Monday Morning Coffee

This week, Monday Morning Coffee is coming to you in Pacific Time. I apologize that this will likely be hitting your inbox way past our usual coffee time. I’m out in BC for the next couple weeks. I had to leave Round 2 of the Future West Moto Canadian Arenacross Championships in Chilliwack and drive to the Interior to Kamloops. By the time I made it here, there was only time to go to bed, so that’s why it’s late this week.

There were a ton of stories that developed over the weekend, as far as our racers are concerned. Let’s have a look at some of them now. I’ll go in numerical order.

#1 Casey Keast – Casey wasn’t in Chilliwack to defend his 2021 title. I know there was a bike ready with the gang at Carlson Racing for him should he change his mind and want to throw a leg over and dice it up with the rest, but, unfortunately, we never saw the Kelowna rider on the track this weekend. 

I shot him a message but didn’t hear anything back. I spoke to some other riders who told me that they’d heard he’s “hung them up.” Casey is a rider with some of the most naturally-gifted talent we’ve seen. If he’s moved on from the sport, we wish him all the best in the future. If he decides to make any sort of return to racing, we know he’ll be fighting for wins.

#2 Brock Hoyer – What can we say about Brock? This guy just loves riding and racing and it shows. These days, his main focus is riding on the snow, but with the current state of affairs, there’s really no guarantee that they’ll be riding or racing any time soon, so that’s why he was in Chilliwack again. 

The former champion even took a win over the weekend in the Pro Open class. And yes, he also won the Vet Master class ahead of Ryan Lockhart. He’s also helping out with #09 Annalyse Lopushinsky who dominated the Ladies class and will be a future champion if she keeps progressing like she has been. Just wait, you’ll see.

Brock finished 2nd at Round 1 and 1st at Round 2 in the Pro Open class, so he’s leading the points. 

#11 Davey Fraser – If we were doing combined points between the two Pro classes, #11 Davey Fraser would be leading the overall. He finished 2-3 on Day 1 and 2-5 on Day 2. I’ve been watching him ride and race for a long time and I’d hazard to say he’s going faster in AX than I’ve seen him before. That’s pretty impressive!

#22 Tyler Gibbs – Tyler was at the track but wasn’t racing. He shines on the indoor tracks and it would have been great to see him out there. He’s got a great reason for not being out on the track, and, without saying too much, it has to do with racing down south this coming winter. Stay tuned for more information on this. 

#30 Jake Piccolo – Heading into this AX series, you had to think Jake would be one of the riders fighting for wins, and he was. Unfortunately, he had a bike let go on him early in the Pro Open Main at Round 1 and they weren’t back at the track on Sunday for Round 2. 

#31 Parker Eales – From some of the comments on one of our Instagram posts, I’m led to believe that Parker was questioning his future in the sport at the top level. Well, he showed he’s got the pace to run at the front and finished 4-3 in the Pro Open class. 

#50 Julien Benek – Julien is the young rider who is going places…literally. Julien wasn’t planning on racing the final rounds of the series because he’s signed with the PRMX Partzilla team to race Monster Energy AMA Supercross this winter. 

He won the Pro Open Main on Saturday, after chasing Hoyer down at the front. He was charging hard in the Pro Am Lites Main but took an awkward and hard fall. He was forced to the back but came all the way back to 5th at the flag. 

He took the handlebars to his sternum and was in some pain. They decided to sit out Round 2 to be ready to head to South of the Border to join the team with their SX prep. It’s going to be fun to watch this winter!

#84 Tanner Ward – It’s great that Tanner made the effort to come west to race this series. He’s got tons of indoor experience and has gone 1-1 in the Pro Am Lites class so far. He’s gone 6-2 in Pro Open. 

It’s great that Cycle North worked with the Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing rider to make a deal happen to get him here and racing. He and Ryan Lockhart are running the MX Schools on Saturday and they put 90 kids through. 

#157 Wyatt Waddell – Wyatt was finally back on the line and ready to race. Unfortunately, a crash early in the day saw his good shoulder pop out of place, taking him out of action, again. 

I spoke with his dad, Laurie Waddell, on Sunday morning and he said they’ll check with the doctor who did the work on his other shoulder to see what’s next. 

#184 Trystan Hart – Yes, that Trystan Hart. Fresh off his win at the Endurocross race in Reno, Nevada, the Factory KTM rider decided to throw down in the barn. 

He did more than just participate, too. He was in the mix with some established racers and showed he’s got the skills to race in either discipline. He finished 5-4 in the Pro Open Mains. 

#197 Brock Leitner – It was also great to see Brock back at the races after some time off. He was there on his own from the Interior and looked pretty comfortable out there eon his 450. 

He suffered some bike trouble and needed up racing Ryan Lockhart’s bike in the Pro Open Main on Day 1 for 9th. He said he just wasn’t comfortable on someone else’s bike and decided to head home and not race on Sunday.

#482 Teren Gerber – We also lost Teren between Day 1 and Day 2. He looked good out on the track on Saturday but left the door open for Piccolo to execute a classic inside stuff on him in the Pro Open Main. That fall ended up hurting his knee and he decided not to line up on Sunday.

The racing was still great, but we definitely lost some riders over the course of the 2 days. Racing will resume November 27-28 back at Chilliwack Heritage Park.

I’m now in Kamloops for a couple weeks to look after my. mom while my sister takes some well-deserved time to herself. This will be DMX World HQ for a while.

I shot a lot of photos of all the amateur racing in Chilliwack, so I’ll end this Coffee here and get to work.

Have a great week, everyone.