Frid’Eh Update #15 | Jess Pettis Interview | Brought to You by RP Race Performance
By Billy Rainford
Welcome to Week #15 of the DMX Frid’Eh Update presented by RP Race Performance. Be sure to check this Canadian performance company out. You’ll be seeing more and more teams choosing them at the races this season.
Well, where do I start? All I can say is that it’s been an interesting few days that ended up making it so that I wasn’t able to make the drive from London to Foxborough Thursday night. Fortunately, Press Day riding at Gillette Stadium was cancelled due to the weather, so it wasn’t a huge loss as far as riding coverage goes.
Here’s what happened:
Emily and I decided that ripping up the narrow slat hardwood flooring just wasn’t enough for us home renovation rookies, so we decided to take on the main floor’s popcorn ceilings next. It was only the master bedroom and the living room/dining room area, so it could have been worse.
We sent in some bits to make sure we weren’t dealing with any asbestos issues, since the house was built in the early 1950’s, and the result was negative.
We started with the bedroom after looking YouTube for how it was done. It went about as smoothly as possible as this room’s ceiling had not been painted over.
It still took us the better part of an entire day.
Next, we tackled the living room. Unfortunately, it had been painted over and after looking online again no method was going to work. We were going to completely ruin the drywall if we kept going.
It was not Sunday afternoon and we had more tradespeople coming in on Monday, so we had to move fast!
Em went on Kijiji and found someone who said they could come have a look right away. Perfect…
He showed up, had a look, and told us he could do it. We said, “Great, how soon can you start?” He replied, “I brought all my stuff with me. I can start right now.” Even more perfect!
OK, he looked at the size of the rooms and gave us his price. We looked at each other and he immediately came down 50 bucks. The price sounded very reasonable so we asked him to get to work. Perfect.
He was a little bit chatty but really seemed to be digging into the work. He also appeared to be somewhat of a perfectionist. Perfect.
As I walked past him, he went into a bit of his life story. I didn’t remember asking but listened politely as I got more detail than I feel I should have.
OK, get back to work.
He put in about 4 hours and looked to be doing a fine job. He quit for the night and said he’d be back the next day. Great.
He needed some supplies so Emily took him in the car and headed to the local box hardware store. I was on my laptop in the back yard and thought she’d gone alone, leaving him to continue in the house. Nope, he went with her.
I got a message from Em saying that the lady helping them at the store took an opportunity to separate Em from him and asked her, “Are you OK? Are you in trouble? Do I need to call someone?” Uh oh…
Em said that he was just doing some work at the house and that I was at home waiting.
They next went to Tim Hortons to grab us all a breakfast sandwich and coffee. I won’t get into details but he needed to see the manager IN THE DRIVE-THRU and then they had to park and go inside while he apparently touched everything and yelled at people. Emily was so embarrassed she said she almost cried. She really hates things like that.
They got home and he got back to work. Perfect?
She met me outside and told me all the details and that he needed to go. Uh oh…
I thought about what to say and came up with a plan. I gave him the excuse and told him to finish the room but that we would no longer need him to touch up the bedroom ceiling that we had done. He seemed disturbed by that. I gave him a very good excuse!
He worked for a bit and I pointed out a spot on the roof we’d talked about earlier in great detail. He always told me way more than I needed to hear about his trade. At that point he said, “No, I’m not going to touch that. I’m finished. I’m quitting the job.” Perfect! It worked, he was leaving.
He packed up his things leaving the main room unfinished and carted all his stuff out to the curb. Apparently, this tradesman doesn’t own a vehicle! There’s way more to his story that I know too uch about, but he sat out front and waited for his ride.
While he waited, he wandered up our neighbour’s driveway, looked at the gas meters, wandered across the lawn all the while looking sideways over at our big front window as I watched his moves. It was pretty weird.
His ride finally showed up and he disappeared.
This was on Wednesday. I was planning to hop in the DMX Van and make the drive to Boston on Thursday morning.
Later that night, my phone started buzzing. It was him. He wanted more money and said that we owed him money and were in breach of contract and blah, blah, blah.
I told him we had a cash deal and that we even handed him an extra $100 as he left! He wasn’t happy and said we needed to pay HST. Huh?
He went on and on in message form and I told him to just walk away. At that point, Em realized he was also messaging her. We both blocked him.
Needless to say, Emily wasn’t too thrilled about me leaving town the day after we’d kicked this bee hive of emotional instability. Even if Press Day was a go, I wasn’t leaving her alone with this guy knowing where we live.
On the plus side, the guy doing the kitchen stuff is an ex lineman for the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and is 6’5″ 300 pounds if he’s 10 pounds. The guy is massive. Not that I’m worried, the ceiling guy was small and pretty fragile-looking, but it was nice knowing he was lurking in case things went sideways.
Long story short (Ha, way too late for that!), I didn’t leave until Friday and haven’t had much time to dig around for this Update. I thought you might get a kick out of that story though.
Jess Pettis is #15 and this week will consist of our conversation, as I make my way east to Foxborough. I’m actually sitting at a Love’s truck stop just at the New York/Massachusetts border.
I still have a couple hours to drive, so let’s get to our conversation. First, here’s a look at his 2023 Canadian season:
Here’s what Jess had to say when we contacted him this week:
Direct Motocross: Hey, Jess. It was great to see you down at GPF last month. How was your time there and did you accomplish everything you wanted to while you were there?
Jess Pettis: Hey, Billy. Yes, it went great, we found some nice bike settings, got a good 5-week boot camp in there and really enjoyed our time. It was a great place to get going into the ’24 season.
Now that Red Bull KTM Canada has you and Josiah Natzke on the 450, what’s the relationship like between you two? I think I know both of you guys pretty well and I’d like to think you guys are helping each other get better, but maybe it’s more cutthroat than that?
Yeah, it’s been great having Josiah on board. Me, him, and KB (Kaven Benoit) have all been pushing each other each day to get better. Between Josiah and I, the vibes have been perfect and we are both riding at a good level so far, so hopefully we bring this into the races.
I saw Josiah had a nice new bicycle in his shed. Have you been showing him around the cycling world? Have his deep dish wheels blown him into the ditch yet?
Yeah, he thinks he’s sick with the deep dish, and his Strava PR’s, but we let him have that confidence. Hahaha
How tempted were you to hit the Supercross track across the road? Did you do any laps on it?
Funny actually, we got rained out one day, even the corner track, so the 3 of us did full-on motos all day on the SX track. It was actually really fun.
How upset were you to not be racing SX this winter?
I am always bummed to watch it from home, but maybe things will align to give it another shot before it’s too late.
If you were racing 250 this season, which coast would you have preferred to be racing and why?
Hmmm, maybe east coast would be cool. It’s stacked but you get a good result and it really shows. Plus, I think less mudders.
So, now you’re training at Club MX. How long have you been there and how’s it going?
Yeah, I am. Been here over a week now and we have another week or so left. It’s been great, the facility is top notch and we are keeping the intensity high.
Are you training there with Josiah and Kaven?
Yes, we do our own gym program, but cycling and motos every day together.
Is the place ripe with Canadians right now? Mike Bonacci tells me there are quite a few there.
Yeah, there is a few for sure, but not as many as I thought.
Sort of a dumb question, but what are you going to do differently to try and dethrone Dylan Wright? If anyone is going to do it, most people would point to you!
Have a successful boot camp/off season, and find the comfort with the bike to hang it out more in the sketchy areas.
When will you head home and what pre-season races will you do before the Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals start in Alberta?
Heading home end of April, and I’ll race Issodun and maybe a few others.
Hey, when I first met you at Oak Hill MX in Texas over 10 years ago, do you remember how you did in the 85 or Supermini classes?
Yeah, I hurt my shoulder I believe, but maybe I had a few top 10 in Supermini or 85 class.
OK, one more thing. Who is going to win the 250 class in Canada this summer? Is it going to be a battle of the “old guys” or is one of the younger guys going to step up?
Man, I’m not sure, maybe KB of T Dags (Tyler Medaglia), also Quinn (Amyotte)has been riding well from what I’ve seen.
Thanks for taking some time with us for Week #15, Jess. Good luck with the rest of your prep and we’ll see you in Alberta, if not before. Who would you like to thank?
Thanks, Billy,. The whole team KTM, Fly Racing, RedBull, Oakley, FMF, Renthal, CTi, Felt, and of course everyone else.
If you didn’t read it this week, I gave Al Dyck a call to talk about him returning to racing with Blake Davies and Julien Benek. Here’s the article:
Al Dyck Going Racing with Benek and Davies in 2024
By Billy Rainford
Al Dyck is going Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals racing with #17 Julien Benek and #29 Blake Davies in 2024.
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in…” ~ Godfather III
I reference that corny Godfather III line here because, like most, I thought his MVP Sky Racing Team was going to be another casualty in a long list of casualties heading into the 2024 Canadian Triple Crown Series Motocross Nationals. And to be honest, it very nearly was! Here’s the story:
In case you didn’t already know, Al Dyck is one of Canada’s all-time MX greats. He’s a former National Champion and it can be said that he had more natural talent than the Canadian GOAT, Ross ‘Rollerball’ Pederson, who he had to go up against his entire career. And like all of us, once this sport gets in your blood there’s no cure for you – you’ve pretty much had it. You’re in.
Al still enjoys being in and around the sport and his teams have been great additions to our series, culminating in that 250 MX Championship with Jake Piccolo back in 2021. And here’s where it gets interesting because Jake was the catalyst for Al’s return in 2024.
After Julien Benek‘s announcement on Instagram on Wednesday (see below) we wanted to get in touch with Al to get the full story, so that’s what we did this morning.
I mentioned Jake because he was in Al’s shop getting suspension done on a 2021 Yamaha. Al enjoyed his time working with the Piccolo family in 2021 and so a lightbulb went off. He mentioned to Jake that he had a 2023 race bike still from last season.
Jake was interested and so Al contacted his Kawasaki dealer in Manitoba first.
It just so happened that Al also had the suspension of one of the guys from International Motorsports in Langley, BC in his shop to work on and mentioned Jake. His response was, “Ooh, let me know!“
Unfortunately, Jake’s shoulder is still an issue and he will likely need surgery to get himself back to 100%. They decided it wouldn’t make sense to try to race the Nationals on a team in this condition and so they were forced to leave the talks at that point.
Al was back in the game and came up with a plan to have BC riders #29 Blake Davies on the 250 and #17 Julien Benek on the 450, both on Husqvarnas from International.
Blake will run Fox gear and Julien will be in his OG’s.
Blake (now 6’4″ 190 lbs) will be helped out by his dad, Brandon Davies, and Julien will have his dad, Oliver Benek, working with him. Al plans on being at half the rounds himself and will try to get someone (hint, hint) for the eastern rounds he can’t attend. They will be in Al’s trailer and Brandon’s truck to get to the races.
Right now, Blake has been training down in California and Julien is getting ready for the last 2 rounds of Monster Energy AMA Supercross in Denver and Salt Lake City on his current ride in the 250 West class.
Julien will also be at the opening round of the Future West Moto BC Championships at Whispering Pines in Kamloops on his new Husqvarna April 20-21.
Blake will be racing at Horn Rapids MX this weekend racing their Loretta Lynn’s qualifier.
Al ended our conversation stating that he would love the chance to get to go racing again with Jake Piccolo in the future.
Team sponsors:
MVP
International Motorsports
Sky Racing Suspension
Michael DaSilva was putting in a ton of work in the off-season and was planning on a full-scale attack on the 450 Nationals this summer. Unfortunately, he announced he had a bad crash a month ago while training at SOBMX and actually compressed 6 vertebra! I called him up to talk about it. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, but here are a couple links:
OK, I’ve still go a couple hours to go so I’m going to drop the hammer and be ready to go in the morning. We’ll have Jordan Wilsey from RussOgraphy to help in Foxborough so be sure to check in as we let. you know what’s going on all day with our Canadians and the rest of the travelling Monster Energy AMA Supercross circus!
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