2023 DMX Awards | The DMXies

2023 DMX Awards | The DMXies

Photos by Billy Rainford unless stated otherwise.

It’s that time of year again. It’s the time when we put on our tuxedo shirts and hand out our annual awards – The DMXies. We go to every race throughout the year and keep our eyes open to what riders, tracks, and people in general are doing to help move the sport forward in Canada. Of course, some awards could go to more than one person, but we’ve come to the consensus that the awards we’re handing out for the 2023 Canadian Triple Crown Series season are going to the most deserving people, places, and things. (Feel free to sing the Schoolhouse Rock song that goes along with what a noun is…)

If you’re curious, click HERE.

So, without further ado, here we go with our 2023 DMXies:

Biggest Surprise

Unfortunately, we’re starting out a little negative, but I assure you the rest will be extremely positive. We have to give the Biggest Surprise to just how bad RAD Torque Raceway was for Round 1. Compound the condition of the actual track with 1) losing our former 250 National Champion Jake Piccolo in the first turn of the first moto 2) Triple Crown Champion Mitchell Harrison‘s bike troubles 3) LT McDonell breaking his femur and eventually stepping away from Pro Racing and 4) having to cancel half of Amateur Day due to the conditions, and you have a handful of terrible surprises. We’re sorry but this was our biggest surprise of the season. Fortunately, the series went straight UP from here!

Most Improved Rider

There were a couple riders we looked at for this one, including Daniel Elmore, but we went with Preston Masciangelo from Brantford, ON as our Most Improved Rider for 2023. Preston has always been on our radar but when he made the move to the big bikes he sort of slipped through the cracks for a short while. He has come back with a vengeance and matured into a fast and ever-improving Pro racer. He still enjoys hitting the big American Amateur Nationals to race the Pro/Am classes and also hit the Moto Combine races. We were very impressed with his development shown this past season and think he should be on every team’s short list moving forward.

Feel Good Story of the Year

This one has to go to Kaven Benoit from Quebec coming back to racing after taking 4 years away from the Nationals. It may not have felt very good to the rest of the 250 class when he came out and won the first round, but having the former champion’s smiling face at the races was just great to see. He was supposed to make it even better by racing a 250 2-stroke, but the team decided to go with the more proven 250F platform and it paid off with a 3rd place overall in the class. He’s back in 2024, so let’s see what he does for an encore…encore…

Best Interview

Greg Poisson was pushing for Shawn Maffenbeier on this one, and he would have been a worthy recipient. However, I did interviews with riders after every round of racing and I always looked forward to grabbing the big Belgian Andy Truyts, who calls Washougal, WA home now, for a conversation. He was always quick to give us his time and made it worthwhile with his honest and fun interviews. If you watch our ‘Walk and Talk’ from Walton Raceway this summer, he probably would have liked to walk around the entire pits with me for the whole episode! Great guy and a welcomed addition to our series last summer. Oh, and some of his battles with Parker Eales went from the drop of the gate to the wave of the checkered flag. It was fun to watch.

Jeff McConkey Award (Best Style)

“Looking good is 4 quarters of the battle…” ~ Jeff McConkey

This award hits us pretty close to the heart. We’re going to keep this one on the list as long as we’re doing lists because we all really miss our old friend Jeff. Nothing was more important than looking good to him. No joke, I could call him up and ask him what any rider from almost any year was wearing for specific gear or equipment and he could tell me 10 times out of 10. It was uncanny.

This award is going to Jake Piccolo for 2023. I can snap 100 photos of Jake and he’ll look perfect and ultra-stylish in 99 of them (The one bad one will be my fault). We missed Jake for most of the summer, but he made up for it when he finally made a return. Unfortunately, he’s still having troubles with his shoulder and they’ll have it looked at this month (January) in Ottawa to decide what the best course of action is to get him back to 100% and ready to thrill us in the future. Good luck, Jake.

Best Intermediate

We’ve got a lot of fast Intermediate riders coming up right now. The west is full of talent and we’ve got a few in the east as well. We tossed around some names for this one but decided to go with Blake Davies from Mission, BC in 2023. Blake is so tall that many will forget that he’s still just a kid! He won both yellow-plated classes at the WCAN and travelled the country with Al Dyck‘s MVP racing team to race 250 Pro/Am. Like I said, there were a couple other names that would be appropriate here, too, but Blake is our Best Intermediate for this year.

Track of the Year

Motocross Deschambault in Deschambault, QC. Ask just about anyone and the track they say they like the best is MX Deschambault. It’s the right amount of sand mixed with elevation changes and a marquee jump that keeps spectators coming back to watch. Not to mention, you get the chance to be a tourist in one of the country’s greatest cities, Quebec City, to see history you just don’t see anywhere else in Canada. We’ve got Temple Hill in Lethbridge, AB and a return to Prairie Hill in Pilot Mound, MB in 2024, so let’s see what they can bring.

Best National

We had no problem with this category this year. Best National goes to Walton Raceway in Walton, ON, hands down. The effort that Brett Lee and Melody Hodgson put into making the week of the TransCan and the final National of the season seem like a huge event keeps making this race week better and better. 2023 showed us what a Canadian National can and should be. Spectators showed up to fill the parking lot and line the fences, vendors showed up, and I think families who took holidays and travelled great distances to be there left feeling they’d made the right decision. Kudos on a great effort and result. And Brett deciding to takeover the in-house microphone duties on the stage took it up to the highest level, too. He gave everyone who was there all the backstories and kept their interest up. Well done.

Best Battle

We had a hard time with this one, so, since this was Shawn Maffenbeier‘s retirement year, we’re giving this one to his performance at Gopher Dunes. He was out front and trying his best to keep the unstoppable Dylan Wright behind him when Dylan finally caught him and made the pass. It was late in the moto, but Shawn didn’t simply roll over as so many have done before him. No, he tried to find another gear and went with the multi-time champ. Unfortunately, he crashed pretty hard in the sand, but the effort he showed impressed everyone who saw it. He’s announced his retirement, so he’s our sentimental pick here, but he also deserves it. Enjoy the sunset, Shawn.

Congeniality Award

Who else could have the tip of their finger cut off and still win a personality contest?! Quinn Amyotte, that’s who. Not only does he keep getting faster and faster, but he has fun and is probably the one rider who every other rider will say they like and respect. And that’s saying a lot in pro sports! Keep improving and keep being yourself, Quinn.

Amateur Rider of the Year

We got to watch all our young speedsters at the 3 Amateur Championships – WCAN, ECAN, TransCan – and Jayden Riley from Red Deer, AB always impressed us. He was getting on the taller side to be racing a Supermini, but that’s not his fault! He was up against all the fastest kids and took his talents south of the border to race some of the world’s best and did himself proud. Jayden will move up to the big bikes in 2024, so it will be interesting to see how he adjusts. Congratulations, Jayden, and good luck in 2024.

Rookie Pro of the Year

Tanner Scott from Oro-Medonte, ON gets Rookie Pro Rider of the Year for 2023. TJ is a rider on the rise who we think has the ability to take his talents all the way to the top if and when he gets the opportunity. With teams leaving our series, it’s only getting more difficult for newcomers to find a home to showcase their skill. Hopefully, we see Tanner land somewhere that let’s him continue to improve.

WMX Rider of the Year

We could just insert our paragraph from years past for Eve Brodeur from Laval, QC in this category. As we always say, this award will likely belong to Eve as long as she decides to keep throwing a leg over a motorcycle. She’s coming back again in 2024 so let’s see if anyone can step up to challenge her.

Pro Rider of the Year

Ryder McNabb from Minnedosa, MB and Dylan Wright from Drummondville, QC. We hate to do this, but after I suggested handing this award to Ryder, we discussed how that would mean our overall undefeated 450 rider (2 years in a row) wouldn’t receive anything in 2023, and that simply makes no sense at all.

Ryder is our 2-time and defending 250 MX champion who put himself out there at the Moto Combines and then landed himself a ride south of the border to race Supercross Futures and AMA Pro Motocross in 2024.

We just couldn’t decide on this one. Let’s just say we picked one from the 250 class and one from the 450 class this year.

People’s Choice Rider of the Year

After a hard-fought campaign, the 2023 DMX People’s Choice Rider of the Year award came down to two of the nicest, hardest-working riders we have in the Pro pits. #377 Daniel Elmore from Telkwa, BC and #28 Sam Gaynor from Erin, ON both ran solid campaigns and showed that they are two of the most popular riders in our sport.

Congratulations to Sam for stepping out of his previous bride’s maid’s roll (2 years running) to get it done in 2023.

Person of the Year

We were at odds on this one, I think mostly because of our age difference. But guess, what? I get final veto power and used it to decide this award. I have no regrets. Getting the winningest rider to come way out of retirement and show up at Gopher Dunes was a big feat. Ross Pederson (who put Medicine Hat, AB on the map for most of us) came to the Vet Event and was gracious with everyone. He made speeches in front of the adoring crowd at the dinner and even threw a leg over a beautiful, new YZ450F that Serge Gregoire had done up to look like his 1986 winning Yamaha. To think that most of us haven’t seen or heard from the rider that is renown around the world as the greatest to ever come out of our country in many years, it’s a huge step in paying homage to our sport’s history. Let’s hope we see more of “Rollerball” as we move forward. For coming out of retirement to get in front of everyone who hails him as our GOAT, Ross is our Person of the Year.

Congratulations to all our winners for 2023. We look forward to doing it all again in 2024. As we like to end things, see you at the races...