By Billy Rainford
Hello and welcome to Monday Morning Coffee #1 of 2021. Happy New Year. I’d like to say, “Let’s all just forget about what happened in 2020,” but I don’t think we should put that much pressure on the New Year. It’s a big ask to have things immediately go back to normal. It’s just not going to happen.
It was a very strange year for us, wasn’t it? Truthfully, we probably shouldn’t even have been able to get a Pro racing season in! Many sports were simply put on hiatus for the season. Fortunately, Motocross people are a passionate bunch and they went to bat for the sport and got things to happen. Thank you to those involved for giving us a place to go.
As for 2021, it looks like all that work put in last season may come in handy again this year. I hope everyone put the government officials on speed dial, because it looks like we’ll have to pull some strings again this season. This damn pandemic just isn’t going away. This vaccine had better be the silver bullet!
It’s that time of year when we put together fun Top 10 lists and present our annual DMX AWARDS – The DMXies (Simply adding “ies” to the end of your site name is just what has to be done!)
This will be the first year we’ll be presenting our awards without our buddy Jeff McConkey. He was always our “fashion expert,” so we’ll have to see what Greg Poisson brings to the table in that area this year. No pressure, Greg.
We’ve got a couple different ideas for the presentation of the DMXies this year. Sit tight and we’ll have them out as soon as we can.
We’ll be adding the “People’s Choice Canadian Pro Rider of the Year” to the list of awards this year. Be sure to head over to our Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter pages to pick your rider.
We also asked you who you’d put on your ALL TIME TEAM CANADA MXON Team. We got a ton of responses for this one. It seems people are pretty passionate about who they’d choose for this one-off team and why. One person answered with something that really needed to be divided into chapters! Well done. Full points.
If you haven’t seen it on our social media pages but wouldn’t mind getting involved, check it out here: Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. Pick your poison.
It’s always great when we can get people’s input on things, and this question really seemed to spark people’s interest, so thank you.
If you’re of a certain age, you immediately, without a second of thought, listed Ross Pederson as your first choice. I know I did.
Rick Bradshaw from Schrader’s out in Yorkton, SK brought up the point that he would be the obvious choice “if he wanted to be there.” That’s a really good view and one that should be considered when making your all-time picks.
With events like World Championships or even the Olympics, a lot of time the work feels like it’s been done just getting their. For some it then just becomes about participating rather than competing. I get it.
For me, the only sport that I made it to that level was in Triathlon. I qualified for the Hawaii Ironman twice and made the Olympic distance age-group team for the World Championships once.
I only went to Hawaii to have “fun” and then had the worst race of my life at the World Olympic distance championships. In hindsight, I really wish I’d competed hard at those two events instead of just really sort of goofing off.
To prove my point, I actually slipped into a mu mu dress for part of the run in Hawaii the second time and had my sister video tape me coming around a corner to prove to my buddies that I’d done it. Of course, there’s more to the story, but that should be enough to show you just how “serious” I was.
I tell those stories because I think this same thing is what happens to some riders when they head to the MXON. “I made it. Let’s have some fun in Europe!” is always a temptation. And again, I get it.
So that’s why there is more to picking your all-time team, as Rick so astutely pointed out.
Anyway, it got a lot of you involved and it’s been fun to read over everyone’s choices and their reason for doing so.
With the 2021 Supercross series pushed back a little this year, it gives us all a little more spare time to keep tabs on the Dakar Rally taking place over in Saudi Arabia.
Like last year, I was really looking forward to following along with Andrew Short‘s progress throughout the 12-day adventure. Unfortunately, on Day 2 he suffered a mechanical issue and has already been forced out of the event.
Last year, he made headlines for finishing a stage (and ripping!) with no tire on his back wheel. It was a cool story.
If you’re still interested in following along, they post race summaries every day on their official YouTube channel and full results can be found HERE.
Hoosier Arenacross Results
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
You can find the series schedule on their website HERE.
Speaking of Arenacross, Canadian Connor Stevenson will be lining up in the Kicker Arenacross series that gets going this coming week.
Connor calls Colorado home now but is still a proud Canuck. We grabbed him for a podcast last week to talk about all kinds of things.
If you missed it, check it out here:
iTunes:
Stitcher:
| Round 1 | January 8 | Mississippi State University | Starkville, Mississippi |
| Round 2 | January 9 | Mississippi State University | Starkville, Mississippi |
| Round 3 | January 15 | Levelland Event Center | Lubbock, Texas |
| Round 4 | January 16 | Levelland Event Center | Lubbock, Texas |
| Round 5 | January 22 | Lazy E Arena | Guthrie, Oklahoma |
| Round 6 | January 23 | Lazy E Arena | Guthrie, Oklahoma |
| Round 7 | January 29 | National Western Complex POSTPONED TO APRIL | Denver, Colorado |
| Round 8 | January 30 | National Western Complex POSTPONED TO APRIL | Denver, Colorado |
| Round 9 | February 5 | Reno Livestock Events Center | Reno, Nevada |
| Round 10 | February 6 | Reno Livestock Events Center | Reno, Nevada |
| Round 11 | March 5 | Amarillo National Center | Amarillo, Texas |
| Round 12 | March 6 | Amarillo National Center | Amarillo, Texas |
I’m going to leave it a little differently this week. I’m not exactly a “metal head” but this Tanner Benedict kid’s 7th grade talent show performance slid across my recommended videos feed on YouTube and I clicked it.
Check it out and be sure to scroll some of the comments. People are hilarious. He’s getting the Chuck Norris treatment. For example: “This kid tells his PARents they’re getting a divorce!” Now his production value is going way up in his latest videos. It will be interesting to see where this kid is in 5-10 years.
Happy New Year, everyone.
