MXP: Hey Newf! Big weekend ahead in Alberta for you and Meston. This is a first-time race, so it should be an exciting weekend.
RL: Exciting for sure. To be honest, there has been a decent amount of hype around the event here in the West. The promotors, Les, Todd, and their crew, have everything put together well, and it looks to be a fun weekend. I’ve seen some videos of the track, and it looks like it will be fun. Julian Benek reached out to me yesterday asking some questions, so it sounds like he will be there racing the Pro-Am class. Last I heard, there were around 13 Pro-Am’s signed up. With it being in a smaller town, I would expect them to get a really good spectator turnout as well.
MXP: Last week, Marco Cannella told me he turned down an offer from the Walton Kawasaki Team to race in the 250 class this season. If something drastic doesn’t happen, it looks like Cannella won’t be racing in 2023 and perhaps even beyond. What are your thoughts on this?
RL: I mean, I have no idea what the offer was from Kawasaki, but this is all a little confusing to me. Ryan Gauld and I interviewed Marco on the phone a few weeks back for our Podcast, and the way he talked, it was like he was willing to do whatever it took for him to be back out there in 2023. Clearly, that wasn’t the case. If Marco doesn’t want to race that’s fine, I get it, but just say that. There is nothing wrong with moving on with your life, but don’t make it sound like you are in but then turn deals down. There aren’t many options out there, so I would understand if someone knocked on the door with a better deal. Maybe there is? I think we will not see Marco Cannella on the track in 2023.
MXP: We saw some pretty exciting racing this past weekend in Anaheim. However, we also saw some big crashes from some top riders. Why do you think we saw so many crashes on Saturday?
RL: This has a lot to do with the Triple Crown format. Shorter races mean sprinting the whole time for these guys. The track was very technical, but with the Tomac crash, for example, it was just a situation of him pushing the limits, and it bit him. With the shorter races, we saw a little bit of panic on Tomac, Webb, and even Jett, which led to big mistakes that we don’t normally see in a typical main. Personally, I love the Triple Crown events as a fan, but I’m sure as a racer, you either love them or hate them, depending on how the night goes.