Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

Good morning from Albuquerque, New Mexico. A city of 564,559 people. The Duke City or Burque is one of just a few large cities I’ll be passing through on my journey home from California. I already went through Phoenix and next I’ll leave New Mexico and head through Amarillo, Texas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, up through St Louis, Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana, Toledo, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and finally home into Ontario.

It’s a long haul and the tough part about going this way is that I’ll lose another couple hours to time changes and the weather will continue to get colder and colder. But let me tell you this…I’m ready to be home.

I’d hate to jinx things at a time like this, but the #DMXVan has been chugging along nicely through another one of these long journeys. I think Dodge is may really be on to something with these “small vans.”

I’m not sure what I’ll be in next season, but I think this should be the last time I force this van across the continent, just to be safe. The question is, do I go bigger, smaller, or stay the same in the future?

It’s been a great month chasing our Canadians around California to the races and practice tracks.

#83 Cole Thompson will be off until he heads back for the make-up race in Oakland. It sounds like we’ll see him on the gate for a round or two of the 450 class in the east on his 250, but we’ll have to wait and get his final schedule. We’ll do an interview, hopefully today, as we both make our ways home.

Cole sits 13th in t 250 West points after 3 rounds of racing.

#500 Julien Benek will take some time to let his shoulder heal from his early-season crash and be back in action for Oakland, too. He plans to race some 450 rounds in the east on a 450, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for that.

Unfortunately, they missed the start of the 250 LCQ at Anaheim 2.

#518 Parker Eales is likely back to work in BC this morning. Hopefully, we see him again when the series hits Seattle. What a great experience that was for him to be able to come down to California for over a month and race the West rounds and even an AMA Arenacross thrown in there. It was fun hanging out with Kyle Springman and Kevin Urqhart, too.

There were lots of stars hanging around at A2. Check out a few notables:

I have to tell a short story about this photo. As I was setting up, Broc Glover came over and mentioned how it was a bunch of “Canucks, eh!” At the time, I had no idea that Dean and gang were there with Dunlop.

I chatted with Broc for a minute about how Jett Lawerence‘s pink Alpinestars gear reminded me of his shocking pink gear back in the 80’s.

Back when I was a little kid, Broc was one of my racing heroes. My dad also always respected Broc’s no-nonsense racing. He just always seemed to show up and do well.

So, after chatting for a couple minutes, I decided I should officially introduce myself. I put my hand out to do so and Broc immediately said he knew who I was and reads DMX stuff.

My dad passed away a couple years ago and I really wish I could tell him that story. Thank you, Broc.

There’s so much to talk about from this past weekend, but I’m stressing out about not putting the miles behind me. Maybe what I’ll do is drive for a few hours and then pull over somewhere, so an interview or 2 and post some more stuff up here on the site.

Here are the extended highlights from A2:

AMA Endurocross Round 1

King of the Motos

Johnson Valley, California

Place	Rider#	AMA#	Rider Name	Sponsors	Brand	Class	Chk 1	Chk 2	Chk 3	Chk 4	Chk 5	Chk 6	Chk 7	Chk 8	Chk 9
1	1	2158898	TRYSTAN HART	Redbull Ktm Fmf	KTM	Pro	0:11:08 (1)	0:23:25 (1)	0:31:04 (1)	0:48:04 (1)	1:01:15 (1)	1:14:33 (1)	1:18:24 (1)	1:30:06 (1)	1:44:27 (1)
2	2	654257	CODY WEBB	Factory1 Sherco, Red Bull, Arai, Scott, CTi, Pivot	SHR	Pro	0:11:14 (2)	0:24:25 (2)	0:31:11 (2)	0:48:20 (2)	1:02:32 (2)	1:16:27 (2)	1:23:24 (2)	1:31:43 (2)	1:53:59 (2)
3	513	2096958	RYDER LEBLOND	DRT Racing, Husqvarna	HSQ	Pro	0:12:00 (3)	0:25:26 (3)	0:32:38 (3)	0:53:54 (3)	1:07:50 (3)	1:21:59 (3)	1:36:19 (3)	1:39:39 (3)	1:59:07 (3)
4	39	3704346	WILL RIORDAN		KTM	Pro	0:13:00 (4)	0:28:47 (4)	0:36:17 (5)	0:57:01 (4)	1:13:01 (4)	1:27:29 (4)	1:36:23 (4)	1:44:19 (4)	2:03:08 (4)
5	10	729697	COLTON HAAKER	Rockstar energy husqvarna factory	HSQ	Pro	0:19:00 (25)	0:30:07 (7)	0:37:51 (7)	0:59:08 (5)	1:14:17 (5)	1:29:44 (6)	1:36:24 (5)	1:45:27 (5)	2:04:28 (5)
6	12	284792	COOPER ABBOTT	FactoryONE Sherco	SHR	Pro	0:14:01 (6)	0:28:52 (5)	0:36:14 (4)	0:59:18 (6)	1:14:27 (6)	1:29:20 (5)	1:36:25 (6)	1:45:30 (6)	2:08:09 (6)
7	99	3389824	BRANDEN PETRIE	Sherco Enduro Racing Just 1	SHR	Pro	0:14:37 (8)	0:30:29 (9)	0:37:58 (9)	1:01:32 (7)	1:18:56 (7)	1:35:44 (7)	1:43:17 (7)	1:53:23 (7)	2:15:26 (7)
8	55	3090498	JAMES FLYNN	AEO DDC SXS IRC Fastway RKTec MotoSeat XCGear	GG	Pro	0:15:22 (11)	0:31:35 (10)	0:40:21 (10)	1:06:16 (10)	1:24:16 (10)	1:40:05 (9)	1:47:24 (9)	1:56:36 (9)	2:20:28 (8)
9	492	894234	DUSTIN MCCARTHY	Chocolate Mountain Ranch	KTM	Pro	0:13:55 (5)	0:29:47 (6)	0:37:54 (8)	1:01:34 (8)	1:20:09 (8)	1:36:45 (8)	1:45:30 (8)	1:55:25 (8)	2:24:03 (9)
10	118	279269	CORY GRAFFUNDER	SRT, TBT, Bell, SXS, Seat Concepts, Sidi, Rekluse	KTM	Pro	0:14:30 (7)	0:30:17 (8)	0:37:46 (6)	1:04:45 (9)	1:22:24 (9)	1:40:45 (10)	1:49:02 (10)	1:59:12 (10)	2:31:16 (10)

Place	Rider#	AMA#	Rider Name	Sponsors	Brand	Chk 1	Chk 2	Chk 3	Chk 4	Chk 5	Chk 6	Chk 7	Chk 8
1	64L	2157004	KYLEE SWEETEN		GG	0:46:32 (1)	1:15:37 (1)	1:32:22 (1)	2:44:22 (1)	3:33:16 (1)	4:13:08 (1)	4:31:06 (1)	4:50:16 (1)
2	676L	3068818	HALLIE MARKS	Sherco USA, Inside Enduro, Hammer Nutrition	SHR	0:53:54 (2)	1:28:33 (2)	1:43:59 (2)	3:19:25 (2)	3:54:58 (2)	4:40:47 (2)	5:06:09 (2)	5:24:25 (2)
3	6L	3274591	BAILEY LERWILL	SXS,DIRTastic,Evo ID,SelkirkGphcs,Dave Smith	HSQ	0:58:03 (3)	1:35:52 (3)	1:54:21 (3)	3:24:33 (3)	4:11:30 (3)	4:55:34 (3)	5:20:57 (3)	5:41:59 (3)
4	33L	3773610	MESA LANGE	Klim, Skratch Labs, Westerner Rv Park	HSQ	1:42:22 (4)	2:36:11 (4)	3:01:12 (4)

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I still need to interview Tyler Gibbs, too! Man, this gig requires more than the efforts of just one human…lol

Have a great week, everyone. Hopefully, next time you hear from me I’ll be in OK City, or somewhere closer to home!