Monday Morning Coffee Opinion Column

It’s time to grab another Monday Morning Coffee and chat about some of what happened in our sport of Motocross over the weekend.

By Billy Rainford

Grab yourself another cup and let’s chat about the weekend.

I decided to stay local this weekend and miss the Nashville round of the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series in order to get my first look at a bunch of Canadian Pro riders who were set to line up at Round 1 of the True North Motorsports AMO Ontario Provincial Championships (OPC) and the first Amateur National Qualifier (ANQ) for the TransCan at Walton Raceway.

I really hated to miss this round because it was the last round I was going to be able to attend in person and Nashville is a really fun city, but this race at Gopher Dunes just made more sense, so that’s what I did.

It was funny how many people thought I must have driven all night to get back from Tennessee. I guess it’s something I would do, but not this time. I had some family commitments to attend on Saturday, anyway, so it just wasn’t in the cards this time.

Plus, how many more of these trips up and down the I-75 does this van have in it?! I can’t be far from a catastrophic failure of some sort. On a side note, I took a couple different vans for a test drive last week, and am closing in on a final decision on what to get for the next #DMXVan.

There was racing on Saturday at Gopher Dunes but it also snowed a little, so I’m not overly upset that I missed any of that! It warmed up a little for Sunday, but not a whole lot. I think it hovered around 5-9 degrees Celsius and there was a pretty chilling wind blowing up dust at times.

With over 300 riders and 765 entries, the place was buzzing. It was the first local race I’ve been to since last year, so it was nice to catch up with people I haven’t seen in several months.

The other thing I really enjoy at Race 1 of a new season is seeing all the young riders moving up in bike size or skill level or both.

A couple riders stood out for me:

#630 Mason Murdy.

First off, I always like watching #630 Mason Murdy race. He ‘s just a youngster and lets it hang out there whenever he’s on the track. He’s moved up to the 85cc bike but he’s also still able to race the older 65 (10-11) class and the 65 Open, so he went out and beat up on those classes. He was one of the riders who stood out for me.

It goes without saying that his dad’s amazingly huge cowboy hat also played a big part. Lol
#667 Tyler Kirby.

I also really like what I saw from #667 Tyler Kirby in the Supermini class. He went 1-1 and looks to be one to keep an eye on in what I think is usually the most entertaining class to watch at the TransCan as well as throughout the summer. He also raced the Schoolboy class where he also finished without a blemish.

Of course, there were others too, like #613 Cole Pranger and #7 Bobby Gravel in the Intermediate classes, and #75 Tyler Shechyk and #324 Dylan Kaelin in the Pro class, but I’ll save more stories for an article on the entire event.

#104 Kyle Keast and Jamey Keast.

And I should mention that #104 Kyle Keast made an appearance, too! I couldn’t figure out who it was at first. At one point, Kyle, Kaelin and #21 Liam O’Farrell were in the same corner together and I thought I was having some sort of flashback or something!

Ignore the jersey, that’s Australian #143 Tiger Wood.

It was also our first look at #143 Tiger Wood from Queensland, Australia. He’s here to ride for the Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing team alongside #1 Dylan Wright and 250 teammate #5 Tyler Medaglia.

He’s been in North America 6 years and calls Millsaps Training Facility (MTF) in Cairo, Georgia, home.

I actually did an interview with him at the end of the day, but we’re waiting for the team to put out their official Press Release before we post our video (They have posted it, so watch for our interview for you to get to know the friendly 17-year-old a little better.)

Here’s the PR:

You can look over the results from the weekend HERE.

Out west, Whispering Pines in Kamloops, BC was hosting their first ANQ of the season.

I see a lot of fast and familiar names on the entry list, but the results haven’t been updated so I can’t link them yet.

One name that stands out on the sheet is that of #3 Shawn Maffenbeier racing the +30 class and the Pro Am class. Great to see him out enjoying it again.

Also, Blake Davies can still race Intermediate, so that’s not the greatest news for the rest of the yellow-plated riders in any part of the country!

On his IG page, Blake says he won all his overalls and he was racing Julien Benek, Parker Eales, and Brock Hoyer in the Pro Am class.

We’ll talk more about the crazy night of Supercross in Nashville in another post, but wow, what a night. In the 250 East/West Showdown, both points leaders we down and out off the start of the Main! Teammates #63 Cameron McAdoo and #47 Levi Kitchen both had to pick themselves up and go into full damage control.

Kitchen made it back to leave Tennessee only 2 points behind #24 RJ Hampshire in the West while McAdoo finds himself 16 points behind #16 Tom Vialle in the East.

In the 450 class, #18 Jett Lawrence was back to his winning ways and took sole possession of the red plate as the series heads to Philly.

2024 Nashville Supercross Results and Updated Points

#71 Cole Thompson in Nashville. | Brown Dog Wilson photo

#71 Cole Thompson was back in action at the first 250 East/West Showdown of the season at Nissan Stadium across the river from downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

Here’s a look at how Cole’s day and night went:

Qualifying: 11th – West

Heat: 9th to head directly to the Showdown Main

Main: 17th

250 West Points: tied for 14th

The 250 West riders get a break in the action this week as the series heads to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the first time in like 40 years! Cole will be back for the final 2 rounds in Denver, Colorado, and then the final 250 East/West Showdown in Salt Lake City, Utah.

OK, I see my noon Eastern deadline has come and gone. Oh, I was also surprised to find how many people have been following along with our crazy renovations here at the house. Quite a few people brought it up at the track yesterday and shared their own reno stories with me.

The new floors go in Tuesday and we’ll have all the painting done tonight. But have you ever noticed how paint colour looks totally different on your walls and in your light compared to what the paint chips look like or what it looks like in the store? That’s where we find ourselves, but we’ve already changed the living room colour 3 times at the store, so whet we have now is what it’s going to be, good or bad!

Have a great week, everyone. I see 26 Celsius for this coming weekend, so I hope it’s nice where you are too.

Sam Gaynor just had 8 hours of surgery where they took some bone and soft tissue from his leg and put it into his injured wrist. But did that keep him and his dad, Jeff Gaynor, from hanging out at the track? Nope. “See you at the races…“