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Good day, and happy March to everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend and if you’re one of the lucky ones who are currently down south in warmer climates, have fun and ride safe. The rest of us of truly envious of you. This weekend on Sirius Satelite radio the ’80s on 8 channel had a Top 40 countdown from 1989. That was the year that my family and I made our first-ever riding trip to Florida. Up until that point we had always just waited for the snow to melt and then we either drove to some sandpit or Michigan. But in 1989 we drove to Florida for two weeks and stayed at the Holiday Inn that used to sit beside the riding area in Croom. From there, we travelled to a few other tracks and even race amateur day at the Gatorback National, but for the most part, we’d just wake up in the morning, hit the breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn, and then ride over to Croom and play in the sand all day. It was an amazing trip and the reason I bring up the countdown on Sirius Radio is that almost every song I heard this weekend took me back to that trip in 1989. As Jim Croce stated in his song Recently, “Memories can be friends, as they can take you to a place that you never thought you’d be again and take you place that you never ever thought that you would see again.”
Anyway, onto the Daytona SX! Coming into Saturday Tanner Ward was fresh off an exciting night of racing at the Pro Circuit Open SX race at the Tampa MX track on Thursday evening. Ward, along with Marco Cannella rode well on Thursday night and I hoped that Tanner would be able to take some confidence from that race and bring it into Daytona. Judging from his lap times and how many passes he made in his heat race as well as in the LCQ, Tanner rode well at Round 9 but he was just unable to get off of the gate. In the LCQ, he had a solid gate pick but was slow in getting a jump. The result was an almost dead last place start and that just isn’t going to do it if he wants to make the 250SX East main event. As I said, Tanner rode really well and his speed was good enough on Saturday night to qualify, but he needs a good start if he’s going to make that happen. Tanner will get another shot this coming weekend as he heads to Detroit for Round 10. Sadly, our other two Canadian riders didn’t have a good night in Daytona as St-Cyr failed to make the night show, and poor Julien Benek crashed hard in practice and ended up breaking his lower leg. Benek reported on his Social Media that he knew his leg was broken the moment he hit the ground as he felt a bone poking through his boot. Thankfully, Benek was able to have surgery soon after, and now he’s on the road to recovery. This is most certainly a bummer for the young rider from BC as he was improving each weekend in the 250SX East Series. Hopefully, he’s a quick healer and we’ll see him on the starting line at the opening round of the Triple Crown Series in June. Heal up Julien, we’re all thinking of you.
The injury bug has been biting a few riders lately in the 250SX East class as last week it was announced that Star Racing Yamaha rider Jeremy Martin crashed and hurt his shoulder. With J-Mart’s injury and Levi Kitchen also being out, this meant that the Star Racing Yamaha Team didn’t have any riders available for Daytona. As I write this the news broke that Kyle Chisholm has been hired by the Star Racing Yamaha Team as a fill-in rider. It’s shocking to me that so many 250SX East riders are now injured as it was just a few short weeks ago that this series was going to be one of the most competitive we’ve seen in a long time. Now it appears that Jett Lawrence will be able to win this title if he can keep his Honda on two wheels. I guess the keyword is ‘if’ for Jett and his fellow riders as this series is going to come down to a battle of attrition. As we saw on Saturday night, while his main competition struggled with bad starts and crashes, Lawrence rode off with what looked like an easy win.
So while the 250SX East main event was a bit of a yawner the 450SX main event was anything but. From start to finish it was non-stop action with Cooper Webb getting the holeshot and leading for most of it, and Mr. Daytona, Eli Tomac coming from behind to make a late-race pass for the lead and then taking his record 6th Daytona SX win. That stat is mind-boggling as six Daytona victories moves Tomac into the same category as other legendary riders like RC, McGrath, Rick Johnson, and Bob Hannah. Tomac is just a beast plain and simple and I know Webb got held up by a lapper and that allowed Tomac to make an easy pass, but I think it was just a matter of time for Webb and his time at the front was coming to an end. I’m still not sold on Webb’s overall fitness and judging by how quickly Tomac pulled away after the pass, that tells me that Webb was barely holding on in those closing laps while Tomac appeared to be just getting warmed up. I mean, in the past three seasons when have you seen Webb give up the lead in the closing laps of the main event? Next to Justin Barcia, Webb is the hardest rider in the 450SX Series to pass and as I said, I know he got held up by a lapper when Tomac went by, but going down the very right side of the whoops to begin was a poor line choice by Webb IMO. Anyway, it appears Webb is getting better and better so look for him to put it all together in the next few weeks. Currently, Webb is 33 points behind Tomac and 15 points behind Anderson so with the 2022 Monster Energy Supercross Series now past the halfway point he needs to start winning races if he hopes to repeat at 450SX Champion.
Now the series moves from sunny and warm Florida to cold and snowy Detroit for Round 10. This is one of the closest races for us Canadians to travel to so hopefully we see an influx of people from Ontario and even Quebec head to Ford Field this weekend. If you cross the Canada/USA border through the tunnel in Detroit the stadium is right there and easy to get to. From talking to people lately crossing the border is easy as long as you’re vaccinated and have a negative Covid test. Also, if you’re under 18 and not vaccinated you can still cross the border as long as you’re with a vaccinated adult. Now, I’m not sure what the rules are when you return to Canada but from what I’m hearing, overall it’s much easier to cross the border than the Government and media would have you believe. So if you can go to Detroit this weekend, Indianapolis the following weekend isn’t too far, and then for West Coast SX fans, Seattle is at the end of the month. Honestly, if I had to pick one of these three races to go to I would pick Indy as the downtown area there is pretty nice. Although the drive is a little further, and let’s face it, who wants to drive anywhere with gas prices the way they are right now, you can park at a downtown Indianapolis hotel and walk to the Stadium with ease. For Detroit, I would recommend staying in Windsor at a hotel close to the tunnel and then taking a cab or Uber over the border. As I said, Ford Field is right there if you cross through the tunnel. I went to the Detroit SX back in 2015 and parked right beside the stadium. It was a little expensive and it took some time getting out of there after the event, but it was very convenient as I wouldn’t want to be walking around downtown Detroit after dark. Anyway, the Monster Energy Supercross Series loves it when Canadians come out to watch so if you can, pick one of these next three races and go have some fun!
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and let’s hope we get some consistent spring weather soon. If you live in Ontario and you want to ride at Gopher Dunes asap, I spoke to Derek Schuster this morning and he said that he’s probably about two weeks away from opening day at Gopher Dunes. I know it’s not what everyone wants to hear but right now it’s too cold and wet to ride anyway. I guess good things will come to those of us who wait. Thank you for reading and please have a safe and healthy week.