Frid’Eh Update #42 Presented by RMR Online Outlet

Frid’Eh Update #42 Presented by RMR Online Outlet

By Jeff McConkey and Billy Rainford

Welcome to week #42 of the DMX Frid’Eh Update. It’s hard to believe but this means there are only about 10 weeks left in 2016! Wow, where does time go? If you are young, you have yet to appreciate the way time seems to speed up as you age, but you’ll understand it soon enough, believe me!

We’ve known Jean Christophe Bujold for a long time now. It’s been fun watching his progression through the amateur ranks to now when he has finally made it up to the Pros. He’s always been on people’s radar as one to watch and now it’s time for him to prove his worth at the highest level of the sport.

He surprised us and showed up at the first round of the 2016 Rockstar Energy MX Nationals in Kamloops and had an impressive first moto, taking 14th. The second moto didn’t go as he’d hoped and his 14-36 gave him 22nd overall. He went back home to Quebec and skipped the next couple rounds, but showed up in Calgary for round 4 and finished 10th (7-16). That was a great result!

He finished the season with a 15th in MX2. Here’s a look at his season:

We grabbed him for a chat today to get his take on his first season in the Pro ranks and find out what his plans for the future are. Here’s what he had to say:

Good luck with your training this winter, JC.

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Jeff McConkey

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Hey, guys. Happy Friday. For being the off season, we have a fair bit going on up here in the Great White North. Round 1 of the Canadian National AX Tour was last Saturday in Sarnia, Ontario. The AX Tour crew runs a great program, and I was a little disappointed in the amateur turnout. I’m hoping it was due to the fact that last weekend was Thanksgiving. Round 2 goes off this Saturday in Barrie Ontario. We have a ton of racers of all ages and skill in Southern Ontario, so I am expecting full gates. Before you know it, winter will be here and every racer in Ontario will be bitching about how bad they miss riding. Here’s your chance.

Canadian National Arenacross Tour

I guess the big news in Sarnia last week was the addition of Colton Facciotti, and the loss of Matt Goerke. Colton decided to race the opener just a few days prior, and it was a good choice. He looked really good on both bikes and I really hope he can make it to more rounds. With Matt Goerke out due to injury, OTSFF Rockstar Yamaha brought in veteran Chris Blose. Chris instantly made an impact and won both the AX Pro main and the AX Lites main. Another rider who looked great in Sarnia was the #12 of Steven Mages. Steven was a hair off the pace in both mains finishing 3rd, but rode fantastic in the Clash for Cash passing Blose clean on the last lap for 2nd. All in all, it was a pretty solid first round. The guys from AX Tour have been doing this a long time, and run a very well-oiled program. I’m pretty excited for round 2.

Canadian AX Tour | Round 1 | RESULTS

Hiawatha Horse Park

Sarnia, Ontario

Saturday, October 8, 2016

AX Pro (10 Laps)

1. 101 Chris Blose YAM

2. 2 Colton Facciotti HON

3. 12 Steven Mages KAW

4. 701 Karl Normand KTM

5. 34 Westen Wrozyna KAW

6. 313 Kyle Swanson KAW

7. 471 Logan Karnow HON

8. 864 Austin Haught YAM

9. 614 Bennet Amyotte YAM

10. 955 Michael Smith KAW

11. 5 Brock Leitner KAW

12. 17 Seth Green YAM

13. 33 Timothy Patterson YAM

 

AX Lites (10 Laps)

1. 101 Chris Blose YAM

2. 2 Colton Facciotti HON

3. 12 Steven Mages KAW

4. 34 Westen Wrozyna KAW

5. 424 Austin Watling HON

6. 471 Logan Karnow HON

7. 46 Marco Cannella YAM

8. 313 Kyle Swanson KAW

9. 5 Brock Leitner KAW

10. 17 Seth Green YAM

11. 184 Tanner Ward KTM

12. 955 Michael Smith KAW

13. 77 Justin Roney HON

14. 559 Jake Jones YAM

15. 33 Timothy Patterson YAM

 

Clash for Cash (20 Laps)

1. 2 Colton Facciotti HON

2. 12 Steven Mages KAW

3. 101 Chris Blose YAM

4. 707 Karl Normand KTM

5. 471 Logan Karnow HON

6.  5 Brock Leitner KAW

7. 46 Marco Cannella YAM

8. 424 Austin Watling HON

9. 34 Westen Wrozyna KAW

10. 313 Kyle Swanson KAW

11. 864 Austin Haught YAM

12. 614 Bennet Amyotte YAM

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Monster Energy Cup

Speaking of excitement, who else is excited for the Monster Energy Cup? Ryan Dungey is back, Ken Roczen is debuting his HRC Facorty Honda. Some riders are back from injury, others are on new rides, and a few are still fighting and auditioning for the very few rides available.Everyone is making a big deal about the 2017 Honda 450 that Roczen will be riding. People are saying it’s an amazing bike, blah blah blah. It could possibly be the best, or the worst bike for ’17. Good or bad, Roczen will be a front-runner on talent alone. I myself am excited to see what happens.

As excited as I am for Monster Cup, I’m also a little bummed out. There is some serious talent not lining up this weekend. As I was scrolling through the Entry List, I noticed quite a few names that are main event guys. My count may be off, but I’m counting around 10 top level guys lining up this weekend. That means lots of ‘filler.’ It’s not the end of the world, but I for one wanted to see Cooper Webb on his new 450 Yamaha ride, Trey Canard on his new Red Bull KTM, and Justin Barcia on his new JGR Suzuki ride. Either way, it will be a great event, and here are my overall predictions:

Monster Cup

1st Cole Seely

2nd Ryan Dungey

3rd Ken Roczen

4th Eli Tomac

5th Marvin Musquin

If you want to see who’s IN and who’s OUT, Racer X did all the leg work and put together a comprehensive list that you can check out HERE.

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2017 KTM Off-Road Media Launch

Switching gears to off-road, Billy and I were lucky enough to be invited to the 2017 KTM Off-Road Media Launch this past Wednesday.  The launch was held at the Cochrane’s Off-Road Facility near Brighton, Ontario. We were all told to meet with our gear bags at 9am. Everyone but Billy remembered their gear, and I just can’t let Billy off the hook for this one.

The day started off with a brief introduction, and then the riding began. They had us go in 2 groups of 4, and had each of us spend a good amount of time on each of the 4 models they had brought. Claudie Lapointe and Marc Brunet from KTM had set us up a pretty fun 4km loop that wasn’t too difficult, we just made it look that way. Billy and I will touch on each individual model and our thoughts on the bikes early next week.

A big thank you to Claudie, Marc, and everyone from KTM, who made this day happen. It was a ton of fun, and I actually learned quite a bit. Now that I’m an off-road specialist, maybe it’s time for me to take another stab at racing The Cord?!

 

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That’s it for me, but before I go, Motopark has announced the opening of MP at County Line in Fontaine, Florida. The details haven’t been released yet, but you can just imagine the possibilities. Be sure to check out Shrader’s ‘Out of the Blue‘ with Émilie Lessard and Gamma Powersports ‘On the Radar‘ featuring my good buddy Kyle Sheppard.

Have a great week and I will see you in Barrie. I hope Billy doesn’t forget the camera gear like he forgot his MX gear bag. Just kidding, Billy, at least I didn’t say anything about how much you stalled the bikes…

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Billy Rainford

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Haha, thanks for all that, Jeff. I am the first to admit that we are mediocre riders, at best. But hey, at least I wasn’t always just mediocre, Jeff! No, you definitely owed me that dig after I focused on your little crash during the ride day on the KTMs. Of course, the one time you actually hit the ground is the time we strap the WASP Cam on the top of Peter Marcelli‘s helmet for a lap behind us. It was a great day of riding and although neither of us is going to head out and do well at an enduro race any time soon, it was a ton of fun.

Like Jeff, I’d like to thank the gang for making a fun-but-easy loop for us to ride and get a feel for the differences between all the bikes in the 250cc Off-Road line up. Oh, what’s that you say? You haven’t seen the video? Well, you’re in luck, here it is:

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2016 Challenge Quebec Points | Overall

Pro Class

Women’s A Class

Supermini

Have fun at the season-ending party this weekend, everyone.

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The Corduroy Enduro | 2016 Results

Now that Jeff and I are such experienced off-road riders (wink, wink), we realized we didn’t post the results of from the race that rekindled Jeff’s love of wet logs and oddly shaped rock crossings. Here are the Pro and Women’s A class results from ‘The Cord,’ September 24-25:

We found these results at www.offroadontario.ca.

Maybe next year, eh Jeff?

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Future West Arenacross Championships

So far, top Pro riders scheduled to compete in the series include returning multi-time champion, Ross Johnson, Davey Fraser, and Shawn Maffenbeier.

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And now for something completely different…

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