It was a red wave that took over Whispering Pines MX Park today as Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing riders Dylan Wright and Ryder McNabb took the overall wins in their respective classes. Coming into the opening round of the 2022 Triple Crown Series both Wright and McNabb were heavy favourites to win the championships in the 450 class as well as the 250 class. However, if today was any indication they’re going to face stiff resistance all summer long from riders like Tyler Medaglia, Jacob Piccolo, and Jess Pettis.
450 Class:
We don’t think anyone was surprised that Dylan Wright was able to secure both moto wins today at Round 1. After spending a month in Italy last fall racing the final five rounds of the MXGP Series, Dylan has come into 2022 more confident than he ever has been. Also, with back-to-back 450 titles in 2020 and again in 2021, Dylan has more experience and you would be hard-pressed to find any other rider on the gate who believes they can win races more than he does. But today wasn’t a cakewalk as Tyler Medaglia led the way in both 450 motos and made life miserable for Dylan when he attempted to pass. With multiple GNCC races in the USA as well as a few off-road events here in Canada during the early part of 2022, Tyler entered this week with the most gate drops of any rider in the field. His intensity and race pace was evident all day long and if it wasn’t for Dylan Wright being slightly faster, Medaglia surely would’ve won the overall on the day. Tyler looks fit, healthy, and confident right now and hopefully, he can carry this speed through the entire series.
Rounding out the 450 class podium today was Jess Pettis who came into the opening round with just a few hours of seat time. Although Jess has been training hard for the past six weeks while he recovered from a broken wrist, he was unable to ride his KTM until this week. All things considered, Jess looked good today and he will no doubt improve as the series goes on. Newly signed TLD/GASGAS/SSR rider Chris Blackmer also showed some serious speed today and as he feels more comfortable he should be a podium threat every weekend. All in all, no real surprises today in the 450 class, but before we move on to the 250 class, we’d like to send some get well wishes out to Shawn Maffenbeier who had a hard crash early in Moto 2 and was forced to go to the hospital to have his shoulder looked at. Maff looked great in the opening moto and finished on the podium.
250 Class:
Entering the opening round in Kamloops, most picked the 250 class as the one to watch. With four or five riders capable of winning motos on any given weekend, we feel like this title fight could go down to the final race of the series at Walton Raceway. In the opening moto, defending champion Jacob Piccolo got off to a quick start and never looked back. Piccolo rode smooth and consistent and was never challenged for the lead. Behind him was a battle between Tyler Gibbs, Mitchell Harrison, Marco Cannella, and a hard-charging Ryder McNabb who was forced to come from behind after a bad start. McNabb would get up to second but with Piccolo long gone, he wisely settled for the runner-up spot.
In Moto 2, Piccolo would tangle with Gibbs in turn 2, and that allowed McNabb to set sail for an uncontested moto win. Piccolo would remount and charge back inside the Top five to ensure that he would join McNabb and Harrison on the podium at Round 1. As I mention, Gibbs was fast and aggressive in both 250 motos and fought hard all day long. Marco Cannella had a so-so day but suffered a cut hand in Moto 2 and finished off the podium. Marco can easily hover inside the Top 5 during these opening west rounds but if he wants to win this title he’s going to have to start beating the teenagers soon.
So that was it for the opening round at Whispering Pines MX Park. As I said above, no real surprises today in any of the classes as we all knew the GDR riders would be strong as soon as the gate dropped. Now it’s up to the rest of the field to regroup this week and get ready for Round 2 in Drumheller and what will be a completely different track from what they experienced today. In closing, it was incredible to see the series head back out west after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19 restrictions. Today felt like normal again and it was also great to see the fans back and supporting the WCAN and the Triple Crown Series. Now we head east to the Alberta Badlands for Round 2.