Monday Morning Coffee

It’s time for Monday Morning Coffee where we talk about what happened in the sport of motocross and usually a lot more.

By Billy Rainford

I decided to stay for Sunday night last night after the final round of the 2024 Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals at Walton Raceway. End-of-season parties on the farm are pretty much legendary. There have been some pretty unbelievable stories that have come from the fnial night of the series. It’s the time when most of our “of age” riders let loose and tip one or two tasty beverages with their teams.

Things have definitely calmed down the past few years, but it doesn’t mean it’s become boring! The problem with what I do at the races means my work isn’t even halfway done when the final checkered flag waves at the end of the day. Nope, that’s when I have to try and sort through all the content I’ve collected throughout the weekend to try and figure out what needs to get sent out into the universe first.

The final race of the year makes this final task that much more difficult. The temptation just just kick back, crack a beer and start hanging out is very hard to resist. But, I will say, I managed to sit in the trailer we rented and get a whole bunch of stuff done and ready to go up Monday morning.

I hotspotted my laptop to my phone and tried to get to work. It worked OK for little things like Instagram posts but when I tried to upload the 2 Walk and Talks I had “in the can” it was a no go. I was also the first trailer you’d hit if you left the shed where they were having the MXON fundraising dinner, so I could hear everyone over there having a good time, but I didn’t want to be the guy who walked through all the fun to sit at his laptop, so I avoided it and did everything I could without strong cell service.

Finally, James Lissimore tapped on my door and asked what the hell I was doing. I told him I didn’t want to be “that guy” and he told me he’s been him all night over there! Haha OK, I’ll grab my laptop and head over to use their better wifi.

For whatever reason, the wifi they have in the solar shed was pretty much at a standstill. Damn. It was nice to stand around and chat about the day with Mel and Brett. I told them I thought that was probably the event of the season. And I meant it!

Over a healthy slice of chocolate cheesecake, I told them how it was so nice to see people at our races who weren’t just family and friends of the riders on the track. There were a ton of actual FANS there! The place was an absolute beehive of action throughout the day. The parking lot was filled to the last blade of grass and people lined the fences for what ended up being some of the most exciting racing we’ve ever seen here. And I’m not exaggerating!

Oh, let me end that thought by adding that I ended up driving over to the old Honda barn to use their super-fast wifi and get the 2 Walk and Talks ready to go for this morning. Sure, I ended up in there until 1:00am and I had to be up at 6, but whatever. It was the final round and I could hack it.

In the 250 class, American hotshot #300 Drew Adams was behind points leader #25 Kaven Benoit by 8 points. The way these 2 have been riding, it looked like Kaven could let Drew go and cruise to a pretty simple 2-2 score to take the title by 2 points. But hold on a minute…

We had two additional Kawasaki riders in the 250 class that could be factors, not to mention #402 Gage Linville who rides the clay very well as shown at Riverglade in Moncton, NB.

New Zealander #53 Dylan Walsh was coming over to race. He’s been racing the British MX Championships and doing well. He qualified well and looked like he could impact this title race.

American #127 Krystian Janik was also coming up. He had a rough showing at Loretta Lynn’s this year after one of the hardest hits I’ve ever seen. Would he have the speed to get between the two leaders?

Walsh actually qualified right between the two so we knew he was up to the task and Janik was 6th just ahead of Linville. The game was on!

Drew won the first moto with Kaven 2nd. Janik was 3rd and Walsh was a factor until he fell and finished 6th. OK, heading into the final moto, Kave had a nice 5-point lead. Just grab an easy 2nd and call it a series, right? Wrong!

Kaven got out front from the start but there was a green bike right on his rear tire, but which rider was it? At first I thought it was Walsh, but it ended up being Janik, and he meant business…big Kawasaki business.

I didn’t think he was going to be able to stay with Kaven, but he was! He mirrored every move Kaven made. I was told later that he was given a pit board that read, “BUMP HIM!” I didn’t see it and I really wish I’d gotten that photo!

The problem is, you can’t hit what you can’t catch! Hold that thought…

Drew didn’t get a great start and had to make passes to work his way forward. I was actually surprised at how long he was stuck behind Walsh. No, they weren’t on the same team or anything, but they were both riding green bikes.

Drew made his way forward and was clearly the fastest rider on the track again, but would he have enough time to catch Kaven?

Ya, he did! He got up on Kaven and we all waited for some sort of move that would disguise the intent but send Kaven off the track or to the ground. It never came. The wily veteran (Kaven is 35) kept his pace up and Drew got by him without any incident that I saw. But that’s not the end of the story.

Now the stage was set for Drew and Krystian to team up and cause Kaven some grief. Enough grief that he’d lose enough positions for Drew to claim the title.

Unfortunately, for Drew, Krystian crashed and dropped back a bunch of time, but was still in 3rd. What was left for Drew to do at this point?

He thought of something.

He started looking over his shoulder and letting off the pace to let Kaven get up behind him. It was unclear if he would go so far as to somehow take Kaven out or if he just wanted Krystian to be able to catch up and continue their game.

I actually asked him which he was hoping for and he said, “Either one!” Lol You can find our conversation in the Race Tech Walk and Talk from yesterday. Here it is now (Kaven is at 24:40 and Drew is at 43:30):

It was something I’ve never seen. As I was shooting video for my recap, I just kept it focussed on the two of them. Getting the Ryde TV app would be worth it just to watch multiple cameras cover the action.

I’ve never seen that many people at a Canadian National run from fence to fence to try to not miss “the move” if and when it came. It was electric in the infield!

Kaven must have been having Vince Friese flashbacks out there! Too soon?

Drew kept holding Kaven up and Krystian kept closing in. I can’t even give this drama enough emphasis here. You have to see it.

Nothing overly aggressive happened, that I saw, and Drew crossed the line 1st with Kaven just behind him. Kaven gave him the business after they crossed the line and was revving his bike and yelling at him. Janik came across in 3rd place and knew he’d failed in his mission, but man was that exciting!

I have Kaven on video over at the podium yelling, “How many kids do you need to bring up to beat me???!!!” It’s an instant classic moment in Canadian Moto. I’ll grab that clip now and post it up. It was amazing.

I heard that Drew’s mom gave him shit for acting like he did. I didn’t see it so it’s second-hand information I’ passing along here, but I like it. However, what else could Drew do? He was out of options. And you know the top American prospect who just showed all the Pro Sport riders at Loretta’s what was up did not want to lose to a 35-year-old Canadian!

Everyone seemed to calm down after some time and both riders were respectful in their speeches. Drew apologized for acting like he did and I believe he meant it. Like I said, he was out of options. Also, it will be something that anyone who was there will never forget, so thanks for that, Drew.

I had fun getting to know Drew better throughout the summer. I met him a bunch of years ago down at Matt Walker’s place so it wasn’t my first time chatting with him, but he’s now 16 and heading to what should be a very bright Pro career.

I’ll be at Ironman MX (still bitter it’s called that) to catch his first AMA Pro Motocross Championship national. We’ll have some Canadians racing there too, so I’m looking forward to that next road trip. One more time, DMX Van…

OK, sorry for the delay but I had a visit from Greg Poisson and we sat in the backyard talking about all the stuff that went down over the weekend. I won’t get into more detail on the 450 class but will do that in a future report.

The 450 battles were also good and #15 Jess Pettis won his first 450 championship, but it’s already late for coffee, so I’ll leave it here. I have a hard drive full of content to get to, so off I go…

Have a great week, and I hope everyone gets caught up on their sleep after last night. Luckily, I had some noise-cancelling headphones to blpock out the sound when the “dance party” kicked back up.