--press release--

Yet another weekend of rainy, muddy conditions met race teams and fans for round three of the 2005 Canadian Nationals in Calgary, Alberta. The rain played havoc with the track and CMRC officials had to cancel Saturday’s qualifiers due to impassable track conditions. The track crew worked diligently throughout the night to salvage the track and, by Sunday morning, everyone was ready for some racing.

“The track was muddy in the morning but the sun was shining,” confirmed Team Manager Rick Rundberg. “By the end of the practice sessions and the qualifiers, the track was actually pretty good. Chick did a good job with the track and they pumped water overnight. It was muddy in practice but not as bad as [round one in] Mission.”

MX1 Class

Eager to move back up to second overall in the points standings, Morgan Racing’s Craig Decker holeshot the opening moto on his Yamaha YZ450F and earned the Royal Distributing holeshot award. Decker overshot a corner soon after the start and lost the lead but held onto second place until the halfway point and finished a strong third place about 40 seconds ahead of fourth place finisher Damon Huffman. Morgan Racing’s Blair Morgan continues to gain speed and confidence each weekend and finished in sixth place in the opening moto while teammate Johnny Montes finished a respectable 16th.

The second moto featured yet another Morgan Racing Yamaha YZ450F holeshot but this time it was multi-time Canadian motocross Champion, Blair Morgan who picked up the holeshot cheque. Morgan led the race for a while and held third until the halfway mark. Decker started in tenth place but put on a charge and had already moved up to fourth place by lap seven of the race. A late race stall put Decker back to sixth but he moved back to fourth by the end of the moto to claim fourth overall.

“It feels good,” acknowledged Decker who now sits second overall in the MX1 series standings. “If someone had told me that the first three races would be wet and I would come out of it in second overall, I would have taken it! [Laughs] I’m hoping for better results as the series goes on—better weather and better tracks. The bike is good and capable of winning, it’s all up to me now.”

Johnny Montes suffered a poor start once again but rode consistently for another 16th place moto finish and 16th overall. “I need to get better starts,” offered Montes who is racing most of the western tracks for the first time and is now inside the top 20 overall. “I don’t have any experience with concrete starts and Regina will be the first weekend with a dirt start so I will be a lot more confident. My lap times are competitive with the top 10 so I just need to get a good start and run with the pack.”

“It’s good to have Craig back into second place,” said Rundberg. “It’s a lot further ahead than we were last year at this point [in the series]. Blair is riding well too. I think you are going to see Blair in the top five in both motos next weekend in Regina. He felt like he could have pushed a lot harder than he did in Calgary but because of the ruts he didn’t want to overdo it [and risk injury to his leg]. He said that he felt comfortable running the pace when he was in third. He’s getting good starts and the bike is working well for him.”

MX2 Class

Morgan Racing Yamaha’s Erick Vallejo finished a season high fourth overall in Calgary. With one round remaining in the MX2 West series, Vallejo will be digging deep in Regina this weekend in hopes of improving his current seventh overall position in the standings. Last year, Vallejo used 3-4 moto scores in Regina to clinch third overall for the season. He hopes to once again put in his best ride in Regina and finish out the western swing with a podium.

“I like the track and I had a good weekend there last year,” confirmed Vallejo, who will switch to a YZ250 after Regina and contest the 250 class with Decker and Morgan. “Hopefully it doesn’t rain. I’m not the best mud rider … which I’ve shown in the last few weekends. [Laughs] Hopefully I can turn things around at this race and pull off at least a podium and then make my switch to the 250 [MX1] class for the east.”

The series now moves to Blair Morgan’s home province of Saskatchewan for round four in Regina on June 25/26 (and the forecast is calling for sun) so this should be an exciting round for Blair and entire Morgan Racing team.

Morgan Racing would like to thank their generous sponsors:

Morgan Racing, Yamaha Canada, Fly Racing, Bransam Logistics, Maxima Oils, M2R Helmets, Works Connection, Bridgestone, Dubach Racing Development, Enzo Racing, Tag Metals, Pro Circuit, Ogio Bags, Wiseco, Uni Filters, EBC Brakes, RK Chain, V Force, Mechanix Wear, Gaerne Boots, TCI, Platinum 1, SixSixOne, Rice Lake Fuels, Creative MX, Sunline