By Billy Rainford
Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee the day after some of the most amazing racing we’ve ever seen here in Canada. No joke, that was a crazy day of motos at Gopher Dunes. Both classes gave us performances and racing action we’ll be referring to for years to come.
Jetwerx decided not to groom the track or prep it the way they normally would for a Canadian Triple Crown Series MX national this week. I never spoke to anyone to find out why, but they didn’t flatten it out after a full day of one pro moto in each class and a full day of amateur racing.
From a fan’s perspective, it was great to watch our top riders try to maneuver the deep – and I mean deep! – rollers and ruts that had formed from 11 hours of racing the day before. As you know, what’s different about Gopher Dunes is that is doesn’t have a bottom to it. The track will simply keep getting deeper and deeper if you let it. They did and it did.
From a rider’s perspective, it was war. There was talk in the pits that the decision to let the track continue to get tougher and tougher may not have been the most popular one with the racers. Even riders who did well were left shaking their heads in disbelief of what they had just endured.
We all remember what Christophe Pourcel famously said to track owner Derek Schuster a few years ago: “Your track is shit!” Man, that was hilarious. No, the track isn’t shit and has been the grounds for a ton of great and memorable racing over the years. It’s just that sometimes it gets rougher than others. It’s usually due to rain or heat or things out of the crew’s control. This year, they decided to challenge the riders. It worked. The track had no choice but to do what it does if left on its own.
I recorded the podium interviews of all our pros and it definitely came up that the track this year was the toughest anyone had ever ridden…anywhere in the world.
If I were racing yesterday, I think I would have been a little upset that they only groomed the jump faces before the start of the day. But as someone in the moto media, this will give us something to talk about for a long, long time. It was just that gnarly. (And I don’t just throw that word around willy nilly…or that one.)
Let’s talk about the racing, shall we?
250 Class
Most people before the series started a couple weeks ago had #46 MX101 FXR Yamaha’s Marco Cannella pegged as the 2021 250 champion due to his consistency as much as his blistering speed. Marco is super fit and smooth as silk out there. Usually.
2021 has been a tough one so far for the Waterdown, ON rider with a 20th in a moto at Walton One. He needed to set things right and let everyone know what’s up at Gopher Dunes.
He came out and looked solid as a rock, winning moto 1 after passing his way to the lead and winning by 10 seconds. Tears flowed from the Cannella family and everything felt right in the 250 world for them again.
Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing rider #84 Tanner Ward had the fastest lap of the moto followed by Sky Racing Fox Canada KTM racer #30 Jake Piccolo. Third fastest lap went to Tanner’s teammate #18 Ryder McNabb. Marco’s fastest lap time put him in 4th on that list, but it was his consistency that saw him take the checkered flag first, and that’s what we all predicted in the pre-season.
We can’t forget the incredible ride by Sky Racing Fox Canada Yamaha’s #50 Julien Benek who grabbed the holeshot and then ran with the leaders. His best lap time put him 5th but he went down on lap 5 and dropped to 6th behind Kawasaki Thor Pro Circuit rider #157 Darien Sanayei who had the 6th fastest best lap.
The next best lap score was 4 seconds off what these 6 riders were doing. They pulled away from the rest. Piccolo suffered arm pump, and you can see his lap times drop on around lap 5. He ended up over 30 seconds behind the lead 4 riders in 5th, but his day didn’t end there by a long shot!
#24 Jamie Powell finished 10th and he was the last rider to not get lapped. Riders were just trying to make it through what must have felt like two of the longest motos of their lives.
In moto 2, Piccolo got out front and did what he always used to do when he got out in the lead, he kept pressing the pace and opened up more and more of a gap on everyone. I don’t say this half-handedly: this was one of the most dominant rides in the 250 class we’ve ever seen in Canada. As our old friend Jeff McConkey always liked to say, “he was that good!”
There are rides we continue to talk about and dissect, like Matt Goerke‘s crushing of the track a bunch of years ago. You know, the one where John Nelson joked that Matt “should get black flagged because I think his throttle is stuck wide open!” This one by Jake was in that same league.
Watching Jake ride has always been a treat. You sit on the edge of your seat in awe, but with that niggling feeling that it could all come to an end in the blink of an eye. Riders like that are fun to watch, but tough on the old nerves. I can’t even imaging what his parent go through every weekend of their lives!
But there he was pulling away more and more every time he came by where I was standing. And I’m not just sensationalizing this. He told us in his post-race interview that Andrew McLean was giving him his gaps on the pit board. He crossed the line with a gap of 52 seconds!
When most riders read “+46” on the board, they back it off and ride it home as they manage the gap, but not Jake. On the podium, he simply said, “That’s what happens when I don’t get arm pump. I win.” It was great.
Behind him, way behind him, other things were playing out. Moto 1 winner Marco Cannella was off to a solid 4th place start but would go down on lap 2 and drop back outside the top 10! He was in full damage control mode and managed to move his way up to 5th place by the end of the race. That meant he tied for the win with Piccolo as they swapped 1-5, 5-1 motos.
By the way, Jake’s best lap time was a full 3 seconds better than anyone else’s. If you were there live, you saw it. If you weren’t, this performance is well worth the price of the Flo Racing app.
Sanayei used consistent laps to stay up and cross the line in 2nd place and land on the podium in 3rd with 4-2 motos.
Get this, the top 4 riders were all separated by just one point! 1-2 tied and then 3-4 tied behind them. I told you this was great racing!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall
On a side note, I shouldn’t have to go through these names and add the hometowns that I know, should I??? Can we please have this fixed so people can see how far some of these riders and families have come?!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
As we head to Sand Del Lee just outside of Ottawa, Ontario, this week, we have a tie at the top between Piccolo and Ward. McNabb faltered at Gopher Dunes but sits just 2 points back.
450 Class
If the 250 racing was noteworthy because of the complete domination of Piccolo, the 450 class will go down in history because of the battles at the front.
In moto 1, #15 Red Bull Thor KTM Canada’s Jess Pettis is showing that he’s got what it takes to win at the top level. As of right now, I will stop being surprised when Jess wins a 450 race, just like I’ll stop when Aaron Plessinger does well down south. Jess belongs at the front of this class and he just may win this title in his first try.
He led from the start and had the best lap times going, but then he cashed hard and landed on his back right on top of a braking bump. Afterward, he said he hit so hard he was surprised he didn’t break his back! Crazy.
He got up in 3rd place and began to move forward again. Riders at the front all continued to have issues and it was like the deck was being shuffled every lap. You never knew what you were going to find when they came back into your view, trackside.
Pettis was back in front 7 laps later and went on to take the win ahead of Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing’s #1 Dylan Wright who came from dead last to finish 20 seconds behind Pettis.
Again, you had to see this one to appreciate the ups and downs from just about every rider out there! I’ll get into more detail in another column.
MX101 FXR Yamaha rider #3 Shawn Maffenbeier was the only rider at the front who didn’t crash. However, he was also the first rider in the top group to have to toss his goggles. As we all know, this is never a good idea on this track. He came across in 3rd, after Kawasaki Thor Pro Circuit rider #2 Marshal Weltin went down in a spectacular heap after some close racing with Wright. It was chaos out there!
In moto 2, Pettis got out front again with Wright in second. We knew this was going to be war. The track had just gotten deeper and deeper and riders back in the pack struggled just to make it around each lap.
Pettis and Wright managed to gap the rest of the riders and crossed the line, Wright then Pettis behind by 10 seconds, a minute ahead of Weltin in 3rd.
Red Bull Thor KTM Canada’s #16 Cole Thompson rode a consistent race and sat in 4th the entire race to finish there.
They lapped #21 Liam O’Farrell in 6th spot! In fact, when they came up on #5 Cobequid Callus Gas Gas rider #5 Tyler Medaglia, Tyler must have assumed the blue flag was being waved at a rider he was approaching and kept racing hard. He pushed Pettis off the track on the final lap, and Dylan managed to squeak by to take the win. Like I said…CHAOS! I didn’t see the incident happen in front of me, but it was a pretty hot topic afterward.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
What a day of racing!
It did drizzle the entire day, so that made it very difficult on cameras and goggles, but it was just one of those days of racing that will be talked about for a long time.
Wright and Pettis are now separated by just one point for this 450 title with Weltin falling to 17 behind them. What will happen at Sand Del Lee is anyone’s guess!
Well, I sort of typed my way into a corner there and had to get into a bit more detail than I had originally planned. Since it’s now almost noon here, I guess that’ll be a wrap for this coffee. I’ll get to work on the rest of our coverage now.
I’ll leave it with a photo of #192 Ethan Ouellette just after he crossed the finish line in moto 2. Why? Because as soon as the flag waved, we had to get ourselves across the track and to the podium. This meant running in front of riders as they slowed down after getting the checkered flag. The ruts were literally up to my thighs and I did what felt like about a 15-seconds fall that ended with me tucking my head and rolling while keeping my cameras safely above my head and safe.
When I got back up I saw Ethan there to give me some applause. He simply said, “You should try it on a motorcycle!” Haha Have a great week, everyone.
No comments!
There are no comments yet, but you can be first to comment this article.