Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

Another Monday rears its ugly head. If you’re from the same area as DMX World HQ in Southwestern Ontario, we’re entering the best time of year to ride. Gone are the gross, humid days of July and August. I actually enjoy that for cycling, but it doesn’t motivate me to try out new gear at the track when it gets that hot. I know, I’m a fair-weather rider in my advanced age, and I’m OK with that.

The biggest news of the weekend was that Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing rider Tanner Ward was in California to race the final round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships at Hangtown MX in Sacramento. I’m actually surprised this was his first kick at the American Pro can, since he spent his amateur career chasing the biggest US amateur nationals on the calendar.

We’ll be sure to get him on the phone for a podcast interview as soon as we can. In hindsight, I’m kicking myself for not stowing away in their van for the trip west, but I’m sure they were more relaxed without traveling with their own personal paparazzi.

#484 Tanner Ward:

Qualified: 20th

Moto 1: 18

Moto 2: 27

Overall: 22

#964 Mitch Goheen was also there to try to make the motos. He came up a little short but it was cool that we had two Canadians giving it a shot, at least.

#964 Mitch Goheen

Qualified: 53

Consolation: 12

I’m not going to sit here and gloat, but I did pick #14 Dylan Ferrandis for the 450 championship…

#18 Jett Lawrence and #14 Dylan Ferrandis are the AMA Champions:

---

2021 Geico Endurocross Schedule

4-time champion Shelby Turner will be lining up.

The 2021 Series Schedule:
Round 1: September 18th – Tulsa, Oklahoma
Round 2: October 2nd – Amarillo, Texas
Round 3: October 9th – Reno, Nevada
Round 4: October 23rd – Prescott Valley, Arizona
Round 5: October 29th – Denver, Colorado
Round 6: October 30th – Denver, Colorado

---

Challenge Quebec Final Round at X-Town

The final round of the Challenge Quebec Provincials was held at X-Town north of Montreal over the weekend. #245 Greg Poisson was there representing DMX on Saturday to race the Vet class. His races didn’t go well, but he said that he was extremely impressed with how they run their races in Quebec. He also commented that it seemed like the TransCan with how many riders there were and how well-organized everything was from parking to registration to scheduling. I’ll have to make it there next season, for sure.

Here’s a look at 2 of the top classes:

Ladies A:

450 Expert: (5 points given to some in a 3rd?)

Full results HERE.

---

I headed over to Gopher Dunes on Saturday to check out my first-ever Show and Shine on Barb and Frank Schuster‘s property. I took the long way there in our 1978 MGB and it was a great drive down on the shores of Lake Erie. I wasn’t in a hurry and just wanted to make it there in time to check it all out and maybe watch their team rider, Tanner Ward, race Hangtown in the shop with the guys.

I was impressed with just how many people make the drive to one of these things! It was free to register your car and I was shown to my parking place on the grass next to some pretty amazing vehicles.

I saw Ron and Terry Cameron there checking it out and I almost didn’t recognize Ron without a hat and a headset on. I’m not kidding. I had no idea what his hair looks like underneath. It turns out he’s got a full head of flowing grey locks! Who knew?

I also bumped into Brad Coles from Label It. I also had no idea just how into cars he is. He listed off like 4 cars that he had there.

He wandered over to check out my car along with another guy I met who has a 1979 MGB. He wanted to look under the hood and see how much of a mess ours was. Yep, just as bad as his is. You should get a look at the electric nightmare in these things. At least ours has had all the pollution control stuff removed. Don’t tell anyone…

As I walked around I couldn’t help but get the same feeling you get whenever you wander around in an art gallery: you don’t really know you have an opinion until something you like jumps out at you. I found I didn’t give certain obviously beautiful cars a second thought but was then drawn to certain others. It turns out I do have an opinion, I just didn’t know what it was.

In my opinion, ‘Best in Show’ went to this immaculate 1965 Shelby Cobra.

He said he got it as a wreck and it took 3 years to restore to this condition.

I joked, “Three years, eh? And how many relationships?” His face got serious and he said…”Two!”

I didn’t stay long and I didn’t watch the races in the shop. The track was pretty chaotic with quads everywhere! Apparently, Saturday is for 4-wheels.

Anyway, I took a different long way home and the MG was running perfectly, until it wasn’t. I’m guessing a lot of classic car show drives home end in a similar manner. I let the gas tank get pretty low and then it started sputtering badly.

I made it to a gas station in Aylmer, filled up and headed off again, assuming that was my problem. Nope, the damage was done and this trip home was not going to end well.

I stopped in front of nice family’s house in Harrietsville and popped the hood. The owner wandered over and offered to help. I’d just like to express my gratitude for how cool he and his young son were. No, we didn’t fix it but we tried. He even offered me a beer. I let it completely cool down and gave it another try.

It started and I said, “TO LONDON!” and sputtered off into the sunset.

I made it to just east of Xtreme Toys east of London on Highway 2 and finally admitted to myself that it wasn’t going any farther that night.

Emily came out after work and we called a tow truck. Fortunately, we have Haggerty Insurance for classic cars on this thing and we were put on a nice flatbed tow truck and taken right to our garage at no additional charge.

So, now the MG sits in the garage during perfect riding and convertible weather! Put fixing that on the list…

---

True North MotoCup at Motopark

I hopped in the DMX Van Sunday morning and headed up to Chatsworth to catch some racing action at Round 2 of the 2021 True North MotoCup at Motopark.

I got there just in time to catch #46 TJ Scott running yellow plates and giving the class fits. I remember seeing Tanner riding with the HMX group in early spring and telling the entire Junior class that they were in for a handful with Tanner racing the class. Well, the same goes for the Intermediate class in 2022. Good luck.

You can scroll results from the weekend HERE.

---

OK, I have to get going. Tanner is somewhere in Wyoming on I-80 and we’re going to do a podcast soon. Be sure to check that one out a little later this afternoon.

Have. a great week, everyone.