As I’m composing this week’s Gate Drop, I’m fortunate enough to be seated very comfortably on an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Toronto. I’m in this position because I’m on my way back from rounds three and four of the Kawasaki Canadian Arenacross Championships in beautiful Chilliwack, BC. Leading up to the weekend I was very excited as the last time I attended one of Future West’s AX was way back in February of 1999. Back then the series took place just down the road in Abbotsford.
Originally, the weekend was just going to be me watching and reporting on the race, but just last week Ryan Lockhart offered up his Kawasaki KXF 450 for me to race in the BC Legends Class (a very cool name for the Vet Master class). For 2014, Ryan has switched from Honda to Kawasaki with the help of Maple Ridge Motorsports. Ryan has a pretty solid program set up for the AX series and for the rest of 2014. So the stage was set up perfectly for me, I was going to get to watch some awesome racing and I would get to experience what the track was like first hand.
The track in Chilliwack was set up perfectly for Pro and amateur level riders. When you’re building an arenacross track this is always tough to do, but with the help of Dirt Wurx and Sean Hamblin, the track was great. This was very evident by the type of racing that took place in Beet’s Barn. In almost every class there were battles and close racing and the aggression level was huge. I know I’ve said this before but I’m going to say it again – if you want to improve your timing, aggressiveness and ability to sprint, go and ride some arenacrosses this winter. Whether it’s Chesterman’s or an AX in the USA that isn’t too far away, go and give it a try regardless of what level or age you are.
Now I’m not going to get into the detailed results from the weekend in Chilliwack as Brent Worall has written a killer report that will be up on this web site this week. I can tell you that between Brad Nauditt, Ross Johnson, Jeremy Medaglia, Brock Hoyer, Chris Howell and Ryan Lockhart, the racing was extremely tight in every race. I would also add Spencer Knowles’ name to that list but he crashed out of the Dash for Cash Friday night and sat out the rest of the weekend with a very sore arm. Speaking of the Dash for Cash, Lockhart is the new Denny Stephenson of these one lap races. At round one he won on the Saturday night. This past weekend he won Friday night and almost won again Saturday.
In other indoor racing events this past weekend, a few Canadians found themselves winning races. On Saturday in Albany, NY Preston Masciangelo, Mitch Goheen and Weston Wrozyna all took home wins and by all accounts did this country proud. Congratulations to those three riders and with a few Canadians down at the Mini O’s this week in Fla. It’s great to see some Canadians venturing south of the border to do some racing.
Even though we’re a month away from Christmas and just over that to the New Year, there are still some unanswered questions about who will be riding what bike in 2014. It sounds like everyone has been waiting for the Brett Metcalfe ball to drop. With his deal all done now, unsigned riders like Colton Facciotti and Jeremy Medaglia should be getting things sorted out soon. It would not surprise me at all to see both riders on different brands than they were this past summer. I know from talking to both riders recently that they’re really excited for 2014 regardless of what bike their riding.
In closing this week, I’d like to say a couple of things: First, congratulations to Derek Schuster and Kerrie Mcdonald as they tied the knot this past weekend. By the sounds of it the evening was amazing and a lot of fun. Here’s to many years of happiness for the new Schuster couple. Also, I want to say thanks to Ryan Lockhart and Troy at Maple Ridge Motorsports for letting me ride their bike this weekend. I had a lot of fun riding and being a part of the Chilliwack event, and finally a big thanks to Future West for the great treatment. Everyone in BC made me feel at home and it was fun to sneak away with the Legends class win both nights. I hope everyone has a great week and remember, only one month until Christmas. See you at Chesterman’s this weekend.
