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MXP: Let’s first talk about our Canadian trio who are racing the 250SX East Series. Ward came up short of making the main event in Daytona again. His speed looked good, but he just couldn’t get off the gate. St-Cyr didn’t make the night show and sadly Benek had a bad crash in practice and broke his leg quite badly. What are your thoughts on our three Canadians?
RL: I think Daytona was an improvement for Tanner. He qualified 31st, finish 12TH his heat race, but he didn’t have a great LCQ. He’s running out of chances to make a main event but he is improving and that’s the important thing. He needs to get a Top 5 start in the heat and I think he can make it but he needs to qualify around 22nd for a better gate pick in the heat. St-Cyr is close but just needs a little more. I’m sure he is frustrated as he’s put in more work than ever but still coming up a little short. I would bet he’s in the night show this weekend, that’s just my feeling. I think we were all a little worried for Benek and whether he could stay healthy as his pre-season prep was full of crashes. Well, it happened and it sounds like he had a big one. It looked like it was a pretty bad break and he will be out for a while. Hopefully, he can get healed up for June and will be able to be on the starting line in Kamloops. It’s going to be tight though as Round 1 of the Triple Crown Series is only three months away.
We’re starting to see Cooper Webb come around in recent weeks and at Daytona, he led the main event for a long time. Right now, he’s well behind Tomac for the points lead and he’s even a bunch of points behind Anderson for second. Can Webb make a run here or is he too far out of it?
He’s getting better but I think it’s a little late. He would need to start clicking off some wins and Anderson and Tomac would have to have some really bad luck. The good news is that he has his new bike working better and he will win some mains before the year is over. As we have all seen so far this year anything can happen but I don’t see Webb getting much closer to those two guys.
This week Ken Roczen announced that he’s taking the rest of the Monster Energy Supercross Series off due to health issues. Do you think we’ve seen the last of Kenny in Monster Energy SX or have we seen the last of him racing his dirt bike altogether?
I’m not surprised by any means as well all knew something serious was going on. It really sounds like Covid took a toll on him back in January and maybe he hasn’t recovered from that. It seems weird that he had it but still raced? I guess that would be a different question (laughs). Either way, it sucks that he’s out and it’s kind of like the same old story with Kenny. I think 50/50 chance we see him line back up for outdoors, but deep down I feel like he may be done done. Maybe the new World SX Series thing might be something he does for a year or two but I believe the grind of the long AMA Series is over for him. His body just can’t handle it anymore. With the injuries that he had to his arm and all the surgeries that he’s had since it’s a lot for anyone to handle, let alone a pro athlete.