Well, there you have it! We blew past the middle of January this past weekend which usually one of the most depressing months of the year. Now we’re on the downhill run to February. In most regions of Canada, we begin to get just a hint of spring in the latter parts of the month. Of course, February is the shortest month of the year, and this year in Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal, there will once again be Motorcycle Shows as these popular MMIC events are back for 2023. Yes, each day is getting longer and when the sun does come out, it’s now feeling a little stronger as it makes its slow progression north.
So while we battle winter here in Canada, in what is typically sunny California, they have been dealing with one of the wettest winters on record. Because of all this rain and bad weather Feld Motorsports was forced to pull the pin on the Oakland SX this past weekend and move the event to February 18th. This in my opinion was an outstanding decision, as no one wanted to go to Oakland and race in the rain and mud. I didn’t even want to sit on my couch and watch the riders have to battle through those terrible conditions. It’s one thing if the track is built and ready, and then it starts to rain late in the week, but it’s completely different when it basically rains for a week and they can’t even get a track built. Anyway, a great decision, and now we can focus on the next round in San Diego this coming weekend where it’s supposed to be sunny and mild all week.
So with an expected weekend off, who benefited the most? Well, I spoke to Cole Thompson last week and he was relieved at the thought of not having to go and destroy a bike in Oakland and was excited to be able to hang around the Southern California practice tracks to do some more training. Most riders felt the same. Leading up to Anaheim 1; there wasn’t a lot of riding happening, due to the wet weather. Cole has been riding at the Yamaha test track with Dylan Ferrandis and Eli Tomac, so you know he’s going to be very well-prepared for San Diego. I mean, how cool would it be to be riding SX or anywhere really with Tomac? These are most certainly times that Cole will remember forever once he moves on from racing. Speaking of Tomac, other than avoiding the awful track conditions that Oakland would’ve presented him, I’m sure he was not happy at having a weekend off. When you come out the way Tomac did at Anaheim 1, you do not want to go 14 days before the next race. You want to get right back at it while your competition is still trying to figure things out. Now everyone will enter San Diego having gotten a lot of testing in and feeling better about their set-ups. Title favourites like Jason Anderson, Justin Barcia, Ken Roczen, and Chase Sexton will all head into San Diego much more prepared. Of course, Tomac could also be better, which is a scary thought for the rest of the 450SX riders. Like everyone, I sure missed watching SX this past weekend so it’s going to be great to get back at it on Saturday.
One event that benefited greatly from the Oakland SX cancellation was the AMA AX Series, and the race this past weekend in Arizona. A few Monster Energy SX Series regulars headed across the desert for a chance to keep racing and hopefully make some extra money. Our own Julien Benek rode well and finished 10th in Race 1 and 9th in Race 2, Mitchell Harrison also had a great night as he won Race 2. Of course, the night wasn’t without drama as Cade Clason, and Gared Steinke got into an off-track altercation after taking each other out in Race 2. After reviewing both incidents, I have to side with Clason on this as his move on Stank Dog on the opening lap was purely a type of pass that we regularly see in AX racing. However, for Stank Dog to wait for Clason to come around and punt him off the track was a childish move. These SX Series regulars who headed over to Arizona to race were taking a big chance and honestly, as a group, they should’ve had a little more respect for each other. As I said, Clason’s move wasn’t that bad but there’s no excuse for what Stank Dog did after that. Anyway, I guess it made for great entertainment and in talking to Kyle Thompson this morning, he said the RydeTV app received a big boost in subscriptions this weekend due to more riders racing in Arizona.
In some other Canadian racing news, Tyler Gibbs was over in Germany this past weekend racing the Dortmund SX. Gibby was racing the SX2 class for the KL Motors Honda Team, and although he came up just short of making the main events on all three nights of racing, he had fun and obviously learned a lot. It’s never easy travelling overseas to race, especially for the first time. The long overnight flight, the time change, the different food and language, and then once at the race, you have to ride a strange bike with a team you don’t know and they don’t know you. It’s fun and a great experience, but it’s challenging and all of what I just mentioned takes place before you even hit the track to race against riders you’ve probably never heard of. Goal # 1 is always to make it through the race healthy and Gibby accomplished that. It obviously would’ve been nice to make a main event or two, but with short heat races and competitive LCQ’s a lot can go sideways. All in all, I think it was a solid weekend for Tyler, and I’m sure he made some long-lasting memories.
As we get closer and closer to the day that most of our pro riders head south to begin training for the 2023 Triple Crown Series (some are already down south) it’s time to start getting excited for our upcoming National Series. I’m told that the Triple Crown Series schedule will be out this week. By all accounts, the schedule is done and ready to be made public. However, Jetwerx is just waiting on finalizing a couple of key sponsors. From what I’m hearing though, it’s going to be a solid schedule with a couple of cool surprises. So with the schedule coming later this week, the news finally got confirmed on Friday that Huber Motorsports is officially done with their financial support of the Factory Canadian Kawasaki Team and that the team will be setting up shop at Walton Raceway. Over the years, the Huber Family, led by Gerhart Huber, has been an incredible supporter of both the Kawasaki Team and motocross in Canada. For an individual like Gerhart (who didn’t have to be involved in our sport) to be such a presence at the track over the years was truly impressive. Thank you to the Huber Family and Gerhart for your support of Canadian motocross and for being such a gentlemen at the track. So now, as the Huber Family passes the torch to the awesome crew at Walton Raceway, Brett Lee sent me this quote as they get ready to start a new chapter in Canadian motocross:
“We have had Kawasaki KLX’s here for the last three years at Walton as part of our kids camps, so it was a very natural conversation to discuss the team being here to complete that Kawasaki experience. The team ties into the outreach programs we do perfectly.
We have many different things happening here, regional events, special community events, kids summer camps, schools, the Walton TransCan, which we describe as our brand leader here, the retail store, and now the team. In Canadian Motosports, you must have many partners and be very diverse to sustain a business.
In the last few years, we have focused on the experience and the brand feel of the TransCan Grand National Championships, which has been Melody’s (Hodgson) wheelhouse. She is going to step into that role further and more will go through her office. She is a talented event producer, and she shines here.
Chad Goodwin, has done this for many years, and he has some amazing skills and has been really helpful. Also, fellow team owners like Derek Schuster and Kevin Tyler have assisted in this transition. We talk daily, and they have been open books about balancing a race team, different partners and facilities. It is not easy to make it all work.
Thank you, Brett, and good luck to the Kawasaki Team in 2023. Also, in other team related news the Manluk Yamaha just announced that they have signed Zach Ufimzeff for the 2023 season. This great news for everyone involved and congratulations to Zach! Well, that is it for me on this sunny Monday. I hope everyone has a great week and finally, this piece of news just came in. It has been officially announced that Kourtney Lloyd is back as Manager for Team Canada and the MXON. The event will be in France this year, and it’s great to see Kourtney is back in charge of the team. No one is more qualified to oversee this effort in 2023, so good luck and welcome back Kourtney. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at chris@mxpmag.com.