, he’s back in.”
Steve Matthes on the saga of Nick Wey committing to race the SDL national. By the way, he’s racing his full works KTM.

“The funny thing was, I was going to wrench for him, because I did work for him in ’02. I was going to wrench for him and that was going to be the whole story and then he clipped me on the wrenching thing early on. He’s like, ‘You’re out of practice, I’m bringing my practice bike guy. You’re out.’ So I’ll just be man friending it.”
Matthes on developing his story on Nick Wey for Racer X Illustrated.

“Because those KTMs go so well.”
Mason Phillips on why he’s getting good starts in the MX2 class.

“The class is just full of so many young guys that are just willing to put everything on the line. I definitely haven’t been used to that. The MX1 class last year was … everybody was laid back, they go out for practice and kind of get to know the track and warm up but, MX2 class, you’re full throttle from the get-go.”
Phillips on the intensity of the MX2 class compared to the MX1 class.

“I don’t know. I guess they breed ‘em tough down home.”
Phillips on the number of fast riders coming out of New Zealand.

If you missed the show, or just want to confirm that Larry McCaw really said, "the Capo di tutti capi" you can listen to the #8 archive right here.