With Team Canada all set to roll in Latvia for the 2014 MXON, there’s nothing left to do for this country except sit back and cheer for Colton Facciotti, Kaven Benoit and Tyler Medaglia. All three riders are coming off excellence years and, with all due respect to Cole Thompson, we have our three best riders representing the Maple Leaf. How will they do? Well, that depends on them and maybe a little bit of lady luck. Judging by the reports coming out of Latvia, the mood is light and the team’s confidence seems high. Hopefully this swagger will carry over once they get to the track and the pressure cooker is turned on.
Obviously, with so much focus surrounding this event, I’ve been thinking a lot about my favourite MXON moments. During my best years on the pro circuit, Canada didn’t really care about the MXON so we never sent a team to compete. I definitely feel like I was very unlucky as it would’ve been incredible to represent our country at a prestigious event such as this. However, back then it was out of my control, but over the years it’s been a pleasure to watch our chosen team give their best each year.
So having not competed at the MXON myself, my favourite memory comes from way, way back to when I was a kid and had only the odd Motocross Action or Cycle News to read. The year was 1986. When I think back to those days, it amazes me that even though we didn’t have the flow of information that we do now, some way and somehow we still knew what was going on in the world. Although I enjoy the ease at which we’re fed current events, I do kind of miss those old days when life seemed simpler and less chaotic. I remember very vividly my Dad coming home from a flight (his occupation was that of an airline pilot) to the USA when he handed me the latest issue of Motocross Action Magazine. After a quick “thank you” I secluded myself in my room while I read every inch of it…twice. As the band “Queen” said in one of their hit songs, “Those Were the Days.”
In 1986, the USA sent over their dream team to the MXON in Italy. The team consisted of the red juggernaut known as Team Honda; David Bailey would ride a 500cc, Rick Johnson was riding a 250cc and Johnny O’Mara would ride a 125cc machine. Growing up, Johnny O’Mara was by far my favourite rider. His speed, his style; I liked everything about him. When I began racing I even made my Dad buy me those hideous boot gators to wear, that was how much I loved the O’Show.
As Team USA headed over to Italy that year, it was widely known (again, I don’t know how) that this race would be O’Mara’s last as a member of Team Honda. For some reason the red riders balked at re-signing the popular rider, and by the time they figured out their mistake and offered him a contract, Johnny Motocross had bolted to Suzuki. I’m sure, looking back now, he wished he would’ve stayed because in those days a Suzuki was the last bike you wanted to be on. However, if O’Mara hadn’t have had such a big chip on his shoulder, we may never had seen the type of inspirational riding from him that we saw that day.
In 1986, the format for the MXON was virtually the same as it is now: three motos, each class races twice with the races being combined with two classes. The track that day looked like a combination of Mono Centre and Antler Lake with steep hills, hard packed dirt and zero flow. People thought that it definitely suited the larger displacement machines as they would be able to use their extra power on the numerous uphills. However, Johnny O’Mara had other ideas.
Ignoring the time he would lose going up the hills, O’Mara would simply go faster than everyone on the downhills and brake later going into the corners. He also was a very smooth rider with a smooth throttle hand; he had an uncanny ability to be very gentle with the throttle, even on his potent factory RC125 Honda. That day O’Mara was in the zone. With the inner desire to prove his former red bosses wrong, he rode the race of his life. With his teammates out front cruising, O’Mara battled from behind to not only win his class, but also finished second overall in both races. His crowning moment came in the combined 125/500 moto when he passed then 500 World Champion David Thorpe in the closing stages of the moto. That defeat humiliated Thorpe, and one could argue that he was never the same after that race, however to the Englishmen’s credit, he did acknowledge O’Mara’s fine ride and said that “it just wasn’t his day”.
That day was not only an incredible moment for Team USA, but it was also my favourite MXON; reading about it when I was 13 years old is still very memorable. At the time, O’Mara’s ride that day seemed like the impossible; a 125 beating all of these big bikes at an event like that, and on a natural terrain track like that. In fact, it stuck with me so much that three years later in when I turned pro and Mark Stallybrass from Yamaha Canada offered me a new YZ to ride at the October Copetown Classic, I told him I wanted a YZ125 to race against all the pros that I knew would be bringing their bigger and more powerful bikes to Copetown. Although I got bad starts that day, I ended up going 4-3 for third overall, only getting beaten by Jeff Surwall and one of the Beckington Brothers from Michigan. It was great day and I had Johnny O’Mara to thank for the inspiration.
Let’s hope that Team Canada can pull off the unthinkable this weekend in Latvia. If they do then I may have to rethink my favourite MXON moment. Go Canada Go!!