CANADA’S SOURCE FOR MOTOCROSS AND OFF-ROAD
BROCK LEITNER RIVER OF DREAMS
RYAN DUNGEY INTERVIEW THE CHAMP SPEAKS
2016 TORONTO SUPERCROSS BACK AND BIGGER THAN EVER
COLTON FACCIOTTI
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FLOW THE 2016 MOUNT VISION PRO
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ZAC COMMANS MISSION (TEAL/WHITE/FLO ORANGE/BLACK)
2016
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M O T O C R O S S P E R F O R M A N C E // V O L U M E 1 6 , I S S U E 1
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C OV E R S T O RY: C O LT O N FAC C I O T T I The Red Fox is ready to take back the #1 Plate.
F E AT U R E S
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T H E 2 016 T O R O N T O SUPERCROSS
THE KYLE BIRO S TO RY
N I C K Y B E AT T Y: T H E E T E R N A L FA N
2 016 K T M FA C T O R Y EDITIONS
BROCK LEITNER: RIVER OF DREAMS
The Toronto SX is back inside the Rogers Centre and it was the bigger than ever.
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Brent Worrall takes a look at the fastest kid in the Prairies.
Historian Mike McGill finds out what happened to Nicky Beatty.
Palms goes to California to ride the same bike as Ryan Dungey.
We follow Brock Leitner as he spends his off-season on the road.
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE 路 MXPMAG.COM
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COLUMNS 2 4 FA M O U S L A S T W O R D S BY C H R I S P O M E R OY
Drop The Gate
2 6 G U E S T C O L U M N W I T H B O B BY K I N I R Y
The Big Picture
3 8 U P S H I F T BY B R I A N KO S T E R
End of Summer
9 4 E V O LV E D N U T R I T I O N BY D R E W R O B E R T S O N
Time to Get Busy
9 6 I N S I D E L I N E W I T H A N DY W H I T E
Motocross Vacations
9 8 F R O M T H E D E S K O F M A R K S TA L LY B R A S S
Paying it Forward
SPECIALS 12 20 92
EXPOSED CAUGHT ON CA MER A GEARING UP
T H E 2 016 Y E T I S N O W B I K E
Riding in the snow has never been more fun than on the all-new Yeti Snow Bike.
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COLE THOM PSON’S ROAD TO SUPERCROSS
F L AT T R A C K I N G WITH LETICIA CLINE
Slaton Racing takes Cole Thompson to the Monster Energy Supercross Series.
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Leticia Cline takes us through her weekend at a riding school.
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THE CHAMP SPEAKS
PRO DU CT R E V I E W: MOBIUS KN EE BR AC E
M X P C H AT T E R W I T H D AV I D B O N D
We catch up with Ryan Dungey as he goes for his third SX title.
Palms evaluates the new Mobius Knee Brace.
We talk to Motovan’s David Bond about what to expect in 2016.
PHOTOS BY JAMES LISSIMORE
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NO BEACH VA C AT I O N Photo by James Lissimore
EXPOSED Jeremy Medaglia gives us a glimpse of the type of riding he does during the off-season as he prepares for 2016.
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NO ROOM FOR ERROR Photo by James Lissimore
EXPOSED During the opening laps of the 450SX main event in Atlanta, all of the top riders fight for position without an inch to spare.
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NO GUTS N O G L O RY Photo by James Lissimore
EXPOSED Since the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross Series began, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider Jason Anderson has been on an aggressive tear and doesn’t appear to be interested in making friends.
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CANADIAN MOTO SHOW
STARRING
Brent Worrall
the chair on the air Wednesday Nights, 6pm www.canadianmotoshow.com
MXP MAGAZINE
THE
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE VOLUME 16 ISSUE 1
FOR SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES CALL SUBSCRIPTIONS: 416-635-MXP1 PUBLISHER: Charles Stancer/Mark Stallybrass V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING: Charles Stancer EDITOR: Chris Pomeroy SALES MANAGER: Al Jaggard SENIOR WRITERS: Brian Koster, Brent Worrall STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: James Lissimore
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Mike McGill, Brent Worrall, James Lissimore, Craig Stevenson, Drew Robertson, Brian Koster, Bobby Kiniry, Danny Brault, Virgil Knapp, Leticia Cline, Andy White CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Virgil Knapp, Randy Wiebe, David Pinkman, Clayton Racicot, James Lissimore, Steve Dutcheshen, Frank Hoppen, Bill Petro, Matt Wellumson, Dan Stenning, Tyler Spikman COVER PHOTO: James Lissimore
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Left: Fox should have made up yellow jerseys for these future Tour de France riders. Right: The Schuster men enjoying their evening at the Red Bull HQ.
Left: One Frenchman dominates timed practice, the other is all about the podium. Right: Tim Ferry had the same look the night after he raced the Quebec City AX in 1993.
Left: Hard to believe that it’s been over 25 years since Jim Holley was the rider being interviewed. Right: It looks as though Fox has taken over GPF this winter.
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MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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Above: Tyler Medaglia gives his stead a good cool down after a hard day’s ride.
Above Right: Jeremy Medaglia gets his social on at the Fox Party.
Above: Canadian Dave Blanchet gets a little SX experience at the Georgia Dome.
Below: An inverted split-S? That’s the last thing you want to do in the sand section.
Left: If only the trees had eyes at GPF.
Bottom Right: Never thought we’d say that James Stewart’s goal was to just finish a race.
Bottom Left: Andrew Short’s farewell tour is not going as planned.
WE WANT YOUR PHOTOS!
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Send your pictures via Facebook or hashtag your photos on Twitter or Instagram with #MXPCaughtonCamera and you could see your photos in an upcoming issue!
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Left: The Sweeper gets his ‘Legends” Award at the Rogers Centre. Right: JT$ was all business inside the Georgia Dome.
Left: Not hard to tell that this is Colton’s campsite. Right: The city of Atlanta always provides a perfect backdrop for Supercross.
Left: Our quintessential staff photographer tours the swamps of backwoods Georgia in style. Right: Ken Roczen explains why he wasn’t able to win back-toback main events.
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MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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A STEP AHEAD 速
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FA M O US L A S T WO R DS W I T H C H R I S P O M EROY
DROP THE GATE
believe it was Forest Gump who told us once upon a time that life is like a box of chocolates, because you never know what you’re going to get. It is amazing how one little line in a movie can ring true in life and in our pursuit of happiness. Of course, this is especially evident in sports, as things are always evolving, whether it’s for the good or bad. Having grown up as the son of a professional pilot and having seen the aviation world from many different angles, the parallels that exist between aviation and motocross are seemingly endless. First and foremost, there’s the man vs. machine aspect; an airplane responds much the same way a dirt bike does. Sometimes it goes where you want it and sometimes it has a mind of its own. I have also found that most pilots are every bit as passionate about flying as motocrossers are about riding. In fact, after I called it quits on my pro racing career in 2001, I began to work at a small airport near where I live. I can’t tell you the number of times on a really nice day, you could hear pilots say out loud, “What a great day to go flying.” I’m sure that equals the number of times we hear a dirt bike rider utter the words, “What a great day to go riding.” Another similarity about these two passions is at the grassroots level; they’re really just hobbies, very expensive and time consuming hobbies, but hobbies nonetheless. So taking that into consideration, when you get to the upper level of both and you want to make a living doing it, this can be very frustrating as it’s a job that most people would do for free! Think about it, who wouldn’t offer their time to fly a large, modern day jet around the world? That’s the same way many of us would love to be a member of a factory team racing SX. Just tell us where to sign up and we‘ll do it for free! With it working that way, it seems very difficult to get people to be very grateful for the job that you’re doing and to appreciate the talent involved in both professions.
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All of us who spend time at the race track, and occasionally at airports, see it all the time. Some track people and some passengers appear to have forgotten what the word “patience” means. A late flight or misplaced luggage sets passengers off the same way a red flag or a long race day does at the track. Now, not everyone is guilty of this behaviour, but when you’re dealing with sports or professions that once began as hobbies, our society has zero patience for any hiccups. By now you might be wondering what the heck I am talking about. When I was old enough to ride and old enough to know what my father did for a living, I’ve had a massive, double dose of both aviation and motocross, and I’ve learned that even though flying and riding are probably two of the coolest things humans can do, being involved in both doesn’t always bring out the best in people. It certainly can’t bring happiness, unless of course you look at it the right way. I have a real sneaky suspicion that 2016 is going to be an unforgettable year in Canadian motocross. For the top level in our sport, the stakes and the rewards have never been higher. There are at least three riders, if not more, who will line up at the opening round of the Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals in Kamloops with salaries exceeding the $100,000 mark. This has never happened before in Canadian motocross, and it shows the investment that the manufacturers and key sponsors are willing to make in our sport. Remember, these salaries are for riders to compete in just ten rounds of the Nationals. Here’s a quick comparison to see just how far we’ve come: when I was
the #3 ranked rider in Canada in 1997, I raced 35 times from January to October and brought home a total of $40,000, and that was before I paid out my travel expenses. But I digress as that was then and this is now. Times change, bikes have changed and the sport has grown in leaps and bounds since the late 1990s. In the amateur ranks, 2016 will bring more opportunities for Canada’s top kids to race against each other than ever before. With the new Amateur Grand National in Deschambault, the WCAN, the East/West Super Mini Nationals, the TransCan, the Madoc National, and the AX Tour, the list goes on, and it only means great things for amateur racing in Canada. Each event offers something different to the riders and each is worth experiencing. Judging by the number of Canadian families who spent time down south this winter riding, our kids are coming into 2016 very well prepared and certainly up to speed. Just like the airlines with their new plane and new destinations, motocross in Canada will have something for everyone in 2016. In this first issue of the New Year, we take a look at a number of different things. We have a story about yet another fast kid from Saskatchewan, Kyle Biro, we go in depth with Cole Thompson’s supercross experience, and of course we give you our take on the return of the Toronto Supercross. Yes, it’s a time to celebrate and we look forward to what’s ahead in 2016. I for one can’t wait to get this season started, because as another famous phrase states, “When the gate drops, the BS stops!” See you at the races.
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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G U E S T C O L U M N W I T H B O B BY K I N I RY
THE BIG PICTURE
W
hile looking back at a career in racing, I feel very fortunate to have seen the things I’ve seen, and done the things I’ve done. It’s crazy, it’s me, but in the moment, the places you see, the things you do and the people you meet didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. Now, as my career has come and gone in racing, I look back at some of these things and realize how fortunate I was to live and be able to experience such things. In racing, you’re so wrapped up in the moment with your thoughts and your process of what you feel you need to do to be successful that weekend that you don’t really realize what is happening around you. Looking at the beautiful Rocky Mountains, meeting celebrities and just overall having cool life experiences like flying planes, things that just seem to happen often and find their way into your day, you don’t realize the significance of these events in your life. Again, now that I have moved on, I look back and appreciate these things. I hope that all of you reading this can look at yourself in this moment and realize the significance of what is really happening. If you ate at the races with your kids, enjoy it because time comes and goes so quickly. Even though I am only 30-yearsold, I’m realizing this and did the last few years, so now I’m trying to take it all in. The races are such a great place for your family to be together, enjoying the weekend camping. Helping and motivating each other is all part of the fun in this family sport. As you grow in your racing and get older, if you are younger rider reading this, I encourage you to realize what your parents are doing for you to have you racing. It’s not easy on everyone but it is fun, and enjoy the places you’re going and the things you are doing. At the same time, I look at fellow racers and again see benefits to racing. I see many racers walk away with their wives and growing families that stem from racing. This is where they met their husband or wife, and now they are building a family because of racing. This alone has significance to
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“The races are such a great place for your family to be together, enjoying the weekend camping. Helping and motivating each other is all part of the fun in this family sport.” it if you really look at the big picture. Other things such as work ethic, trial and error and highs and lows, are also lessons I learned racing. I learned how to overcome adversity and be successful on the other end, which again will help as life goes on. Looking back you realize that there are some very genuine people in life that you will always stay in contact with through racing, whether it’s a local level bro national or pro-life. It seems there are these relationships that grow from racing. Having these life experiences such as seeing cool places, eating out at cool restaurants, or meeting some people that have influence in your life will always stay with you. I don’t want to seem as if I’m bragging but I’d like to point out some of the cool things that racing gave me like being able to see many countries in the world whether it was on North American territory or throughout Europe. History class was always a cool topic to me, so being able to see many historical places in Europe that had impact in the world we live in was very cool. Places such as Nazi concentration camps are very humbling. Talking with people in these countries and seeing the different ways of life can really make you appreciate what we have here in
North America. Again, the gift of racing is a little deeper than it may seem at the time, but one day I feel like a lot of us will look back and say, “Wow, that was a very cool experience and I’m glad I got to do that.” So I encourage you to keep striving and racing to see what it will do for you. See how it will help you in the long term. Even something as simple as physical fitness is easy to acquire racing dirt bikes. A lot of people in the real world struggle to even understand anything about conditioning. Even a local beginner knows the importance of physical fitness while racing dirt bikes, and again it’s just a good thing all around for you to have. I hope this article helps open your eyes to some of the things that are happening to you while racing. I hope you take in some of the places you have been, things you are doing, some of the friends you have acquired, and make the most of it while it’s here. I know I did and I’m thankful for the great opportunities I have had through life up to this point. For all of you guys, the fans, who gave me these opportunities, now that it’s gone and I’m done racing it is great to know that people cared about my racing. All the effort I put in was so, so worth it because of you guys.
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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Photo: R. Schedl
THE MORE LOST YOU GET, THE MORE AT HOME IT FEELS
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U P S H I F T W I T H B R I A N KO S T ER
A N T I C I PAT I O N
his past winter offered Canadian race fans a few good opportunities to follow the existing Future West and the new Monster Arenacross Series. With the mild temperatures and less than seasonal snowfall, it also offered a lot of riders the chance to ride most of the winter. In areas that have access to Rogers Cable television and Fox Sports Racing, the Supercross series has been a good way to stay entertained. At the end of November into the beginning of December, I had a chance to witness firsthand the last two weekends of the Future West Areancross series in Chilliwack, British Columbia. I was really impressed with the track and the size of the venue. Unlike a regular Arenacross, this place encompasses two arenas that are combined to make one long track, which offers a lap time more in line with a Supercross layout. The dirt is really nice, with virtually no stones anywhere, because it provides good traction for the riders to rail the turns while maintaining solid jump faces. I was blown away by how fast the Pro classes were and the depth of talent from both American and Canadian riders. The crowds turned out in good numbers as well, and some nights the place looked totally jam packed. There was also a good amateur turnout, which was fun to watch, as well as a lot of young racers and women riders. I had a great time out there and was pleased to finally see why the track in Chilliwack creates such a good buzz every year. I think one night there was like twenty-nine Pros all fighting for cash and bragging rights, and out on track these guys did not disappoint! I couldn’t believe how many fast guys were out there and how entertaining the one-on-one elimination-style, dash-for-cash races were. All in all, it was a great experience being out there and it was great to be around the BC racing scene. I didn’t get a chance to be at any of the Monster Arenacross Series races but I did follow some of the results, and from the sounds of things it was intense. It’s nice that the series is growing next
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“As things stand, it looks like the rivalry between Cole Thompson and Jacob Hayes will continue into the outdoors as both riders are signed to race this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals in the MX2 class.” year with more stops in more cities, so it should be another great year for both the riders and the fans to stay involved. As things stand, it looks like the rivalry between Cole Thompson and Jacob Hayes will continue into the outdoors as both riders are signed to race this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals in the MX2 class. This rivalry is shaping up to be a focal point in the hotly contested MX2 class, and I for one can’t wait! After a year off, this past weekend was the return of the Toronto round of the AMA Supercross Series. This event always garners a lot of attention here in Canada, with a lot of American fans making the trek north to take in the action. With the year off the fans came out in large numbers to half fill the top 500 level sections. This was probably the best spectator turnout to date since the series has been coming to Toronto, which was cool. The track surface looked quite respectable this year as well. Even though a few riders made comments about it being slippery, overall I thought the soil looked very race-able. It was a shame that some riders could not get their required paperwork in order to enter Canada; not sure if it’s our over bureaucratic policies or just an oversight on the team/rider’s part. Unfortunately, there were some riders that should have been there racing but were absent. In the 250 class, it was nice to see Justin Hill take a
dominating win; he rode awesome. He put a huge gap on second place and stamped his authority up here in Canada. In the 450 class, it was nice to see Roczen take the win and keep the championship points close. After being robbed of the win a few weeks ago on the last lap after not being able to cleanly get around a lapped James Stewart, Marvin Musquin was able to pass Dungey on the last lap to secure second while Dungey had to settle for third. The Toronto round has proven to be a very viable event, and it always pleases me to see so many race fans come out to support this great evening of racing. I love walking around the streets prior to the race and seeing so many fans cruising around, decked out in MX garb. It makes one take stock of just how big this sport really is even though you never hear a peep about it on Sportsnet or TSN, or even in the newspaper sports sections for that matter. We as a sport always seem to want more recognition and viability from the “mainstream” media. Even though we are getting coverage from great companies like FOX Sports, NBC and MAVTV, there is still a long way to go to be rated up there with the traditional stick and ball sports. We are Motocross Racers who are individuals that beat to our own drummer, so to hell with tradition and all those mainstream media, stick and ball geeks… we are Motocrossers, and to me that is enough to stand alone!
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE 路 MXPMAG.COM
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After winning last season’s final round, Colton was presented with the coveted Walton Sword.
hen you sit back and think about all of our incredible Canadian motocross heroes, many different things come to mind. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, style wasn’t always a strong criteria for those who wanted to be successful on a dirt bike. Many of our former champions fall into that category, of course, no one more than Ross Pederson who self admittedly wasn’t born with the grace and style of some. However, Ross, like so many in his era through strength, determination and brute force, made his bike do what he wanted it to do. As the record book states, to date Ross was the best that ever was in Canadian motocross. It really wasn’t until Carl Vaillancourt of Quebec came along in the late 1980s that good style became not just a thing that every rider wanted, it became a needed ingredient for success. As the sport of supercross became larger and larger and more and more outdoor tracks built SX type sections, good style and precision on a bike became a common sight at the front of the pack.
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Through the next decade, the ‘90s, naturally talented riders were everywhere, and Ross Pederson-like training went on a hiatus in our sport. Oh sure, there were still some riders who worked their butts off and enjoyed success, but they were few and far between as the seat bouncing, Steel Roots loving generation took over. Well, thankfully for everyone’s sanity, the 1990s came to an end and with it the laissez-faire pro rider began to disappear. Thanks to Ricky Carmichael from south of the border and Canadian Jean Sebastien Roy, they proved if you wanted to win, then you needed to work…and work hard! Since the turn of the century this sport has changed in many ways. The two-stroke engine has been replaced by the four-stroke power plant, improvements in protective gear have been developed, how you ride a dirt bike has been radically altered thanks to James Stewart, and the rider of today not only has to have great style but they also need to train like an Olympic athlete. This sport has not only reached the level of other top sports as far as training goes, but in many ways it has surpassed them and cemented itself as one of the toughest sports on the planet.
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There is an old saying that states, ‘monkey see, monkey do.’ I believe this applies to this month’s cover boy, Colton Facciotti. From the time he started riding dirt bikes he’s had many great, infl uential people surround him. The first was obviously his family who guided him very well through his youth both on and off his dirt bike. There have also been people like Dave Gowland, Dean Thompson and Rick Sheren help steer Colton in the right direction. When these adults weren’t available, Colton was fortunate enough to have some of the great names in our sport mentoring him. Darcy Lange, Blair Morgan and Jean Sebastien Roy all took the time to help Colton after he turned pro. To be around these riders and to see just how hard they worked obviously stuck to Colton like glue, and he’s been emulating them ever since. Of course, it is one thing to have access to this type of motocross education, but Colton must be given all the credit in the World for listening to what these riders had to say and for learning from their actions.
“Did we witness Colton’s best in 2015? Does he have yet another level to reach? I believe that he is the perfect combination of old school grit and determination, coupled with all of the new school style and flare.”
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According to research, an athlete needs approximately 10,000 hours at their sport before they can be considered an expert. So with that in mind, as well as that fact that almost every top athlete begin their sport at a young age, it’s no surprise that we see them peak in or around their mid-20s. With training and nutrition being so prominent these days, if they can stay relatively healthy, motocross athletes can have their best years from ages 25 right up and into their early 30s. Twenty years ago this was unheard of because most riders were done by their 30th birthday. Well, not anymore. At 27 years of age, Colton is at the perfect stage in his career when his mind and body are at their optimum capacity. On a few occasions I have written that what we saw in 2015 from Colton Facciotti was his best to date. Yes, he did come up just short of the MX1 title, however, considering his off-season injury that interrupted his preparation, to do what he did last year was simply amazing. During the first few western rounds of the 2015 Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals, Colton was in full survival mode and just trying to gain as many points as possible. Now a few things helped him in those early rounds: Matt Goerke was coming off an injury as well and was in the same boat as Colton; Brett Metcalfe was clearly the fastest rider out of the gate in Kamloops, however, a crash in Nanaimo and an engine malfunction in Calgary kept the lid on his points
total; Cole Thompson was another series favourite, but he came into Round 1 with a very sore back that kept him from being as aggressive as he wanted to be. With all of the problems that the top riders had to begin the season with in 2015, the chase for the MX1 title really got underway at Round 5 at Gopher Dunes. As you may remember, even after Colton’s hard crash in the opening moto at the Dunes, he still managed
to salvage a good finish and gain some much needed confidence. For the remaining races it was practically the Colton Facciotti show as he visited the top step of the podium numerous times. While the eventual champion Matt Goerke did a masterful job of keeping one eye looking ahead and the other eye on his competition, Colton had the luxury of riding with nothing to lose except his pride and his #1 plate. Those final eight motos last summer
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saw Colton at his absolute best. It was the culmination of all those prior years spent working hard and trying to be the best. During the final moto in Walton, when Colton went from almost dead last to third in just seven laps, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if his internal riding meter reached the 10,000 hour mark. Although he did come up just a hair short of the title last season, Colton was rewarded during this off-season with a renewed Honda contract and much excitement moving forward. Also for 2016, Colton and his Honda Canada GDR teammate, Jeremy Meda-
glia, have switched over to the very popular Fox clothing brand. Together with Honda Canada, Fox and many other valuable sponsors, Colton is looking to take back the #1 plate that eluded him last year. Did we witness Colton’s best in 2015? Does he have yet another level to reach? I believe that he is the perfect combination of old school grit and determination, coupled with all of the new school style and flare. He’s mastered the art of balancing the pressure of being the best with not taking the sport too serious. If you do make it out to a race this summer, pay close attention to how
Colton is in the moments before the drop of the gate. Ten minutes before the start, Colton still looks relaxed and laid back, almost to a point where many have wondered if he’s focused
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It’s not always glamorous at GPF as Colton must work on his own machinery to keep them in perfect running order.
at all. Then as the clock ticks and the start draws closer, Colton’s demeanour changes. Just when he has to be at his best, his focus narrows and he’s ready to go. Over the years, he’s honed that knack for putting out an eff ort on the race track that makes him close to exhaustion, all the while appearing to his fans and competition that he’s just out for a Sunday stroll in the park. It’s the ultimate deception and every great champion has that in their arsenal. As the 2016 season draws closer and all of the top riders are busy preparing for their summer battle, Colton and his red Honda are down at his
THE RED FOX
favourite training ground, GPF in Cairo, Georgia. Now as a father and husband, Colton has much more on his plate than just racing dirt bikes. However, like many athletes before him, Colton has used his family as a source of extra motivation rather than a distraction. When the gate drops in Kamloops, Colton, his team and his family will have just one focus, the 2016 MX1 Championship. With a new year ahead and some very clean looking, fresh Fox gear to wear, we feel that Colton Facciotti will have a successful summer and is the perfect choice for the cover that kicks off 2016.
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THE NEW
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ND R E V E N A H MEROY D CHRIS PO N A E IT H BY ANDY W PEN RANK HOP F Y B S O T PHO
SS O R C R E SUP O T N O TOR 6 1 0 2 THE
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rue north strong and free. Oh Canada, we’re back baby! It was that time of the year when the Monster Energy Supercross Series stopped north of the border. The series has been coming to the city of Toronto since 2008. The first official AMA Supercross was held in 2008, and prior to that it was the World Supercross Series that happened in 2006 and 2007. There have been supercross events at the Skydome as far back as 1989, when names like Damon Bradshaw, Mike Larocco and Ross Pederson were the top guys to beat. Times have changed since the early days of beer sponsored supercross races in Canada. The Toronto Supercross is one of 18 stops that the AMA has on its calendar. The series starts the first week of January in California, works its way as far east as Daytona, heads straight up north to Toronto, with the final race in Las Vegas to round out the championship. All eighteen stops on the circuit are televised live on Fox Sports (except for Daytona that had a three hour time delay) in front of millions of fans from around the world. I would have to say that the AMA Supercross Series has to be the number one watched motocross series ever where the “best of the best” compete for millions of dollars provided by the promoters, Feld Entertainment, and sponsors. One of the partners of the series is the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme). For those who don’t know, the FIM is the world federation for motorcycle racing. For the series to be recognized as a World Championship event, the series has to be approved and sanctioned by the FIM. AMA does not sanction any events outside of the US borders, so with the FIM affiliation they are welcome to come to Canada. However, to put another country on the roster can throw a bit of a wrench in the works and make it complicated for some US riders or even some international riders, just as we witnessed at this year’s Toronto Supercross.
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Above: With a short, start straight and a tight first turn, there wasn’t a lot of room for the series’ top riders.
What a shock it was to hear that the east coast points leader, Martin Davalos, could not come to Canada for the Toronto Supercross. How is this possible? Was Husqvarna aware of this issue when they hired him to compete in the east coast series that comes to Toronto? If so, what went wrong? Well, the word on the street is that they have been working on his visa for months and were hoping to have it cleared by the time the series came to Toronto. I guess you can do your homework but you need to get it done well in advance. The same thing happened to Dean Wilson a few years ago. He was able to enter Canada but was held up by US Customs while trying to re-enter the USA. He ended up being stranded here for several days before things got sorted out. I also heard on the weekend that there are a few mechanics and staff that couldn’t come up due to issues in the past. The problems don’t just stop there for teams; it’s a massive process to get the race team trucks up across the border as well. The full contents of the truck
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Top right: Right from the first lap of the main event, Ken Roczen was determined to take the win in Toronto. Bottom right: Points leader Ryan Dungey gave it everything he had in Toronto but could only manage a third place finish.
need to be documented to the last bolt. On that document you need to list the cost of every item in that trailer plus the inventory. If Canadian Customs does a spot check and it’s not correct, well you can guess what happens next. What a nightmare. Roll the dice and hope for the best. Some of the smaller teams leave their race set ups back in the US and rent U-Haul trucks and trailers for the weekend to head north. Supercross in Toronto has come a long way since the first event, and at that time the “Lites Class” was an invitational-only event. The class still had some heavy hitters like Nathan Ramsey and our own honourary Canadian rider Michael Willard. The 450 class, or then known as the “Supercross Class,” was won by Chad
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Reed, and the only Canadian to make the final was Dusty Klatt. Since 2008, there was only one year the series didn’t come to Toronto, which was in 2015. Apparently, the Rogers Centre was under construction in preparation for the Pan Am Games. The attendance started off small at the beginning, but for the last few rounds, the numbers have been in the high 45,000 area. Reports are showing the Toronto round had over 50,000 spectators. That’s a long way from nearly ten years ago when there was a lot of empty blue seats. Things are looking promising for the Toronto Supercross, and from what we have heard from the AMA, the series will be back in Toronto. By Chris Pomeroy
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people making deals, the actual racing on the track certainly did not disappoint. Heading into Round 10, both the 250 East Lites class and the 450 SX class titles were still up for grabs. In the 250 Lites class, points leader Martin Davalos couldn’t make it so that appeared to motivate all of the other top riders to step it up. After a slow opening round in Atlanta, outdoor specialist Jeremy Martin really seems to be grasping the art of SX. With the help of his trainer and riding coach, Johnny O’Mara, Martin has stepped up his SX game and is quickly figuring out how to get around a SX track with maximum efficiency. When you add in Martin’s charging style and supreme fitness, you now have a very formidable force in SX. When the gate dropped in Toronto, Martin found himself on the ground in the first turn with a long 15 laps ahead of him. With Justin Hill clear sailing out front, Martin and his main rival, Malcolm Stewart, picked themselves up off the ground and set their sights on trying to work their way through the pack. With the fans on their feet, Martin reached the top ten very quickly, and by the time the halfway flag came out, he was within sight of the podium. A few laps later, with a few more mind boggling 80 foot launches into the sand section, Martin made the pass for second, and one of his best rides to date was stamped into the record books. Although Justin Hill took the win, no one inside the Rogers Centre will ever forget Jeremy Martin’s incredible ride. Moments later, as the Toronto crowd had barely had time to catch their breath, the 450SX riders blasted off the gate for their main event. Unfortunately, another casualty of the short, Toronto start-straight was fan favourite Chad Reed as he hit the deck hard just as the riders began to brake for turn one. Reed wasn’t seriously injured but he was sore enough to call it quits for the night, much to the chagrin of the multiple Reed fans in attendance. Up front, Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen and points leader Ryan Dungey were e decided to split this story into two parts simply because both Andy involved in an all-out war for the lead. First it was Dungey who led, and I always have a lot to say before and after an event, especially then it was Tomac, and finally on lap three, Roczen took over the when the event is as large as the Toronto Supercross. Like the rest of lead and never looked back. Dungey, who appeared to be fighting Canada, I was extremely excited when it was announced that Toronto things all night, made a small mistake late in the race and handed was back on the schedule in 2016. I must admit, I was one of the pesover a sure second place finish to his teammate, Marvin Musquin. simists who thought that if this race took a year off, as it did in 2015, it would be gone Roczen looked very strong in Toronto and really seemed to excel forever. I thought this because, as Andy mentioned, it’s such an exercise for the teams on the slippery track. His corner speed to get across the border and into Canada with all of their trucks was excellent and his throttle control was and gear. However, I guess the strength of this event and the “THINGS ARE LOOKING superior to Dungey’s. This was unexpected overwhelming Canadian fan support won, so getting this race PROMISING FOR THE considering that is usually Dungey’s bread back on the series schedule was a no-brainer. TORONTO SUPERCROSS, and butter. Roczen’s win also closed up the With the low Canadian dollar and the need for fans to see their favourite SX riders up close, I knew this race was going to be AND FROM WHAT WE HAVE points gap to Dungey, which should make things very interesting as the 2016 series massive, and more than likely the biggest to date. The numbers HEARD FROM THE AMA, makes its run to the final round in Las Vegas. tell us that over 50,000 excited fans packed themselves into the THE SERIES WILL BE BACK IN By all accounts, the 2016 Toronto SX Rogers Centre on March 12th. I’m not sure of the attendance at was a huge success and I’m sure everyone some of the other rounds, but the Toronto race must be in the TORONTO.” is already looking forward to next year. As top five. This year’s success definitely bodes well for the Toronto the SX series continues south of the border, we in Canada turn our SX to return for many more years, and I’m hearing that a date is already penciled in attention outdoors to the official start of our riding season. With for 2017. This is great news for not only the fans of SX but also for us industry folk, as many high profile events marked on the calendar in 2016, this this event has become as much about networking and business as it has about racing. year is sure to be an exciting one right across Canada. However, Trust me, whether it’s evident or not, almost every Canadian industry person was in as our spring turns into summer, we will all look back on Toronto attendance at the Rogers Centre. Having this race in our own backyard, so to speak, is as the event that helped kick off what will be an incredible year in just good for business, which benefits everyone who rides a motorcycle in this country. Canadian motocross. With the stands full of screaming Supercross fans and the private boxes full of
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“AS JAMES STEWART DID TWO YEARS AGO, JEREMY MARTIN HAD TO CHARGE FROM THE BACK OF THE PACK AFTER A VERY BAD START. THE YOUNG YAMAHA RIDER HAD THE CROWD ON ITS FEET AS HE PASSED ALMOST EVERY RIDER TO EVENTUALLY FINISH SECOND IN THE 250 LITES MAIN EVENT. ”
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THE PRAIRIE ASSASSIN
THE KYLE BIRO STORY BY BRENT WORRALL | PHOTOS BY JAMES LISSIMORE hen looking at the history books of accomplished riders in Canadian Motocross, do you ever wonder how they got there or how they overcame the odds? One could argue that no matter where a rider comes from, the path to success will inevitably face adversity. Over the years, the province of Saskatchewan has seemingly produced an abundance of top level racers against all odds. Etched in the history books, there is no shortage of top, accomplished riders who hail from the Western Prairie Province. With the likes of multi-time National Champion Blair Morgan, Curtis Lawerence, Brent Shury, Kevin Ferguson, and most recently Rockstar National regular Shawn Maffenbeier, if you are wondering who may be next, I believe we have to look no further than Moose Jaw’s own Kyle Biro.
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Kyle Biro, like many of those who have done the home province proud, has met and defeated many seemingly insurmountable variables on his path. Born to a father Keith, who rode dirt bikes for fun, and his mother Tracy, who is a competitive distance runner, Kyle would see his first seat time at 4-yearsold. Riding his bike on the family farm, the motorcycle soon became Kyle Biro’s ‘Happy Place.’ As things evolved, the Biros, with no family background of Motocross racing, soon found themselves at the local races. Wide eyed and eager Kyle was very quickly drawn to the rider he points to as his first ever Motocross idol, Kane Dawson. Kane, the local hotshot pro who is still an active racer, was now the apple of Kyle Biro’s Motocross eyes. Not long ago, the Biro family was, in short order, looking at the germination process of a seed planted in the rear view mirror. Making new friends and new plans each weekend, Motocross very quickly became the lifestyle of choice for the Biro family. The new norm for this family of five, including Kyle’s two younger brothers, Jarrett and Kirk, were soon regulars on the Saskatchewan Motocross scene. Kyle, like most Canadian boys growing up, was also a hockey player. At the age of 11 Kyle made the sacrifice of giving up hockey to pursue racing and riding south of the border. This allowed the Biros to get Kyle to the best events and practice facilities possible, a move that has not only paid off but has broadened the horizons and life experiences of the entire family.
Kyle Biro, now 17-years-old, has a Hall of Fame-like amateur career to his credit. His five star resume boasts many top level accomplishments in events that are looked upon with the highest regard. These accomplishments are a direct result of the collective commitment and groundwork put in by Kyle Biro and his family. Before any Motocrosser can achieve any kind of top level success, a solid foundation must be in place. Now that the mortar is almost dry on what has been an architectural masterpiece foundation of an amateur career, it is definitely worth a look into his trophy case. At the age of 6, Biro win his first, of what would be many, Saskatchewan Provincial Championships. By the age of 8 he hit the podium for the first time at the Western Canadian Amateur Nationals in Raymond, Alberta. In 2008, at age 9, the Biro family had Kyle line up in Ponca City at the Grand Nationals where he finished 11th overall on a 65cc bike. Age 11, Kyle was a double winner on both a 65cc and 85cc bike at the Western Canadian Nationals. That year, 2010, also saw Kyle finish 2nd (top Canadian) on a 65cc bike at the Trans Can. The following year, Biro earned a top 10 overall finish at the Loretta Lynn’s Grand National in the Super Mini class. That same year, Biro hit the podium at the Trans Can and Western Canadian National in Raymond.
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In 2013, it was the year when the career of Kyle Biro, who I have come to know and appreciate as ‘The Silent Saskatchewan Assassin,’ would really take off. That year Biro won 13 of 13 provincial CMRC races he entered in both the Junior and Youth classes. It was also a year that pocketed him a Yamaha Factory Ride award and a Silver Sprocket at the WCAN winning all three classes entered. In 2013, Walton was also good to Biro as he was top Canadian in the Schoolboy 1 class finishing 2nd, plus a 3rd overall in MX2 Junior. Heading into his Intermediate year in 2014 at the age of 15, Kyle and his mom headed to Texas to train where he spent a good portion of the winter. His first season as an Intermediate saw him get a hard fought victory at the WCAN in the Schoolboy class. That same year he also hit the podium in Schoolboy 2 as well as the Intermediate class in Walton. Despite all of his racing, Kyle has always managed to stay on top of his schoolwork, and even with the travel has maintained his higher than average grade point. As a race fan, it is always intriguing to get to know the person behind the number plate in which you are cheering. I can attest firsthand that Kyle Biro is exactly what I have coined him, a ’Silent Assassin.’ He is very fast and smooth on a motorcycle and never seems to be riding on the ragged edge. Coupled with his easy going, calm and methodical disposition, Biro seems to possess more tools than the average tradesman. I sat trackside at the Western Canadian Amateur Nationals this past year in Raymond and watched him like any good Moto loving hawk would. Perched in a middle portion of the Raymond, Alberta track’s southern pristine natural terrain beauty, I was awestruck at the capability and talent I was witnessing. Between watching Kyle on the track and his mom, Tracy, running from fence to fence, clapping her hands high above her head, it was pretty moving. In what was contested during a very hot first week of July 2015, Biro ran the table to perfection, laying down perfect Moto scores, 9 for 9 in the MX2, MX3 Intermediate and Schoolboy classes for the crown. The ultimate reward for that weekend was again pocketing another Yamaha Factory Ride for 2016 for his efforts. Yes, his riding impressed me as he was simply the best rider in his classes at that event, but the positive impression went well beyond the results. I was keen to get some more insight in between races on what his thoughts, strategies and fore site on pretty much everything was. While chatting often between Motos and at week’s end, Kyle was quick to point to his fitness level and the amount of stock the he has always invested. It was obvious that he had put the work in as I don’t think I saw him ever out of breath or break a sweat. Kyle credits his mother’s running background and his partnership and use of long time backer, Ryno Power Sports Supplements. When riders reach this critical stage in their career, moving from Intermediate to the top level, it is only the ones doing the work on and off the bike that reap the rewards. Kyle Biro has a rock solid work ethic, and beneath his calm exterior is a voracious appetite for victory.
“BEFORE ANY MOTOCROSSER CAN ACHIEVE ANY KIND OF TOP LEVEL SUCCESS, A SOLID FOUNDATION MUST BE IN PLACE.”
THE PRAIRIE ASSASSIN
THE KYLE BIRO STORY
However, Kyle Biro is not one to make waves or go out of the way to get himself any kind of attention whatsoever. In fact, I think he just likes being another one of the guys at the race track and a little under everyone’s radar. When Kyle is not putting in work that is Moto related, he enjoys fishing, hunting, hitting the skate park on his BMX bike and winter sledding. He is also an onand-off track mentor to his younger brothers Jarrett and Kirk. Jarrett had
some great results this past year in the Junior class as well. I also had a very unique experience and interaction with Kyle at the Trans Can in 2014 that is worth sharing. It was the Friday of the event and anyone that was there that afternoon knows it poured rain. I was holed up at the Legends of Canadian Motocross tent when Kyle came walking by. I rolled out into the rain and mud to intercept and greet him through the crowd of passersby. In typical Kyle
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Biro fashion, he was very receptive but at the same time very casual and forthright. Shortly after we started to chat, Colton Facciotti was passing and stopped to say a quick hello. I looked at Kyle and looked at Colt and said, “Kyle have you ever met Colton before?” They both looked at each other and said, “I don’t think so,” and then shook hands. At that moment I remember thinking to myself, “Wow that was cool.” Why did I think so? Well, yes, for the obvious of
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being able to introduce Kyle to one of the best racers in our country’s history, but the second reason was different. Kyle Biro reminds me a lot of Colton Facciotti. Yes he does and I think very soon Canadian race fans will get a chance to see why. In many regards, very similar traits of these two individuals are shared. Biro is laser-like stealth and quietly fast on the motorcycle, and off it he has every bit of the genuine humility and confidence Colton Fac-
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THE PRAIRIE ASSASSIN
THE KYLE BIRO STORY
“WHEN KYLE IS NOT PUTTING IN WORK THAT IS MOTO RELATED, HE ENJOYS FISHING, HUNTING, HITTING THE SKATE PARK ON HIS BMX BIKE AND WINTER SLEDDING.”
ciotti has. If you get a chance, get out to a race and extend a handshake in either of these two riders’ direction. Wish them well and then head to the fence and cheer them on. By day’s end I am sure you will know just what I am talking about. High praise for Kyle Biro? Yes, but trust me, where there is smoke there is a newly ignited flame on the Canadian Motocross scene. Last year was the first time Kyle Biro lined up at the top level. At Moto Valley Raceway in his home province of Saskatchewan just outside of Regina, Biro qualified for the Rockstar Nationals’ MX2 class with a blazing 8th overall.
In the first Moto, Kyle finished an eye popping 11th in a very fast, deep MX2 field. In the second Moto he looked to improve on that great result and ran 8th for four laps. Unfortunately, shortly thereabouts, Kyle hit a false neutral catapulting the Yamaha rider over the bars. He got up relatively unscathed but the ultimate price was paid in the form of a hot 250F motor that took him two laps to re-fire. The final Moto he scored a 31st place finish, giving him 17th overall for his first national level experience. The final Pro National of the season had the Schraeders Yamaha of Kyle Biro in the mix, lined up and ready to go. After a mediocre week due to some things out of his control, the final national of the year would be another great opportunity for the future star to showcase his talents. I was trackside for this event and was very impressed with Kyle’s throttle control and rut railing abilities. The Walton track had more multiple line rut options in corners than I have ever seen. In the first Moto Kyle finished inside the top 20 with a 17th but he did have some troubles. He was squeezed out by a rider with a little more, let’s just say, seniority. I as a race fan was pretty pumped to see that he had the tenacity and the drive to mix it up with a series heavyweight. Once again, another one of many reasons why I believe Kyle Biro will make his presence felt on the national level as early as this season. In probably the deepest MX2 field of the season, Biro was rewarded with a 13th place finish and a 14th overall for the day, which went into the books of the Biro family as the final national score of 2015. This past winter, Kyle Biro and his family have worked hard to continue to map out their evolving course of their chosen path to Canadian Motocross glory. For this upcoming season, like the previous year, the Biros headed south to Texas to ride and train, one of the many sacrifices and commitments this family that works together has made along the way. This race fan is betting that when the gate drops in 2016 at the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals, dividends will be paid and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan’s ’Silent Assassin’ will be heard from. Good luck Kyle.
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“Working On The Night Show - Nicky Beatty Takes on Supercross.” This was the title of an article that I wrote, which appeared in MXP Magazine back in June 2013. At the time the young Wyoming, Ontario rider was capturing the imagination and hearts of Canadian motocross fans by attempting to qualify for AMA Supercross every weekend in the East Coast 250 class. Fans would follow Nicky’s progress with great interest via the internet every week hoping that he would make it into the night show, and he finally accomplished his goal at none other than his home race in Toronto. Nicky went on to qualify for the night program again in Minneapolis and he was even invited to race the season finale East / West Shootout in Las Vegas. It was a great story and the Canadian moto fans really ate it up. Finally, a Canadian kid had taken the chance and raced Supercross on his own dime. Things couldn’t have been going any better and the plans to take on Supercross again in 2014 were already in the works when things went terribly wrong and unfortunately it was not to be. Nicky sustained a serious injury while racing in the fall of 2013 and was forced to retire from the sport of motocross. Nicky Beatty was on a high following the 2013 Supercross season. He’d made it through the entire East Coast Supercross season and came out of it relatively unscathed. After the Toronto round of the series, where he made it into the night show for the first time in front of hundreds of friends and family, the family loaded up their van and made the long trip to Texas for the Houston Supercross. After the success he enjoyed in Toronto hopes for another night show appearance were high, but unfortunately Nicky failed to qualify by a mere two tenths of a second. Still, the experience was invaluable. After spending a few days practicing with fellow Canadian Cole Thompson and up and coming star Mitchell Oldenburg at the Oakhill practice facility in Decatur, Texas,
Nicky figured something out. It was while practicing on the Supercross track at the Oakhill facility that Nicky realized the time he had spent pounding out laps in the Florida sand prior to the season had not really helped him much. “I had no clue,” recalls Nicky. “I should have been practicing down at GPF (Georgia Practice Facility) where they have real supercross whoops and triples. I wasted my time in Florida.” Instead of being upset, however, Nicky turned a negative into a positive and chalked up his pre-season training miscalculations to being a valuable lesson learned. Nicky headed to the Metrodome in Minneapolis with some newfound confidence and was even asked by a local Honda rep to do some press day autograph signings at a local dealership. Nick rode well in Minnesota and qualified once again for the night program. Proof that he was making a name for himself on the circuit came shortly after that when he was invited to participate in the final round. A combined East / West 250 event at the season finale in Las Vegas. “Vegas was a blast,” recalls Nicky. “Kyle Thompson drove my bike out there for me and we got to fly. I qualified 26th but unfortunately didn’t make the night show. We got to hang out and sightsee in Vegas for a few days, though, so it was a great way to finish up the season. My mom is a travel agent so she knew all the cool places to go.” With Supercross behind him for the year, Nick set his sights on the upcoming outdoor season. In previous years, Nicky, along with his father Dave, had campaigned the entire CMRC National series with mixed results. In 2013, however, they decided they would try something a little different. “My Dad is always coming up with interesting ideas,” admits Nicky, so for the ‘13 outdoor season Team Beatty decided to do a few local “money races” just south of the border in Michigan, along with selected Outdoor AMA Nationals and the Eastern rounds
Left: Nicky Beatty has gone from having tunnel vision in racing to sometimes making his living inside tunnels like this one.
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T of the CMRC Nationals. It seemed like a pretty ambitious plan but once again their somewhat unconventional efforts seemed to capture the imagination of Canadian Motocross enthusiasts. “We did Southwick, Red Bud and Budds Creek,” recalls Nicky. “At Southwick, I was first alternate so I went down to the starting line with my gear on and my bike ready to go, but unfortunately for me everybody showed up. Then Will Hahn blew up his bike on the first lap of the race. If that would have happened on the parade lap I would have been in,” laughs Beatty. His own bike problems plagued the young Canadian at the Red Bud National, which was a shame because he did have some experience with that track and was looking good in practice. In Maryland, he just couldn’t come to grips with the conditions at a muddy and extremely rutted Budds Creek National. Still it was a great experience for Nicky, and when the first Eastern round of the Canadian Nationals rolled into Gopher Dunes in July he was ready. He was in the best shape of his life thanks to the work he had been doing with his trainer in preparation for supercross. While he had not been competing in the CMRC Nationals up to that point, he had been logging plenty of seat time over the previous months. In fact, Nicky felt that he was in such good shape that he and father Dave decided it might be a good idea to double class it and ride both MX1 and MX2. Once again the Beattys were thinking outside of the box, much to the delight of the fans. In retrospect, the notoriously tough Gopher Dunes circuit mixed with unseasonably hot temperatures may not have been the best place to try to pull off the double class for the first time. “Yeah, that might not have been the best idea,” admits Nicky, “but we thought we would give it a try.” Having raced at Gopher Dunes and Southwick in the same season, I asked Beatty which track he thought was tougher. “Gopher Dunes,” he answers without hesitation. “The sand at the Dunes is 100 times nastier than Southwick, in my opinion.” At Deschambault, Nicky had a great race running third for most of the first MX2 class moto, although he stalled his bike and lost a few positions on the last lap.
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He was in the best shape of his life thanks to the work he had been doing with his trainer in preparation for supercross. With the outdoor season wrapping up, thoughts once again turned to Supercross and the upcoming season. “The plan was to go for it again, for sure,” says Nicky. “We made an arrangement with my teachers so that I could keep up with my studies online. I had my trainer lined up to start doing two a day workouts again and we were making plans for new bikes.” Everything seemed to be falling into place for Nicky as he headed to his final outdoor “fun race” of the season - The Monster Mash Bash at Baja Acres in Millington, Michigan. It was at this race that every motocross family’s worst nightmare materialized and Nicky Beatty’s life and future was changed forever. “I signed up for 250 and 450 Pro Sport,” remembers Beatty. “After practice my 450 wouldn’t start so instead of just getting my money back and only racing one class, I decided to run my 250 in the 450 class. The people at sign in said it would be okay so
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that’s what I did.” Nicky recalls having a great battle with fellow Ontario Pro Hayden Halstead in the first 250 moto and the two combatants lined up once again for the start of the first 450 Pro Sport moto. Much to Nicky’s surprise he pulled a nice holeshot on his 250. For anyone who knows the Baja track, this is a bit surprising as the start straight is long and sandy and is immediately followed by another power robbing, long, sandy straight away after the first corner. Nicky had always been an excellent starter, though, so his ability to pull this off was not all that surprising. It was about half way through the first lap when disaster struck. “It had been raining on and off and was a bit slippery,” recalls Nick. “There was a high speed roller section and it was about half way through the first lap when I hit it in 5th gear wide open.” The first roller, in his words, “chopped him” sideways and put him badly out of shape as he hit the second roller at speed. “It high sided me and I landed right on the face of the third roller on my head.” Oddly enough Nicky remembers everything leading up to the crash, but understandably nothing immediately afterwards. He was knocked unconscious and started twitching. He was suffering from a seizure, which apparently is not uncommon for someone who has been knocked violently unconscious. Nick’s father Dave was one
of the first on the scene and initially thought the twitching was due to an arm injury as his arm was awkwardly positioned underneath his body. It soon became apparent, however, that it was much more serious than just an arm injury. As the trackside EMT arrived and began to assess Nicky, a look of panic spread across his face. Nicky had been unconscious and seizing for almost six minutes. Worst of all he was unresponsive with no vital signs. While the seizure eventually subsided, five more agonizing minutes passed as he lay motionless by the track, unconscious and unresponsive. The EMT was a regular at Baja and had been friendly with the Beatty family over the years. He had been watching Nicky race since he was a young kid and he began to cry. “He thought I was gone. He thought I was dead,” says Nicky. And rightfully so. There was no way anyone could survive for this long, eleven minutes, without any vital signs. Was there? Throughout the ordeal, Dave was screaming for Nicky to wake up. He wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t give up on his son, and eventually in a moment that some have described as a virtual miracle (doctor’s included), Nicky began to come around and woke up. The air-ambulance was on its way but the decision was made to put Nicky in the ambulance and he was rushed to the closest hospital in Flint, Michigan. “From what I recall, the place was a
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little sketchy,” recalls Nick. “Gun-shot wounds, stabbings, that type of thing and here I am lying there still in my soaking wet motocross gear.” The fact that Nicky was even slightly coherent at this point was somewhat amazing in itself. After examining him, the ER physician on duty looked puzzled. “There’s no way you should be in this good of shape,” is what he said, remembers Nicky. Perhaps it was his tip top physical conditioning that helped him. Maybe it really was a miracle, but by the next day Nicky was actually feeling pretty good and the day after that he was released from the hospital. As any self-respecting motocross racer would upon release from hospital, Nicky immediately began to think about getting back on the bike and racing again. Two weeks later, however, he had an appointment with a neurologist and everything surrounding his future racing career and life, for that matter, changed in an instant. The doctor immediately delivered some sobering news to the young rider. “Apparently my chances of surviving that crash were only about 2%,” states Nicky. This was something he had not known up until this point. “The doctor told me that anyone who is unconscious and unresponsive for that long generally has a 98% chance of being brain-dead”. This news was shocking to Nicky who was only now starting to realize just how serious his accident really was. “To be honest, I went into that appointment wondering how long the doctor was going to tell me it was going to be before I could start riding again. Instead he told me that I could never ride again.” After what happened and the trauma that he had sustained, Nicky would be very susceptible to another brain injury if he were to fall on his head again in the future. This would probably be the case for the rest of his life. The doctor, a brain specialist, told him in no uncertain terms that the next time he would not be so lucky. He went on to add that he was not even close to being recovered and that his rehab process was going to be a long and arduous journey. Certainly not the news that Nicky and his family wanted to hear. For the next two months there was to be no television, no computer, and no cell phones. Basically all he did was sleep, which is what his brain needed to recover. Not surprisingly, he has suffered from headaches and tunnel vision since the accident. He has also developed an unusual syndrome known as insatiable thirst, a condition in
which his brain tells him constantly that he is thirsty even though he’s really not. “I drink water by the gallon,” laughs Nicky. “The guys at work are always laughing at me because I’ll be carrying four water bottles around with me all the time. At least I’ll never have to worry about being dehydrated I guess.” While it’s probably a good sign that he can make some light of his situation, it was understandably a very tough time for his family. His mom, Cherie, and his father along with his long-time girlfriend Jenna were very supportive, says Nicky. “It was really tough on them, though.” In fact, Nick’s father had nightmares and could barely sleep for three months following the accident. So what is Nicky Beatty doing now? What happened to that kid? This is a question many moto fans in both Canada and the US have been asking for the last couple of years. These days, Nicky works as an apprentice machinist for Central Marine and Machine in Sarnia, Ontario. “We do on-site machining at all the plants in the Chemical Valley,” says Nicky. While it’s not as glamourous and exciting as racing Supercross, Beatty seems at peace with his new lifestyle. “I like to work a lot,” he says. “Last year I logged over 500 overtime hours.” When he isn’t working the long hours Nick enjoys his newfound passion for fishing. “I never thought it would be something that I would be into but I started fishing while I was recovering from my accident and I really liked it. Now I go every chance I get.” More recently he has started riding his BMX bike once again. Anyone who knows Nick will understand how big this is for him as he absolutely loves riding those bikes and always has. “I take it a little easier now,” he admits, and before I can even bring it up he adds “and I always wear my helmet.” Does he miss riding and racing motocross? Of course he does and he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a comeback in the 30+ class in a few years. He’s twentyfour now. “If the doctor told me my brain was sufficiently healed I would go out and buy a bike today,” says Beatty. Unfortunately that’s not likely to happen, not in the near future any ways. “I still love the sport, though. I’ve got no hard feelings towards it at all. My dad and I still watch it on TV every Saturday night. We cheer on Cole (Thompson) and I definitely plan on attending a few outdoor events as a spectator this summer.” In parting, Nicky makes sure to emphasize to me the point that even after everything that has happened to him, “I’ll always be a fan.”
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Split-Flex Frame A flexible chassis helps push impact forces away from the impact site, and also mimics natural body movements to create the best experience possible, combining the best of safety, comfort, and mobility.
Easy Open Simple, yet strong Easy Open system for entry/exit
Padded Collarbone Open Front Dual chest supports sit around the sternum
Compliant padding over the shoulder and collarbone helps protect these areas from the sharp lower rim of the helmet
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6 possible positions, one mount. Chose your offset, and also angle of each back support
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Surface Area By sitting on 27% more of the body than the competition, comfort is maximized, and impact forces are distributed efficiently over a larger area of the body
Suspension 30mm of suspension travel helps control impacts as they happen, keeping your head in motion during tuck and roll situations
Weight Open Back Dual back supports sit around the spine, and fold for storage
At 599g (1.3 lbs), our Air braces are virtually unnoticeable, lighter than the competitions Carbon offerings, and significantly more comfortable.
www.atlasbrace.com
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BEST hen MXP Magazine was invited down to California to be the first North American media outlet to test ride the 2016 KTM 250SX-F and 450SX-F Factory Edition motorcycles, we were definitely excited. These were not just stock KTMs, these were Factory Edition models, the absolute best that KTM has to offer to the public. For the last few years KTM has been offering the motocross community a chance to purchase these limited edition bikes at a slightly higher price than their normal 250Fs and 450Fs. However, with the higher cost associated with the Factory Edition models, the benefits are massive as these bikes are available with features in which usually the Factory Teams only have access. These bikes are the best of the best, and since they’ve been made available to the public in limited numbers, KTM has sold out of them each year. For this media launch, KTM wanted to do something very special for the visiting press outlets. With the American media not getting to ride the 2016 Factory Editions until the month after us, for this launch it was only MXP and five other magazines from Europe. To kick off the launch in style, the fine people at KTM got the festivities underway by first taking us to the Red Bull KTM Factory Team’s private test track, where we not only met team riders Ryan Dungey, Dean Wilson and Marvin Musquin, but we also watched them practice under the lights for thirty minutes. To be able to stand on the side of their Supercross track and watch them ride the almost identical bikes that we were going to ride the following day was like a dream come true. We were also introduced to the Red Bull TLD KTM Lites Team, as we were also going to be testing the new 250SX-F as well. It was a great opportunity to not only find out about the
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new bikes, but also to learn of some of the innovative ideas behind the design of both the 250SX-F and the 450SX-F. It was a very interesting evening, to say the least, and the perfect way to begin a media launch. Before we get into how these awesome machines work on the race track, let’s first take a look at a few of the new features for 2016. KTM has given the 450 SX-F version the usual treatment, basing the look off of Ryan Dungey’s Supercross-winning 2016 Red Bull KTM race bike. Outside of the rare chance to have a Red Bull themed bike, it also comes with an Akrapovic titanium slip-on exhaust, and WP’s all-new AER 48 air fork. These changes alone drop the weight of the bike by over four pounds when compared to the standard 2016 model. Additional changes for the 2016 Factory Edition include orange billet triple clamps, a brake disc guard and a Selle Dalla Valle team seat cover. Also to compliment this bike’s aesthetics is a bright orange frame and some durable D.I.D Dirtstar Rims. With a completely new, smaller engine design, the Factory Edition 450 tops the scales at a measly 221.3 lbs (100.4 kg). This makes it the lightest bike in its class and the perfect machine to tackle the sport of motocross in its modern day form. Of all of the new features on the 2016 450SX-F and 2016 250SX-F, the coolest and most ground breaking are the new WP AER Forks. These new forks are a whopping 3.1 lbs lighter than the 4CS units they’re replacing. This not only reduces the overall weight of these bikes, but it’s also moving a significant amount of weight back from the front of the bike to the middle. This mass centralization is currently the main focus with all of the manufacturers, however, KTM appears to be taking it to another level. WP has also updated the rear shock
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THE BEST to work in unison with these new AER forks; the shock has been re-valved with settings to keep these bikes in perfect balance from front to back. Like them or not, Air Forks are not only the ‘here and now’ on most modern day motocross bikes, but they’re also the future as they are lightweight, easily adjustable and very low maintenance compared to a conventional spring fork. The new WP AER forks work very well and give the rider a predictable feel on the race track. That’s all us picky riders ever ask for with our suspension. As far as the 2016 KTM 250 SX-F is concerned, well, it’s just a slightly scaled down version of the 450 SX-F. With a lightweight, redesigned motor of its own, this bike is also very light and powerful. With a rev range up to 14,000 RPM, the power of the 250 SX-F is usable for both pro and amateur riders. With a factory-looking FMF muffler and new launch control for improved traction off the starting line, this new bike is a class leader from top to bottom. Another very important internal feature on the new 250 SX-F is the special coating that is adhered to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears in the transmission. This allows for ultra-smooth shifting, even under load, and it’s one of the differences between the 250 SX and the 250 SX-F. With very cool looking Red Bull Troy Lee Designs graphics, complete with the #13
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of team rider Jessy Nelson, this new bike looks as good as it works. Additionally, both the 250 SX-F and the 450 SX-F come with ODI Grips. I have to say that even after a day of riding in the California heat, my hands were still in good shape. I know this may be a small thing, but they are definitely an added bonus! With all of the technical aspects of these new KTMs out of the way, let’s get into exactly how they worked on the race track. As we climbed into the mountains east of Temecula, CA, towards the wellliked Cahuilla Creek MX Park, it quickly became clear that this track, which sits at 4,500 feet above sea level, was going to be the perfect testing ground for these new KTM machines. Everyone knows that altitude is famous for robbing a motorcycle of power as well as the breath of a rider. As you can imagine, I was a little weary of both as I suited up and took to the track for the first time. The track at Cahuilla is widely considered to be one of the best in Southern California. With its steep elevation changes, loamy soil and entertaining jumps, the light and nimble KTM felt right at home. The first bike I rode was the Ryan Dungey replica 450 SX-F. Although I wasn’t too familiar with the feel of the KTMs, I found myself instantly comfortable. This bike also gave me the instantaneous confidence to go fast, because the
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Factory Edition felt great in the air and stable in the corners. Regardless of what brand or size of bike I ride these days, all I’m looking for is a bike that is predictable. The bike has to not only make you feel comfortable, but not give you any surprises as well. Both Factory Edition KTMs were everything you could ask for in a motorcycle. The power (even at the altitude we were at) was great and the new suspension package worked incredibly. During the day of riding I kept switching back and forth from the 450 SX-F to the 250 SX-F. Normally I find there is usually a big difference between how each bike feels. However, with the Factory Edition KTMs, I was surprised at just how close their handling characteristics felt. Also, with the added power and rev capacity of the 250 SX-F, this bike is so powerful that it almost made you feel like you were riding something with a bigger engine. Of course, when you’re traveling at Mach speeds around a track, you’re going to need some serious brakes to help
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slow you down. The factory Brembo Brakes worked great on both bikes, and with the oversized rotors, slowing down wasn’t a problem. All in all, both of these Factory Editions were very powerful, handled great, and of all of the interesting features that graced these two bikes, the two that really stood out to me were the lightness and how effortless they were to ride. Again, the KTMs are the lightest bikes in their class, and with features like the hydraulic clutch, you can see why I came to these conclusions. I would have to say that the only downside of the day was it had to come to an end. With my body and mind fatiguing and the KTM brass telling me that we had to begin to load up and go home, one of the best riding days I’ve ever had was sadly over. These limited edition factory models are definitely worth the added price as they do provide the consumer with a lot of extra features. I’d like to thank KTM North America for this amazing opportunity.
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RIVER OF DREAMS ~ BY BROCK LEITNER | PHOTOS BY JAMES LISSIMORE AND WILL TOPETE ~
ello MXP readers, my name is Brock Leitner and I am 18-years-old. I’m originally from Beaverlodge, AB, but I have recently moved to Summerland, BC. I started racing motocross when I was 4-years-old and haven’t looked back, clearly it’s addictive. I started my racing career in the Peace Motocross Association (PMA) and then moved onto the CMRC Alberta Provincial series. I have won numerous Provincial Championships throughout my amateur racing career. In 2012 at the WCAN, I went nine for nine in moto wins to win the Kermaxx Silver Sprocket Award. I have been very fortunate throughout my years of racing in the PMA to have won a few championships and awards, including the big wheel and small wheel Most Sportsmanlike Awards. Obviously, finishing well in races is very important, but to win awards like these speak more about my character than my results. And that means a lot to both myself and my family. Throughout my years of racing I have created many memories as well as acquired many friendships. If it wasn’t for racing, I probably wouldn’t have been to so many cool parts of North America that I have. My travels have also been very educational as I’ve learned a lot of history about the places we’ve visited, and I appreciate all the different ways of living. Other than riding and training for motocross, traveling is by far my favourite part of this sport. Even when the day comes that I’m done racing, I will definitely keep traveling. When I was a kid I always looked up to certain riders and took part in various motocross schools that those riders put on. This last summer, everything came around full circle as I was able to put on a motocross
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“IF IT WASN’T FOR RACING, I PROBABLY WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN TO SO MANY COOL PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA.”
school myself and give back to the kids that look up to me. It was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. With hard work and dedication I was able to get my Pro license in 2013, being one of two 15-year-olds to earn my Pro National number (77). In 2014, I received my AMA Pro Motocross and Supercross licenses and qualified for the final round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships in Utah. It was a great experience lining up with 40 of the best outdoor riders in the world. Even though my results weren’t considered to be great in Utah, I hope to race a few more outdoor nationals in the near future.
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RIVER OF DREAMS As hard as I trained in the off-season, my 2015 Canadian outdoor season did not go as planned. Starting round one off sitting on the sidelines is not how I intended my 2015 season to begin. When you put that much time and preparation into something and then get injured is very heart breaking. I missed rounds one and two due to an ankle injury and then at round eight in Moncton, NB, my season was cut short with a broken collarbone, scapula, and a rib. After the long drive home my parents and I just focused on getting back to 100% and getting ready for AX. I hadn’t raced AX since I was 11-years-old so it took me a bit to get the hang of it again! After racing a couple rounds of the Future West AX and the Canadian AX Tour, I finally felt like I was getting the hang of it again. After the Canadian AX racing finished my parents and I decided to make the trek down to the Southeastern USA to compete in the AX Tour rounds down there. I definitely had a blast in those events and I learned a lot about how to race aggressively. I was very happy with the progress I made and with a few of the results I got! I had three podium finishes and one second place finish in a heat race win! All Winter I have been putting in a lot of work during the week in the gym and on the track. I feel like everything went really well and I know now doing well at the pro level means that you have to be very well prepared. Before I started training for the 2016 season of outdoors I made the decision to go to the San Diego SX and try to qualify
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“MOTOCROSS IS A SPORT THAT COMES WITH A LOT OF UPS AND DOWNS, BUT I WOULDN’T CHANGE IT FOR ANYTHING AS IT HAS MADE ME A BETTER PERSON AND TAUGHT ME HOW TO DEAL WITH EVERYDAY LIFE STRUGGLES.” for my first ever supercross. Well, now that it’s in the books, I’m very excited to tell you how my first ever weekend of supercross went in San Diego, California! I came into the weekend with a goal of making it to the night show, however, I was a few spots short! Going into my first practice, I’m not going to lie, I was very nervous! As much as I tried to stay calm, it was very hard. It is not as easy as it may look on TV (laughs). I felt good in practice but I knew I had to drop my lap times. When the first qualifier came around I was feeling good. I was sitting 8th in my qualifier, and on the last lap I had a great lap going but when it came to the end of one of the tough whoop sections, I dropped my front end a took a pretty good digger. I ended up pulling a muscle in my arm. Although it hurt like hell, I didn’t want to just give up. When the second session of qualifying came around I just
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tried hard to block out the pain and go and ride. As soon as I hit the first rhythm section I knew my arm was not 100%, but I still gave it a solid effort! Although I was not able to make the night show, I’m very happy with the way my first ever supercross went and it was a great learning experience. With San Diego now over, my goal is to stay down in the So-Cal area until mid-May to train with my trainers for the outdoor season. Motocross is a sport that comes with a lot of ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change it for anything as it has made me a better person and taught me how to deal with everyday life struggles. My family and I have been through a lot of ups and downs, but through teamwork we’ve found ways to overcome them and are very blessed to still be able to travel as one family chasing and pursuing my dream! I know a lot of people may think motocross racers just get to live the lime light and ride dirt bikes, but little do they know it is a full time job without what most consider full time pay! Our weeks are very busy with many different tasks. Each week I’m in the gym three times with my physical trainer and then also three days a week riding with
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my track trainer. I am pumped now to be training for outdoors, plus you will see me back next year for A1!! There are learning curves to everything and I’m definitely not a quitter; this makes me ready for whatever comes in front of me. In closing, I really want to thank my Mom and Dad as they are by far my biggest supporters. They give up all their time to take me all over Canada and the USA to do what I love. I’m very fortunate and appreciate everything they do for me. We have many great family memories that I will cherish forever, and hopefully there are many more to come. I would also like to thank all my 2015 and 2016 sponsors for believing and supporting me thus far! Red-line Powercraft, Kawasaki Canada, ROQ Power Tongs, Brocko Rentals, Regulators Oilfield Hauling, Bonnets Energy, Savage Oilfield, VIRUS Action Sports Performance, Lory’s Oilfield, T-Ram Canada Inc, Mika Metals, DT1 Filters, Temecula Motorsports, GP Chrysler, FMF, Gaerne Boots, Evans Coolant, Fly Racing, Dragon Goggles, Hinson, C4MX, Fusion Graphix, True Northern Industries, MyPakage, Graeme Brough Suspension, FXR Gear and Fuel Clothing.
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COLE THOMPSON’S ROAD TO SUPERCROSS WITH SL ATON R ACING
BY CHRIS POMEROY
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ining up on the starting line for a Monster Energy Supercross is every young rider’s dream, regardless of ability or place of birth, just like every kid who spends their youth shooting pucks against their garage, pretending they’re scoring the winning goal in game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. For the kids that make our local tracks their playground, riding out for practice at Anaheim 1 is their Stanley Cup Game 7. However, just like any youthful dream, sometimes their dreams don’t come to fruition and they remain a very cool and detailed fantasy. For some, through hard work, determination and maybe just a little luck, things work out just as they had imagined and one day they find themselves on the starting line at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. Well, one such rider who has managed to make his supercross dreams come true is Brigden, Ontario rider Cole Thompson. As a young rider growing up near the American border, Cole’s destiny was to one day race in the stadiums of North America. Throughout his very successful amateur career, Cole raced outdoor motocross all over the States and Canada, winning several top Amateur National Championships. However, regardless of what outdoor event he was competing in, Cole never lost his vision of one day racing supercross. After a couple of successful but relatively short endeavours into supercross a few years ago, Cole decided that in order to realize his full potential indoors, he first had to compete against some of the World’s best riders outdoors. So, with his SX aspirations temporarily on hold, Cole signed with the popular Royal Distributing Fox KTM Team halfway through the 2013 season to compete for them in the MX1 class at the Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals. With their number one rider at the time, Colton Facciotti finished for the season with an injury, the Andy White managed KTM Team needed a top Canadian talent to fill in. After some convincing, Cole jumped at the opportunity to race the remaining fi ve
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PHOTOS BY JAMES LISSIMORE races. Not only did he enjoy his time, but he was also very successful, winning multiple motos and the Walton Sword. Even though he was still in his early twenties, Cole adapted quickly to the rough outdoor tracks in Canada and the stage was set for an even bigger adventure in 2014. Unfortunately for Cole and his goals for 2014, they would have to wait as he suff ered a very serious knee injury while racing the Houston SX. After surgery to rebuild his injured knee, Cole was forced to sit out the remainder of 2014 and thus focus all of his eff orts on the following summer. With his knee healed and his focus strong, Cole set out last summer on a mission to get back to the level he was before the injury. With a popular win at the second round of the nationals in Nanaimo, BC, this, along with other consistent finishes, secured Cole a fourth place overall for the year in the highly competitive MX1 class. It was a very good summer for Cole as he showed a lot of speed and maturity throughout the ten round series. However, as the outdoor series wrapped up in August, Cole had one goal in mind and one goal only: to be on the starting line at the opening round of this year’s Monster Energy Supercross Series. Cole knew, though, that there was a lot of work to be done during the off-season if he hoped to first find a team willing to take a chance on him and to have his body ready for the intense 250SX West class. So how did Cole Thompson get the call on joining the Slaton team? Well, months before the 2016 season began, the team was looking at signing a clothing contract with Canadian gear giant FXR RACING. Slaton’s Marketing Manager, Chris Elliott, was in contact with Andy White about setting up the team with FXR clothing for the entire team. The Slaton team had a few riders’ names up on the board, however, none of them were legitimate top 10 riders. While discussing riders, Chris had mentioned to Andy that he was originally from North Bay, Ontario and it might be cool to have a Canadian rider on the team. That began the discussion about Canadian riders. Was there a rider from north of the border that was available and could be a possi-
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COLE THOMPSON’S ROAD TO SUPERCROSS WITH SLATON RACING
ble top ten finisher in the 250SX West class? A few names were talked about; Tyler Medaglia, Jeremy Medaglia , Colton Facciotti and Kaven Benoit. Obviously, a few of those riders weren’t available and more than likely would have no interest in jumping back into SX. The only rider that Slaton Racing knew was interested in racing SX was Cole Thompson. It was a long shot as Cole was already contracted to a two year deal with KTM Canada. The other obstacle was that Cole was also contracted to wear Fox gear as well in 2016. The Slaton team really wanted a top ten guy, and they had sponsors ready to support them with the right amount of financial backing, as long as they could deliver a top ten rider. It didn’t take long for the team to agree that Cole was the rider they needed, so the next step was to put the pieces together. The Slaton group had a verbal contract in place with Yamaha USA. So hiring a KTM rider was not an easy call to make, said Paul Marseano, Team Manager. “We had a really good program ready to go with Yamaha, but we also knew we needed a top athlete like Cole to help put the team’s sponsors on
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the map.” The next step was to partner up with KTM in some way to help with the cost. This is where the ball really started to pick up speed. The team called KTM Canada and explained the program they had in place for Cole. After some lengthy discussion, the two parties agreed on partnering up for the West Coast rounds of supercross. With Cole now signed to the team, KTM and Fox partnered with Slaton to also help out. KTM Canada was ready to supply bikes and parts, and a host of outside sponsors were excited to have a rider with some supercross experience. The Slaton Racing team has been around since 2007 with some level of support for riders wanting to compete in SX. Bruce Slaton, Team Owner, was asked about the connection to supercross. He replied, “I love supercross racing. I have been following the sport for many years and I’ve always wanted to have a team to help support the kids.” The Slaton race team is the real deal in the paddock, consisting of a semi-truck with a huge awning, a great paint job to match the team’s sponsors, as well as the best chef in town that follows the series from round to round. They even have their own marketing manager
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and a rider coach, former pro rider Ryan Clark. With everything now in place, the gate dropped on the 2016 series in Anaheim. While many people believe that the premier 450SX class is the toughest to be competitive in, some think that the 250SX class is much more difficult. This is because of the diff erence in horsepower between the factory supported 250F machines and the rest of the field
is quite substantial. So even though Cole’s bike was very fast, it still lacked a lot of the extra horsepower that a few of his competitors possessed. However, even with these disadvantages, Cole rode great in the opening six rounds of the 250SX West Series, securing himself a number of very respectable finishes, including a season high 9th in San Diego. This adventure has been of great success for Cole and
Left: Slaton Racing has entrusted retired pro racer Ryan Clark to help guide Cole in 2016. Below: Cole considers the whoops to be one of his strongest sections in SX. Right: Slaton Racing has provided Cole with all of the necessary personnel and equipment to be successful. Far Right: During the opening rounds of SX, Cole was relaxed and confi dent.
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Slaton Racing. Both have gained valuable experience during their first few months together, and another deal could be in place for 2017. With all of the pieces now in place for this year and beyond, the hope for Slaton Racing is to perhaps field a MX2 team this summer in Canada at the Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals. The future is very bright for Slaton Racing and
for Cole Thompson as they will first finish the West Coast rounds of the 250SX series before going their separate ways for the summer. Slaton Racing is also looking well into the future at the possibility of helping more up and coming Canadian riders who might need a platform to help launch their SX careers. Names like Dylan Wright, Jess Pettis, Casey Keast and even Marco Cannella are all on Slaton Racing’s
radar. Life at the top level of our sport is never easy. Riders, teams and promoters are under the gun to perform in many different capacities. However, with teams like Slaton Racing who are looking for not just success but to also help groom young riders who want to make a name for themselves, it’s teams like this that are helping to make supercross dreams come true for the youth of supercross.
“ THIS ADVENTURE HAS BEEN OF GREAT SUCCESS FOR COLE AND SLATON RACING. BOTH HAVE GAINED VALUABLE EXPERIENCE DURING THEIR FIRST FEW MONTHS TOGETHER, AND ANOTHER DEAL COULD BE IN PLACE FOR 2017.” M O T O C R O S S P E R F O R M A N C E · M X P M A G . C O M 7 5
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BY LETICIA CLINE
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PHOTOS BY JASON PAUL MICHAELS
Flat Tracking
“FASTER, FASTER, FASTER, UNTIL THE THRILL OF SP EED OV ERCOME S T HE F E A R OF DE AT H.” - HUNTER S. THOMPSON
lat track racing is possibly the oldest form of motorcycle racing still in existence. For nearly a century as an organized event, one might argue it started long before that, more than likely when the first time someone took their motorcycle in their buddy’s backyard and decided to have some good ol’ fun. During that time, the discipline has seen its share of changes, shifts in popularity, ups and downs, but the grit is still there and its grassroots heart is the driving force for its newfound public interest. Before we get into any more details, let’s go over some Flat Track Basics for those of you who are unfamiliar with the sport. A typical AMA flat tracker is capable of speeds exceeding 130mph and their bikes are set up to lean hard. Rider footpads are non-symmetrical - the left peg is slightly higher and moved rearward where the right peg is in more of a standard position. Wide handlebars enable racers maximum control with better leverage and better balance when cornering. And brakes? Who needs them? Some bikes are equipped with a rear brake but they are rarely used. Throttle control is the most important in flat tracking. It’s on the gas as early as possible and off the gas as late as possible. It’s also about setting up for the corner, followed by a lot of technique to get the bike to make that corner as short as you can so you don’t wear out early. Up until Johnny Lewis’ school, the time I had on a flat track bike was with the Superhooligan Racers at one of their practices at Perris Speedway in California, where the only advice I was given was from good friend Roland Sands who gave me the tip, “If you see the wall, turn left. If you still see the wall then curse a lot and brace yourself.” After a speech like that I was nervous as hell but I still went out and did it, and by turn two I was addicted. Even after riding for four hours, crashing, losing the ability to pick up my left leg from exhaustion and suffering a small labrum tear, I still didn’t want to get off the track. I spent the three hour ride back to Long Beach looking up places to practice, gear to buy and a new bike to race on.
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Lucky for me I didn’t have to wait long. Sasha Valentine, a close friend, who is a very accomplished motorcyclist and owner of the successful social site CaferacerXXX asked me if I wanted to go with her to Johnny Lewis’ flat track school. I immediately said yes. When I found out that it was an hour away from my house and there was a class for just women, I was even more stoked at the opportunity. I only had five hours track time up until that point so I started Googling videos, websites, articles and blogs to find out all I could to be better prepared. I even started doing yoga twice a day, push ups, and cut out all caffeine from my diet. I was feeling pretty good but still nervous. Not because I was worried about crashing, but because I was meeting other women I looked up to for the first time and I was hoping to live up to my online persona as an experienced female motorcyclist. I wasn’t really out of my element, I grew up riding on the dirt, but that was a long time ago, when my bones and ego were more flexible. Day one started with the basics - the painfully slow and super technical basics. Seat position, body position, arm position, throttle on, throttle off and turn left. We did small circles for hours. I’m impatient when it comes to riding. Every second left turn, I could see the half-mile track in the corner of my eye and I swear it was calling my name. I never doubted Johnny’s method, but there had to be a reason for doing hundreds of small circles, and sure enough it clicked. I started noticing my bike was leaning lower and lower to the ground in each turn and my corners were becoming shorter. I also wasn’t as tired as I thought I would be because I was riding more correctly. We took a break for some fun with a lesson in wheelies and donuts and then headed to the middle of the race track where a half TT track / half motocross track was set up. Off we went and I was amazed at how all of those technical and monotonous skills became instinctual. I was throttling, breaking, and leaning and cornering the right way without even thinking about it; the repetition of earlier created muscle memory.
Our day was cut short due to rain. We rode until our bikes were basically stuck in mud and then retired to the converted container trailer to drink a bit of whiskey and talk about what we learned. By 8:30pm and only a couple shots in, we were all too tired to stay up any longer. Waking up the next day, the track was flooded so we found the driest patch of land we could and made our own mini track, which was a little disappointing but it actually worked to our favour. Learning how to control a motorcycle that is out of control in 3 feet deep mud is definitely a technique that is hard to master, but once you do, you feel like you can do anything. At the very end of the day, the big track dried up enough to ride on and that’s what we did. We rode until it was time to head back. When I was driving the girls to the airport, all of us were tired, covered in dirt and sore, but we had the biggest smiles on our faces. We couldn’t stop talking about what we had learned and what we can do with it. None of us have a goal of becoming a professional Flat Track racer and we had nothing to prove. We just the will and want to learn, and the love and passion to do it.
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SIDEWAYS G N I T T E G WITH
SashaValentine to continue to set a good example and promote such trainings. Personally, I developed more confidence and skills that I will apply in everyday riding. I do think I will carry some of the positioning and tactics to the road where it makes sense, and I will definitely continue to develop myself on the dirt. When I left, I felt more in control of the bike and ready to push forward. I was already able to build upon Johnny’s training three weeks later at a more advanced training held at BMW’s US Rider’s Academy. LC: If you had to pick one thing, what was the most valuable lesson you learned from the weekend? SV: As it parallels in life, sometimes you have to dive into corners, trust what you learned, trust yourself and throttle out.
had just avoided a road accident using the dirt skills he previously taught to me. I wanted to return for further skill development. We talked about putting a women’s training school together and promoting it through Cafe Racer XXX. The camp developed from there, then three women based training camps were pretty much filled within the first week.
LC: That is so true, there are definitely many parts of riding that mirror what we do in our everyday lives. Perhaps that’s why we all love riding so much. What was the most challenging part of the two days? SV: It took time to get some of the techniques, and sometimes it was a mental battle to both let go of bad habits and not overthink the drills. Sometimes you can’t overthink things, you just have to react.
LC: I know what you mean. Riding is obviously fun, but sometimes you need skills on the road that help you stay out of trouble. What did you take away from the two days of training? SV: From a bird’s eye view, it was amazing to see how each individual progressed over the two day camp and left a much better rider. Some of the girls had none or little dirt experience. I think it is important
LC: This was such a great experience and I really appreciate you getting me involved. We’ll definitely have to do this again sometime! Until then, ride safe and don’t overthink. SV: Exactly! Yes, it was a great experience, and the fact that it was just us girls made it even cooler. I’m counting the days until next time L eticia, thank you.
Leticia and friends had a great weekend learning how to get sideways in the dirt.
asha Valentine was the reason that I decided to take this riding school and further my education on Flat Track riding. Now that I’ve been logging many hours on the road, as well as this introduction to some dirt riding, the next discipline I want to try is motocross. So stay tuned MXP readers, because my next story will be about me learning to ride some good old fashioned moto. Here is an interview with Sasha after we completed our Flat Track Riding School:
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LC: That was so much fun Sasha, what was your deciding factor to fly into FL and take Johnny’s class? SV: I have known Johnny personally for quite some time. I had previously taken training from him and
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CAUTION: YETI SNOW MX IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE! C3 POWERSPORTS BUILDS THE ULTIMATE SNOW BIKE KIT
BY MXP STAFF
| PHOTOS BY YETI AND RUSSELL DALBY
or the uniniated, snow biking integrates the speed and agility of a dirt bike with the terrain capabilities of a snowmobile. But like anything else on the planet, the conversion kits that morph a dirt bike into a snow bike have not been created equally. The search for better tracks and skis has been an ongoing concern for many years within the industry. Enter C3 PowerSports’ Jamie Hodgson and Kevin Forsyth. Their mission: To create the ultimate snow bike kit. Although they didn’t invent the snow bike kit, they certainly can be credited, if not exactly reinventing it then at least with totally revamping it. And not just by adding a few superficial improvements here and there and calling it their own. That notion would have been inconceivable to Hodgson and Forsyth, both avid Western Canada-based snow sports enthusiasts and businessmen. Hodgson and Forsyth set their goals as high as the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains that surround them and began their quest in earnest in 2013. They agreed that failure would not be an option and that they would call their snow ‘tamer’ Yeti, in tribute to the Wild Snowman of Himalayan lore.
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Above: The Yeti Snow Bike features some of the most groundbreaking technology this sport has ever seen.
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“By shedding the excess weight off the track, Hodgson and Forsyth created a design that moves more snow and has less rotating mass than tracks found on other conversion kits.” MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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CAUTION: YETI SNOWMX IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE! For the past few years, Hodgson and Forsyth’s journey has seen them create a game changer for the motorized snow vehicles market by giving free reign to their ingenuity and capitalizing on leading-edge technology. Although Forsyth, a structural technologist, works out his home office in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, the actual nuts and bolts operation takes place at C3 PowerSports headquarters in St. Albert, Alberta. Founded by Forsyth in 2009, C3 cut its teeth in the manufacturing of a variety of high performance, lightweight carbon fibre snowmobile products. ‘Lightweight’ being the operative word here, as one of the primary objectives in designing the Yeti dirt-tosnow conversion kit was to dramatically reduce weight. “Basically what we did was improve on the engineering others have done before us. We incorporated a secondary belt drive instead of a chain drive, and used carbon fibre, titanium, and billet alloy parts to reduce weight. Sceptics, those who favour aluminium and metal, questioned the wisdom of using carbon fibre in the manufacturing of a conversion kit, but we never had any reservations that it was the way to go,” Forsyth said. By combining the latest technologies, like CAD (computer-aided designs) with aerospace grade materials, the C3 team has managed to substantially lower the weight of what was previously the lightest steel and aluminium kit available on the market by about 40 pounds. This allows the Yeti to maximize the horsepower delivered and greatly improve the handling of the bike. By shedding the excess weight off the track, Hodgson and Forsyth created a design that moves more snow and has
less rotating mass than tracks found on other conversion kits. This translates into better flotation and higher RPMs. It also allows the Yeti’s riders to shift into higher gears when climbing, a bonus when maneuvering in mountainous terrain. The first Yeti SnowMX prototype was born in the fall of 2013. Forsyth devoted three months to the design phase alone. Some weeks he spent as many as 80 hours at his computer. Up until that point the Yeti had been more or less a personal project, a bid to see what his technological expertise and Hodgson’s unbridled enthusiasm and knowledge of the snowmobile industry could come up with. Hodgson already owned a kitted snow bike, which he thought was a lot of fun to operate. But he was of the opinion – not unlike his snow biking buddies – that much improvement could be made to the whole conversion kit concept. Since the time Hodgson and Forsyth made a pact to design and develop a
better snow bike kit, the Yeti project has become a serious business. Hodgson reached out to some of his industry colleagues, including Scott Johnson of Imagination Machine Works and the people at Camso (formerly Camoplast) and PPD, to help move things forward. Other players were brought in to produce the requisite parts for the construction of the Yeti, which were then assembled by C3 employees in St. Albert. Some five thousands hours of design, development, and testing later – and a financial investment well into the millions of dollars – a fourth generation Yeti has been created. Forty of these units were built initially for testing purposes. Today the Yeti SnowMX is ready to take on Canada and the rest of the world where snow is no stranger. “We weren’t in a rush to get our product on to the market and be faced with unforeseen problems that would distract customers from the Yeti’s quality and possibilities. Through exhaustive in-house and third party
technical testing, then actual in-thefield testing, we dramatically improved the kit’s reliability between prototype one and four. Number three performed close to expectations. It was good but it wasn’t quite the charm. Number four was the charm for us and that’s the kit we launched last fall for the retail market in Canada. Now we’re set to start exporting to the U.S., with the overseas market next on the agenda,” Hodgson said. The general consensus among professional extreme snowmobile riders, including Team Thunderstruck’s Jeff “Rozzy” Rosner and Monster Energy athlete Brett Turcotte, is that Hodgson and Forsyth have succeeded in what they set out to do. Weekend snowbikers like the folks next door, who were provided with the Yeti SMX for their input, echoed Rosner and Turcotte’s sentiments. For these snow loving people, the Yeti is like mana from heaven. The Yeti has truly elevated the common dirt bike into the quintessential “freedom machine”. Now, no terrain, other than a swamp, is unconquerable with a dirt bike. Attach the Yeti track and ski to your favourite brand of off-road motorcycle and you’re able to tackle any kind of snow conditions Mother Nature can throw at you.
The Yeti Snow Bike only uses the most high quality parts available.
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There is one more upgrade Hodgson and Forsyth came up with: They renamed the venerable snow bike – whose roots date back to the 1940s – to the much more contemporary name ‘SnowMX’ or ‘SMX’. According to Hodgson, whose real job is marketing manager for C3, Snow MX is at the same stage snowboarding found itself in when it first arrived on the scene. A bunch of guys made boards and took them to the hills and mountains. People would see these things and find them interesting if not a peculiarity. There were a lot of mixed emotions: ‘What’s this all about? Those things are crazy! Why not just ski down a hill? This will never catch on and go mainstream.’ “We all know that snowboarding became a worldwide phenomenon anywhere there’s snow. Snowboarding became not only a popular recreational activity, it evolved into a bona fide winter competition sport. We expect the same to happen with Snow MX and all indications point towards it heading in that direction,” Hodgson said. “The possibilities are endless. Brett Turcotte’s backflip opens up a whole new arena. In the past few years, we’ve noticed a sizeable increase in the number of people, men and women riding snow bikes. The sport is definitely growing.”
Where C3 PowerSports stands out – thanks to its use of carbon fibre and a monolithic style chassis – is the company’s mandate to raise the bar in snow bike conversion kits. Further towards that end, Forsyth and Hodgson did their homework: They listened to concerns and issues snow bikers were experiencing and worked hard on delivering a product that lives up to expectations. Yeti SnowMX is the innovative product resulting from the collaboration of skilled, imaginative, and hard core Canadian riders. C3 PowerSports’ mission
is to continuously improve and push the riding experience to higher limits. The Yeti SnowMX is designed uniquely to respond to every snow enthusiast worldwide for better, faster, and higher performance. “The Yeti is a product that came about thanks to the input of many people, from those who helped develop and build it to regular folks whose invaluable feedback helped us build a better piece of equipment. It was a true collaborative effort and we at C3 owe them a debt of gratitude,” Forsyth said.
The Yeti SnowMX comes in 120, 129, 137 and 146-inch kits. For every bike brand and model, Yeti provides a specific adaptor kit design to connect the kit to the bike. Check yetisnowmx. com for more information. Yeti SnowMX is distributed by Pacesports Distributors Inc. Canada: 1.877.866.2275 US: 1.780.590.0030 International Fax: 1.780.460.0624 info@pacesports.ca pacesports.ca
DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE BRETT TURCOTTE BACKFLIPS THE YETI
History was made on Tuesday, February 16, 2016, when Winter X Bronze Medalist Brett Turcotte performed the first-ever snow bike backflip. The Kamloops, BC native did what industry insiders said would be impossible to do on a SNOW MX platform. Not that Turcotte doubted his ability to pull it off. And, not surprisingly, Turcotte’s snow conversion kit of choice for the Kawasaki KX he used to stage his amazing feat was the Yeti SMX. “The amount of technology behind the Yeti, and especially how light it is, perfectly suited the goal I had in mind for the backflip. The Yeti was my first and only choice and it worked flawlessly,” Turcotte said. “I never doubted it would, as I had already put quite a bit of time on it, shredding the mountain backcountry behind my home. I would say the backflip is a stepping stone to the future of the snow bike for sure.” See Brett doing the impossible at: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PMHVJLUdWA0
“Yeti SnowMX is the innovative product resulting from the collaboration of skilled, imaginative, and hard core Canadian riders.” MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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During this 2016 season, Ryan Dungey has been both fast and stylish.
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MXP Chatter With
Ryan Dungey
ABSOLUTE PERFECTION
BY MXP STAFF | PHOTOS BY JAMES LISSIMORE
Ryan Dungey has been having an incredible season so far in 2016. One could argue that he’s currently riding better than he ever has in his career. Since the opening round of the Monster Energy Supercross Series in January, Dungey has controlled the 450SX class against some very stiff competition. With just a few rounds remaining, Dungey is looking to secure his third SX title, which would definitely put him in some very elite company. We caught up with Ryan Dungey to get his thoughts of just how special this 2016 season has been so far.
“Chad and I have had a lot of respect for each other for years. Racing each other and shaking each other’s hand after a race or posting positive comments on social media shows a lot of character and what kind of person you are.”
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The Ryan Dungey we saw in 2015 was very different than the Ryan Dungey we saw in all the years before. How did this come together? In 2015 we added some new things to the puzzle, especially the new bike, it makes a big difference. After three years of collecting all the data from our testing, that new bike is the result. I really liked the bike; the chassis got much better and is more nimble. I also changed my training. Getting together with Aldon Baker took off a lot of stress of planning and training. I can now focus on riding and training alone, no second guessing and trying things out. Was your input important for the development of the new bike? Well, I did not really tell them what exactly needs to be changed and I was not really involved in putting it together, but the factory got our input after each race. We noted everything in our report - all the things that did not work the way we were hoping for and also all the things that were really working well. From this information and the complete data they collected from around the world, the factory started to develop their new bike. You and the team seem to work very well together. What do you think is making that happen? Yes, we are all doing really well here. We respect everyone, and also have fun and a good time. What is making this all come together is the team does not allow any weakness. Not that they do that by numbers but instead by effort. Everybody has a weak day, and that is okay, but they don’t let you drag through that without trying to do the best possible. Everyone here is very focused and passionate.
Left: Dungey is a perfect combination of both new and old school technique. Right: There has definitely been a lot to cheer about this season for Dungey and his team.
How is it to work with the legend, Roger DeCoster? That is a huge privilege. He asked me to come to the team when I was much younger, and his knowledge was a huge help for me and the team to get where we are today. I feel like I owe a lot to Roger. The learning curve is much less steeper with his help. Asking him questions and him being there for me was and is huge. His history and knowledge is something you cannot just buy, and offering his drive and passion as a racer and team manager to me at a young age is priceless. In San Diego Chad Reed showed a lot of respect for you on Instagram. How is your relationship with him? Chad and I have had a lot of respect for each other for years. Racing each other and shaking each other’s hand after a race or posting positive comments on social media shows a lot of character and what kind of person you are.
It was a bummer and it weighed on me. I don’t like to see anyone go down and hope he is safe, recovers soon and comes back. Ryan on his crash with stewart
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What happened in Anaheim when you and Stewart came together, ending in a crash? That was very unusual for you. Yes, that was unfortunate. He cut down in a corner while I was jumping into it. I didn’t mean to hit him but I came through the air and hit my brakes before I landed, but he already came down and then we hit. It was not really the hit that was so bad, but I guess when he fell he banged his head. It was a bummer and it weighed on me. I don’t like to see anyone go down and hope he is safe, recovers soon and comes back. Nothing was intentional, I have a lot of respect for him. He is a great racer and the sport needs him. Adam Gianciarulo let Aldon Baker go last week. Some people say he is too hard in his training. What is your take on that? I really do not want to comment on this, not because something is bad or good but because of what people say is sometimes taken out of context. Leaving was Adam’s choice, but working with Aldon is a lot of fun but also a lot of work. It comes down to what your goals are and how you want to achieve them. At the end of the day you make your decisions. What happened between Aldon and Adam is their deal. I really never wanted to be involved in that and never was. It was between them.
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ABSOLUTE PERFECTION “It’s such a long season and we all race so many laps together. You can’t afford to make enemies out there. I just try and worry about what I’m doing and go from there.”
What is the difference between your training now compared to before? It is now more structured and consistent. Before I never knew when enough was enough, or even how I was doing. I just gave it the best I could without a goal. I now know to follow Aldon’s plan and schedule exactly 100% of what he says; I don’t think about it. All the time I thought “Can I do this, can I do that, how can I do better,” now I don’t have to worry because he gives me all the answers. So this was a good investment for you? Yeah, in the beginning I was a wondering and hoping it was, but at some point every rider gets to a point where he has to invest in himself and that was the right thing for me to do. How about your nickname ‘Diesel?’ It is not my nickname, just something someone came up with, but I really do not like that one. Do I care if people call me that? No (laughs). Diesel means slow and taking some time to warm up. Turbo Diesel, how about that? During the off-season you made a trip to KTM HQ in Austria, how was that trip? It was not my first time but the third time. It was amazing. We celebrated the moments with the people behind the scene, which we normally never see. There are a lot of those, I mean hundreds even thousands of people. They are here as well. Then we went to Akrapovic, which was really amazing. I did not know that you can get too specific with metals, but now I am even happier to have the best pipe out there. It is great to see what is going on rather than just putting on a pipe out of the box and hoping for the best. They are investing a lot in us and the pipes. Knowing what it takes makes us appreciate them even more.
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With only a few rounds remaining, Dungey is hoping to wrap up his third SX title.
On the flip side of that, is it harder sometimes racing Marvin and Jason in a main event as you don’t want to be too aggressive? I don’t like to race that way with any of the riders out there. As soon as you begin to get caught up with what other riders are doing, then you risk losing your own focus. Whether it’s Marvin, Jason or anyone, I race them all the same way. We all want to win and that’s fine. Sometimes we might come together on the track, but it’s not going to be dirty or overly aggressive. It’s such a long season and we all race so many laps together. You can’t afford to make enemies out there. I just try and worry about what I’m doing and go from there. You are now 26-years-young and at the top of your career. Do you have any plans for after racing? I have contracts with KTM for 2016 and 2017 and that is where my focus is now. I have some plans for the future. I want to help the development of the sport, and hopefully I will be there as a spokesperson and ambassador at the end of my career.
Speaking of Europe, what are your thoughts and Ryan Villopoto’s GP experience? I think it was good. I think it was a little more of an eye opening for us Americans. I always had respect for European riders, and those tracks are very unique and tough in their own ways, each one of them. By no means are they easy. I think it was cool for him to show up there and want to race them. It was unfortunate that he got hurt right in the beginning. I would have loved to see how the whole season would have gone. It was great for the fans. I mean, what better for an American rider to go over there? That is what every fan wants to see, riders from over there against Americans. You did not participate at the USGP or the MXoN. Why was that? Just for the fact that our season here was done. That is the priority for us Supercross and Motocross. It is a long season and when it was done we would have had to cut ourselves short to get ready for those races. My goal was to get fresh for the 2016 season.
Okay, we just finished up the SX series’ only trip to Canada. You have a large fan base there of all ages, and it was great to see you back. You didn’t quite get the result you wanted in Toronto but it was still a solid race for you. Yes, it really was as I felt great all day. I made a couple of mistakes early in the main event and let Roczen get a gap on me. From there we just kind of traded lap times and I was just trying to ride it out. The track was good but it was deteriorating quickly so it was hard to push. I made a big mistake in the closing laps and washed out the front end, but all things considered, third was a good finish and it kept the podium streak alive. There have been multiple main events in 2016 where you and your fellow Baker’s Factory riders, Marvin Musquin and Jason Anderson, have been up front. Does that add to the enjoyment of the season? Any time you can see the hard work that we put in during the week pay off, that’s a good thing, for sure. When we’re battling on Saturday night, it feels like a mid-week practice session with Aldon, so that is fun and pretty comforting. I really think you’re seeing it pay off with not just me, but with Marvin and Jason as their confidence has really soared.
Your family has run a concrete company in Minnesota since the ‘70s. How are you involved? The regular way, I worked there in my off time in the summers as a kid, learned how to work hard and show discipline. My Dad took it over from my grandfather last summer, and I went there for a couple of days to work. Reality check, but it was cool to spend some time and to get dirty. Thank you very much for the interview. Yes, thank you too. It was nice to do this with you and hope to see you again soon.
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You are now the first MX rider on a Wheaties box. What is the deal with that? In America these boxes are a big deal, probably the biggest here. It is going to be used across the whole nation. Our sport is now on so many tables of families who never watched a race or rode a bike before. It is really a big step ahead and makes me proud.
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MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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www.flyracing.com
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CES A R B KNEE S U I MOB
T X E N N E O I H T T A R E T N R E O G P P U S IN B Y C HR
IS P OM
ER OY
ne of the very exciting parts to our industry today is some of the new and exciting product that is available. Whether it’s new product for your bike or new product that you can purchase to protect yourself while riding, we have never before seen the level of innovation that we’re seeing now. In the sport of motocross today, riders need protection not just while they’re riding but they also demand their equipment to be comfortable. So great protection, with solid functionality, is at the forefront of every rider’s mind. The all new Mobius Knee Braces fi t this criteria perfectly as they’re the best fi tting, off-the-shelf knee brace we’ve seen in years. With their innovative design and comfortable fi t, it’s not hard to see why these new braces have become the knee brace of choice for top athletes like Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villopoto, Shawn Maff enbeier and Brett Turcotte. As with everything, good things never just happen overnight. This is true with the Mobius Knee Brace as the design took more than six years to complete. The knee brace market is a tricky one with both custom fi t braces and off-the-shelf braces available to the consumer. Obviously, custom braces are expensive and hard to obtain for the everyday rider. However, it should be high on everyone’s priority list to invest in the ultimate protection without sacrificing durability or comfort. This is where the Mobius Knee Brace fi ts perfectly into the marketplace as it has features listed above and more. When you have top riders such us Dungey and Villopoto wearing these braces by choice, you just know they’re good. Before we get into how these braces actually feel on the track, here are some of the features of the Mobius Knee Brace:
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TECH SPECS INJECTION MOLDED SHELLS 20% Glass Filled Nylon shells are designed to be flexible in areas to allow the shells to conform to the user’s leg for better fi t, comfort and stability. They are designed to be rigid when necessary to resist excessive movement and provide impact resistance. FORGED ALUMINUM PARTS The Dial, Dial Fastener, Extension Stop, and Hinges are made of CNC Forged 6061 T-6 aluminum for maximum strength. STAINLESS STEEL CABLE The 7 x 19 Strand Core Type 304 Stainless Steel Cable is specially routed (Patent Pending) around the user’s leg to externally reinforce the main ligaments in the knee. The cable is designed to be flexible, resist fatigue, and produce nearly 1000 lbs. of Tensile Strength. TENDON BACK PLATE The Tendon Back Plate is uniquely designed to route the cable around the user’s leg in strategic locations to reinforce the main ligaments of the knee. The Tendon Back Plate is made from a special flexible Kraton material designed to grip the user’s leg and prevent migration. FOAM PADDING The foam padding is made from closed cell ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) foam. The EVA foam pads are designed to conform to the user’s unique leg shape, providing maximum comfort and control while gripping the user’s leg and preventing migration. Closed cell EVA Foam won’t absorb moisture (sweat), so they are odorless and easy to clean. STRAPS The Velcro straps are designed to be comfortable and fully adjustable. Thermo Plastic Rubber (TPR) Pull Tabs are durable to make the straps easy to use and are numbered to prompt the user to tighten the straps in the correct order to ensure proper fi t.
With these modern materials and the cutting edge design, these knee braces are constructed with the rigors of extreme sports like motocross and snowcross in mind. However, as a rider who has never been able to wear knee braces, I was a little skeptical to try these Mobius Braces. Not only am I a fairly old-school rider who grew up riding in an era where only custom braces existed, I also have very oddly shaped legs where my upper legs are un-proportionately bigger than my lower legs. Because of this reason, I’ve never been able to find a knee brace that fi ts properly. For that reason I have never worn knee braces and never really thought I would unless I had to because of injury. That was until I tried a pair of these Mobius Braces a few months ago. Right from the moment I put them on they felt
comfortable. With their form pads and injected molded shell, they fi t my slightly deformed legs very well. Even as I pulled my motocross pants over top of the brace, there was still a lot of room in the knee area as the Mobius braces are very slim in their design. To someone like me who isn’t used to wearing braces, this was very important to me as no one wants their pants to fi t tight. Once on the track, these braces obviously felt diff erent than the normal knee pads that I’m used to wearing, but I was amazed at how comfortable they felt. After a few laps they were barely noticeable. My knees felt protected and supported, but I also felt like I could move around and grip the bike with no issues. I was honestly excited as it appeared that I had finally found a knee brace that fi t and that I’d be able to
wear on a regular bases. These braces were lightweight and comfortable and provide the protection that every rider is looking for. I was quickly sold on these braces and I plan to include them as part of my everyday riding gear. I fi gured that if they’re good enough for Dungey, Villopoto and Maff enbeier, then they’re good enough for me. In this issue we feature a story about the new Yeti Snow Bike and Brett Turcotte doing the first ever back flip on the bike. In that photo, Turcotte is wearing a pair Mobius Knee Braces, which appear to be working quite well for him. If you would like more information on these braces, visit http://www.mobiusbraces.com and check them out. This is definitely one of the most exciting new products of 2016.
M MO OTTO OCCRRO OSSSS PPEERRFFO ORRM MA AN NCCEE ·· M MX XPPM MA AG G..CCO OM M
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GeariNg Up
EVS T5
FXR MX Helmet
The new T5 Helmet is a lightweight, cost effective helmet that looks great on the track or on the trail. The RAM air cooling system keeps you cool throughout the day. It also includes a removable/ washable moisture wicking comfort liner and oversized intake and exhaust ports allow for maximum airflow. DOT approved. ECE certified.
FXR’s All-New mid-range MX Helmet with a lightweight Polymer alloy shell with EPS liner, front, rear, and side diffusers to spread an impact load. Has a Superior Hygienically-Treated, removable, washable moisture-wicking liner. Comes with triple density cheek pads with an easy to use Quick Buckle system along with DOT and ECE certification.
Visit motovan.com for more information.
Visit fxrracing.com for more information.
Hitcase PRO for iPhone 6 Hitcase PRO is a 100% waterproof, shockproof and mountable case for the iPhone 6/6s that takes your pictures and videos to the next level. The interchangeable performance lenses and versatile mounts let you fearlessly share your life with the world. The Hitcase PRO is waterproof up to 33ft thanks to a patented seal system and shockproof against drops up to 6ft due to a thinner silicone Shockseal. In addition, the new TrueTouch Screen is more sensitive than ever before. You won’t even notice it’s there. Hitcase carries your iPhone with confidence, everywhere your adventure takes you. Visit motovan.com for more information.
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Lucas High Performance Synthetic 80W/85W Transmission Oil Lucas SAE 80W/85W Transmission Oil is formulated with an exclusive additive system that surpasses or equals OEM grade oils and is used by pro AMA teams and riders. Its Light viscosity oil is formulated for 2-stroke and 4-stroke transmissions and wet clutch systems that require an independent lubricant, and reduces friction and drag. For more information visit lucasoil.ca.
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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MAXIMA PRO PLUS+
Michelin Starcross 5 MX Tires
MAXIMA PRO PLUS+ is an ester fortified full synthetic 4T engine oil. PRO PLUS+ is formulated to exceed JASO MA2 requirements for 4-cycle engines with integrated wet clutches. Balanced additive system minimizes engine deposits while protecting critical engine, transmission and clutch components. PRO PLUS+ is designed to prolong wet clutch life and offers excellent feel. Exceeds all OEM specifications. API SL/ SJ/SH/SG, JASO MA. Available in: Liter/128oz
Michelin Starcross tires have compiled an impressive record of motocross national and world championships over the past few years. The Starcross 5 is an entirely new line of tires, offering four options for any riding condition: Hard, Medium, Soft and Sand. Michelin has completely re-designed the tread and true Starcross tire, creating an ideal compound for each type of terrain. The new tires are also about 10% lighter, without compromising the strength of the tire.
For more information about Maxima Racing Oils visit: maximausa.com
Visit motovan.com for more information.
TCX Comp EVO Boots The new TCX Comp EVO Boots boast several impressive technological advances. The craft-based construction is deeply rooted in TCX’s thirty years of footwear manufacturing excellence. The boot is fitted onto a polyurethane footbed, built with variable differentiated density and thickness, and fitted with a steel insert to ensure protection in the case of impact. The new Double Flex Control System features a PU joint in the ankle area to help improve the front and rear flexibility of the leg (18 degrees for the front and 15 degrees for the rear). Additional improvements have also been made in several other areas, including the boot leg structure, rubber heat-guard and calf adjustment system. Visit motovan.com for more information.
Torc 1 Racing Shifters The new Torc 1 Racing shifters are forged from 6061 billet aluminum for greater strength. The hard anodized textured finish on the shifter arm and splines also improves strength, as well as durability. Tension spring and stainless steel heavy duty pivot hardware are enclosed in the shifter tip to reduce wear and tear from the elements. Replaceable anodized shifter tips are available in red, blue, orange, green and yellow. Visit motovan.com for more information.
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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EVOLVED NUTRITION WITH DREW ROBERTSON & PHOTOS BY NICK HILL
TIME TO GET BUSY CIRCUIT 1
CIRCUIT 2
CIRCUIT 3
CIRCUIT 4
20 reps of the following:
20 per leg walking lunges
1000M row
Every 2 minutes for 20 min
20 foot shuttle run
20 push-ups
20 x push-ups
10 x KB deadlift
toes-to-bar
Rest 1 minute
Rest 1 minute
10 x inverted row
Push-ups
5 rounds
4 rounds
Rest 1 minutes 4 rounds Cardio options could look like this:
ere we are in April, the nationals are only two months away, and some provincial and regional racing starts even before that. Are you ready to perform at your peak? Let’s take a look at a sample schedule, and see how you can fit this into your routine and make sure you’re ready for the first gate drop. Monday is typically used as a recovery day. This doesn’t mean just sitting around, you want to go through the Dynamic Warm-up (you can email me for a copy), then depending on your age and activity level, you’ll want to perform some aerobic-type of activity for 30-60 minutes each of those days. Ideally you would know your heart rate zones. To give you a basic idea, your aerobic zone is a 6 out of 10 on the effort scale. You should be breathing hard while still being able to talk. In addition to the aerobic work, you want to stretch and foam roll one day and do yoga for 30 minutes the next. Tuesday would be a good day to ride and get in some cardio work. Do the Dynamic Warm-up, go riding, then you’ll want to eat and recover for a while before doing your cardio work. Below, I have listed a couple of cardio options. Make sure to change the cardio and don’t stick to just doing one workout the whole time. Wednesday is usually a big day; you’ll want to get in some riding, a workout, as well as a cardio session. First thing in the morning before riding, go through and perform the Dynamic Warm-up, then ride while making sure you stay hydrated during that time. Afterwards, when you get back home, you should do a small circuit followed by some cardio training. On Thursday, I typically repeat Monday’s routine, using this day as a recovery day, meaning aerobic cardio, stretching, foam rolling and yoga. Friday is a rest day. Get food ready, work on bikes, shop, things like that. Saturday and Sunday are big days like Wednesday when you’ll want to ride, workout and do car-
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OPTION 1
OPTION 2
OPTION 3
OPTION 4
Row 500M – sprint
Jog 10 min. to warmup
Spin bike or road bike:
Spin or road bike
Rest 2 minutes
Run hard 1 minute
Spin easy 10 min
Spin easy 10 min
5 rounds
Jog 2 minutes
Pedal hard sitting – 30 sec
Find a large hill, Pedal up the hill sitting for 3-5 min, use a high gear. Pedal down the hill easy to Recover
Repeat run/jog for 30-45 Min
Pedal easy sitting – 30 sec
Repeat 5-6 times
Repeat 30/30 for 3045 min Cool down 10 min jog
Cool down 10 min
“ See how you can fit this into your routine and make sure you’re ready for the first gate drop.” dio. On these days, make sure you have packed enough food and water with you for the track. You’ll want to make sure you don’t run your own tank dry, so-to-speak, as the workouts and cardio session that will follow the riding will suffer. The reason for this layout is based on micro cycles in training. You want to stimulate the body, allow it to recover and adapt over time. This pattern of stimulus and work is preparing you to perform at races, which typically happen Saturday and Sunday. This pattern isn’t set in stone and you can manipulate it for yourself, but remember to give yourself a recovery day or two. These always follow your biggest days of activity. Have two or maybe three days of high volume
and high intensity work. Allow yourself a rest day each week; this day is best used preparing food, working on bikes and so forth. In many articles that I have written for MXP I have talked about schedules. You need one to be successful, so sit down and write down the days of the week you’re going to ride, when you’re going to workout and when your rest days are. If it rains and you can’t ride, what you would do is double up on either the workout or the cardio session for that day. If you have any questions, make sure to email me: drew@evolvednutrition.com and follow us on Instagram: @EVOLVEDMX. Till next time, rest, recover, plan and have fun.
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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THE INSIDE LINE ANDY WHITE
brought to you by
WITH
W I T H A N DY W H I T E
M O T O C R O S S VA C A T I O N S
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he off-season seems so long! To make up for the lack of moto, it’s always nice to get away and head south to watch some supercross races. I have been fortunate enough to attend A2, San Diego and Daytona. Each one of these events has their own special atmosphere that can only be experienced in person. Anaheim is located right in the middle of the LA zone. Once you step off the airplane at LAX it is only about an hour to Angel Stadium. This venue is a full-time baseball stadium, so the footprint is slightly smaller than, say, Texas. The fact that the motocross industry is largely based in that area of California, you usually see all the important industry people floating around. It’s pretty cool to see guys like Broc Glover, Marty Smith, David Bailey and tons more who are all very approachable in the pit area. Angel Stadium has no roof so you better make sure you’ve packed the sunscreen if you’re from the north or be prepared to be burnt to a crisp by show time. The pit area is massive with tons of race trucks and factory riders’ RVs. It will take you a few hours to walk the pit area because every team has some kind of promotion or giveaway going on. I think this is the best way to connect to
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the people that pay to see the races. How cool is it to be able to walk up to the Factory Yamaha team and actually be able to talk to Chad Reed?! These riders, like Chad, have figured out how to market themselves to the public. I bet Chad Reed’s Team 22 gets a few dollars from every item that is sold in the world with his name branded to it. It’s the same way in the NASCAR program; racers keep their race numbers for life. I like that program. It makes it so much easier to recognize your favourite riders from year to year and it also gives a chance for the racer to cash in on their marketing. If the rider knows in the back of his head that he has product out there to sell with his name directly connected to it, I think he or she will be out meeting his fans all day long. Riders that hide in their truck from the public have not quite figured this out yet. Every day that passes is lost revenue. Lastly, this brings me to the Daytona Supercross. It’s been on the schedule for 25 years. The track is located on the infield of the super speedway oval so it makes for a unique set up, unlike any of the other rounds. Right in front of the pit area, there is a patch of grass that they build the track on. The seats are on one side of the track, and it’s a long and narrow track. If you want to see the whole track you better sit high up. This track is built by the GOAT of motocross, Ricky Carmichael. This is probably one of the toughest tracks to build on the circuit because there is not much of a footprint to build on. The dirt is made up of pretty well sand and some clay to build up the jump faces. It looks like a nice, smooth track in the morning but by the end of practice it resembles an outdoor national track like Southwick. Getting your suspension dialed on this track is not even close to what you would use at Atlanta or any of the other SX tracks. The teams usually stop in Florida the week before and start testing on sand tracks. Due to the roughness of the track, it usually ends up having long lap times. The final in the 450 class is 20 laps, so that equals around a 25 minute moto in the sand. Trust me, you had better be in great shape for this stop in the series. The factory teams park their semi-trucks in the “paddock” as they call it. They then unload their equipment and pit out of the garages that are used by the NASCAR race
teams. It’s pretty cool to see all the factory rigs parked side by side. In this stadium there is no shade at all except in the building area where the restaurants are. You are back out in the sun all day long. The seating area is pretty good but if you are a moto head you will want to buy the extra special ticket that gets you down on the actual race track banking area. You are right up against the track and you can walk up and down the track to view diff erent sections. The only problem is your toes hurt like hell at the end of the night from standing on the 27 degree race track. The day after the supercross, 750 amateur riders invade the pit area for the one-off special Ricky Carmichael amateur supercross days. Riders from all over the US and Canada sign up to compete in 40 plus classes for the next two days. I heard there were just over 1500 entries this year. There are a ton of qualifiers on Sunday before the main motos start up. It’s not cheap to race at Daytona; first class is $150, 2nd class is $80. Each camper set up pays $150-$200 depending if you want electricity. Then you pay $110 per person for the two days of racing. At least the ticket includes a ticket for the supercross on Saturday. So a quick total, if you ride two classes and you and your buddy show up and park for the three days, is a total of $730 please. How would you like to pay that sir? For you Canadians doing the exchange math, that works out to $1000 Canadian! This was the first time I have been to the amateur event; I can’t believe how fast some of these kids are today. The track is tamed down so the kids will not kill themselves but the track still had the wall jump that most fast kids were still jumping (even the kids on 65cc and 85cc bikes). I was impressed with the talent that is right around the corner. The track maintenance team did a fantastic job of watering and grooming the track for the full two days. As they were coming off the track, the 30 second board was up in the air for the next race. Once the event is over, most of the fast kids pack up and head to Texas to compete at the next big Amateur event at Freestone to do it all over again. There is something to be said for experiencing these events in person, and I encourage anyone who hasn’t to give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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CHATTER otovan Corporation has been a long-time supporter of not just the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals but also the sport of motocross in general. For many years, Motovan has been at the forefront of sponsorship, and through the products they distribute, they’ve helped grow this sport from the grassroots level right up to the pro class. With exciting new things like the introduction of Canvas MX Gear, as well as the Black Rider Program, we caught up with Motovan’s Marketing Project Leader, David Bond, to see just how excited he is for 2016.
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MXP: Did you make it to the Toronto SX? DB: Of course! I wouldn’t have missed it for anything! It was a first for me and I must say it was quite the show! After spending most of last summer on the tracks across Canada, it was good to be back in that environment with all the industry players in one place, and to see so many of our Canadian riders that made the trip from every province to attend. It was great seeing many familiar faces, catching up on what everyone did in their off-season and hearing of their plans for 2016. MXP: How long have you been with Motovan and what is your exact job description? DB: I’ve been at Motovan now for a year, although I’ve been in the motorsports industry for about 10 years in sponsorship and events (mainly in the Formula 1 industry). My title is Marketing Project Leader. The Marketing Dept. at Motovan has grown significantly and my role was designed to get the message from the companies we distribute in Canada to the consumer. In a nut shell, Sponsorship, Social Media, Media Relations, Events & Dealer Marketing! I have the pleasure of working with an amazing team that is dedicated to this industry! MXP: What major Motocross brands does Motovan distribute? DB: Which ones don’t we?! Most of the major quality brands and supporters of the Canadian & International MX Scene like: Shoei, Zox, Leatt, EVS, Five Advanced Gloves, Scott Goggles, Dunlop, Motul, EBC Brakes, Pro Circuit, Cycra, Hitcase, FMF, and Works Connection. MXP: On average, how many sponsorship requests do you get in a year? DB: I have to say this year was really a HUGE year! We opened up a tab on our web page for sponsorship in order to open up the off ering to everyone. It also permitted me to see who too look out for in the next year or so. It is not because we turn you down this year that you didn’t get noticed. I’ll be looking out all year for new talent and riders who
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W I T H D AVID BOND BY CHRIS POMEROY
already make a good job representing Motovan’s brands without even being sponsored by us. Performance is not the only thing that is looked at. Attitude on and off the track goes a long way. MXP: Motovan has been a long-time supporter of the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals. What is it about this series that attracts a company like Motovan? DB: The Paladino family, who are the owners of Motovan, have always made a point of honour of supporting the sport in Canada and at every level. The Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals is a great way to showcase some great partners that provide riders with quality parts and gear without whom we couldn’t make it happen. The involvement of companies like Dunlop, EBC Brakes, Motul, Scott Goggles and many others make this series better and better every year. It is also important for us to grow our professional series in Canada, which is a high level of competition, and to help our amateurs have something to aim for as a dream in their backyard.
MXP: When you’re not at the office, what are some things you like to do to relax and forget about work? DB: Forget about work… I don’t do that! I have to say that for the past year I’ve been at tracks most weekends, and working hard to get this program and to support as many events as I could. That being said, I want to embrace the sport so I have plans to be out myself on a bike once a week as soon as the XTown training center opens up near Montreal so I can know what I’m talking about! That’s how committed I am! I guess it’ll help me manage my excessive nature and adrenaline rush and get my head out of work. I’ll also have to save time for my wife-to-be (Steph) and two teens (Sandrine, Mathy), since starting in June the Nationals and provincial races will be taking most of my time. Steph has been wonderful with understanding this sport and embracing the fact that I need to be onsite to be part of the community that is racing, so when you see me at the track with her, smile!!!
MXP: What are some of the new things that Motovan has planned for 2016? DB: Well, I can tell you guys that this year we are launching an exclusive sponsorship program called the “Black Rider.” This program is designed with an objective to support amateurs and young upcoming pros with a ‘’factory-type’’ sponsorship. Alongside our partners, we’ll be providing theses racers with all gear and parts for the 2016 season. The gear will be custom made by Canvas MX with the exclusive Black Rider logo, while the boots will be provided by TCX and gloves by Five Advanced Gloves. For parts, many riders will have diff erent parts suppliers all available at Motovan. We will provide them training in Social Media exposure, and get them to really become knowledgeable in the exceptional gear and parts they represent. This means that we had a tough choice to make in a great selection of athletes for this year. Between the huge amounts of riders that were supported by Motovan already in some way or another to all the new resumes we received, it was really a tough choice. The number is also limited since we sponsor most motosports and ATVs, so stay tuned to find out the final list. I can already say that our top riders will be Mike DaSilva, Eve Brodeur & J-C ‘’Buzz’’ Bujold; all athletes that represent the values of the Motovan family alongside those of the Black Riders.
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F R O M T H E D E S K O F M A R K S TA L LY B R A S S
P AY I N G I T F O R W A R D
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ust around the corner is the 24th Annual Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals sanctioned by CMRC. A lot of people, including myself, take for granted what the series has created and generated, but when you think about it, it’s very clear why the Nationals are the focus and cornerstone of Canadian Motocross. Back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Motocross racing at the professional level was at its lowest point in history. The series had no marketing or promotion behind it, the attention and hype was nonexistent, and only one rider, Ross Pederson, could make a half decent living out of racing. Low entries at the amateur level were a direct result of the poor status of the Nationals. Why would you dream about and spend all of your time and energy to be part of a series that no one cared or knew about? The motivational factor needed help from Pee Wee to Pro. The current CMRC Nationals took time to get to today’s level, but every year, right from the start in ’93, improvements were made and steps were taken forward. The first televised outdoor national in 1996 was the start to something big, an increased purse and manufacturer contingency attracted a lot of riders, the first appearance of big rigs in the pits raised a few eyebrows at the turn of the century, and the hiring of top Americans put Canada on the world’s motocross map. Huge investments of time, money, hard work, determination and patience has the Nationals positioned as “the best ever” and they strengthen every year. Look at all of the people that make a living based on the National series. There are at least ten pro riders that make not just a half decent living, but several a very good living, and a few even into six figures. Many team managers / owners profit from the nationals, as they should, plus there are many more mechanics and administrators out there that earn their share. How many personal trainers and facilities do you hear about now? They’re not in business for someone to win club races, it’s all about winning CMRC National
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“ There are at least ten pro riders that make not just a half decent living, but several a very good living, and a few even into six figures.”
PHOTO BY JAMES LISSIMORE
Championships. How many magazines and websites make their living because of the nationals? And each one of these media outlets employs journalists, photographers, graphic designers, etc.; no one does it for free! Look at the investment teams and riders are making, and the financial spin-off for the economy as a result. There were never teams going south to “test” four to five months prior to the start of the Canadian Nationals. Instead, there were a few number of riders that threw their bikes in the back of their van, but they sure as hell weren’t being paid to do it. Needless to say, having a full time mechanic with you while you trained, practiced and raced was a pipe dream. Each round of the series generates well over a million dollars for each local economy. Think of the restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, hardware stores, motels, hotels, rental car companies, and especially airlines that benefit when the motocross circus comes to town. I’m sure they all appreciate us.
Maybe the greatest beneficiaries of the current status of the CMRC Nationals are amateurs from coast to coast. It is true only a small percentage of riders will make it to the Pro class and even fewer to crack the top ten, but look at the payoff if you reach Canadian Motocross stardom! That’s why every amateur dreams of making it big at the Nationals, because it’s a tangible goal, which gives them a reason to keep going out weekend after weekend. Just like hockey, did you ever dream of being Gretzky, Crosby or now McDavid? That’s what kept you going to the rink. If the Beer League was at the top of the pile it just wouldn’t be the same. I can’t even imagine how many millions of dollars are invested and spent on the Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross Nationals each and every year when you take into consideration all of the players that have a role. What I do know is I’m very proud of the fact that I took a huge chance twenty-four years ago and started the series, because it has paid off … for everyone!
MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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