Frid’Eh Update #1 | Colton Facciotti

Frid’Eh Update #1 | Colton Facciotti

For week #1 of the DMX Frid’Eh Update we interviewed 6-time champion Colton Facciotti and spoke with a bunch of people who raced and know him.

By Billy Rainford

Welcome to the first DMX Frid’Eh Update of 2025. Sponsorship of this column is still not finalized, so if you or someone you know is interested please let us know. With career numbers being all the rage these days, we don’t really have a number 1 rider to give this to. Yes, Jess Pettis won the 450 class and is our #1 rider but his career number is 15 and I don’t have a better idea for week #15.

However, I did have what I thought was a great idea for #1!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and Holiday season just now. In fact, I’m guessing most of you are on an extended holiday until this coming Monday, so enjoy your last few days.

I can’t believe we had over 2 feet of snow on the ground in early December and then it all melted away before we got a light dusting for Christmas. It was, technically, a white Christmas though, so we’ll take it.

This weekend is our last one before we head into the long-awaited 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series and SMX season. I’ll be out at Angels Stadium of Anaheim again this year to make sure our 5 or 6 Canadians get the coverage they deserve for lining up at the biggest show in our sport.

But before we get to that…

So, since we don’t really have a #1 rider in the series anymore (Kaven Benoit is career #26 and Jess is career #15), I thought we’d go to the rider who has more #1 plates in the modern era than anyone else, none other than Mr. Colton Facciotti.

Colton raced long enough to surpass his mentor, JSR, who had 5 championships to his name. Colton went one more year and clinched his 6th and then walked away from the racing side of the sport.

I chose that photo at the top not by accident but because I think it iliustrates Colton’s style to a T. He was known for keeping his elbows in, despite taking ridicule for it his entire career. I’m guessing more than a couple people tried to get him to change, unsuccessfully.

These days he can be found changing shims and doing clickers on riders’ suspension at his Southwestern Ontario branch of Superior Suspension Setting (SSS) at his house in Aylmer, ON.

I’ve known Colton for many years and know that the one side of the sport he doesn’t miss is the hard training required to keep you at the top. In fact, I’m not sure how much actual training he’s even done since he quit racing. He admits he hates it that much.

This fact is what made the recent announcement by the Priority MX GasGas team that Colton will race some Vet races for the team in 2025 such a surprise! I mean…reallly?

Do not get me wrong, I think it’s going to be amazing to see someone as fast and talented as Colton back on the bike racing the likes of Ryan Lockhart, Ryan Gauld, and Chris Pomeroy. OK, they’re not all in the same age group, but you get the point.

Colton would sometimes win by over a minute against some of the best competition to ever venture north of the border or from Europe. Like everyone in attendance, his competitors were left scratching their heads on many occasion.

Since we do our Frid’Eh Update Interviews by the official numbers on the sheet, I thought it would be fun to grab Colton for a conversation to talk about his career and what all this new riding is about. I actually had a plan to walk around the Gopher Dunes track with Colton and record a walk down memory lane with him (and I still want to do that), but this seemed like a good place to grab him for a talk.

Here’s what he had to say:

Direct Motocross: Hello, Colton. Happy New Year. I thought this might be fun to take a little walk down Memory Lane with you this week. You’ve got more #1’s than anyone else in the modern era (the one with some internet) so this is a great week to do it. 

You’re from the Lower Mainland in British Columbia. How did you get your start in Motocross and did you play any other sports?

Colton Facciotti: I went to my cousin’s race and told my parents I wanted a dirt bike bike. The next Christmas I uncovered a Honda Z50 which they put some training wheels and moto’d around the house non-stop.

I’m guessing you weren’t the most enthusiastic student. What were you like in school?

Well, if my kid reads this, I was a perfect student. Haha. I was actually fairly good at school but wasn’t a big fan and joking around might have got me in trouble a time or two. I think my biggest problem was I rushed through everything so I didn’t have homework and could go riding.

I lived in BC at the time when you were coming up through the amateur ranks but I don’t have photos of you on little bikes. Now, explain this: your name first appears in the TransCan history books as the 85 (7-11) and Supermini champion in 2000. The following year, you were the 250 Intermediate champ! What was it like to move up that fast and young?

I was young and dumb so I didn’t really think of it. To be honest, I was fairly cocky at the age so I just wanted to beat everyone. Moving up classes was good for me because it always gave me the competition a little earlier.

I remember seeing you at the races out west when you first turned Pro at 14. I didn’t think you were going to make it, if I’m being honest, but I don’t think everyone realized you were still that young. In hindsight, do you think you moved up too fast or was that just your progression and you’re happy with it?

Speed-wise, it was good timing but mentally at that time I don’t think it was a great idea. I think you have to be very careful at that age and have to have the proper people guiding you in order to make it successful. I lacked a few of those key pieces, especially on the mental and physical side, and it almost didn’t work out great. The turnaround started at Blackfoot (Motosports) when they sat me down in my first interview and I bought into their whole program. From there everything seemed to go much easier. 

If someone as fast and young as you came along, what would you suggest for them as far as moving up through the ranks? I know some families really try to not move up that quickly.

I think there’s a balance and every kid is different and I wouldn’t suggest anything for moving up. My best advice would be to surround yourself with good people and race fast guys, and sometimes moving up to a bigger bike helps that. My route was tough and there were days that I wanted to quit. That being said i really don’t think I would have changed much because maybe that’s why I had the success I had.

Man, I have so many questions I could ask you, but we’ll save the long version for an in-person interview in the future. Can you explain how sometimes you could win by over a minute at the Canadian Nationals while other times you didn’t look nearly as spectacular? It always blew me away.

Great question and I could probably have a few different answers for that over the years. My main thing that comes to mind is the type of track, and the harder, drier, dustier, and rougher I always seemed to excel on. Popkum (Motor Park) comes to mind, whatever year that was (it was moto 2 in 2018), and I think I won by at least 45 seconds.

I remember people saying how dry and shitty the track was. I was on cruise control and 1/4 throttle everywhere and it was one of the easiest races I had and also didn’t mind the track.

I’ve also had motos where I’ve put every ounce of energy and effort into it and ended up 4th place; Riverglade comes to mind for one of those races.

To sum it up, the big victories were where I didn’t think about it much and just rode my dirt bike. 

Popkum came to my mind too. People often talked about your elbows. Was it something trainers tried to change or that you worked on?

It was just how I rode. I had a few guys mention it to me when I was younger but not much stuck in my head at that point. My trainer, Todd Schumlick, mentioned it at some point in my career and wasn’t too concerned about. I always found it a much more relaxed riding style and always worked for me.

Your career wasn’t all roses, you had some big injuries. Looking back, was there one in particular that made you think about your future in the sport for at least a little while or were you able to block that out and move on with ease?

When I crashed at Kamloops in 2012 I said I’m done and never riding a dirt bike ever again. I think it was about a week or 2 after that I was already planning on how I would come back.

We’ve all seen you in some absolutely epic battles. Is there one that stands out to you or a race or event that you look back at and just smile to yourself?

There were definitely a few but the biggest one that stands out to me, and maybe that’s because it’s the most recent, is 2019. I announced it would be my last year racing and the first round I remember coming off the track and saying to my self that I made a good call because these guys are going way too fast and I don’t want to go that fast anymore. I told myself, “Go your pace and if you win that’s great but I’m not going to push my limits to do so.”

I guess I have to ask you what your biggest highlight was during all those years?

My biggest highlight is winning my first championship. The feeling of that was just unreal, then to top it off winning my last championship in 2019. To do it that many years later, have a solid career, and walk away healthy is a good feeling.

Looking back over all your racing, what makes you the angriest about it? Anything still grind your gears?

The only thing that makes me a bit angry is not being just a little smarter and maybe walking away with a couple more titles…….. But maybe that’s what made me hungry for more and kept me going.

Did getting one more title than JSR force you to race until it happened or was your retirement just the right time?

That wasn’t a factor at all. It’s a cool factor for sure but that didn’t make me want to go out for another year. JSR was one of my biggest idols and was a great role model for me in that time of my career. He wouldn’t say a whole lot but I watched and learned a lot from him. Blair (Morgan) on the other hand was more of an open book and between those 2 guys I’m not sure I’d have 6 tittles without learning from them.

OK, We’re going long here but we have to talk about you getting back on a bike with Priority MX in 2025. Can you sum up what you’re plan is and when people can go watch you rip it up again?

Yes, that’s the plan for 2025. I’m really excited about it. The plan is to do Walton and some local races (no Pro racing). The last few years have been work, work, work and this year I plan to put a little more fun in the mix. I won’t be at all the nationals this year, just a select few wearing my SSS hat. That will allow me to hit up some local races with my son that rides a GasGas as well, so it all kind of made sense. 

Oh wait, I know you always said you didn’t enjoy the training part of racing at the top level. Will you get back on a bicycle and to the gym for this new adventure or are you going to just go with the natural Colton talent?

You are right on that! I just got back from a day of snowboarding and I’m sore and out of shape, so I might have to start doing some bare minimum training. Might have to call PerfomX to get me a training program.

One more. What kind of moto parent are you these days? I’m sure it’ll be pretty cool to race on the same days as Keagan or will it be more stressful?

I’m fairly easy on him, I guess you could say. My dad was fairly hard on me so maybe that’s why I’m the opposite, but it does frustrate me when a lot of the times I know he can do better than he did. I think racing on the same day as him will be good, maybe a little more stress than I would like, but I think showing him that his dad can still race and talk about lines and the track will hopefully help him out a bit.

What number will be on your bike? 111111?

That’s a great question. I’ll probably have to see if the 45 is available.

There is so much more I’d like to ask you, but thanks for taking time to do this with us this week, Colton. You probably don’t realize just how excited people will be to see you on the track again having some fun, but they will be. See you somewhere soon, and is there anyone you’d like to thank while we’ve got you here?

They might not when they see how slow I am after not riding for so long, Haha but thanks, Billy, for the interview and to all my fans, family, friends and sponsors old and new that have supported me throughout my career.

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To add to this week’s tribute to one of the greatest to ever do it, we got in touch with some of Colton’s former teammates, rivals, and industry people to give us their thoughts on him.

Dean Thompson – Blackfoot

I remember first watching Colton during his days with Richmond Kawasaki. You could always see flashes of speed but if he did not get a good start or be up front it seemed like he would pull off the track. He was such a fluid rider on the motorcycle and we saw the opportunity in him. So in 2006 we sat down with him and I recall Jason Mitchell‘s first words to Colton was, “Hey, Colton, you’re really a fast rider on the bike, but do you know what people say about you? They say you’re a quitter? What do you think about that?“

 I remember the silence waiting for a response. Then Colton said, “I am not a quitter, I just need the opportunity and support to prove it.” We said if we give you the equipment and that opportunity to prove everyone wrong, are you down with the challenge?  He quickly said, “Yes, I am” and from that day Colton was a very determined individual to prove everyone wrong including us! It lit a fire in him that never stopped. 

Our first time working with Colton on the bike and team was in Morden, Manitoba, with a shakedown for the team for the 2007 year, same year we switched from Honda to Yamaha. Everyone was out on the track and ripping, but Colton, to be honest, did not seem to share the same aggression. I remember standing by Joe Skidd and saying, “Man, when is he going to start going fast?” It seemed like he was just cruising while everyone else was trying to impress. Joe said, “Get the clock on him, the stopwatch doesn’t lie.” A few moments later we checked the stopwatch and he was like three seconds a lap faster than anyone else!

For the years after that until we finished up racing in 2011, Colton never stopped pushing, putting in the work, and being one of the best riders Canada produced. 

It was nice knowing that you always knew what you had from Colton, which was 100%. And the results were always there!  

In the end, he proved Colton Facciotti ain’t no quitter! 

Tyler Medaglia

Ya, it was tough racing against him because it seemed so naturally easy for him. Like, I remember we would get to GPF and on his first day of riding after winter break he would do a 35-minute moto no problem. That would piss me off because I rode 3x more, trained my ass off, and my first day after winter break I would be so pumped up after 12 minutes I’d have to ride at 60% to finish a 20.

I have beat him straight up only a handful of times over the years and he was never a poor sport about
it, was never above a thumbs up, which is tough for guys of his caliber. He was a good teammate, open to discussing strategy and pointing out things to help out the team.

Sometimes, he would blank out in conversation and seemingly go into outer space, but that’s forgivable 😂

Kourtney Lloyd – Team Canada MXON Manager

Colt is such an interesting person, almost mysterious in a way. He’s quiet but like in an assassin sort of way. Never boastful, just proves himself in his work whether that was on the track or now with his suspension work.

Throughout the chaos of MXON, he is such a calming force and he just does what needs to be done. Colt has become one of my dearest friends. He is smart, reliable, and trustworthy, although he’d tell you he’s not. Canada is so lucky to have Colty in the industry still and around the pits. I hope we get to have Colt for years to come.

Ryan Lockhart

I raced with Colt for a long time going back all the way to 2005. In the earlier years, whether it be indoor or outdoors, you never knew what Colt was going to show up. He either was winning or not finishing. Well, he sure figured that out by the end of 2007 and kicked all of our asses.

What was cool for me is that I was part of GDR when Colt won his last championship and then we both went on to work with the team to the current day. His knowledge of the motorcycle is priceless and I have learned so much from him. Both of us love to sit down at the end of the race days and talk about old stories, even though his memory is a bit foggy. Lol.

I will mention we also like having a glass of wine together or maybe even a few bottles.

Dusty Klatt

Racing Colt over the years was always a hard battle. Mostly as we were rivals, both battling for the top spot under the same tent. I never knew Colt like some of his closer racing friends, but to no difference than myself, he was always a driven racer. Especially after injuries it’s tough to come back and win right away, which is one thing I think a lot of racers could give him respect and credit for. Which is a big reason he walked away with 6 plates in the end of it.

Mike Alessi

Ya, Colt45 was a tough competitor. As his teammate in 2019, we went hard battles for the championship and in 2014 never giving an inch to each other, and that made us respect each other because we gave our best on the track!!

JSR

Racing the kid, Colton, there aren’t many crazy stories about racing him. I mean, I was faster than him until I retired (laughs). I remember giving him shit because he was braking way too early in a few corners. I remember passing him like he was looking for the brake pedal on the downhill at I think it was Morden. It was a super fast, long downhill and braking to a 180 before the finish line. And I think in Moncton, one of the first years we along the grass in the long section to the left coming back wide open, 4th gear and dropping down into the woods and then to the Klattapult. The only story that I can tell you is that I was better than him on the braking and then I gave him shit but you can tell by his results and championships that he got better on the brake.

Him and I got some real cool road bike rides in Georgia / GPF on the country roads near by. We got chased by crazy bulldogs on every other ride!

Matt Goerke

Colton was a great competitor. He was very respectful and I respected him. When I first went up there I was kind of shocked at how fast he was. I trained my butt off for the next year to try and beat him. He ended up getting hurt that year, anyway. After that, we had some great battles.

He was a great competitor and very tough to beat. You never knew what to expect from him like most people because sometimes he would get a good start and be gone! It was so hard to predict when he’d be on it like that.

For example, in 2017 when me and (Christophe) Pourcel were riding well that year going at it and then I think it was at Deschambault he just smoked us both! Both of us…out of nowhere.

He was always like that. You never knew what to expect and I definitely never took it for granted. I never thought, “Oh, I’ve got him covered” this weekend or even this moto!

You’d beat him the first moto and you never knew the second moto he might beat you by 45 seconds! That’s how he was. It was interesting.

At Popkum in 2018 I held him off in the first moto and then the second moto he was ahead by like 450 seconds! What happened between the motos?!

That would be a good trait to have, what he had. Nobody could ever assume they had him covered because you just never knew if he was just gonna come out and smoke everyone.

Blair Morgan

Everyone forgets how young Colton was when he turned pro. He always had the talent, just needed a little guidance here and there. Colt will always be my brother even though I’m known as Uncle Blair!

Joe Skidd – SSS

We had our rider list and team tryouts in the fall of 2006 (he was 17 years old) that included Colt coming off of Kawasaki’s. Pretty quickly in our discussions we found out that he wasn’t exactly very well supported by that Kawasaki team. We spotted quite quickly that with the right equipment and the right support Colt could be a force to be reckoned with. This came true at our 2007 team shakedown test at Morden, Manitoba, with he Blair and JSR all on 450’s equal equipment equal support.

Colt was quite easy to work with at first as he was just happy to be on solid equipment. JSR took him under his wing early on and helped develop a fairly solid training program with attention to diet, etc.. This built a pretty good foundation that would serve Colt for the rest of his career.

Long story short, Colt soon put the finer touches on his own regiment developing system that he was super comfortable with. He wasn’t afraid to spin the wrenches for himself, as that is a huge part of any top rider’s success, especially in this country.

Over the next five years, all on Yamaha’s, Colt matured into a good test rider with a good brain to make sense of changes, developments and adjustments, often on his own at GPF in Georgia.

After I left Blackfoot at the end of 2010, I continued to work with Colt as a suspension technician also as he eventually ended up on KTM‘s. I guess it was around 2016 or so when we decided together that he would be the right person to take over my position as suspension technician for many top Canadian riders after Colt was to retire and me also.

It was then that his training as a suspension technician, actually began, long before his racing career ended. This also made testing in the US much more effective for him as well as learning the finer points of suspension technology.

I think we made the jump for him to have an SSS franchise ready for 2020, if I’m not mistaken? It turns out that it was a good move on both our parts as I was looking to slow down and he was looking to ramp up, so we’re successfully sharing our customers together based on their individual needs.

In closing, I can say it’s been a pleasure working with Colt over all of these years, soon to be 20 years, and watching him develop as a fine man in all aspects of his life: a great family man, a great professional, and a very capable technician with a bright future.

Derek Schuster

I had the pleasure of working with Colton as a racer at GDR for 6 seasons and can definitely say that Colton is an interesting individual to work with. I believe we both learned a lot from each other during our years working together and both pushed each other for excellence. When I think of words to describe Colton I would say that the two that immediately come to mind are perfection and work ethic. When Billy asked me to write a quick story about working with Colton I immediately thought about our off-season when he joined the team where things started off bumpy, to say the least. 

Heading into the 2014 season I had just signed my first sizable deal with Honda and with that came signing Colton. There was a lot that I needed to learn to transform our team into a title contender and Colton definitely was not interested in a learning period for the team he signed with, so that made things challenging early on.

I went back and looked at a few emails from the early days of that off-season while writing this and got a good laugh from them! That led to a story that I have told before about when I initially paired Colton together with Justin Petker to be his mechanic.

The two guys did not know each other well before I paired them together and it didn’t start out well either… I sent Justin to Georgia for a week to work with Colton and upon his arrival to Canada Justin told me that he didn’t think it was going to work out with Colton. That conversation was followed up by another email from Colton saying I will need to find a different mechanic as Justin wasn’t going to be cut out for the job.

I was in a tough spot without other options so I let both guys know that we were just going to have to make it work, and credit to both of them, they put their heads down and got to work! It turned out to be an outstanding partnership between the two as Justin wrenched for Colton for the full 6 years and the two guys won 3 championships together with ZERO DNF’s which is an accomplishment that I am so proud of them both for.

Something I noticed in Colton during his tenure at GDR was how he went from being closed off early on to a great mentor to others. He would never sugar coat things for other riders or staff, he told them how it was but he also showed his support to them and offered mentorship. He allowed other riders into his camper or home at times and really put in an effort to show others what it took to be the best! It was really fascinating to watch the evolution of Colton during those final 6 years of his racing career and then further into his retirement from racing and his work with GDR.

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Let me just say thank you to everyone for taking some time to talk briefly about their experience with Colton over the years. It’s going to be great to see him on the track again with no pressure like in the old days. Like everyone said above, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see which Colton shows up. I’ll be there watching!

There is some other stuff going on in Canada right now that we’ll talk about in the coming days, so we’ll end this one here. Oh, congratulations to Wyatt Kerr:

Wyatt Kerr Wins 2024 People’s Choice Rider of the Year

WYATT KERR IS THE 2024 DMX PEOPLE’S CHOICE RIDER OF THE YEAR!

In the end, Wyatt Kerr from Cambridge, ON took a convincing win in the open voting to take the crown for the 2024 season.

After coming back from that scary broken back and surgery at Round 3 of the 2023 Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals at Wild Rose MX in Calgary, Alberta, Wyatt never gave up or showed any signs of quitting.

In fact, he hopped back on the bicycle as quickly as he could and got himself fit and ready to go for the start of the 2024 season.

Wyatt came back with the #59 on his Priority MX KTM and finished 5th overall in the 250 class to complete an inspiring comeback story.

The results of this vote prove that you’re never really alone out there and that people notice the positive attitude and effort put forth by our great athletes.

Congratulations, Wyatt, and good luck in 2025.

Honourable mentions go to young #131 Bleiddwn Cook from BC who ran a strong campaign and got a lot of friendly support late, as well as #14 Quinn Amyotte from ON who came in just behind in 3rd.

Until next year…

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