By Danny Brault
Photos by James Lissimore
Our second day of national amateur racing took off at the Parts Canada Walton TransCan, in the motocross loving town of Walton, Ontario (well, first full day of racing, as Wednesday was a split of practice and motos). Today we saw many familiar faces on the podium (Casey Keast, Josh Cartwright, Ryan Lockhart, Kyle Thompson, RJ Marnoch, etc) but also some new ones, like Jake Sterichert from South Slocan, BC taking his first ever Walton win in the MX1 Intermediate class, or Marco Cannella from Waterdown, ON who is absolutely flying on his YZ125/150, sweeping the Schoolboy classes and MX2 Junior A.
I’ll admit, I was a little worried that things would get ugly when rain started falling in the early morning but fortunately we never really endured much of the wet stuff, other than what was put down by the track crew as things dried out in the afternoon. Walton Raceway is a funny track, a challenging one that changes from morning to noon to evening. The ruts get longer an deeper as the motos tick by. Technical and tricky, it takes a certain niche of rider to master this infamous track and event.
Racing aside, the #transcanlife is always one we all look forward to. On Wednesday, we had a very talented and cute group of kids displaying all kinds of skills in the annual ‘Walton Talent Show’; last night was Bingo in the Barn at the Parts Canada building (and it was packed! I didn’t know bingo was such a hit to those below the age of 82?) and then there’s track building contests, Strider bike races and plenty of fun stuff to keep those kids burning off energy (unless of course they sneak into a Rockstar and then they’re wide open for a few more hours). I haven’t tested out the BMX or pump bike tracks, mainly because I’m useless and would probably dust myself up but it looks interesting and pretty well designed.
Let’s flip through Thursday’s action at the TransCan, from the lens of James Lissimore:
FULL WALTON TRANSCAN RESULTS HERE
Don’t forget, there’s a Jason Blaine country concert Friday night at Walton! Starts at 7pm. Details here.
Let’s hear what MXP’s editor and current Plus 40 (and defending champ) points leader Chris Pomeroy has to say about the current state of the Walton track after two days:
“After a day and half of mud and deep ruts it’s now coming around. The difference in track conditions from this morning to the afternoon was like night and day. Gone was the sloppy mud and it was replaced by the tacky conditions that we’re all used to seeing.
“With good weather inn the forecast waiting for racers on Friday, it should make for another great day of racing. Sometimes at these pressure packed events it takes riders a few races to feel comfortable and show their A-game. If this philosophy holds true then we’re in for a real treat tomorrow. It all kicks off with the crazy, Rockstar Energy Drink fueled rooster first thing in the morning!”
Pomeroy forwarded over this great and heartfelt note regarding some additional track prep for the 50cc racers:
In a sport where it’s impossible to make everyone happy, today at the 2014 Parts Canada TransCan they went a long way in to try. With the 50cc classes waiting on the line with an impassable track in front of them, the TransCan crew led by Mark Perrrin sprang into action. In an instant, the dozers were brought out and in 15 minutes the dying track was brought back to life.
While it was still soft and rutted in some places, the track was in much better shape and two great 50cc races left the starting line. Mason Tucker and Ryder Mcnabb were victorious.
As I mentioned before, this is a tough sport and this event is made up of a crock pot of opinions and personalities. However, sometimes the TransCan crew gets it right, and when they do they need to be congratulated.