Greetings. Welcome to this late October edition of the Yamaha Motor Canada Monday Gate Drop Column. With Halloween just around the corner, we are getting close to the end point of our 2024 riding season. In some parts of Canada, the weather has remained unseasonably mild and dry, but I would expect that to change soon, and for those of us who have had a warm and dry fall season, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see a very wet November.
Anyway, I will begin this week with some sad news out of Southern Ontario. Ian “Colonel” McAuley passed away last week at the ripe old age of 88. For of those who didn’t know Colonel, he was the friendly and quick witted gentleman who used to work for the Machine Racing dealership back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Not only did he hang around the Machine Racing shop doing whatever odd job was ask of him but, he also drove the parts and accessory van to all of the local Ontario races. This is where I knew him best, there wasn’t a local race where I wouldn’t go over to the Machine Racing van to either buy some parts, or just say “Hi” to Colonel (that was his nickname). As I said, he was always friendly, and with his strong accent, even his chirps sounded lighthearted. When I think back to the years 1994-1999, the Colonel is certainly one of the faces and personalities I remember the most. I’d like to send the deepest condolences to Ian’s family during this difficult time. Rest In Peace Colonel, and thank you for making the races in Ontario a better place to be!
Also in some sad news, late last week our motocross/off-road hero Tyler Medaglia crashed at the ISDE and suffered a badly broken elbow. After the crash, Tyler was taken to a local hospital where he underwent surgery to have a plate installed. This was a bitter end to what was a solid season for Tyler, especially since July when he made his return to the Triple Crown Series and finished on the 250 class podium multiple times. Tyler also won two of Canada’s largest off-road races this fall in Quebec, as well as in Ontario so, he certainly had the ball rolling heading into the ISDE last week. Unfortunately, as we all know things can change quickly in this sport, and as I type this, Tyler just texted me to say that he’s doing well, and will hopefully be headed back home to Nova Scotia later today. He also mentioned that surgery went well, and that he should be able to make a full recovery. Heal up and get well soon Tyler!
Okay, now let’s get into some happy news and the opening round of the WSX Championships, which take place right here in Canada this coming weekend. BC Place Stadium, in beautiful downtown Vancouver is the place to be this weekend as we welcome Round 1 of his exciting global series. Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen are the headliners in this series, but we will also have a few riders with Canadian connections as Cole Thompson, Dean Wilson, and Noah Viney in Vancouver. Cole is coming off a solid performance last week at the opening round of the Australian SX Championships where he finished up in second place in the SX2 class. Cole took a little heat for his aggressive riding at the opening round, but after watching some highlights from Down Under, it looked like you had to be aggressive if you wanted to make passes. Anyway, we all know Cole will do whatever it takes to win, and I believe he’s one of the favourites to take the 250 class victory this weekend in Vancouver. Also, it is great that Eli Tomac is racing in this series, as I think it really shows how committed he is to challenging for the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross Championship. Due to some untimely injuries during the past two seasons, Eli has missed a lot of racing, and at his age you just can’t do that and then expect to still win races. He had some success in the final SMX rounds last month, he was on fire two weeks ago in England, so he’s certainly trending upwards. I love that Eli isn’t just heading back to Cortez to ride by himself for two months while he prepares for Anaheim 1, and what will most likely be his final season of racing. Finally, the bad boy of our sport, Vince Friese has a new mechanic for the WSX Series and beyond. Caden Lee, of the famous Walton Raceway Lee’s, and Tanner Ward’s mechanic from this past summer, moved down to California last month and was supposed to just be the practice mechanic for Noah Viney and Cullin Park. However, Caden has done such a good job that he’s been promoted to Vince Friese’s full-time mechanic. This is great news, and it almost makes me want to cheer for Vince now…almost. At very least, we know Vince’s bikes will be in great working order, what he does on the track with them, will still most likely be questionable. All of the WSX rounds can be viewed for free on the DAZN Sports App, so go and download it and check out the racing this weekend in Vancouver.
Speaking of sports Apps. This past weekend, I visited the RydeTV app again to watch some Triple Crown Series races from the summer, and I came across a 2024 Walton TransCan Highlight video. The video was filmed and edited by Kyle Thompson and it was extremely well put together. I reached out to Kyle to tell him just how good I thought the video was, and that he should begin uploading them to YouTube. He responded and said that he was going to start a 48cut.s YouTube channel soon and upload all of his content there. In the meantime, if you want to check out some great highlights from the 2024 Walton TransCan, head over to the RydeTV app. Also, the first two parts of the 2024 KTM Canada Red Bull Racing Team documentary are now on YouTube if you want to check them out. These Tree Three Media edits are very well done as they follow the KTM Canada team through the 2024 Triple Crown Series.
In other news, the final round of the 2024 Future West Moto Series and banquet took place this past weekend in Kelowna. The racing was excellent all weekend, and thankfully the heavy rain that fell on the Lower Mainland of Vancouver this weekend missed Kelowna, and conditions were great. Finally, Ryder McNabb is officially back on the bike, he posted his return ride to Social Media this weekend. Despite the track conditions looking extremely dusty in California, it was great to see Ryder back riding and looking good. Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week, and if you have any comments or questions please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
