Frid’Eh Update #35 | Preston Masciangelo | Brought to You by RP Race Performance
This week, we feature Preston Masciangelo in our Frid’Eh Update column brought to you by RP Race Performance.
By Billy Rainford
Welcome to Week #35 of the DMX Frid’Eh Update brought to you by RP Race Performance. We find ourselves heading into the last official long weekend of the summer – Labour Day Weekend. The older I get, the faster these things seem to come. Summers flash by in the blink of an eye. As they say, the days are long, but the years are short. As you get older, even the days start feeling short!
It seems like all my moto and cycling friends in the city are injured! Jamie Ruddock dabbed his foot at SWIONA and snapped his fibula and can’t ride or cycle. Cary Hitchen touched a bike again, so he’s hurt with a concussion and 3 broken ribs. And I tore my left shoulder apart using a chain breaker (you read that right) on Wednesday and am going to see a sports specialist on Tuesday. If you can, try not to get old…
In my defence, I’ve been dealing with a bad shoulder for a number of years now so it’s sort of been a constant issue and this was the straw that broke the old dirt biker’s shoulder. It’s still a little embarrassing to tell the story of how it actually happened, but whatever. Laugh at me if you want, I can take it.
I’m supposed to be teaming up with Tanner Ward to do a 6-hour mountain bike race relay next weekend in Woodstock – The Dairy Capital Stampede. I went out on the road bike yesterday and considered turning around due to the pain, but decided to suck it up and keep going. I found I was able to adjust my position enough to bring the pain down just below what would force me to stop and managed to get a good ride in.
Like I always say, you can take the pain when you don’t know what’s actually wrong. If I find out I completely tore something it will immediately change my attitude toward the pain threshold. You’ll keep racing on a sore leg until you’re told it’s actually broken, right? I know I’ve done that in the past. 🤦♂️
Preston Masciangelo is #35 for the 2024 season. We didn’t get to see him racing up here much this summer because his focus was on the Pro Sport classes at Loretta Lynn’s in Tennessee in August. Preston is one of those riders we’ve all had our eye on as he came up through the amateur ranks. He and his family travelled the big US Amateur National circuit and he became one of our top little bike riders.
Since he’s turned Pro, he’s shown some good progression. Unfortunately, he’s suffered a couple injuries that have hampered that progress, including breaking both wrists as soon as he got to SOBMX last year to get ready for Supercross Futures. His crash at Loretta’s that was caught on camera has become one of the most-watched clips from the event. It ended his week early with a very badly broken collarbone, so we asked him about that.
Let’s get to our interview…
Direct Motocross: Hey, Preston. Let’s talk about this past summer and your racing schedule because you sort of skipped around a bit. You showed up at Gopher Dunes and had an impressive 7th place in moto 1. Unfortunately, that’s not the whole story. Take us through your day at Round 4.
Preston Masciangelo: Gopher was a rough one for me. Physically, I was more than prepared but struggled with the bike all day. I was happy to climb up to 7th in the first moto from around 28th off the start.
In that second moto I was able to put together a better start, coming around the corner in 7th or 8th. I made a few more passes by the time we had made our way to the front of the track. Unfortunately, I landed funny off the dirty and sent me over the bars. Got up in last and made my way into 12th, but just didn’t feel right, so I felt pulling off was the safest option for me. Other than that, I was really happy with my riding and endurance. It was definitely a good race to see where I was at!
What had you been doing during the earlier part of the summer?
Throughout the summer prior to Gopher, I’d been spending my time riding and training at Club MX, racing Pro Ams, and qualifying for Loretta’s.
Loretta Lynn’s was your main focus, so what were you doing between Gopher Dunes in early July and Loretta’s?
After Gopher and RedBud that weekend, the following Monday I drove myself back to Club MX. I learned a lot about myself and where I was at on the bike over those 2 races. So the main focus was to get back to work, and make Loretta’s as best as I possibly could.
How old are you now, by the way?
I’m 18 now.
And give us your height and weight because you are no longer that little kid we used to know!
Currently 6,0 165 lbs. hoping all the growing slows down now! Don’t wanna be too big on that 250. Lol.
Before we get to the big crash, how was your week in Tennessee going?
Honestly, I was pretty upset with how the first two motos had gone. I expected a lot more out of myself, but I was struggling with the heat pretty bad. My starts were on point, and I proved to myself I had speed in practice. I just couldn’t really get it together in the opening motos.
And then you had that huge get-off on the start of that moto. What the heck happened? What did you go off the track in the first place?
To be honest, I was so mad with how I did in the first two motos, all I wanted to do was get out front and stay. I executed the start, running second or third around the second corner when it happened. We were going really fast. Unfortunately, I was pushed a little wide by another rider, causing me to hit a dirt wall at the edge of the track. I was sitting down witch made everything worse. When I hit it, I got thrown over the bars faster than I ever have before. I landed on my left shoulder, ultimately breaking my clavicle.
That was a really hard hit caught on camera. Did you know your were broken right away? What was the damage?
Honestly, thought my shoulder was out when I tried to get up. From there I tried to put it back in, quickly realizing that’s not what was causing the pain. At the time I didn’t know how bad it was, so I tried to continue, but couldn’t get back on the bike. I ended up breaking my left clavicle into four pieces, one almost protruding through my skin.
Ugh. What have you been doing to occupy your time while on the DL?
Been taking some time to enjoy my last bit of summer while I’m recovering and slowly getting back into riding. Spent a lot of time at the beach over the last few weeks, as well as continuing to run and cycle. Those being the two things I can do without injuring myself more.
But now I see you’re back on a bike again! How is that going?
Just one day on the corner track so far! I’m happy with how good I feel. I expected this whole process to take a lot longer, but not complaining! I’m actually going out today to see how I feel on a real track!
What are you planning to race or do in the upcoming months?
As of right now, the plan is to get back to Club MX and start riding some Supercross. I have a few more Pro Ams and some bigger events I want to attend as well. All depending on how quick I can get my collarbone back to 100%.
So, are you going to give Supercross another try?
Supercross is the plan as of right now. Really looking forward to getting a good amount of time on it before racing. The Supercross Futures races I’ve been a part of in the past I was coming into a little more underprepared than where I’d like to be at, so looking forward to it!
OK, this one is for me. What’s the best hamburger you’ve ever had?
Those Bubba Burgers you buy from Walmart? I’ve been making those on the weekends. They’re by far my favourite. Haha.
And I know you’ve got your little side-gig going with PMAS. How’s that going?
It’s taken a little bit of a back seat over the summer. I do have big plans for it though! Like I’ve said before the whole PMAS brand is something I’ve wanted to work on forever. I look to release more merch and make improvements over the next few months!
Haha OK, thanks for chatting this week. Good luck getting back at it. Who would you like to thank?
Thanks for this, Billy. I would like to thank Championship Powersports, FXR, 6D, FMF, Factory Ride goggles, MXTire, and everyone else that helps and supports me. It never goes unnoticed.
2024 VMXDN at FoxHill
Tyler Medaglia and Ryan Gauld were guest hosts on the Pulp MX Show in Monday. Here’s the full YouTube video from the live broadcast:
Baja Brawl this Weekend at Baja Acres
Whenever I’m asked what my favourite track of all-time is, Baja Acres in Millington, Michigan, always comes to mind first. It was the first track I ever raced on from outside the borders of Canada and it was a big deal to me. I don’t know if that plays any part in my nostalgia or not, but I always look back at race days at Baja with great fondness.
I didn’t always have my greatest days there, but I always enjoyed my motos there. Except maybe that one time they had that weird corkscrew section where you’d make all right turns in a circle to the middle and then expand back out making a left turn. Does anyone else remember that? Nobody I talk to seems to. I don’t think I dreamt it!
All of the information on the event can be found HERE.
I think my plan is to be there for the final day on Monday.
SMX Playoffs Start Next Weekend in North Carolina
The SMX Playoffs start next weekend in Concord, North Carolina, at zMax Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Don’t forget, you can camp out at these speedways and make a weekend out of it for the whole family!
Canadian Team Solitaire rider Cole Thompson is on the 250 LCQ list and will try to make it into the mains for his chance at some of the big bucks being offered.
2024 Supermotocross Playoffs Points and Purse Breakdown
Full structure explanation can be found HERE.
Podcast | Sebastien Racine Talks about Racing the 2024 Ironman MX AMA Pro Motocross National
Podcast | Canadian MX101 FXR Yamaha’s Sebastien Racine talks about racing the 2024 Ironman MX AMA Pro Motocross National
18-year-old Canadian MX101 FXR Yamaha rider #612 Sebastien Racine finished 4th in the 2024 Canadian Triple Crown Series Motocross Nationals and then went to race the final 2 AMA Pro Motocross Nationals.
We grabbed him to talk about how they went and to sum up his summer racing in Canada.
Thursday, August 29, 2024.
Have a great long weekend, everyone. And remember, it’s summer until September 21st, but you have to put away your white pants on Tuesday…
No comments!
There are no comments yet, but you can be first to comment this article.