2022 DMX Awards – The DMXies

The DMXies DMX Awards

By Greg Poisson and Billy Rainford

It’s time for our annual DMX Awards – The DMXies. The OSCARS have been handed out so it’s time to follow suit and crown some riders. Now grab your gowns and tuxedoes and let’s get to it.

Most Dominant Pro Rider 

Dylan Wright. Dylan also won this award in 2021 but how can we not pick the rider who just won every moto in the 450 MX class?! We can’t, so no big surprise to start off this year’s awards. Congratulations, Dylan.

Biggest Surprise 

Marco Cannella. 2022 was Marco’s year to shine in the 250 class but things didn’t go well for the likeable rider from Waterdown, Ontario. The youngsters in the class have definitely upped their game and then Marco’s elbow injury took him out of competition. We’re still hearing rumours but for now we’ll say he’s decided to step away from the sport for at least this year. We wish him well in whatever he decides to do in the future.

Most Improved Rider 

Daniel Elmore: Daniel has always been fast but we think last year he showed he has the potential to become one of our elite 450 guys. He’s now got the chance to shine on the TLD SSR GasGas team and is again down at Club MX getting ready for the season. With all the necessary tools and support in place, we look forward to seeing what Daniel can do this season.

Greg was pushing hard for Quinn Amyotte for this award this year, so we need to make mention of him here.

Feel Good Story of the Year

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We have to go with Westen Wrozyna on this one. Westen stepped away from Pro racing and won himself a couple FXR PreMix titles for fun on the 2-stroke. He stepped up and in for Kevin Tyler on the MX101 team and did very well, finishing 8th in 450 MX, 3rd in 250 AX/SX and 2nd in Open Pro AX/SX. He did whatever the team needed from him and did it with a smile on his face. What the future holds for him is still to be decided (he’s stepping away from Pro racing), but that was fun to watch last season.

Best Interview

Mitchell Harrison: As good as Mitchell is with the fans at the races, he’s just as good with us whenever we ask him for some time. He’s honest and forthcoming and understands that people want to hear what our pro riders have to say, so he takes the time to give us great interviews. Thanks, Mitchell.

Best Style – The Jeff McConkey Award 

This award is a tribute to the late Jeff McConkey. As Jeff always said, “Looking good is 4 quarters of the battle!” Nothing was more important to him than looking good on the track and in the pits. He was a character that will never be matched. So, with Jeff in mind, we’re giving the Best Style Award to Jake Piccolo for 2022. As a photographer, you always need to keep one eye on whatever Jake is doing on the track because you don’t want to miss a thing. His oppos are now legendary and a fixture in slow motion video clips from wherever he is training. Looking good while going fast were the two things that impressed Jeff the most and we think he’d be happy with our choice this year.

Best Intermediate 

Tanner Scott was the dominant yellow-plated rider this year. He went undefeated in his Junior year at the TransCan in 2021 and then was in position to do it again in the Intermediate class this year, but came up just short. We still think he was the best of the up-and-comers in 2022.

Track of the Year 

Whispering Pines in Kamloops, BC. It was great to be back in the Mountains and it was the first national with fans and no masks! 

Best National 

We’re going to give this one to the gang at River Glade this year. Whenever we head east as far as Moncton, the whole region seems to be abuzz. This past summer, I remember commenting that I was actually bumping into people as I walked around and had a hard time finding a spot along the fences when I tried to watch from inside them with the spectators. We get to see the many different cultures as we cross Canada and it’s always a great weekend in the maritimes. Sure, they’ve toned down The Klattapult to the point where it doesn’t deserve the name anymore, but we won’t hold that against them…too much. See you in 2023, everyone!

Best Battle 

We liked anything #22 Tyler Gibbs was involved in during the Supercross/Arenacross portion of the season in 2022. He grew up racing the tight confines of the Future West Moto Arenacross series and brought that aggression to the Triple Crown Series. As far as we saw it, he never did anything to draw as much attention as he did at each round, riders just didn’t seem ready to protect the inside lines and got upset when Tyler made what we saw as classic indoor moves.

Congeniality Award

This guy has been given Most Improved Rider a couple times and now he’s getting the Congeniality Award for the second year in a row, but I don’t know how you can argue against it. It seems he’s friends with every other rider we talk to and has fun racing and hanging out in every situation. Quinn Amyotte can always be counted on for a smile and some positive remarks, even about his competitors.

Amateur Rider of the Year

Tanner Scott: Tanner proved he’s got the potential to take his talents to the Pro level and we’re going to find that out when the series starts this year. Tanner was always the favourite to win whenever he lined up in 2022, so he gets the nod.

Rookie of the Year 

Sebastien Racine, Wyatt Kerr, and Zach Ufimzeff all turned full-time Pro riders in 2022. All three of them did very well and should be proud of their efforts and improvement. Having said that, Sebastien stood out from the others and could always be counted on as a podium threat (he got 3!) at every round. Seb gets Rookie of the Year for 2022.

Female Rider of the Year

(Copy/Paste) Is there any question? Eve Brodeur. This award likely has her name etched onto it until she decides to hang ’em up. Looking ahead to this coming season, Eve will have the returning Jamie Astudillo and Avrie Berry to contend with, so this could be her toughest challenge yet.

Pro Rider of the Year

Dylan Wright: We try not to duplicate winners in our DMXies, but we’d look silly if we didn’t pick the rider who won every moto (without a good ACL!) and led Team Canada at the MXON again. He turned heads all around the globe and we hope to see him continue this trend moving forward. His come from last ride at the Sand Del Lee national had to be one of the most impressive rides we’ve ever witnessed in person. We thought for sure the streak was over. Congratulations, Dylan.

Person of the Year

This award is always a tricky one because it can come from any number of angles. So many people give this sport their all and choosing one person who gave more than the others is sometimes a struggle. For 2022, we’re going to give the award to Derek Schuster. Derek is co-owner of the Gopher Dunes facility. After he allowed his star rider to race the MXGPs in 2021, he let both of his riders race at Red Bud for the MXON this past year. He travelled over to Europe twice in 2021 and hosts what you could argue is the best MX National of the year on an annual basis. Behind the scenes, Derek voices his opinion in the managers’ meetings and tries to do what’s best for the sport and its riders. Congratulations, Derek, now hop in the DMX Van and let’s go to the Detroit Supercross!

Congratulations to all the winners in 2022. Feel free to voice your opinions in the comment sections in the various places. We realize there are countless stories that take place throughout the season and we do our best to pay attention and make these choices with the information we have. We just want to tell everyone that we appreciate all of your efforts and look forward to another stellar year of racing in 2023.