Honda Canada Racing Presents the Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to another edition of the Honda Canada Racing Monday Gate Drop. Although spring is now officially here, the weather has definitely not co-operated throughout our wonderful country. Cold temperatures and snow have really put a hamper on riding from the east coast right through to Alberta. However, good riding weather has to be right around the corner and Honda Canada is ready to help you with all of your riding needs. Just go to https://motorcycle.honda.ca/ for all of the information you need to kick off your 2018 riding season in style.

As I mentioned above, spring in Canada has decided to be very stubborn as it just doesn’t seem to want to warm up. Even the forecast for this coming week doesn’t look great in many parts of Canada. It needs to warm up and it needs to warm up soon. Before I get to the moto news of the week, let me start off by paying tribute to all of people in Humboldt, SK affected by that awful accident on Friday. Over the years so many of us involved in hockey and other activities have taken bus trips with a team or with a group of people. Some of my very best hockey memories have come from bus trips to and from games. Stories are told, movies are watched, bonds are made for life, all on a 45-foot long vehicle travelling down the highway. The last thing you’d ever think of happening is what happened in Saskatchewan. Playing hockey and riding on a bus with your team is not just something that many of us have done, it really is a right of passage for so many young Canadian athletes. God speed to all of the families and loved ones on this sad, sad day.

With heavy hearts, many of us in this industry travelled to Sarnia, ON this past weekend for Round 4 of the 2018 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series. Over the years, Sarnia has been known as a bit of a race town and there have been many top quality and well attended events in that area. Well, the race on Saturday evening was no different as Round 4 was a sell-out. It was great to see a packed house inside the Progressive Auto Sales Centre, and it was really cool to see that almost everyone there was cheering for hometown boy Cole Thompson.

Coming into Sarnia, Cole was not a happy camper as he was docked five positions for his red cross flag infraction a few weeks ago in Calgary. To say that the quiet kid from nearby Brigden, ON had a bone to be chewed would have been a gross understatement. Right from the opening lap of practice on Saturday, Cole was riding as if he had something to prove. Fresh off his mid-week marriage to long-time girlfriend Chloe, Cole was both at peace with himself and highly motivated to get the win in front of his family, friends, as well as his new bride.

Win is just what Cole did on Saturday night as he completely dominated the 450 Main event. Behind him, riders like Matt Goerke, Tyler Medaglia and Colton Facciotti were just no match for the factory KTM rider. Whether Cole was motivated by the crowd or because he felt like he had been wrong done by in recent weeks, he rode all day like he had something to prove. His closet rival in the 450 points, Colton Facciotti, had an awful main event, and after colliding with lapper Zack Zager halfway through the race and going down, Colton went on to finish in sixth. As much as I’m sure Colton wanted to be mad at Zager, it was a racing incident and it could’ve happened to anyone. As Colton came around to lap Zack, he got cross rutted and unfortunately Colton was already beside him so the two of them went off the track. To Zack’s credit, the moment he realized what had happened, he forgot about himself and desperately tried to free Colton’s bike to get the Honda rider going again. When Colton crashed, he was running in third and was slowly catching Goerke for second. A distant sixth was not what Colton needed as he now sits 15 points behind Cole Thompson for the Triple Crown points lead. With only two rounds remaining in the AX portion of this series, Cole will be very hard to catch and will most likely take the red plate into the opening round of the outdoor nationals in Calgary.

In the 250 class, Shawn Maffenbeier once again showed why he is the points leader as he led from start to finish in the main event. Shawn is riding very well right now and seems to love his new Kawasaki. He told me that so far in 2018 they’ve done a bunch of testing with suspension and chassis set-up but haven’t really done anything yet with the motor. It’s scary to think that he’s been this good, and he hasn’t even tried his Bondi Engine race motor yet. Regardless of what he’s currently running, Shawn looks completely comfortable right now and he will be hard to beat all season long. With Shawn way out front in the 250 Main event, the battle behind him was an intense one between Marco and Tanner Ward. Both of these young riders had to battle from behind and it was great to see them not give up. Even though these two riders are still teenagers, their maturity and race craft really impress me every time I watch them ride. Ryan Lockhart also made the trek out east and rode hard to finish up in fifth overall. The racing in all of the classes was superb all evening long and the capacity crowd had to have been entertained.

I think you really have to give credit to all of the riders who have followed this series since the opening round. Not only have they had to battle cold temperatures outside, but they’ve also had to race in conditions that have been very challenging. Abbotsford was awful, Calgary was definitely better and most enjoyed the track, this past weekend in Sarnia the track layout was good but the soil was something that I haven’t seen since the old days of the Toronto SX. The dirt in the Sarnia area is known as ‘Blue Clay’ from what I’m told. For anyone who has ridden a track in the area know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a thick, oily, gumbo-like dirt that is either dry like concrete or soft, wet and sticky like we saw on Saturday. To watch all of the riders on Saturday, not just the pros but the amateur riders as well, navigate that rutted track was very impressive. We most certainly have a talented group of riders in our country at all levels and age groups, and it is sure fun to watch them race indoors and on challenging tracks. I know there were a few parents saying on Saturday that they don’t like AX and it’s too dangerous. My feeling is that while AX is sometimes harder and more complicated to ride than say your average outdoor track, learning to ride indoors at a young age is such an important part of a rider’s skill set as they get older. The timing, the ability to corner quickly and make rapid decisions, all while your heart rate is maxed out, makes you a better rider. Plain and simple! Anyway, once again, great job to all that came out to race on Saturday. My son definitely had fun racing, I hope all of you did as well. Now it’s on to Barrie for a two night grand finale to this AX portion of the 2018 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series.

I unfortunately won’t be in Barrie as my family and I are headed to Mexico on Thursday for our annual big vacation. With my Dad’s 75th birthday being two weeks ago, over ten members of my family are joining us to celebrate this momentous occasion. I’m sad that I’m going to miss the race in Barrie, but at the same time I’m excited to get out of this weather for a week. Good luck to everyone who is racing this weekend, and also congratulations to Jess Pettis on his fine performance this past weekend in Seattle. Have a great week and let’s hope Mother Nature improves her mood here shortly.