Monday Morning Coffee

A little late this week with the Monday Morning Coffee. We finally pulled the trigger on getting a new dog this morning. After having to put our black lab “Sadie” down last year and then having our little morkie “Maggie” die a few months ago, we weren’t sure what we were going to do, but then this 4-month-old Aussie Doodle came up for adoption and we just couldn’t resist.

“Olive” is her name and we’re introducing her to our local pack of dogs we tend to accumulate for daylong visits here on our crescent. We do it so often that we actually had a gate put into the fence that connects our backyard with our neighbour who has “Malone” the French Bulldog.

We also took the other neighbour’s Miniature Australian Shepherd “Oakley” today for a month while they head out of the country. The first dog she met was the tiny little Maltese-cross named “Winnie” on the other side, so yes, we have dogs on all three sides that are in our yard a lot.

So, what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t have time to sit down and start typing away this morning over a coffee. We had a new and a bit skiddish dog to pick up and acclimate to her new surroundings. Don’t worry, this entire column today won’t be about Olive…

Of course, the big news over the weekend was our multi-time champ and generational talent, Dylan Wright, heading south of the border to take another shot at the AMA Pro Motocross National at Budds Creek in Maryland.

Like I said in the Frid’Eh Update, we all know Dylan can run with the biggest dogs in our sport, but these one-off races can and do cause problems for our guys and this weekend was, unfortunately, no different.

I feel like they should have known a national champion who hasn’t been beaten for an overall in over 2 years belonged in the 450 A Group, but he still ended up having to qualify in the B Group. He was head and shoulders faster than the 2nd fastest rider and would line up for the first moto with the 12th fastest time of the morning.

Qualifying: 12th 2:02.541

#18 Jett Lawrence was fastest with a 1:57.084

Dylan’s average lap time of the laps he completed (11) was 2:04.540. That average would have put him where he was running inside the top 10. We all would like to think he should be running podium speed, but the guys running faster than that average are all the top factory dudes plus #78 Grant Harlan and #69 Phil Nicoletti.

Dylan was 12th at the end of the first lap and managed to make a few passes and get himself up into 9th place after a heated battle with our buddy Harlan.

Just before this, Dylan was behind #53 Derek Drake and ahead of Nicoletti. #23 Chase Sexton was coming up through the field and found his way to the rear fender of Dylan at around the halfway mark. He made it around Harlan wirth 12:00 to go and was then 15 seconds behind #81 Ty Masterpool in 8th. Harlan got him back and then Sexton got him with around 9:00 to go.

We had our new guy Jordan Wilsey AKA RussOgraphy518 on the scene getting us the coverage. We were confused at first because Dylan was listed as #539 on all the sheets, so I had him scouring the pits for that! Oops. We finally sorted it all out and he found Dylan and Brayden Kalte in the pits just off to the side of the HRC boys.

It was on the 11th lap when disaster struck for our moto hero and he was forced to take a DNF in the moto and a DNS for moto 2.

Not the result Dylan was hoping for but these things can and will happen. It just really sucks when it happens to one of our guys trying to showcase their skills on the bigger stages.

We also had #84 Mitchell Harrison lining up to race after climbing his way up to 4th in the Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals 250 class after missing the first round. He actually finished 2-1-1-2 in the final 4 rounds!

Unfortunately, he didn’t fair any better than Dylan did!

Qualifying: 18th

The plan is to be at Ironman this coming week along with a couple other Canadians, so I’ll be sure to head down and be there for the Moto Combine on Friday and the final National of the season on Saturday.

Our guy, Jordan, asked a couple questions and you can tell he’s younger than I am because he asked about what Fortnight skin Jett would use if he could choose any. It was a classic moment as Jett introduced a lot of us to the word “sweatiest” as it pertains to gaming.

MXGP of The Netherlands

But the big news…

HERLINGS COUNTED OUT OF HOME MXGP WITH COLLARBONE FRACTURE

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings will not take part in the Grand Prix of the Netherlands – round sixteen of nineteen in 2023 MXGP – after an innocuous fall in Free Practice at Arnhem this morning led to a fracture of his right collarbone

The luckless MXGP record-setter hit the sand at the new Dutch venue during the opening session. The relatively slow-speed tumble saw Herlings nursing his right collarbone and a fracture was quickly suspected. #84 was reluctant to disappoint his home fans but decided to seek further consultation with his personal doctor and had to withdraw from participation for the rest of the weekend. After more checks the breakage was confirmed.

The injury is the second for the popular racer this season in what has otherwise been a milestone campaign for the 28-year-old when he burst the seventeen-year-old record for the biggest amount of Grand Prix victories in the history of the sport.

Grands Prix in Turkey, Italy and Great Britain remain in September with the 76th Motocross of Nations at Ernee, France at the beginning of October.

FMF KTM FACTORY RACING’S TRYSTAN HART TAKES SECOND-STRAIGHT RED BULL TKO VICTORY IN TENNESSEE

AMA Extreme Off-Road Grand Championship

SEQUATCHIE, Tenn. – FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Trystan Hart has won the 13th annual Red Bull Tennessee Knockout (TKO), which serves as the AMA Extreme Off-Road Grand Championship, as both riders and machines were put to the ultimate test navigating the immensely challenging terrain across two grueling days of action.

Hart opened his TKO campaign by setting the second-fastest time during Saturday’s Pro Class Hot Lap, with the Canadian posting a single lap time of 5:58:979 in anticipation for the following day of competition. Known as one of North America’s toughest hard enduros, humidity in the region only added to the overall difficulty, as riders took to the circuit under sweltering summer conditions.

Dominant across the three-stage, knockout format, U.S. Hard Enduro Champion Hart claimed the win throughout each outing on Sunday, delivering a stellar performance in the Final TKO featuring the last 20 riders standing to take the overall by a margin of 23.837 seconds over second position and to capture his third victory at the event.

Trystan Hart:“The Red Bull TKO has wrapped up here for 2023 and we managed to get it done! That’s three in total for me – two in a row, and Cody [Webb] has six, so we’re now halfway to closing that gap. A super-humid race here, the Tennessee heat was brutal, to say the least. Didn’t get the Hot Lap win, which was unfortunate, although I took the win in the rest of the events here and all-in-all it was a good couple of days racing.”

World champion Manuel Lettenbichler made the journey to the United States for the TKO event weekend, with the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team rider setting the third-fastest time during Saturday’s Hot Lap. A trio of third-place finishes throughout the final day of action saw the German claim a convincing third overall, marking a successful outing in Tennessee.

Provisional Results – 2023 Red Bull TKO

1. Trystan Hart (CAN), KTM, 7 laps
2. Billy Bolt (GBR), Husqvarna, +23.837
3. Manuel Lettenbichler (GER), KTM, +38.171
4. Jonny Walker (GBR), Beta, +1:12.042
5. Cody Webb (USA), Sherco, +1:50:823
6. Will Riordan (AUS), KTM

Sorry this MMC column is so late today and quite frankly a little lame. Our new dog is already starting to get more comfortable in her new surroundings and the one neighbour just gave her a nice haircut and trimmed her nails for us. I said the entire column wouldn’t be about her, I didn’t say I wouldn’t bookend it with her! 🤣

Anyway, we’ll keep trying to get an interview with Dylan up as soon as we can. He’s busy today teaching at a camp, so hopefully that means we can lock him down a little later for a chat.

Have a great week, everyone. Oh, and a big congratulations to our buddy Greg Poisson who just announced he’s now engaged to Morgan.