I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving weekend regardless of whatever you chose to do. I’m not big turkey guy, but I do love getting together with family and friends to give thanks to all that we have. Where I live in Southern Ontario, the weather has been incredible for over a month, but as I sit here on Monday morning the temperature has dropped to just above freezing, and it’s pouring rain. Yes, the good weather party appears to be over, and now it’s onto more of the fall weather we’re used to.
Okay, let’s move on to the subject that I’m quite everyone wants to talk about, Team Canada and the 2023 MXON. Everything started off as planned this past week as the team all flew over together to France, and arrived safety as their residence. From there, they were able to not only get some quality practice and training in, as well as some all-important team bonding. Our team’s chances appeared to be as good as any team heading into the weekend, and then on Friday, with the rest of the motocross world watching, Team Canada drew the last gate pick. Not the second or third to last pick, the actually last gate drop. It was hard to watch, and I’m sure it was a tough pill to swallow for everyone on Team Canada. It’s no secret that many people in the industry hate this gate picking procedure that the MXON uses, and honestly, I’m totally onboard with those who want it changed. I know this is a unique event, and using this procedure falls right in line with it, but it really has to change if you want to keep team’s interested in spending the money to attend. Perhaps using this method is the correct thing to do given that every team has to dig deep financially to get there. But isn’t it also fair to reward a team’s finish from the previous year with an already predetermined pick for the current year? I say, give the last three teams from the previous year the first three gate picks, and then go by how the teams finished the year before. Meaning, Team USA would’ve had fourth gate pick moving into Saturday, and Team Canada would’ve had the 19th gate pick. So, with the odds stacked against our boys we headed into Saturday’s qualifying.
In those qualifying races we had even more misfortune as Dylan Wright crashed hard early in his race, and was forced to DNF with a mangled CRF450R. Like most of us, I only saw Dylan’s crash through the James Lissimore photo sequence he posted on the @mxpmag Instagram, but even in photos the crash looked bad. Thankfully, Dylan wasn’t badly injured in the crash, however, as I said above his bike was destroyed. Next up was Ryder McNabb and his MX2 qualifier. Ryder actually got off to a somewhat decent start considering he was on the outside. But, a small mistake early in the race cost him any chance of a strong finish. The Ernee track looked incredibly slippery at the best of times, and with its steep elevation changes, and limited passing opportunities, it was easy to either make mistakes or fall victim to another rider making a mistake. So while you certainly couldn’t argue with the atmosphere of the event, or stunning landscape of the surrounding French countryside, the track and the track preparation paled in comparison to what we saw last year at Red Bud. But, everyone has to ride the same track and part of racing this event is finding a way to get comfortable as quickly as you can. Saturday came to a conclusion with a solid ride by Jess Pettis, but it in the end it wasn’t enough to propel Team Canada directly into the A-Main, and that meant a do-or-die, win or go home B-Main on Sunday morning.
Honestly, of all the things about the MXON that baffle me, the fact that the team who wins the B-Main can then go on to A-Main’s in the afternoon is a strange way of doing things. To me, you either qualifier on Saturday, or you don’t. Why turn the B-Main on Sunday morning into a pressure filled, nail-biting experience for the few teams that have a chance at winning. To me, you’re just asking for trouble and trouble and more bad luck is exactly what our boys found. Jess Pettis got off to a great start but then was victimize by the icy track conditions and went down. Dylan had another scary crash early in the race, and Ryder McNabb thankfully stayed out trouble, but was unable to make his way to the front. It was a tough way to end what was a challenging weekend to say the least for Team Canada. I’ve never been a part of Team Canada so I can’t talk intelligently about what it feels like to race with the weight of an entire country on your shoulders. I can only imagine that the pressure must be immense, and when you come up short of the intended goal, it has to feel devastating. All season long these guys race for their teams as well as for themselves. When things go wrong and they have a bad race, there is always that ‘next race’ mentality that they’re able to draw comfort from. At the MXON, there is no tomorrow or next race and in an athlete’s mind, you’ve not only let yourself and teammates down, but you also feel like you’ve let your entire country down. However, as tough as our result was in France, our team of Dylan Wright, Jess Pettis, and Ryder McNabb should all hold their heads high. Their preparation was good, their speed was good, they all managed to get decent starts on Saturday, even with their god-awful gate picks, and their strong effort to move into a qualifying position never wavered. Our team gave it everything they had this weekend in France, and while people have the right to be upset with the end result, it wasn’t from a lack of speed, talent, or effort. We all know that in racing there are times when things just don’t go right, and looking back I don’t think there is anything Team Canada as a group could’ve done differently. As I said, their preparation was good, we had our best riders there with their race bikes, things just didn’t go as planned and unfortunately that is the way life, and racing sometimes go. On a positive note, everyone is heading home in one piece, and if you listened to the MXGP-TV broadcast on Saturday, both announcers mention Team Canada multiple times and spoke at length about how good our riders are. Thank you for your effort, Team Canada, we are all so very proud!
So, other than Team Canada’s grit and determination, two other things that impressed me yesterday were the rides of Ken Roczen and Jett Lawrence. Both rode almost flawlessly on the treacherous track and once again showed why they are two of the best riders on the planet despite the gap in their age. On that track, Jett’s last to sixth in the opening moto was one of the top five brilliant rides of the past decade. He then capped off his day with a dominant yet smooth-as-silk win in the final moto to help give Australia second overall. Earlier this year, we were all impressed with Jett’s style and how he floated his Honda around the track. First in 250SX and then this summer in the 450MX class, he was unstoppable, and everyone credited his success with how he rides the bike. However, yesterday, he showed everyone that his racecraft and intelligence might just exceed his technique. Add in the fact that he’s young, charismatic, and also comes across as fairly humble to his legion of fans. Watching him ride the slippery Ernee track yesterday was entertaining, especially in contrast to how some European riders rode it.
Well, that it is for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week as we move to the mid-point of October. Finally, with all of the excitement surrounding the MXON, let’s not forget about Cole Thompson and his impressive 4th overall in the Australian SX Series opening round. Cole is again racing for the Serco Yamaha Team on pretty much the same bike he raced a year ago. It was a solid start to the series, and now Cole will fly back home for a few weeks and will most likely be on the starting line at the Medicine Hat SX on October 21st. Thank you for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving!
