Frid’Eh Update #45 Presented by Yamaha Motor Canada
By Jeff McConkey and Billy Rainford
Week #45 goes out to the Summerland, BC rider, Brock Leitner | Bigwave photo
Welcome to week #45 of the DMX Frid’Eh Update this week presented by Yamaha Motor Canada. 45 means we’ve only got a week’s worth (7) Updates left in 2016. If you’re young and looking forward to getting older so you can either get to high school or finish high school or get to university or finish university… DON’T! Believe me, time seems to speed up as you age. Enjoy those younger years while you can. Get your school work done and enjoy yourself. OK, grandpa rant moment, over.
Week #45 belongs to a rider who is probably the busiest of any Canadian Pro we’ve seen in quite a long time. Brock Leitner and his parents have become the journeyman family of Canadian Moto. If you build it, the Leitners will come! And it doesn’t look like this is going to change anytime soon. In fact, they plan on being busier than ever in 2017!
Brock headed to California last winter to prep for the Canadian outdoor season and lined up to race the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships before heading back to Canada. Unfortunately, Brock got injured and it would keep him off the Canadian line until the series headed east — way east — to the Maritimes.
He made a pretty big splash when he decided to race the MX1 class and finished a very impressive 11th overall with 16-10 motos.
Brock showed up at Pleasant Valley and scored a very impressive 11th overall (16-10) in the MX1 class | Bigwave photo
We grabbed Brock for a quick chat as he was getting set to race the final 2 rounds of the Canadian National Arenacross Tour. Here’s what he had to say:
Brock will take his current list of sponsors and compete in the West Coast Supercross this winter | Bigwave photo
This weekend, Brock has the final two rounds of Canadian National AX Tour in Calgary before he switches to Supercross prep | Bigwave photo
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JEFF McCONKEY
Hey, guys, Happy Friday! Well it has warmed up quite a bit in Southern Ontario. I myself took full advantage of it last Saturday and made the trip to Motopark for the day. Even with 90% of the entire crew down South in Florida getting their new facility up and going, the MP crew had the track mint as always.
McRant
Speaking of heading south, when is the best time to go nowadays? The serious racers are already down there prepping for Mini O’s. But for the majority of the racers, how much pre-season prep is good enough? Some families can afford a month or two, others a week or two, and some just can’t make it happen. How do you make the call? Some parents, and racers themselves, have outrageous dreams of still making it on a factory team, even though in all reality they are just plain dreamers. Watching some families putting every single dime into a kid that has no chance to make the Pro class can be pretty sad. Let’s be honest. There are very very few riders in Canada that make money racing. The majority of the Pros actually pay for their bikes and gear. If you have plans of retiring and living off your kid’s main event bonus money, you really need to lay off the crazy pills.
The best are the conversations with some parents. You get the typical moto parent that is super proud, and they want to tell you how great their son or daughter is. They will go to great lengths to tell you every moto highlight for the past season or two. And then they tell you, “well, he’s only 19…” That gets me thinking — at what age is it time to realize that the dream is over? I’m thinking, if you’re a mid-pack Junior rider and you’re old enough to get into the bar, you’d better have a good back up plan.
Like I said earlier, very few actually make a living racing in Canada. 95% of you are paying full pop for everything. For the amount of money you are putting into our great sport, I sure as hell hope you are having the best time ever. Motocross is a great sport, but it is very expensive. There’s nothing that chaps my ass more than seeing kids pissed off at the track due to their performance. If you’re not putting a full 100% of your life and effort into training, eating, and practicing, you need to pump the brakes and chill out. You can’t be mad. It’s just not worth it. Take it for what it is. And that’s fun! Why do we start riding in the first place? Because it’s fun, not because we will get sponsors or free bikes, we start because it’s a ton of fun.
Sorry for the rant, but there are just too many people out there doing it for the wrong reasons. Please don’t get it wrong, I don’t want kids to stop pushing or stop dreaming of making it big. I still love seeing kids go for it. I just hate seeing kids getting burnt out way too early by parents trying to live through their kids because they just didn’t have it themselves. In the end, you have got to keep it fun because that’s why you started in the first place.
Canadian AX Tour | Final Two Rounds | Calgary
Speaking of fun, the final rounds of the Canadian AX Tour are this weekend in Calgary. #101 Rockstar Energy OTSFF Yamaha’s Chris Blose is the top guy, but if I were a betting man, I’d say #20 MX101 FXR Yamaha’s Jess Pettis will be very hard to beat this weekend. The Pro turnout has been fantastic this season, and I really hope that the amateur side of it picks up. There’s really no good reason why they shouldn’t show up. The tracks have been very friendly and the tour itself is run very smooth and professional. Fingers crossed that the rider turnout it’s much better for 2017.
#101 Chris Blose is the only rider eligible to win the Parts Canada ‘Triple Crown’ $25,000 this weekend in Calgary | Bigwave photo
Canadian AX Tour Point Standings (after 3 of 5 rounds) | Unofficial
Open Pro
1. 101 Chris Blose YAM 70
2. 701 Karl Normand KTM 47
3. 12 Steven Mages KAW 45
4. 2 Colton Facciotti HON 44
5. 34 Westen Wrozyna KAW 34
Pro/Am Lites
1. 101 Chris Blose YAM 70
2. 5 Brock Leitner KAW 46
3. 12 Steven Mages KAW 45
4. 2 Colton Facciotti HON 44
5. 471 Logan Karnow HON 31
Clash for Cash
1. 101 Chris Blose YAM 67
2. 2 Colton Facciotti HON 50
3. 12 Steven Mages KAW 40
4. 471 Logan Karnow HON 36
5. 5 Brock Leitner KAW 30
Another short week for me. Be sure to give our Shrader’s ‘Out of the Blue‘ featuring Kassi Simpson and ‘On the Radar‘ with Kobi Cox a look. A big Happy Birthday to my favourite Lady racer, ‘J-Ro’ Jacqueline Ross, and I’ll see you next week. #smileforBC!
Happy Birthday to Florida’s Jacqueline Ross | Bigwave photo
BILLY RAINFORD
Thank, Jeff? Haha. What got him all revved up this week? I like it! I will say this about Jeff’s rant: for every Pro rider you see standing on the podium at Supercross, there is at least one parent standing behind him who took their turn as a crazy, over-zealous moto parent. There is simply no way anyone can go from Amateur to the top level of the Pro ranks without the family making an amazing amount of sacrifices for Junior. It’s just nearly impossible to get there without it.
Think about this: 4-time Canadian national champion, Colton Facciotti, turned Pro when he was 14! Yes, 14. He’s now 28. That means he’s been a Pro rider for half his life! We spoke with him this week to get his take on his experience on a borrowed 1985 Honda CR500 and it kind of blew me away when I divided his age in half to realize that next year he’ll have been a Pro for over half his life…and he’s not even 30!
When Jeff does his ‘On the Radar’ and ‘Out of the Blue’ columns, one of the questions asks them which Canadian Pro rider they look up to. After thinking about Colton’s longevity in this sport, it makes sense to see so many riders say ‘Colton Facciotti’ as their answer to this particular question.
If you missed our chat with Colton, you can give it a listen, now:
#361 Colton Facciotti has been a Pro for half his life and he’s not yet 30! Here he is at Washougal in 2006 racing the 450 class on a Richmond Kawasaki 250 | Bigwave photo
MP County Line is Up and Running in Florida
Next Up: Thor Winter Olympics | The Mini O’s
We’ve got a solid group of fast Canadians taking part in the 45th Annual Thor Winter Olympics Presented by Pro Circuit. If you’ve never been to this giant American Amateur event, you really owe it to yourself to go check it out. There aren’t too many events that keep me heading back down the I-75 for 21 hours year after year. The Mini O’s are every bit as cool as you imagine they are. Heck, I raced them in 1985! Ouch, that hurt to type.
It’s also the final round of the Women’s Motocross Championships. Our own, #141 Eve Brodeur, sits 5th in points and is looking to claw her way onto the podium, if she can.
The top two women weren’t at the last round at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ so riders closed in on Kyle Fasnacht and Marissa Markelon, heading into Florida.
A WMX Champion will be crowned on November 26 during the 2016 Winter Olympics (Mini Os) at Gatorback Cycle Park in Florida. The WMX Finale is set to run in conjunction with the 45th Winter Olympics.
More information will be added as it becomes available, please check back or check the Unlimited Sports website HERE.
Pre-Register for the event HERE.
Eve Brodeur will compete at the final round of the WMX series later this month in Florida at the Mini O’s | Direct Motocross photo
Ryan Villopoto Returns to Action | Australian Supercross |
We’ve just got one more week to wait until the 4-time Monster Energy AMA Supercross champ, Ryan Villopoto, lines up at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park, November 12-13. He’ll be up against his old rival, Chad Reed, and new 450 rider, Cooper Webb, among others.
You can get all the information on the event HERE.
Tampere Supercross | Finland November 11-12
See anyone you recognize in the Tampere Supercross rider list?
Yep, Ryan Lockhart and Kyle Springman will be heading to Finland to race Supercross. How cool an experience is this for these two guys?! Ryan is no stranger to international races (although it’s been a while) but Kyle will be through the roof about this opportunity!
I gave Kyle a call today to get more information on the travel plans and to find out how this all came together. Apparently, Ryan was in the Pulp MX studio in Las Vegas and Steve Matthes and the Finnish SX guy were joking about Ryan doing the event. You know…”Newf Beginnings 13″ and whatnot. Ryan thought they were just messing around but then it got serious and he was planning to head to Finland!
When the promoter asked Ryan if he knew anyone else who could come over and race a Yamaha, Kyle joked that he was standing closest to him so he got the opportunity. Perfect!
They leave this coming Wednesday and the racing is Friday and Saturday. Kyle has never been across the Atlantic before so this will be a pretty amazing experience. I asked if he had a chance to watch the new Trailer Park Boys where they travel to Scandinavia and do tasks for money for Swearnet. He actually watched the Finland episode last night. Classic.
They’ll bring along their bars and suspension for the racing. He’s not sure what his plans for the 2017 season are. He’s currently helping out at the Atlas Brace/100%/Matrix offices out in Abbotsford, BC and thinks he will be working for Holeshot Motorsports in Langley when the bike show comes around.
We’ll try to get in touch with the guys next weekend as they have the time of their lives in Finland. Good luck, guys!
Kyle Springman and Ryan Lockhart will head to Finland next week for the Tampere Supercross | Bigwave photo
Good Luck to Tyler Medaglia at the National Cyclocross Championships this Week in Sherbrooke, Quebec
Totally scooped from his Instagram page @t_medaglia:
Mitch Goheen in Final 8 of Racer X Film Fest
Head over to Racer X Online and vote for Canadian Mitch Goheen in the Racer X Film Fest. He’s made it to the semi finals and now he needs all the help he can get to take this thing!
Round 2 of the semi finals ends at 2pm Thursday, November 11th, so get over there and vote.
But don’t just watch it and move on. You have to go vote.
2015 Scott Speedster XL/58cm FOR SALE
Stay fit/get in shape for next year’s season on this ‘like new’ beauty!
FOR SALE: 2015 Scott Speedster XL/58 Alloy frame, carbon fork, Shimano Ultegra $999.99 Canadian. New out of the box 3 weeks ago. Email: billy@directmotocross.com
Well, we’re waiting on a big Press Release but we’ll have to add it here when we receive it, so this seems to be the place to leave it for this week. The weather here is perfect for riding, so I hope you get the chance to get outside and on a bike wherever you are. Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading.
Tom ‘Bitzy’ Bitz says, “See you at the races…”
Check that…
OK, NOW go have a great weekend…
