Monday Gate Drop

As I sit here on this hot Monday morning reflecting on what happened yesterday at Round 5 of the 2013 Monster Energy Motocross Nationals, really all I can think of is Wow!! If you were there then you know exactly what I’m talking about (and you’re probably sun burnt and dehydrated). If you weren’t able to make the trek to Gopher Dunes then please let me fill you in. You see, yesterday wasn’t so much about motocross or racing dirt bikes or even trying to win. For almost every single rider who lined up on the gate, it was about survival. It was about trying to do the best you could without depleting your energy so much that it would make it impossible to even recover for next week’s race in Sand Del Lee.

 There are a number of storylines that came out of yesterday like a really bad mud race, the story was more about a lot of riders that were very inconsistent. In the MX2 class, points leader Austin Politelli rode to a very conservative second place in moto one, only to tangle with another rider early in moto two, then it took him two laps to get his bike running. Amazingly, he stayed out and finished but he scored zero points in that moto. His bad luck was overshadowed by the dominant ride of Topher Ingalls, who went 1-2 for the overall victory in the MX2 class. Topher looks very hungry right now and is riding with a ton of confidence.

 Also in the MX2 class, the sounds of two-strokes were everywhere. Fifteen year-old Dylan Wright rode very smart and finished an amazing third overall on his YZ 250. It wasn’t just the fact that this talented kid finished so well, it was just how he did it. In both motos he had to face adversity, but he stuck with it and let everyone else make the mistakes. This kid obviously has a bright future and since he is part of the MX101 program, he has the proper guidance to make sure he stays grounded and focused.

 In the MX1 class, the Hard Luck Award has to go to Teddy Maier. After finishing an amazing third in moto one, Maier was involved in a first turn pile up which caused his KX450 enough damage that he was done for the day. It was a very unfortunate break for Teddy and now he will be playing catch up in the points for the remaining four rounds. The first turn pile up that cost Maier a DNF also claimed Dusty Klatt and the MX1 points leader Brett Metcalfe, who for the third round in a row would start at the back of the pack in moto two. In fact, the second MX1 moto was so good that I want to dissect it for you now.

 When the gate dropped for moto two in the MX1 class a few of the top riders found themselves on the ground in the first turn. Up front, it was Tyler Medaglia who grabbed his second holeshot of the day. Actually, one interesting side note from yesterday, all four holeshots came from the same gate, the gate just to the left of the box. Tyler got only one lap of clear vision as American sand specialist Mike Sottile found a way past and immediately pulled away. Meanwhile back in the pack, Brett Metcalfe had passed half of the field of riders in two laps, and Kyle Keast, who started outside the top twenty, had quickly made his way to tenth place.

 This is when the moto started to get very interesting. With Sottile way out front it looked as though he had things under control. For the second time in two motos, Sottile came around with a green hay bale cover wrapped up in his Honda’s rear wheel. This spelled the end for Sottile and soon Cole Thompson was leading and pulling away. Behind Cole, Metcalfe and Keast were on a sure collision course as they both continued to slice and dice through their competition. To see Metcalfe come through the pack was expected, since we’ve seen it in Calgary and Edmonton, but to see Keast who was racing his first National in over a year do it was very impressive.

 Around the seventeen minute mark of the moto, with Thompson way out front, Metcalfe came from almost dead last to fourth and was on the rear wheel of Kyle Keast. I’m sure at this point Metcalfe was thinking that he was just going to dispatch the #37 and move on, but for anyone that knows Keast and the pride he has, especially when racing in front of his Ontario fans, this was just the beginning of a battle. For three laps Metcalfe couldn’t get by Keast and at one point actually lost ground to him. Keast simply would not give up the position. As these two battled, the unthinkable happened to Thompson as he cart wheeled over the big step up in the back section of the track and had to pull off for a few laps to regain his composure.

With Thompson out, what started as a first turn pile up for one rider and a very bad start for another was now a battle for the second MX1 moto win between two athletes that don’t know what the word ‘quit’ means. As it has so many times in this sport over the years, when two riders are riding at virtually the same speed, it all came down to one section on the track. With Keast faster in the middle part of the track and over the finish line section, and Metcalfe faster in the back section, the section that would determine the race was the deep whoop section, which sat just to the right of the start.

Sorry for the cell phone photos but I took these after the moto. This was the tricky entrance to the section. Metcalfe was going inside and Keast was going in the middle.

I was standing beside these whoops for the entire moto and how Keast and Metcalfe approached this tricky section couldn’t have been more different. While Metcalfe used a small braking bump at the beginning of the section to hop up over the first big whoop, this allowed him to double through the section and carry a lot of speed at the end of the whoops, something he did consistently almost every lap. To no one’s surprise, Keast entered the section a lot faster and just muscled his Yamaha over each whoop by carrying the front wheel over the bumps. Both techniques were fast, but as it turned out one way was a tad more consistent.

This was taken while I was standing on top of the first whoop. You can see just how deep they are.

 With just a few laps remaining, Keast got a little sideways in this section and shot off the track and into a tire. Although Keast got going and finished an amazing second, his crash handed the win to Metcalfe and for this week at least, the battle in the sand went to the Kawasaki rider. Both riders deserved to win this moto. For Metcalfe it was another step towards what might be a National Championship. For Keast, it was a performance that came straight from the heart and from a rider that shows every attribute of a champion. Hopefully these two find themselves in another battle real soon. With two more sand tracks on the schedule I have a feeling they will.

As you can see here, the riders had to deal with ruts that were a foot deep as well. The riders yesterday were true heros. This is when Keast started to get a little sideways before going off the track.

 In closing this week, I just want to say how awesome it was to see everyone race yesterday in those conditions. Every rider that finished deserves a ton of credit. To see the riders take the chequered flag and then immediately rip their helmets off, wipe away the sand from their mouths and gasp for air was certainly evidence that this sport is the toughest in the world. Congratulations to all the riders yesterday. We hope you recover this week and show up at Sand Del Lee ready to battle again. Talk to everyone next week.