Well, I hope everyone had a great weekend. Thankfully we’re almost to the middle of November as normally this is such a cool, wet, and grey month. In Southern Ontario we’ve been lucky enough to have had some solid riding weather lately. But, with some snow flurries this past weekend I feel like our riding season is coming to an end. I was able to get some really good riding in during the past month. With my 2022 riding season now over, my cup is most certainly full. I had a solid year of riding on my Sturgess Cycle KX450F. Even though I wasn’t able to line up behind a starting gate, I still enjoyed being on the bike and also teaching a few riding schools. Most importantly I made it through the year without injury and really without any big crashes. In September of last year, I had a big and painful crash on the back track at Gopher Dunes, and quite honestly not only did my head take a big hit but so did my overall confidence. I feel like at my age, you always need a certain amount of justification to not only go racing but also just to go riding. There is obviously a risk to riding, so if you can’t find enjoyment in it then you should rethink things.
Heading into 2023 I have all of the motivation that I could ask for as on May 28th I turn 50 years old. My goal as of right now is to race the Sand Del Lee National next year in the 450 class. I’m choosing SDL simply because I like the track and I’ve never raced a national there before, only provincial races back in the 1990s. As I said, I need justification and motivation and this goal should keep me going throughout the off-season and into the spring and early summer. We’ll see how it goes but I feel like Todd Schumlick (performxtraining.com) has his work cut out for him in the coming months to help get me into national shape.
So onto the 2022 Paris SX and one of the most iconic off-season races on the schedule. Sadly, there were no Canadian riders on the starting line this year in Paris in either the SX2 or SX1 class. Last year we had Dylan Wright to cheer for which made the races that much more exciting to watch. I feel like if Cole Thompson wasn’t down in Australia and if Jess Pettis had a better race last weekend in Germany, one or both of those riders would’ve at least got into Paris as a wild card entry. Thankfully though for 2022 the Paris SX promoters opened up their wallets and invited top SX riders like Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen, Cooper Webb, Marvin Musquin, and Justin Brayton. The lineup was strong and for this year the track was a little more technical than last year with a tougher rhythm section as well as a long whoop section. Originally the Paris SX was going to be part of the new FIM World Supercross Championships however, in the end, the Paris promoters said no thanks to the WSX and opted to keep the race as a one-off event. Obviously, they made the correct decision as the stands were packed for both days and the racing was excellent in the SX1 and SX2 classes.
After going back and forth all weekend long Ken Roczen ended up taking the King of Paris crown with a slight edge over Eli Tomac. Ken has been a on a world tour since Thanksgiving with races in Wales, California, Australia, and of course Paris. Right now he looks to be riding as confident as he ever has and he even mentioned in a post-race interview yesterday that he finally has a bike that handles the way he wants it to. In recent weeks Ken has been trying out a few different bikes and he even rode a 2023 YZ450F last week at the ClubMX training facility. I would assume though, that after his success this past weekend as well as his apparent content with his CRF450R he’ll be lining up at Anaheim 1 on this bike. I mean, at this point with less than 8 weeks to go before the opening round of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Series why would Roczen attempt to try and learn a new bike? Especially when he just beat the ‘Champ’ straight up in Paris.
As for Tomac, he didn’t lose very often in 2022 but he definitely didn’t have the raw speed in Paris that Roczen did. Especially yesterday when his timing appeared to be off just slightly. To be perfectly honest I’m a little surprised that Tomac even agreed to travel to Paris as he not only has a SX title to defend in two months but he also has a new bike to learn in a relatively short time. When I was down at the Star Racing Team facility last month they had mentioned that a few days after we left for home, Tomac was arriving for his first big test on the new bike. From my knowledge, Tomac spent three days testing the 2023 YZ450F in Florida with everyone from the mechanics, the suspension crew, as well as a few technicians from Japan. You’d think with this detailed and productive test session that Tomac would’ve taken the new bike to Paris and used the event as a solid ‘race test’ before shifting his focus to the 2023 SX Series. However, with his 2022 race bike already in Europe since the opening round of the WSX in Cardiff ,Tomac decided to race it. I don’t know, I just find it puzzling considering how different the 2023 YZ450F is from anything Tomac has raced in the past five years. As I said above, eight weeks isn’t a long time to learn about a new motorcycle, especially for a rider like Eli Tomac. I think this is why we saw a Tomac in Paris that was struggling to find the speed to consistently beat Roczen the way he was able to in Cardiff. Tomac was riding like a rider who has already mentally moved on to a new bike for the following year, as well as an athlete who looked a little tired from the demands of a long season. Anyway, overall it was an entertaining weekend of racing in Paris and if you get a chance, watch some videos on Roczen, Tomac, and even Justin Brayton going through the challenging Paris whoop section. Pretty spectacular if you ask me.
Also, this weekend was the LRX Performance AX in cold Brooks, AB. As you might have seen or even experienced, if you live in the Prairies, winter has arrived and it has been cold and snowy for over a week. Because of the adverse weather conditions, Paul Lavoie and his crew were forced to cancel the opening two rounds of the LRX AX and just go with this past weekend. I haven’t seen any results from Brooks but I’m assuming that Tee Perrott took home the wins in the pro class as he was the biggest name there. Last year was the first year for this event so it was good to see it back on the Alberta schedule for 2022. Let’s hope it continues into next year as Alberta needs as many of these indoor races as possible. As for the 2022 Future West AX Championships, that series resumes on November 26/27 and then goes again the following weekend for its final round.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and thank you for reading this column. If you have any questions or comments please email me at chris@mxpmag.com. Finally, last week I did a podcast with the BigMX Radio Show and during my time with host Brad Gebhardt we talked about everything from the 2023 YZ450F to old stories from the 1990s. If you get a chance you can have a listen right here: E-879: MXP Mag – Chris Pomeroy – bigmxradio