Canadian Arenacross Championships, Rounds 5 &6

A Weekend Worthy of Remembrance

I won’t soon forget this Remembrance Day weekend of racing in Chilliwack. I always take fifteen minutes on Remembrance Day Weekend to try to wrap my head around war, but I can’t. This year though, I had a couple of small epiphanies. Virtually all of these young men we come out to see do their motocross thing would have fought in WW2 seventy-five years ago. Their life experience would have been completely different. The numbers are staggering: in WW2 65 million soldiers were mobilized, 8.5 million were killed, and 57% were either killed, wounded, or taken as prisoners of war. To put this in perspective, just as these young men put on their boots and helmets and entered into the arena to race motorcycles this weekend, so did men their age don boots and helmets seventy-five years ago to enter into the arena of warfare. Difference is, of every ten riders who lined up for a main event for this weekend’s action, had this been military action in WW2, one or two riders per race would have died, two would have been severely injured, and two more would have gone to prison for 3-5 years. Motocross riders are brave, but their heroics pale by comparison to soldiers. Even if you were in the audience for WW2 you wouldn’t be safe. Over 60 million civilians died, or roughly 4% of the world’s population;  that translates to one in twenty five audience members dying just sitting on the sidelines of this weekend’s races. Had we lost WW2 I don’t know if we would have been watching arenacross this weekend anyways, somehow it doesn’t seem like it would jive with Nazi ideology. But we won, and thanks to the efforts of those selfless soldiers the best and bravest of our youth are now free to risk their own necks for the sheer joy of it, and to entertain us! My second epiphany came at the end of the night, when I was struck by just how much these boys really do love what they do, and the reality of it all hit home for me. We are so lucky to have motocross in our lives.

 

The track was changed up for this weekend, and by all accounts it was trickier and sketchier. A long whoop section was added, and the step up had a double/triple option. It seemed like many riders had a hard time finding their rhythm on the track. A heavy toll was taken, particularly in the Intermediate class. Last weekend’s winner, Jesse Pettis, ate it Friday and never lined up for a main event, and current Vancouver Island intermediate sensation, Dylan Hansen, cased his first attempt at the big double on his third lap of practice and his weekend was over before it began. As I did my initial cruise through the pits I was thrilled to see a couple specific new bikes, and disheartened not to be able to find one in particular. Brad Nauditt didn’t make the trip this weekend. You’d  think I might be glad to see the guy that beat our boys not show, but I was really looking forward to the rematch. I did what I said I would do though, and walked over to Ryan Abrigo, shook his hand and thanked him for coming. While all our Canadian heroes were parked front and center with hordes of people surrounding their pits, sitting and chilling while their mechanics worked on their bikes, Abrigo was tucked away in a corner all by himself, doing his own bike maintenance. Turns out I was right, he’s a really nice guy. After a very brief encounter I found myself conflicted during the races…he wasn’t just some American racer stealing our glory any more, he was a nice guy racing with zero support. Plus, he has earrings too!  I was thrilled to see Casey Keast and Kavin Benoit in attendance. Keast is the latest and greatest in the western mini ranks, and I was eager to see him hit the track. Benoit, of course, is one of the country’s best MX2 riders, and having won the Montreal Supercross a couple years back I was anxious to see how he’d stack up in the tight confines of arenacross.

Here’s a Go-Pro look at the track from the top of Dylan Hansen’s head, which hits the dirt pretty hard at the end!

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Thanks to the incredible hospitality of the Waddell family, who put me up both weekends, and the open kindness of the other racing families associated with them, I got a pretty good look at the mainland amateur racing scene over the past two weekends. Turns out the racing community is similar wherever you go: there’s the boisterous guy who’s always had a few too many and is up to some kind of shenanigans, the quiet reflective one with the wry sense of humour who dribbles little bits of wisdom, and then there’s always at least one mildly obnoxious guy who goes on just a tad too long describing his kid as being just a tad better than he really is (well, we all probably fit into that category!). Then of course there’s all the wives who put up with it all, and hold it all together on the home front while the boys go off to battle. In the end, I love each and every one of them, they all contribute to the drama and vitality of the sport.

 

It bodes well for the future of MX out west that some of the best attended classes this weekend were the mini classes. The newly added ’50cc Open’ class had a full gate of riders, as did the 65cc class, and there were about 15 85cc riders each night. There is a lot of talent in these ranks, but I just can’t get my head around Jacob Piccolo. I’ve been around a while, I saw Doug Hoover and Marty Burr ride minis, and more recently I’ve seen Spencer Knowles killing it on an 85cc bike. They were all impressive as hell, but I can’t say that any of these eventual top level pros were as startling to see ride as Piccolo. It’s like he’s riding in ‘fast forward’ mode. He brakes too late, carries too much speed through the corners, and gets on the gas too early. It’s freaky…and scary. The only rider likely to beat Piccolo as he moves up through the ranks is himself. He crashed out of this weekend’s racing trying to do a table to table maneuver through traffic. I don’t suppose there’s a lot of time to think things through when you’re riding that fast, you have to commit early to get a 65cc bike over the obstacles Piccolo is doing, but even his dad admits their biggest problem is getting Jacob to slow down when it’s the right thing to do. Hopefully his brain will mature just in time to save his body from devastation. He’s too special to lose. Speaking of special, Casey Keast did what I expected and won everything he started all weekend. Keast is clearly one of the fastest mini riders currently racing in Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big wheel amateur racing produced some of the best races of the night, and some of the gnarliest carnage…as usual! Wyatt Waddell continued his win streak from last weekend into Friday night, winning both A Junior mains, but he didn’t look nearly as smooth in doing so. In fact, he was outright sketchy bob! He never really seemed to find his groove and nearly ate it just about every lap. His house of cards came crashing down Saturday night when Riley Paulik finally got the jump on him in the Open Junior class and Waddell was unable to find a way by. In the 250 main Waddell crashed early and Paulik rode away to a largely uncontested win. These two put on a great show at the front of the Junior ranks over the two weekends, and I can’t wait to see the battle resume after Christmas. Although Waddell has more wins, Paulik still leads the series in both classes. As mentioned, the Intermediate class has been devastated with injuries. Only about half a dozen riders lined up for the Intermediate mains. Ethan Ladd pretty much rode away, leaving Kyle Springman and Blake Stuart to battle it out for runner-up honours. It was pretty much a draw in this regard, with each rider beating the other twice and being beaten twice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a video shot of how close it was. Notice, thanks to the comfort of my extreme safety gear, that I stood my ground and got the shot!

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The line up for the pro class was much the same as last week, except that Kavin Benoit was in and Brad Nauditt was out. Knowing how fast Benoit was at the eastern rounds of the outdoor Nationals, combined with his Supercross success, I had him pegged as a favourite going in. I talked to him in the pits however, and learned that he had virtually no arenacross experience. Arenacross is kind of its own thing, so I adjusted my expectations accordingly. Sure enough, although he was clearly fast, Benoit struggled a bit with set-up and a bit with the aggressive nature of arenacross, and was not quite able to overcome the experience advantage his primary opponents had. He did manage to hit the podium once, but was largely outshone by the front-runners in this series. This weekend it was all about the battle for wins between Spencer Knowles and the ‘other’ American, Ryan Abrigo. Brock Hoyer, Ryan Lockhart, Benoit, and Jake Anstett battled tooth and nail for the title of ‘best of the rest’, with Hoyer earning that honour by virtue of his three podium finishes. I was so pumped looking forward to seeing Spenny win some races this weekend; I thought, ‘surely he can’t fail to win a couple with Nauditt not in the mix’. Well, despite being the fastest man on the track (in my opinion), fortune almost denied him again! In the first pro moto of the weekend he crashed in the first corner.  Knowing how damn hard it is to pass in arenacross I figured it was all over but the crying. Apparently Knowles doesn’t believe in crying over spilt bikes; he rode his ass off and passed his way onto the podium by the final lap. Hoyer in the meantime had gotten the holeshot and appeared to be riding away with it, but Abrigo rode brilliantly, working his way past several riders and ultimately stealing the win from Hoyer. Ryan Lockhart rode solid to come home fourth, Benoit was fifth. The cast had been formally introduced. I was so glad Knowles had used up his bad fortune in the first main, now I’d get to see him win one. Sure enough, he finally got a holeshot in the Open Pro main and looked to have the win in the bag…until he clipped a hay-bale just has he launched the big double. He lost all his momentum, his altitude meter indicated he didn’t have the height, so he elected to hit the eject button rather than suffer a crash landing in the cockpit. His race was over, and Abrigo reaped the rewards, taking his second win of the night. Benoit demonstrated that he’s a quick study by securing second ahead of Hoyer. I was beginning to think I was cursing Knowles just by being there. He’d won every main event in the series that I didn’t attend, but couldn’t buy, beg, or steal one with me in the house! Thank the Lord that Knowles finally won the Pro Lites main on Saturday night or I’d have had to stop attending these things for his sake! In fact, he very nearly won both mains Saturday, but he slid out on the face of the double while commanding a comfortable lead with just a few laps to go in the Open Pro main. Ryan Abrigo was very gracious in his second ‘gift’ victory of the weekend courtesy of Knowles. In his podium speech he thanked Spenny for falling and acknowledged that he wasn’t going to catch him otherwise. Did I mention that I like this Abrigo kid?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all this weekend was probably better racing action than last. As intense as it was watching Spenny dog Nauditt for four motos last week, it was more fun seeing a few lead changes this week. The racing wasn’t the thing I walked away thinking about though, it was what happened during the final podium interviews that got me thinking. Abrigo and Knowles started talking amongst themselves about the events of the last race. There was a lot of pointing and laughing going on, and it got me remembering about riding with my buds back in the day. We had great times riding, but perhaps even greater times reliving it and laughing about it afterward. Events occur, and then become reality in our minds through remembrance. I was touched to see that it was the same, at least tonight, for these super gifted pro riders. After all the contracts are signed and the big rigs are loaded up, after all the long hard hours of training and the meticulous bike preparation, through all the pressure to perform and race day stress, in the end these are just grown up boys doing what they love to do. This was my second epiphany of the weekend. Life isn’t always about what the standings say you’ve accomplished, or who won or lost. Sometimes the real value is in the experience itself, and the experience is often different than the records indicate. The records will show that Ryan Abrigo won three out of four mains this weekend, while Spencer Knowles only won once. The experience of the event was different than the results indicate though. Spenny was probably the fastest rider, and anyway, the laughter shared and thrills delivered made everybody a winner this weekend. The records say that the Allies won WW2, but that’s just a line in the history books. The reality of the experience is that 72 million people died. I think that’s worthy of remembrance.

I didn’t catch everything that was said on the podium, but I caught the gist of it and I can adlib the bits I missed…

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was while I was snapping this last sequence of photos that the full brunt of my second epiphany hit me. I found myself thinking, ‘I’m so glad these boys are sharing this experience, rather than the experience of lying in some muddy trench in some God awful war’.

Lest We Forget.