Monday Morning Coffee Opinion Column

It’s time for our weekly opinion column Monday Morning Coffee where we discuss what happened in Motocross and whatever else.

By Billy Rainford

I’m happy to announce that I’m typing this MMC from the comfort of my office upstairs on the main floor of the house! We started ripping our thin-slat hardwood floors up on the Easter long weekend and we’re close to being fully moved back in on the May long weekend. We’ve still got a few more things to move in from the big storage unit that’s been cluttering up our driveway for over a month, but we can see the light at the end of this rather stressful tunnel.

We’ve definitely learned which jobs we’d pay experts to do, which ones we’d do ourselves again, and which ones we’d fake our own deaths if friends asked us for our help. The list of ones we’d do again ourselves is much, and I mean a lot, shorter than the other two!

We’re now just 2 weekends away from the beginning of a new Canadian Triple Crown Series Motocross Nationals season at Wild Rose MX in downtown Calgary, Alberta. Unless something happens fast, it looks like I’ll be driving the Dodge Caravan west again. It’s very difficult to find a van these days!

I seem to have it narrowed down to either a Ford Transit Connect Cargo or now maybe a new Kia Carnival minivan.

The problem is, you can’t find anything in stock! And the 2025 Kia comes out a little later this year and looks quite a bit nicer, in my opinion. And the reason I’m looking at these two as my main options is that they are both under $40k new. That’s also very hard to find in today’s world of outrageous prices.

Anyway, I’ve bored you enough with my struggles to find a replacement for the current #DMXVan. Let’s move on…

As I started out saying, we’re now at crunch time for teams and riders to get ready to race when the 3-race western swing of the Nationals starts on June 2nd.

I’ve been keeping an eye on how our top riders have been doing when they line up against each other this spring, and the results have been interesting, for sure.

Let’s break some of it down in point form:

  1. #12 Sebastien Racine freaked everyone out with just how fast he is on a 450. No, he won’t be racing the 450 yet but when he moves up he will definitely be a player in the premiere class. I also thought it was interesting that he said the Auburn track was simply too fast. Watching his action cam coverage, it’s hard to disagree!
  2. #14 Quinn Amyotte has looked very fast racing the rest of the Pro riders on his 250. He wasn’t able to get good starts against the 450’s in the race I saw at Gopher Dunes, but he showed good pace and tenacity, so on a level playing field he should continue his rise toward the top of the class.
  3. #143 Tiger Wood is still a youngster getting his feet wet in the Pro/Am 250 class up here but I think he’ll be adding to the mix of riders fighting just off the podium.
  4. His 250 teammate, #5 Tyler Medaglia, looked fast and comfortable on his race bike at the Team Intro last week at Gopher Dunes. Tyler went 1-3 in Kamloops last year to tie Dylan Wright for 1st that round (3-1). Anyone who can do that has got to be going into the 250 class as a favourite to take the title, no?
  5. Speaking of Dylan, we saw an extremely rare mechanical issue at the Intro. It was a simple mistake that led to the problem, but it’s a little concerning, for sure. Simply put, I don’t think anyone (maybe 1?) has the pace to dethrone Dylan in this 450 season unless all the new pieces to their team puzzle result in a potential chink in his armour. Tyler said straight up that Dylan is the best we’ve ever seen here in Canada, so there’s also that.
  6. #26 Kaven Benoit just beat both #15 Jess Pettis and #23 Josiah Natzke on a 350 in Quebec over the weekend. What do we make of that? Well, I think it means a couple things. 1) Kaven will be fighting for the 250 title and 2) Jess and Josiah will have their hands full with each other on the track as well as trying to keep Dylan in sight.
  7. Pettis is one of the Canadian riders in the 450 class that still thinks he can run with or even beat Dylan. The other rider in that category is #84 Tanner Ward. Both riders will be up front early because they are great starters. With the attitude that they aren’t going to roll over for the big #1, they are the Canadian riders I believe can come closest to keeping Dylan behind them the longest.
  8. I’ll put #17 Julien Benek and #377 Daniel Elmore in the pairing just behind the riders I’ve just mentioned. On a good day, either rider is capable of landing on the podium, but it will have to be one of those days when the stars align perfectly for them.
  9. #808 (Bob) Preston Kilroy is a bit of a question mark in the 450 class for the mX101 team. He had some good results in the 2023 AMA Pro Motocross 250 class but I just don’t know enough about him to make much of a prediction on his results up here in Canada. The fact I don’t know much tells me I don’t have him competing with Dylan for wins, but I think the positions behind him are definitely in his grasp.
  10. #402 Gage Linville is the 250 replacement for the injured Hunter Yoder on the Partzilla PRMX team. I’ve watched Gage race down south since he was on tiny bikes. Lately, he’s had some impressive rides. Will he be on pace with KB and TM? I don’t think so but watch for him to hit the ground running and move his way into that top 5 each week.
  11. #300 Drew Adams is coming up for the western swing only, unless he’s leading the series. With Drew I’m in two camps: 1) he kills everyone every time the gate drops or 2) he’s not as fast as KB and TM. I won’t be surprised by either outcome.
  12. It will be interesting to see how much #29 Blake Davies has improved again this season. The Mission Missile is on a trajectory towards the top, and has been killing it in pre-season races out west, so we’ll have to see what he’s got at Round 1.
  13. I don’t know where to put #25 Tanner Scott and #24 Zach Ufimzeff, but they should be filling out the top 5-7 each week with the potential to do even better.
  14. If #68 Chris Blackmer and #39 Jyire Mitchell make it out west, they’ll be the “flies in the ointment” as they say because both have potential to run near the front of the 450 class. Chris has been impressive in pre-season racing on the 450 but it looks like we’ll likely see him on the east in the 250 class, and Jyire is still trying to get a 450 out west.
  15. Australian Aaron Tanti is the rider who I think has the best shot at running with Dylan at the front of the 450 class. Aaron is the 2022 Australian MX Champion and that carries some weight. The PRMX team will be basing themselves at Dylan Rempel‘s place again this summer, so I’ll head over there this week and get a first-hand look at him.
  16. There are other stories and riders to talk about and we’ll have our Pre-Season Preview up next week, once we’ve had a look at all the players first-hand.

Challenge Quebec Round 1 – Issoudun

Round 1 of the 2024 Challenge Quebec MX Provincials took place at Issoudun over Saturday and Sunday. It was a great opportunity for the entire Red Bull KTM Canada team to get in a shakedown race and get in front of the loyal fans. Only Eve Brodeur wasn’t there.

Here’s a look at the 450 Pro results that include a 3rd Superfinal. MyLaps/Speedhive doesn’t make it easy to copy/paste results, so click HERE to check them all out.

  1. 26 Kaven Benoit KTM 1-2-2 138
  2. 23 Josiah Natzke KTM 2-3-1 134
  3. 15 Jess Pettis KTM 4-1-4 126
  4. 7 Tim Tremblay YAM 3-4-5 114
  5. 686 Alexandre Morin YAM 5-8-7

Can we deduce anything from these results? I wasn’t there in person so I don’t know how the motos actually went, so I can’t really comment except for what we see here in the results, just like you, but Kaven should feel ready with those results and Josiah should draw some confidence heading into his debut in the 450 class this summer.

2024 Triple Crown Pro Rulebook Changes

Preston Masciangelo Wins Big in Pennsylvania!

Money race!

OK, get out there and enjoy the rest of your long weekend! We’re one week away from the start of the AMA Pro Motocross Nationals at Fox Raceway in Pala, California, and 2 away from our series. Rest up!

It’s all good these days because we have a hashtag! #vanlife The Beattys say, “See you at the races...” before we had the hashtag. | Bigwave 2012 photo