I think the biggest news today is that I woke up to a snow covered yard! Yes, I had to go and clean my truck off and let it warm up to defrost the windows before I could go anywhere here in SWO. It wasn’t cool! I know Alberta was hit with a ton of snow (at least it was when I landed there for my layover on my flight
Monday night) and I’m sure other parts of Canada are seeing the white blanket come down as well. Yes, riding season is coming to end (sigh) but at least we're getting closer to the kick of A1 and seeing one of the most stacked fields of competition ever. It’s going to be a good season and the crew at Gopher Dunes may think I’m nuts, but I still have Canard as my pick for the championship!
Once again this edition of the update is brought to you by Troy Lee Designs. A big thanks to them for stepping up and making it possible for us to bring you this column each and every week this month. RTR Performance Troy Lee Design riders Urquhart (or is it Airkeart?), Keast and Willard were able to go 1,2,3 in the final Open main event of the weekend and they definitely looked good doing it wearing that stylish Troy Lee Designs gear!
RTR Performance Riders Looking good!
Sticking with tradition, this week’s update is dedicated to 2010 National number 47 Ryan Gainey. Ryan holds a couple records in Canada so to speak. He is the first person to top ten a national on an Aprilia dirtbike as well as holeshot twice on the big beast. Every time he is at the track he is surrounded by beautiful woman even during track walk! He is the only rider to turn down a factory ride in the states with Mitch Payton's mighty Pro Circuit team as he felt racing in Canada was more fun. Oh and he is also from Albania so I hear from the DMX staff. Pretty cool eh?
No, I’m just kidding. To be honest I don’t know every single rider or their life story that shows up and races a Canadian national here and I’ll be the first one to admit it, especially as we get further back in the pack. We do know Ryan raced Gopher Dunes this year as James Lissimore was able to tag a couple pictures of him.
So Ryan if your reading this give me a shout kyle@directmotocross.comand we'll give these fine folks the real scoop on what you have been up to!
Also check out this cool video TLD sent us over of a quick tour David Pingree did through TLD headquarters!
Now, lucky for us there has been some racing action in Canada the last couple weeks. I was able to catch a flight out to beautiful B.C. and check out rounds 1-4 of the Nex-trax Canadian AX series. I have to admit this series is pretty cool and has a great turn out! There is no doubt why B.C. has produced the best indoor riders Canada has ever seen (think Lange, Sheren, Beaton, Klatt, Facciotti to name a few). Right from the 50cc class on up, this series teaches the kids to push hard and be aggressive and it really shows. The whole time I was there I was itching to ride! It was pretty fun out there especially doing the MX FORUM/DMX/RTR Performance live video webcast. If you weren’t able to check it out you can check out the archives under the DMX Breaking News section and on MX Forum. A big thanks once again to my co-host, Billy Rainford, for throwing that all together and inviting DMX to be a part of it. Thanks Billy!
The action is no doubt heating up in the pro classes too. Kyle Beaton looked to be the most dominant rider in the series and it showed with him taking most of the main event wins over the first two weekends. RTR Performance rider Kevin Urquhart was up there, also taking two main event wins and showing Beaton a wheel or two. We were able to catch up with both of these guys this past week here at DMX and you can check them out here and here.
Klatt also took a main event win in round one, reminding people he's the real deal. Unfortunately Klatt went down hard in Round 3 and put himself out for the remainder of the weekend with a badly sprained wrist. The barn was definitely claiming its victims with RTR Performance rider Kohl Canaday taking some beatings, including knocking out some teeth. Josh Snider went down and broke his arm after showing up and borrowing a Kawasaki. Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki rider, Kyle Beaton, went down also but it sounds like he’ll be just fine. Heal up quick boys!
Beaton is motivated and looking to win in 2011! Even if it is on a 110!
I think so far the biggest surprise of the series is Kyle Keast. The RTR Performance TLD Honda Canada rider put in some consistent rides and hit the box on several occasions. He now holds down third place in both the AX2 and Open pro championships. I’m not saying he is the biggest surprise because of his skills, I’m just saying it because of some of the names on the line who have a lot more time indoors then he does. I think it’s time everyone stops saying Keast isn’t an indoor rider as he has proved many times he is the real deal!
Next the series moves to Grand Prarie, Alberta on December 17thand 18th. Word is that there is going to be over $10,000 into the pro purse for that weekend. Pro's you know where to go!
Also make sure you check out Angie Parkers column Out of the Blue. It is jammed packed full of all the latest news on Canada's top motocross ladies!
Ok here's Palms with his contribution:
Happy Friday everyone! I hope a good week was had by all. As I write this it is snowing outside in Shelburne, Ontario. I know it’s probably 15 degrees and sunny at Gopher Dunes but for now it looks like winter is on its way. The weather we experienced last week seems like a long time ago now, I hope everyone had the chance to get out and enjoy it. I know I sure did!
Late last week as the temperature climbed and the sun seemed to get brighter outside, the generous people at Kawasaki lent me a KX 450F to ride and test for a few days. The KX 450 is one of the only bikes we didn’t get to test at our DMX Moto Park ride day so I was anxious to try it out. Now I know every rider has had a few (hopefully) of those ride days that were just so spectacular that you just didn’t want them to end. This was the case for me on Friday and Saturday of last week, the weather was great, I had a great bike to ride and all the work I had put into my track in September was paying off. I basically rode and tested the Kawasaki both days until dark, which seems to be happening way too early now, by the way. My track is kind of on the Supercross side of things so after watching so many videos from California of guys out testing for the 2011 Supercross Series, it was awesome to get out and pretend that I was doing the same. Please check in with DMX in the near future for a complete rundown on what the 2011 KX 450F was like.
Palms riding the KX250F here at our Dirt Shoot test day. He says the KX450F is a weapon!
So after two weekends of crash and bang Arenacross out west, the series takes a month off before resuming in Grand Prairie, AB. Last weekend saw some great racing but a lot of crashes too, as a number of top riders left Chilliwack very sore after Saturday's racing. I had a chance to speak with one of those riders, Leading Edge Kawasaki’s Kyle Beaton this past week. If you haven’t read it yet, please go a check it out. Kyle is very forthcoming with how he’s been doing. Is it just me or does Beaton seem like he has matured a lot over the last few years? I guess adversity will do that to you. He also seems a lot more focused and, as he mentioned in the interview, he really wants to go south and ride some rounds of the Supercross series. It would be great to see him down there as he will probably be the only Canadian on the gate. Let’s hope he finds the funding to make it happen.
Speaking of riders that have had their share of adversity in the last few years, Steve “I love croissants ” Matthes did a podcast last week with Sean Hamblin over on www.pulpmx.com. It is a great listen and Sean’s memory is obviously intact as he recounts almost every second of the past 10 years. A number of us in recent years have tried to get Sean back up here to race the Canadian Nationals, but he had his mind set on a U.S. comeback. I personally would love to see Sean come up and ride the next two years up here, I think he would contend for the MX1 championship in his second year for sure. I think I am just dreaming, maybe we should start a “Bring SH105 Back to Canada” on Facebook or something?
One of Sean’s biggest fans is Ron Ashley of Two Wheel Motorsports in Guleph, Ontario. Ron is one of the guys who helped Sean when he first came to Canada. I called Ron today and asked him for his best Sean Hamblin memory, here is what Ron had to say: “I have a few for sure, but my favorite one comes from the summer of 2001. Sean was struggling all year to find the speed he had the year before, he tried defending his MX2 West Championship but came up way short. As the series moved East and he started riding the 250’s I made him and Mitch Cooke go to Gopher Dunes all the time to practice, they hated it but I knew what the payoff would be. Sure enough in Moncton he was leading a moto and I told Frenchie to lie to him on the pit board and not tell Sean he was leading. I knew that if Sean figured out he was leading, he would get tight and it would be over. Well, we never told him till he crossed the finish line in first. He was so surprised and obviously so happy. Those results really gave him the confidence to take the next step in his career. I wish that guy would swallow his pride and come up here again!”
Well, that’s it for me. I hope everyone has a safe and warm weekend, and congratulations to Greg Workman on the birth of his daughter Katie. Welcome to parenthood Greg!
Thanks Palms and once again congrats to Greg Workman and his wife on the birth of their beautiful baby girl. Greg is a rep for many brands in motocross including Forma and Scott to name a couple. He’s one of the good guys for sure!
Now over to DMX's creative director Dawn McClintock. Take it away Dawn!
Thanks Kyle! Well it's that time of year and everyone is racking their brain to try and come up with some neat ideas for Christmas presents. It also happens to be my little guy's birthday next weekend so I have to cross that hurdle first. I came across these little bikes (named "Y-Bike") purely by accident when I was looking for a bike for him last year, the problem was, they weren't available in Canada. Well now they are and I jumped to it and it arrived on my doorstep on Tuesday. The cool thing about these little bikes is that they teach balance at an early age, so when your kid is ready for the step up to a real two wheeler, they already have the whole balance thing mastered. The other cool feature is that for you diehard factory colour freaks, they come in blue, green, orange, and pink (other colours are in the works). A must have for the littlest member of the moto family.
Check out this factory KTM ride! Pimp my ride Mom and Dad!
Next step up is the Extreme Y-Bike. Braaap!
There will be more detailed information on them next week and how you can get your own Y-Bike right here in Canada. You can check out more images here:
Thanks Dawn! December is fast approaching; it means Christmas, good food and other things but also means time is running out for Canadian riders to sign deals for next year. We know Blackfoot will be back for sure with Klatt, Facciotti and Tyler Medaglia but there are still other teams and big riders without deals. Sounds like we will see Teddy Maier back in Canada on a green machine this coming summer. Question is whether it will be a small bike or big bike ride. Personally I would love to see him try the big bike class as he proved in Montreal that he can be a threat there too. I haven’t spoken with Andre Laurin lately of OTSFF Rockstar Suzuki as I know himself and the team are busy with Snocross testing. I think it’s a safe bet you’ll be seeing Bobby Kiniry back and if that’s the case that is great news! We know we have Kaven Beniot on board at Andy Whites KTM team but the rest of the team is still unconfirmed.
National #4 Kyle Keast is still without a ride. I know Keast has been in talks with a couple of big teams. I sure hope someone can find a home for Kyle because no matter where he lands he is going to be a great representative for that team and their sponsors. Keast is a fan favourite anywhere he goes and just loves to ride a dirt bike. It might be interesting to see what he can do on some good equipment, with a good program and not having to go to work between nationals. Well update you more next week on silly season.
Fans love the Dozer from coast to coast!
Now over to DMX photographer James “I’m so happy Kyle and Billy are gone” Lissimore…
It's definitely been a busy couple weeks here at the DMX western headquarters. With the first four rounds of the Nex-Trax Canadian Arenacross series taking place a week apart in nearby Chilliwack, I played host to our own Kyle Carruthers plus his webcast co-host and all around good guy, Billy Rainford from www.mxforum.com. Also, on the weekends, Dusty Klatt was staying here too so it was a full house. Now, after a few trips to the airport, everyone is safely back in their respective homes and I've been able to spend this week catching up on all the great stuff we produced during the last little bit.
Of course, the main reason that Billy and Kyle were here was for the MXForum/DMX/RTR Performance webcast and despite a couple hiccups, things went great and from talking to some people who were listening and watching at home they were thoroughly entertained. Kohl Canaday even said that he was watching the webcast on the Friday night of the first round and was inspired to load up and come down to race on the Saturday, despite an earlier practice crash that left him missing a few teeth. He saw the action out on the track and didn't want to miss out. Unfortunately, this weekend he crashed in practice on Saturday and was again forced to sit out but he's tough and still learning at this arenacross thing and I'm sure he'll be eager to get back out there at the next round in Grande Prairie.
If you haven't already checked it out, we've had a ton of coverage from this past weekend's racing. I'd include the links but there's so much new stuff up on there it would take up half the page. Make sure to check out our Pro Photo Reports, AM Photo Report, Interviews and Wallpapers.
Another big piece of news from this weekend is that Leading Edge and Kyle Beaton are working on putting together a program to race some of the West Coast Lites supercross races. Last time Beets raced supercross, in 2008, he raced five events and qualified for three. Right now he's trying to balance his schedule between the Canadian AX series, his commitments to the Future West series in England and the Supercrosses but he's trying to make it work so that he can hit as many as possible. It looks like a change of teams was just what the doctor order for Beaton as he's starting over with a clean slate and seems motivated and eager to get his career back on track. Plus, he looks great on his new bike – other than his crash on Saturday night, he's looked all but unstoppable so far in the Canadian AX series.
Will we see Showtime 2 come January?
On Saturday, I was able to take off from the Arenacross for an hour to go check out the new track that's being built in Popkum. They're relocating it to the other side of the freeway in a really nice spot with good dirt and better drainage. The best part is that, because of the better drainage and soil, they're hoping to keep it open all winter so that's great news for us out here on the west coast that want to get out and put in a mid-winter ride. Darren Pilling had a few guys out just riding in a rough track to see how best to lay it out but I did sneak a couple pics of Bigwave Billy himself putting in a few laps. Anyone who remembers Billy's ill fated return to the Vet Master class a few years ago knows how often he rides these days so he had plenty of excuses about his lack of “form”. He's going to be “super” pumped to see this photo of him in here.
The new Popkum MX Track location.
Ok, that's it for me this week. The mountains are getting blasted with snow, Whistler is opening today, Baker is possibly opening tomorrow, so winter is finally here. Time to get the board ready!
Mx Forum's Bigwave Billy showing us "elbows up"!
Thanks James and once again thanks for letting me hang out at your place all week! Looks like DMX’s newest member Allison Kennedy has some news for this week….
Thanks, guys, this is quite the update so far. I don't have a ton to add but I did want to thank Kevin Urquhart for taking the time to chat earlier this week. I've been out of the loop for so long that sometimes I forget how to get the ball rolling in rider interviews ... luckily Urquhart was the perfect candidate for that situation.
Confident and funny, I really enjoyed the stories he shared about how committed his family has been throughout his career. From his grandfather acting as his race mechanic, to his grandma making sandwiches, his parents helping him chase sponsorship and his sister designing his resume, it sounds like Team Urquhart is much more than a one-rider operation. It was a great reminder of what I love so much about this sport: family, friends, and teamwork. Best of luck to Kevin in the coming rounds and with finding a ride in Canada for 2011, now that the CMRC series has finally made his A-list, it would be interesting to see what he could do up here...
Thanks AK! Now here's something from Matthes who caused this whole thing to be late-
Thanks Kyle and yes, you can all blame me for this late update. Y’see, I’m in Paris, France for the 28th annual Bercy Supercross and the main event just wrapped up. It’s almost one o’clock in the morning and here I am, typing away for you lucky bastards. I was also waiting on some actual real race photos from a dude that I paid 130 Euro to but looks like he's taken my money and gave me the giant middle finger so enclosed are some crappy Blackberry shots.
Anyways, I love this race-it’s got such great traditions and the tight confines of the arena make for some great, great racing…usually. There isn’t a legend that hasn’t raced at this race and the fans are some of the most passionate around.
I’ve been out to this race four or five times now and I don’t know how many of you get to do these off-season races with the guys who you usually see on weekends when everybody and everything is Joe Serious but when you’re in another country, all the counterparts seem to band together and there’s a lot of down time to hang out.
Oh if these tunnel walls could talk...
For example, I must have spent an hour today talking to Lorraine Barcia about her son Justin and all sorts of things in the motocross industry, then Antonio Cairoli and myself talked about coming to America, Mike Alessi, how he loves Jeremy McGrath and hugged him last weekend in Genoa until it got weird and much more. Then it was lunch with Micheal Byrne, Ryan Morais, Grant Langston their respective wives and mechanics just talking and telling tales. You just don’t get to do that much at the supercrosses and nationals.
It’s a good time for making friends and laughing. After that it was a talk with Jean-Michael Bayle for 20 minutes (I tried to hide my boner…can I say boner in Frid’EH Update?) and then with David Vuillemin for a while. I’m not name dropping to impress anyone, I’m just saying that at a normal event, I’m not doing that.
Anyways, the format consists of one-lap sprint races for gate pick in the elimination races where half the field gets tossed aside in short five-lap races and then a 15-lapper main for all the marbles. Justin Barcia of the GEICO Honda team won everything tonight except for the very first elimination race which went to Gauthier Paulin.
Former Canadian champion Kyle Chisholm got third in Friday's main event!
There was disaster everywhere you looked tonight as the dirt was very soft and rutted up easy. First there was Michael Byrne who got sideways in a triple/triple section and crashed hard. He’s done for the weekend with a suspected wrist injury. Then in the main, Paulin went out early, Max Anstie crashed into a wall, Blake Wharton went down with headshake, Greg Aranda landed on Grant Langston in a rhythm section and KO’d both of them. In fact over half of the top ten fastest qualifiers went out in the main event!
By the end, last men standing were Barcia followed by World Champion Marvin Musquin and then USA’s Kyle Chisholm who rode a smart race to end up third. It was a hectic night and get ready because that was just the first one!
I heard some Blackfoot Yamaha talk all the way over here in France, it seems that they are indeed going racing next year as DMX reported earlier but it’s with a definite smaller effort from Yamaha. It should be interesting to see if the program suffers at all with the smaller dedication of resources from big blue. I know the guys there will be working hard to make sure the standard doesn’t slip.
Thanks Matthes, well that’s it for this week folks. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
"No Willard, I will not comb your hair with this!"
RTR Performance owner Craig Fortune talks racing with RTR rider Micheal Willard.
Seb Tortelli models the new JT gear!
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