Jess Pettis is coming off a solid 2023 season in the Triple Crown Series, finishing second overall in the 450 class. This was a rebuilding year for Jess, as the past several seasons have seen him battling through multiple injuries. For 2023, Jess obviously wanted to win some races, but most importantly, he wanted to make it through the season healthy and work towards 2024. When all was said and done, Jess accomplished his goals, and when the chance to represent Canada at the MXON came around, he jumped at the opportunity. Along with his Team Canada teammates, Dylan Wright and Ryder McNabb, they gave it everything they had two weeks ago in France, but unfortunately, the team would come up well short of their intended results. It was a difficult pill to swallow, but life goes on, and now Jess is focused on 2024. We caught up with Jess as he was settling back into home life after spending a week in France.
MXP: Hey Jess! You’ve been back from France for a few days now. How are you feeling?
JP: I’m feeling okay. Yeah, we got home a few days ago, and now we’re just getting back into the routine of being at home.
You were over in France for a long time; it must feel good to be back home in Quebec.
For sure! Travelling to different parts of the world and seeing how life is different in another place is always nice. It’s even better when you can travel and represent your country at the same time. Overall, we had a good trip overseas. It’s just too bad that we didn’t get the results everyone was looking for. But, to answer your question, yes, it’s nice to be back home.
Let’s talk about representing Canada for a moment, as I’m sure this subject is on the mind of everyone. Heading into the weekend at Ernee, the stars appeared to be aligning for Team Canada. By all accounts, you guys had a good week and were able to get some good preparation in. Looking back now, are you happy with the week leading up to the race?
Yes, we all had a great week of training and riding. Kourtney [Lloyd] had us looked after very well in France, with a big house and even a chef to cook meals for us. She did a great job of giving us everything we could possibly need to find success, so yes, our preparation was as good as it could’ve been. I never stopped training after the final round at Walton, so I felt great when I left for France.
We saw photos of the outside of the house you guys were staying in, and it looked very cool. What was the inside like?
It was like 500 years old or something. Anyway, inside, it was pretty cool and had a lot of rooms. It was good, and we all enjoyed ourselves.
Okay, so you have a good week leading up to the race, and everything is going to plan. What did you think when you first saw the track in person?
Well, I was amazed at just how steep the elevation changes were. TV certainly didn’t do any justice to how steep the hills were, and to see them in person was pretty cool. From looking at the track early on, the dirt looked okay, and many people thought it would rut up and be a little tacky. However, in the end, the track was anything but tacky.
I know we all rolled our eyes when Team Canada drew the final gate pick for the qualifiers on Saturday; I’m sure you did the same. But, when the gate dropped on Saturday, even though all three of you had to start from far outside, you came through turn one in an okay position. Take us through what happened after that.
Well, by the time my race left the gate, we weren’t sitting in a great position to make the A-Main. Dylan had a hard crash and did a lot of damage to his bike, so he DNF’d, so that was going to be our throwaway result. Ryder had some bad luck early on in his qualifier, and although he rode great, it was so hard to pass that he had trouble moving up through the pack. In my race, I went through the first turn in okay shape, but then I got shuffled back in the next two turns. From there, I thought I rode well, but it was so slippery and hard to pass. It was obviously a huge race, so you wanted to be aggressive, but you just couldn’t be. The more aggressive you were, the worse things got. Also, I got docked for jumping on a yellow flag, which added to the already tough day for us. There are no excuses; we just didn’t get it done, and even looking back now, I can’t even pinpoint one or two reasons why. We just had a bad day on Saturday, then on Sunday morning, the B-Main was a nightmare for us, and then we had to sit and watch the racing on Sunday afternoon.
It almost sounds like you guys were a victim of the old saying, “What could go wrong did go wrong.”
I would agree. It wasn’t just one thing; it was a bunch of things, and at that race, the margin for error is so small that you can’t afford to make any. Even with the bad gate pick on Saturday, we should’ve been able to get into the A-Main and make something happen. But we didn’t, and that is on us. We had a great team and a lot of support, but we just ended up having a bad weekend.
Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we were all proud of the effort that all of you put in. Racing is racing, and sometimes things go sideways. All you can do is try and learn from it and move on to 2024.
Thanks, Palms! It was a tough weekend, and we were all gutted with our results. We’re so much better than that and wanted to prove it to the world.
As I said, it didn’t appear to be from a lack of effort, so we’re all proud of the team for not giving up. Let’s move on to what the future is looking like for you. What are your plans for the next few weeks and months?
Hopefully, we can get a contract done soon for 2024. As you can imagine, securing a ride for next year is a priority right now. Other than that, I will probably take a little time off from riding as the weather is getting cool, and I need a break. I’ll still keep training and being active. I love doing that, and even if I wasn’t racing, I’d do the same stuff. I have a good idea of what I need to work on to win races next year, so I’ll head down south to start riding at some point. That is pretty much it.
You spent this past off-season training in Florida. Do you think you will do the same again?
I’ll be around that area for sure. I may go to GPF, and also ClubMX. I don’t know. The plan will be to move around a little more than this year and ride different tracks and surfaces. Overall, I’m happy with the summer, as one of my big goals was to remain healthy and finish the series strong. I did that, and at times, I was as fast as Dylan. I just wasn’t comfortable hanging it out in certain conditions. I’ll work on that during the off-season and come out swinging in 2024.
Well Jess! Thank you for doing this, and thank you for your honesty when it came to talking about the MXON. Enjoy your time off, and congratulations on a solid and healthy season.
Thank you, Palms! All the best to you and we’ll chat again soon.
