Gopher Dunes National Qualifying
JULY 17, 2005

Story and photos by Jason T. Griffiths 

 

Let me start off by saying that the Shuster family in South Western Ontario have long awaited the chance to host a national motocross race at their beloved Gopher Dunes track.  And on qualifying day fans and riders alike were treated to the dedication this family has for motocross.  The property was immaculate and track preparation was second to none.   Frank Shuster and Co. turned the flat Gopher Dunes track in to world-class facility.  We were pretty stoked to see the level of professionalism at the track, especially since Racer X Illustrated’s Davey Coombs and Bryan Stealey decide to make Gopher Dunes their first Canadian outdoor motocross experience of the new millennium (Davey was a spectator at Copetown back in the TransAm series days).

As far as track grooming goes the crew will only be cleaning up the jump faces.  She'll be rough today.

The track has not got as rough as many benchracers predicted.  Whoops have formed throughout the course but the track has still maintained a natural riding rhythm.  The heat and humidity on the other hand were as extreme as you can get in Ontario and caused trouble for the riders and bikes.

The new beach sand whoop section seems to be the real challenge on the track thus far (click here to see Gracyk struggle through the whoops).  JSR spent most of practice riding the section over and over to determining the best method of attack.  Some are tripling in and blitzing out, others are doubling all the way through, while a few, including JSR, are blitzing across the tops from start to finish.  

In qualifying action yesterday, KTM ruled the Dunes in MX2 action.  Michael Willard moved out front early in the first qualifier and led the race wire-to-wire pulling away from second placed Honda rider Mitchell Cooke.  East coast favourite, Ryan Lockart, held third place for part of the race on his KX250F until Florida native Kyle Chisholm passed Lockhart.  

In Moto 2 it was a similar story for KTM’s Pierce Chamberlain.  The Ontario native had been racing a KTM 125 SX prior to the event but switched to the new KTM 250F literally yesterday.  Chamberlain took the early lead and was unchallenged. Ontario rival Jay Burke qualified in second on his Machine Racing backed Honda while Yamaha’s Simon Homans was one of few riders that were able to work their way through the pack.  Homans has been showing great speed and if he’s lucky enough to get a good start he has the speed to run away with the race.  Yamaha rider Doug DeHaan also showed great speed on the Gopher Dunes track especially in the whoops section but he wasn’t able cut through the traffic and finished the qualifier in eighth.

Michael Willard's holeshot in MX2 qualifier one

Michigan native Sarah Whitmore tried to qualify for the pro class but she struggled with the Gopher Dunes sand.  She stalled her YZ125 in the qualifier and had trouble restarting it.  In the LCQ she ended up riding most of the moto with a bent foot peg.  In Sarah’s defense, she didn’t come to Gopher Dunes with her A-game.  She was riding her practice bike (her race bike is on route to Colorado for the WMA national) and the conditions were extreme.  

Sadly, Racer X Canada staffers Danny Brault (assistant editor) and Jay Moore (assistant ad sales) didn’t qualify either.  The two intermediate riders were trying to qualify for their first pro race.  We won’t say how they finished in comparison to Whitmore but we will say that the edit side of the crew is leading the edit/advertising challenge.  Good on you guys.

In MX1 qualifying it was no surprise to see JSR out front.  Suzuki’s Gavin Gracyk grabbed the holeshot in qualifier one and was soon passed by the Honda of JSR.  But surprisingly Gracyk stayed on pace with the leader.  Now was JSR conserving energy or was Gracyk truly challenging the King?  Today, when all the thresholds are lifted, we’ll know the real answer.

Another surprise was Ryan Gauld.  He finished the qualifier a distant third but did a good job of his own gapping the rest of the pack.  Gauld has been criticized for he lack of training but in qualifying he had his fellow racers inquiring about any possible race benefits of barley and hops.
In qualifier two it was all Keith Johnson and his RMZ450.  Johnson, a proclaimed sand rider, has been waiting a long time to race Gopher Dunes.  He led wire-to-wire and will definitely be in the mix today.  Pierce Chamberlain qualified second followed by Johnson’s teammate Mike Treadwell.  Jay Burke also ran in the MX1 qualifier and passed Dusty Klatt.  Klatt admitted he was having an off weekend but nonetheless, the fourth place finish has given Burke a huge boost of confidence.

Well now it is time to get back to the track to find out what Ontario’s best riders can do with home court advantage.  Sorry—no mid-day updates today.  Gopher Dunes is home for the RXC crew and we’re all at the track taking it all in.  

 

 

 

 

 

... see you at the races.