Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
It’s always an exciting time when we welcome in a new year as it always provides us with new opportunities as well as a fresh start. Well, here we are in the early part of 2022 and we’re back with some more weekly questions for Ryan Lockhart. As you probably know, Ryan has been in the industry for over two decades and during that time he’s worn many hats. We believe it’s this experience as well as his fun-loving nature that makes his insight so valuable and so entertaining. So as we all guide our way through the first part of 2022 here is this week’s Matrix Concepts Canada 3 Q’s with Ryan Lockhart.
MXP: Hey New Happy New Year!! Let’s start with a question for you. BC has been getting hammered with storms lately. How are you and your family managing with the cold and snow?
RL: Happy New Year!! Yes, the weather has been absolutely terrible, to be honest. Floods and now extreme cold and snow. We got another 30cm last night. This winter is the first time in 12years of being a BC resident that I have had to shovel our driveway (laughs). I don’t even own a pair of winter boots. I’m hoping this is the end of it. What happened to the beautiful British Columbia that we could ride our dirt bikes year around?
MXP: A few top riders have pulled out of the 250SX West Series recently including Jett Lawrence and Justin Cooper. Who is your pick now for this title and also who wins the 450 main event this weekend in Anaheim?
Yes, there has been a big shift in the coasts that’s for sure. It would have been hard to bet against Jett in the West but now that’s over. Colt Nichols has to be a favourite as he’s the only one in the field with a championship. Christian Craig is going to be fast like always and I have heard good things about Jo Shimoda, but I will go with Colt Nichols for the title.
As for the 450SX class oh man is this going to be good. I’m going to pick a wild card for Anaheim 1 and go with Jason Anderson. Not really sure why but I feel like he’s coming in a bit under the radar and seems to be hungry to win.
MXP: After some speculation that we might see multiple Canadians on the starting line this weekend in Anaheim, it appears that Cole Thompson will be the only one. What do you think of Cole racing the 250SX West Series and do you think he can be a consistent main event guy?
It’s a bummer no question on some of the injuries with Pettis and Beneck but I’m happy to see Cole there. It’s still strange to me that Cole is doing this. And when I say that it’s strange I don’t mean that it’s strange that he’s racing, I just mean that Cole has always been a rider who likes things to be perfect. From the outside, Cole’s new program looks far from perfect and not what he’s used to. Cole is used to having a lot of preparation time and a lot of bike testing before going racing. Well, this program has just 3 weeks of training, a switch to a different colour bike, the move to a 250f, and he and Chloe doing it out of their motorhome. It’s crazy for him, but you know what, I like it! I think this is what he needs in his life to regain that passion for racing. I feel like he could do really well also. My feeling is that he gets his feet wet this weekend with a solid main event finish and then comes back in the next few rounds and gets some Top 10 finishes.
