Good morning, I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend. With a weekend off in between rounds in the Kawasaki Canadian Arenacross Championship, all the riders have had a chance to regroup and catch their breath before this coming weekend. If the racing is half as exciting as it was last weekend then we’re all in for a treat.
I am flying out to BC on Thursday to finally see this fine series in person. I found out on Friday that thanks to Ryan Lockhart and Maple Ridge Motorsports I will be racing the Legends Class. Ryan is letting me ride his KXF 450 so I know that I will have an awesome bike to ride. I can’t wait to get out there and have some fun (Newf made me promise that I have nothing but fun). It took me a while to figure out the last time I raced an arenacross. To my best recollection, the last time was in 2002 in Toronto and I was racing a 250 two-stroke; that seems like a long time ago. Anyway, between riding, watching some great racing and giving everyone up to date reports, it should be a great weekend in BC.
Speaking of arenacross, if there are any riders in Ontario or Quebec who want to do some racing indoors soon, this weekend there is a race in Albany, NY and it looks as though it’s going to be pretty good. I know a few kids that are planning on heading down. The event is only on Saturday and they’re offering a $5000 Pro purse. I think at this time of year any racing you can do is good racing.
I know I mentioned back in September how fast the summer went by, but is it me or did the fall go by fast as well? Here we are in the second half of November. I put the Palms Family Christmas up this weekend and I heard some Christmas music on the radio yesterday. Time is flying by. As of today we’re just over a month from the beginning of the 2014 Monster Energy Supercross Series in Anaheim, California. All the riders are currently testing hard so they’ll be ready come January 4th. I personally love this time of year almost as much as the race season itself, especially now with social media because we are constantly bombarded with Twitter photos and videos of the top riders testing. To see these with perfectly groomed supercross tracks, bright sunshine and warm temperatures, it just makes me want to go riding. As the final month of preparation approaches for all the riders, I’m sure we’ll get to see even more from social media.
Thanks to Twitter we get to see James Stewart having a chat with his dad moments after putting in some laps on his SX track.
Moving on to a more somber subject – the passing of two quality people from our industry this past weekend. I never met Kurt Caselli, but I know a few people that knew him very well and from their stories, Kurt touched many in this industry. One of his lifelong dreams was to win the Baja 1000 and by all accounts he was less than 100 miles from fulfilling this dream. It was at this point when inexplicitly a small animal came out of nowhere and caused Kurt to crash. The injuries suffered in this crash were too severe for Kurt to recover from and he passed away a short time later. At this time, our thoughts are with Kurt’s friends and family. May he Rest in Peace.
Also this past weekend was another tragedy in our tight knit moto industry. Ryan Longstreth passed away when his motorcycle hit a deer in Ohio. Ryan was the brand manager for Cycra Plastics and a friend of many. He was also a husband and father and he will be missed. Ryan was only 38 years old.
Any time we have a weekend like we had this weekend, it causes us to sit back and reflect on all of the moto brothers and sisters we’ve lost over the years. Names like Kevin Moore, Rick Joesph and Art Kotte are just some of the guys I knew personally. While I’m not a religious person, if there is a heaven then I hope all these fine people are going riding today, on the best track, with the best equipment and with the best weather. Godspeed!
I hope everyone has a safe week. Please stay tuned for my reports all weekend from Chilliwack.