After nine rounds and eighteen motos in both the 250 Pro/Am class and the 450 class, the 2018 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown MXTour Series is now over. In a dramatic conclusion that saw both title fights go down to the final moto of the season at Walton Raceway, Jess Pettis and Colton Facciotti made it clean sweeps for BC born riders in 2018. If you were lucky enough to have been in attendance last weekend at Walton, you witnessed two of the finest pressure filled rides by Pettis and Facciotti. When it counted the most, both Pettis and Facciotti found their way to the top step of the podium in at least one moto on Saturday. For Pettis, he came out in Moto 1 and set the tone for the day by taking the victory over Dylan Wright. Facciotti, on the other hand, came up just short of winning his opening moto, but came back strong in Moto 2 and rode off to the win as well as the overall for the day. I’m sure when these two riders went to bed on Friday night and envisioned what their race day would be like, things pretty much went according to plan.
Pressure is a powerful thing and sometimes it can be overwhelming. I mean, how many times have we seen over the years an athlete’s performance affected by the pressure their feeling? Sometimes it’s the pressure put on them by an external force, however most times the strongest and most damaging pressure is the pressure we put on ourselves. We go from simply trying to win to trying to not make a mistake. Instead of thinking about all of the good things that can happen in competition, we only focus on the bad things that could happen. This is part of what made both Pettis’ and Facciotti’s rides so fun to watch on Saturday – neither appeared to be affected at all by the pressure to get the job done.
Helping Facciotti along was the knowledge that he had done this four times before, so going for yet another 450 title was just par for the course. On the other hand, Pettis had never been in this position before, so what was keeping him from cracking under the pressure? Well, if you know Jess Pettis at all then you know that he rarely takes life too seriously. Despite being down and out on numerous occasions with injuries and setbacks, Pettis has always remained upbeat and positive about his future. No doubt his “I just love riding my dirt bike” attitude helped guide him through the final two championship deciding moments.
All week at Walton Raceway we watched riders go for meaningful championships, and while some were able to finish the task, others came up just short. The ability to block out all of the external noise and just focus on the job at hand is a difficult one. I remember standing at the fence prior to the start of the final supermini moto on Thursday afternoon. A few hours earlier the skies had opened up and the track was a complete quagmire, not exactly the conditions a rider is looking for when trying to win a championship. KTM superstar Ryder McNabb was one of the riders with a shot of taking home the supermini championship, but he needed a good start to beat his closet rivals Zach Ufimzeff and Julien Benek. With a foot of slop on the track and a good start being so important, McNabb grabbed a massive holeshot, and with a clear track in front of him, he ran away with the moto win and the Supermini TransCan title. McNabb didn’t let the pressure of a big moment get to him and he did exactly what he wanted to do.
All week at Walton Raceway we saw remarkable examples of how to properly deal with pressure. Remember, pressure is only a force that you allow yourself to feel in meaningful situations. If you didn’t feel it then you probably didn’t care anyway about what happened. So embrace it, deal with it, and allow yourself to go out and have the performance that you were meant to have, the same way Pettis, Facciotti, McNabb, and numerous others did last week at Walton Raceway.