The update this week is brought to you by Kamloops, British Columbia based RTR Performance. I've known Craig Fortune a long time and he's no doubt hard at work preparing his arenacross team for the first round of the Nex-Trax Canadian Arenacross series which is kicking off in two weeks time right near where I live in Chilliwack, BC. Craig's brought up some solid riders in the past, with the likes of Eric Nye and Sean Borkenhagen racing for him last year. His new employee, Newf, even won an AX title for the RTR team a couple years back.
As always here with the Frideh Update, we highlight the rider who's number corresponds with whichever edition of the Update that we're on and this week we're at number 43, which just happens to belong to none other than Redemption Racing's Josh Snider! One of the good guys of the sport, Josh, with his parents Lisa and Dave, have been racing the whole series for the past few years and running his own team, first as Team Faith and this year with Redemption Racing. Not only has Josh been racing, he's been a solid manager, fielding some strong riders such as Kevin Johnson and Mason Phillips. Mason even put the Redemption Racing team on the podium this year! And if Josh didn't have enough on his plate, he holds a morning devotional on race days too. So a big thanks goes out to Josh and the Snider's, the sport needs more people like you, for sure.
I caught up with Josh earlier in the year for a Privateer Profile, which you can read here: http://www.directmotocross.com/news/features/2010/06/privateer-profile-josh-snider
For me, personally, it was a fairly slow week in the world of motocross news. Pat O'Connor came over a couple days ago and we talked a bit about the Leading Edge team for 2011. Aside from the recently signed Kyle Beaton and the returning Teddy Maier, it looks like things are close to bring back Shawn Rife and they're possibly in talks for one more rider. It looks like things are shaping up well for the green boys for 2011. Also, they're hard at work on development of the new fuel injected 250 and it sounds like this is going to be one amazing motorcycle!
With nothing new going on this week, I dug back through my archives for the last month to put together this week's edition of the Troy Lee Designs Thursday Wallpapers. So much cool stuff happened in the past month that I had more than enough cool shots just waiting to be used for something. If you haven't checked them out already you can see them here: http://www.directmotocross.com/news/features/2010/10/tld-thursday-wallpapers-few-past-month
Anyways, that's about all I've got for this week. I'm going to hand this off to our esteemed new leader, Kyle Carruthers, who had a much more interesting week:
Thanks James! What a crazy few weeks it has been for me! It seems like for everyone in the industry this is one of the busiest times of the year. Off season? What’s that? Whether it is silly season and team mangers are trying to pick riders or vice versa, companies doing their budgets for next year or even racers still out riding try to get those last few rides in for the year, everyone seems to be busy! I know the Schuster's are busy getting Gopher Dunes ready for the first ever Sandstorm event. If you’re from Ontario the dunes will be the place where all the fun is happening on Sunday. Check out the interview Palms did with Digger right here if you haven’t already.
I’d like to apologize for not submitting a contribution last week. I was tied up at the Toronto International Snowmobile ATV and Powersports show. It was a great show put on by great people and a lot of people worked to make it happen. I was lucky to be a part of it and meet many new people in the process. There were lots of moto people hanging out too. Whether it was Andy white from KTM, OTSFF's Andre Laurin
and his new Polaris supported snowcross team with rider Ian Hayden, The Scott guys, Hindle, Mark Perrin or the Parts Canada and Royal distributing crew there were lots of people there to talk about moto! It’s always nice to see familiar faces and at these trade shows sometimes there’s just not much else to do other than bench race. In fact I even saw Richard Grey there who will no doubt be lining up at the dunes this weekend and rumour has it he’ll be on a 450!
One of the coolest things was likely seeing the Sledneck boys flipping their sleds. Joe Parson, Heath Frisbee and Jeff Mullen really gave the crowd a great show. Make sure you put this event on your calendar for next year!
The Nex-Trax arena cross series is kicking off in just a couple weeks. There is no doubt in my mind it’s going to be a good series too. With the all new RTR performance team taking on the Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki boys, Canadian MX Champ Dusty Klatt, as well as all the other pros who line up its going to make for some good racing. DMX and MX Forum will hopefully be teaming up to bring you guys a live webcast each and every weekend! Stuff is still in the works for it and if you’re interested in being a sponsor shoot me an email at kyle@directmotocross.com!
Also check out the video Blair Bouchard from MX Affilate made of the Dirt Shoot bike test day right here.
That’s all for me this week folks!
Matthes has been playing Bob Vila this week but he found time to send in some stuff for this week's update:
Thanks James! Well, I’m here in Las Vegas and I don’t have too much to say about this week, there wasn’t that much news and I’ve been out of the loop with my entire downstairs getting tiled. So me and my family (a wife and four dogs) have been stuck upstairs while the guys get busy. To try and save some money, I did the tear-out myself as well as have been helping with whatever I can. Quite frankly, I wish I had “Danny Brault-money” and could just go away for five days and when I came back-voila! Floor done. But as it is, I’m trying to keep the costs down and see if I can keep this job less than 5K.
Buddy's not sure what to think of this new floor.Anyways, enough about me and my life, we do have some racing this weekend going on in the form of the Belfast SX which features Canada’s own Kyle Beaton and Colton Facciotti. I hope the boys do well over there in the land of potatoes and U2 and please Colton, just stay safe.
Down here in the US of A, silly season is still going on and word trickled down that Jake Weimer has been officially signed to the Monster Energy Kawasaki team and that pretty much leaves the list of big time riders that have yet to be signed to two: Chad Reed and Christophe Pourcel. Reed, I think, is close to a deal with a Yamaha team or maybe a Honda team…I’ve heard both to be honest. He loves the Honda and he loves the Pro Circuit mods on the Honda so that would make me think that TLD Honda could be a spot for him. But then again, Valli Yamaha has Rockstar Energy Drink money and it’s not like Reed and Yamaha left on bad terms so maybe that’s what is going to go down. All I know is that I have no idea.
As far as Pourcel, well he’s still asking for some serious money from teams and he’s currently in France rehabbing his shoulder. I still see him as a third rider at Kawasaki but only if the two parties can come together on a salary for next year. Other than that, I’m not sure what is going to happen down here. Things are still up in the air, money’s tight and people are riding this downturn out until it gets better.
Where will Pourcel land for 2011?Hey if you’re reading this and it’s before 3PM PST, come on over to Pulpmx.com for a live chat with me. We can talk about all sorts of stuff.
We have a pair of autographed Kyle Keast X-Brand goggles from the recent MXDN to give away to the biggest Kyle Keast fan out there. These were actually work by Kyle at the race and were signed right afterwards.
The first person to email steve@directmotocross.comwith the right answers wins the goggles.
The question is: Name the last four national numbers that Kyle has earned.
That’s it! Get hunting and send in the answers!
Sorry for the briefness but that’s all I got, ok…back to the tile!
OK, here's Palms with this week's contribution:
Well, I hate to use something as small as the tree in our front yard as a barometer for when winter arrives, but the last leaf just blew off it a few minutes ago so winter must be right around the corner. One place that won’t see winter for a few months is Gopher Dunes. Even though it's only a 2 hour drive from my house, things are always brighter and greener in the land of sand and tobacco.This Sunday at Gopher Dunes is the last race of the Ontario MX Season, usually everyone is just going through the motions and waiting until next year to get excited. Well, Derek Schuster and Brett Lee have teamed up to make sure the 2010 season ends with a bang. The race on Sunday will feature numerous race day changes, such as a few new classes, the chance to ride four classes for $60 and the chance for new riders to sign up and race with no CMRC license. There will also be a best whip contest and the presence of Red Bull who will be there giving out a plethora of prizes. It should be a great day and hopefully everybody leaves happy. Even if the day doesn’t quite go as planned, hats off to these guys for trying something new and for trying to drum up some excitement for what normally would have a nothing race. This is exactly what Canadian MX needs, some out of the box thinking.
If you're in SWO make sure to come out to Gopher Dunes this weekend for Sandstorm!photo courtesy of Gopher DunesMoving from dirt bikes to snowmobiles now, last weekend I attended the Toronto International Snowmobile Show at the International Centre. It was my first time ever going so I had no idea what to expect. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with the set up and the turn out, it was packed on Saturday. Since winter is close I guess it is a great time of year to have a snowmobile show, a lot of people were there not just to look but to buy stuff for the upcoming season. Since the two sports cross over so much there were a lot of moto people at the show as well. Andy White was there for most of the day, KTM and Royal Distributing actually gave away a KTM to a lucky guy, Team OTSFF had the Polaris Team set up, Richard Grey was there and all recovered from his Montreal SX crash. Parts Canada had a huge display there, Scott Goggles were there, Hindle Exhausts, the list goes on and on as it was a great day. I even got to witness a sled doing a back flip in the parking lot, I wouldn’t have believed that if I didn’t see it. The Belfast SX is also going on this weekend and it will mark Kyle Beaton’s first race on a green bike. Colton Facciotti will also be there, Tyler Medaglia was supposed to go but he is at home in Nova Scotia. It will be interesting to see how Beaton adapts to the Kawasaki, after all, he has been riding Yamahas since practically birth. Hopefully Facciotti also has a good race and starts to return to form. There were some talk that Colton would ride for Star Racing in the US in 2011, but they released their lineup this week and Colton was not on the list. There is a good article by Brett Lee over on MXP’s website where he speaks about Colton and what he might be thinking. It’s a pretty good read.So, I hope if you live in Ontario and you're free on Sunday, you will find your way to Gopher Dunes and check out Sandstorm, it should be a great event. Also, if you have a few minutes after reading this, log on to MXForum and check out the really cool Blair Morgan video. Obviously Blair has been busy pimping out his Yamaha Rhino and it’s cool to see him putting laps on his old MX track. Some guys just look at home with a helmet and goggles on; Blair is certainly one of those guys. I hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend. Brett Lee sent some random info over this week as well:Did you know that the Fox Fall Hi Point Series run in SWO is the longest consecutive running series in Canada? Aurora Cycle -now Fox Canada- started sponsoring the series in 1992.Machine Racing, Two Wheel Motorsports - Pro Action, SSS Suspension, MXP, DMX and Justin Rooney of Xtreme Toys are supporting new rider sponsors for this weekend at Gopher Dunes. These companies stepped up to sponsor new riders to motocross and to CMRC. Please take the time to thank these companies and give them your support.Brett's dad, Chris Lee, the man behind the annual Walton Trans Can event is running for Deputy Mayor of Huron East and has created a Facebook page where you can support Chris in his plans for World domination(or at least Huron East domination):Videos will be updated each day:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Deputy-Chris/119742874746496 or all videos are all on vimeo http://vimeo.com/album/1459427
The future Deputy Mayor of Huron East?
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