Frid'Eh Update:Presented by Royal Distributing
AUGUST 8, 2008

By Danny Brault

This has to be the busiest and most exciting time of the year for motocross. Last week, 33 champions were crowned at Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National in Hurricane Hills, Tennessee (one of which was Canadian, Dean Wilson). Josh Hansen, Kyle Loza, Ricky Carmichael, Jeff Ward, Jeremy Lusk, Kevin Johnson, and Tarah Geiger, earned gold medals in their respective “moto” events at X Games 14. The Canadian nationals are wrapping up with possibly the best two rounds of the series at Sand Del Lee and Walton; Heidi Cooke has one last chance to catch Jacqueline Ross in the final round of the Women’s Nationals this Sunday; and amateurs from across Canada collide next week in Walton for the 17th Annual Walton TransCan.

Yes, things are certainly abuzz in the world of moto!

I don't know what the heck the hot dog vendor did to piss off Mother Nature, but she's coming in hard this weekend at Sand Del Lee.

photo: James Lissimore

Team Green’s Dean Wilson is the unofficial “Canadian Racer of the Week.” The Alberta export started off his week at Loretta’s with a bang, pulling the holeshot in the opening Motocross B Mod moto and leading every lap on his way to the win. Wilson would go on to sweep that class and win the championship, and then finish 2-2-1 for second place in MX Lites B Stock. I believe Wilson is only the second Canadian to ever win a Loretta Lynn’s championship. Who was the first? That would be London, Ontario’s Bill Van Vugt Sr. who won the Plus 50 class in 1996!

Orangeville’s Richard Grey came really close in 2003 when he was leading the 50cc class by a mile and only needed around a fifth to wrap it up. Unfortunately, while leading the third and final moto on his Cobra, the clutch gave out and he DNF’d. Little Richard was in the hunt once again for a championship last week, this time in the 85cc 12-13 Stock and Mod classes. The Orange Motorsports KTM rider joined Wilson in the winner’s circle, winning the first 12-13 Stock moto, and went on to finish fourth overall in both classes.

Wilson and Grey weren’t the only Canucks down at The Ranch last week. Here’s how the rest of them finished up:

Brigden, Ontario’s Cole Thompson: 8th overall in Super Mini 12-15 and 5th overall in Super Mini 14-16 (he was fourth in the first 14-16 moto)

Grand Bend, Ontario’s Dylan Kaelin: 20th in MX B Stock (sixth in first moto) and 27th in Mod

Oshawa, Ontario’s Brandon Phinney: 32nd overall in MX Lites B Stock and 23rd overall in Mod (Phinney raced a 250 two-stroke in both classes)

Port Hope, Ontario’s Justin Ferguson: 30th overall in MX Lites C Stock. His dad, Barry, was 25th in Plus 40.

Rawdon, Quebec’s Kade Walker: 31st overall in 65cc 10-11

Edson, Alberta’s Cole Varty: 18th overall in 85cc 9-11 Mod (best was a 17th in the final moto) and 30th overall in 85cc 9-11 Stock

Congrats to all of these riders! Simply making the cut for LL’s is an accomplishment and deserves credit.

We’ll see a preview of what Dean Wilson has to offer this weekend. That’s right, Derek Schuster confirmed to me this morning that Wilson is racing MX2 at SDL and Walton. Schuster said Wilson was practicing at Gopher Dunes earlier this week and looks quite comfortable in the sand. Wilson no doubt has the speed to win, but it is his first pro race against a crop of experienced and conditioned pros. It’s going to be interesting to say the least!

Things are going to be even more interesting in MX1 this weekend. We have MDK/KTM’s Nick Wey and two-time MX2 East Coast champ Michael Willard in the mix, and possibly New England’s Keith Johnson and Mike Treadwell too. Wey has to be the biggest name ever to race a Canadian national. (Actually, his first pro race was in Canada at Walton in `96, but that was before he was an established pro racing for teams like Pro Circuit and Factory Suzuki.) Sure, we’ve had guys like Dubach, Craig, Decker, Dowd, Huffman, and others up here, but none them were really in their “prime” like Wey is. Matthes got the full scoop on why Wey is racing SDL right here.

How will Wey finish at SDL? That’s our Machine Racing Poll question this week. Hopefully Wey or someone can derail the Colton Facciotti train or at least put some pressure on the #2 Blackfoot Yamaha. That MX1 class was a sleeper last weekend in Moncton with Facciotti, Klatt and Medaglia going 1-2-3 in both motos. The only guys making passes were Blair Morgan and Kyle Keast. We were ready for the big showdown in the second moto when Colt jumped into the lead with Klatt and Medaglia in tow, but it never materialized. No one can seem to match Colton’s pace for a full 30 minutes.

I heard that Klatt did break his foot in the second moto in Nanaimo, and he hasn’t been able to train/ride like he normally does between rounds. That could be slowing down the Cernic’s Kawasaki rider, but regardless, he only has two rounds left to challenge Colton.

Machine Racing Honda’s Kyle Keast has been looking forward to SDL since his podium performance at Gopher Dunes. The sand rider enjoys the SDL track and even thought about double-classing it after beating both Medaglia brothers at the Provincial back in June. He’s since changed his mind and will focus on winning his first MX1 moto this Sunday. Hometown hero, Tyler Medaglia, has been anxiously waiting for the race as well. The Suzuki/OTSFF/Rockstar always rides well at his home track and needs to put in wins now if he hopes to steal back this championship from Facciotti.

Simon Homans (4) leads Jeff Gibson (102) and JSR (2) in the epic battle from the second MX1 moto at Sand Del Lee last year. With Nick Wey and Michael Willard in the mix this year - and Mike Treadwell and Keith Johnson possibly racing - we could very well see another memorable battle on the SDL track.

photo: Lissimore

Now that Blackfoot’s Aron Harvey is out with a broken femur, KTM’s Eric Nye only needs to finish one spot ahead of his teammate, Mason Phillips. Nye has an incredible 50-point lead over Phillips and can basically ride this one out. It’s unfortunate that Harvey is out because he tightened up the points chase big time by sweeping Nanaimo and Edmonton and giving us a race. I sent an email to Blackfoot’s team manager, Dean Thompson, to see if they’re planning to hire another rider to fill in for Harvey, but that’s not going to happen.

“It was very disappointing as he [Aron Harvey] was really starting to make a charge for the title and there was no doubt in our minds that he would be the one to win it,” says Thompson.  “Unfortunately this stuff can never be planned for and is the ugly side of racing.
 
“On a positive note Aron is doing well and will be flying home on Thursday morning.  JSR has been a real asset spending the whole day at Aron’s side and flying back out to Moncton tomorrow to ensure he is good to go and take him to the airport on Thursday morning.  It was a clean break (no compound as first thought) and the surgery went off with no complications which is the most important thing.  The whole team went and hung out with Aron at the hospital on Sunday night which really lifted his spirits and everyone was joking around which was really nice.  A big thanks goes to Larry Northrup who says he will be stopping in to keep Aron company the next few days which shows that East Coast hospitality!
 
“We are too far into the season to look for a replacement rider for the last two rounds and we want to ensure the whole team focuses on Colton and Blair right now to ensure the championship for Colt and work on moving Blair into top 3.  And, of course, both Jimmy and JSR will also be riding at Walton.”

Thanks for the update on Aron, Dean. And did you hear that folks, JSR is in for Walton! I talked with The King Saturday night at Moncton and tried talking him into racing SDL, but he said he’ll probably just do a few laps. He will definitely be racing Walton, however, on his Andrew McLean modified, YZ280 two-stroke. Man, that’s going to be badass!
 
We’re also going to see former Suzuki OTSFF rider, Josh Woods, racing Walton. Woods was planning to race SDL but a kid he’s training got hurt at Loretta’s, so he’s spending the week preparing for Walton. Like his Michigan neighbour, Wey, Woods also got his pro career started at Walton, going 3-1 in both classes for the overalls. Woods admits it looks doubtful he’ll repeat those results as he’s been riding more for fun than anything else, but he’s happy to be back racing.

Darcy Lange was recently approached by a big team in the States to race 450 supercross next winter. From what I hear, Lange didn’t seem overly excited and could be content with racing some arenacross instead. Sorry, that’s all I know for now.

Anyone notice the new outfits on the Monster Energy girls last weekend in Moncton? I liked them, but Chuck Mesley says he prefers the older ones with the funny strings on the back. Judging by the weather forecast, the two Julies will probably dressed in some sexy rain attire for SDL.

This sight is probably what I'll miss most from the nationals.

photo: Lissimore

The Racer X Canada/Destroyer Films Moto Show gets better every weekend. In Moncton, we caught up with local heroes, Mitch Cooke and Johnny Montes, and three-time Brian House Memorial award winner, Ryan Lockhart, helped out with hosting duties. You can watch it here.

Steve Matthes was trying his best to relive his glory days alongside Nick Wey—he even climbed in with Nick and Big Nasty for the 10-hour road trip from Michigan to Munster. Sadly, Nick chose to go with Big Nasty for spanning duties while Matthes will stick with his new tools, the pen and the mic. Check out Matthes' latest Podcast masterpiece with our very own, Ryan Gauld.

I saw an interesting thread on www.mxforum.com this week, discussing how we can get more fans to the races. I read several good ideas and suggestions out there, but one that wasn’t listed on the thread was signage. I’ve been to every single national this summer and I didn’t see one sign pointing racers/fans in the direction of the track. How about a sign at exits off a major highway, with additional ones leading up to the track? Before we get into food, flush toilets grandstands and all of that, fans need to know how to find the track.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Oh and stop by and say hello to Team 2-5-9 this weekend. I'd love to hear from you.