Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

Hello from our final day in California after the 40th Annual Dubya World Vet Championships and World Cup of Nations at the famed Glen Helen Raceway track in San Bernardina. Most are moving around pretty slowly and gingerly this morning as we all get set to head out and catch our various flights from either Ontario or LAX airports today.

I’m sitting in the front room at a big table looking out the window as early morning wind pushes the palm trees from side to side. It got extremely windy for the final day of racing on Sunday and it looks like it will continue here today.

On Saturday night at around 3:00am, I was woken up by what I thought was a mechanical sound that would repeat every 15 seconds or so. I wondered if there was some sort of weird alarm in the house or if it was someone really messing up their alarm on their phone.

It was sort of like when you wake up and need to go to the washroom: You roll over a few times thinking it’ll go away and you can drop back off to sleep. Nope, it’s not going away.

I got up as quietly as I could so as not to wake up my roommate for the weekend. I wandered around trying to find where the noise got loudest. I’m sure you can picture me wandering around this massive house by the light of my iPhone waiting for each time the sound would start up trying to get closer to the source.

I went downstairs and into the kitchen. It was quieter.

I went back upstairs and it got louder again. I was confused.

I tried to go back to bed, but it was no use. I had to find what this was.

I went back downstairs and out into the back yard and waited…

There it was! It was an owl perched on the highest peak of the roof, hooting loudly on repeat. How was I going to get this to stop?

I looked around trying to find something I could throw up in its direction to scare it off. I didn’t want to injure it or anything, I just needed it to fly away and pester someone else!

I went back into the kitchen and decided a bag of bagels would do the trick. I pulled one out and started breaking chunks off and tossing them up at it while making some sort of hooting sounds of my own. He wasn’t budging.

It was the last chunk of bread that must have landed close to him because the sound stopped. I didn’t see or hear it fly away, but the problem appeared to be solved. The owl silhouette was gone and I headed back to bed. I couldn’t believe I was the only on awake for this!

My alarm was set for 5:00am so I wasn’t overly thrilled with any of this.

The number of riders at this event is staggering! Most races had 3 gate drops. I have never seen so many riders on the track at once, especially on practice day. The track is huge, so it didn’t really become an issue. It seemed like even with that many bikes circulating, that wasn’t what caused the problems. It was the track itself!

We all sat around and watched the replay of the live broadcast last night at the house. Nobody could believe how easy the track looked! Just like when I do my MTB track rides after the Canadian Nationals, it just doesn’t do it justice.

I did a Race Tech Walk and Talk around the Canadian pits at the end of the day on Sunday:

Glen Helen is no joke. Sure, the hills are what catch your eye when you first enter the property, but it’s the square-edged bomb holes that end up getting you when you’re on the track, late in the day and tired. Every rider I spoke to said they’ve never ridden anything like it.

The big story from the weekend, having to do with the World Cup of Nations, was the fact that someone pointed out to Skippy that one of the riders for the Italian team appeared to gain 30 seconds per lap from their Vet class to the Cup races on Saturday. Hmm, it had us all wondering if something was awry.

On Sunday, the organizers made the rider show some identification to make sure it matched their registered name. It did.

When all was said and done, Italy finished 2nd as a team but didn’t show up at the podium celebration. It left a bit of a sour taste on the event and definitely affected the look of the podium photos.

I hope there is a simple explanation for this whole thing and that it doesn’t deter them from returning in 2025. Their top rider #18 Giacomo Redondi is a stud! Dude hauls and was the class of the field in the Cup races. He actually finished 3rd in the +30 Pro class on Sunday behind Phil Nicoletti and Mike Alessi.

When the dust settled (actually, even with a day of full sunshine and strong, gusty winds, they kept the track in great condition) it was Team Canada who took the top step on the podium. Both Todd Minnie (1-1) and Julien Cerny (1-1) won their classes and Brock Hoyer (who was sick) was 4th (4-3).

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

SX 2 Round 3

Pos No Name Machine Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Total
1 12 Shane MCELRATH Honda 25 25 25 75
2 88 Brodie CONNOLLY Honda 20 20 20 60
3 2 Cole THOMPSON Honda 22 15 22 59
4 86 Reid TAYLOR Kawasaki 18 14 18 50
5 16 Kaleb BARHAM Yamaha 16 18 15 49
6 7 Jayce COSFORD Yamaha 15 22 11 48
7 66 Kayden MINEAR KTM 5 16 16 37
8 28 Cambell WILLIAMS Husqvarna 9 13 14 36
9 70 Ben NOVAK Honda 8 11 12 31
10 174 Sam LARSEN Yamaha 13 9 9 31
11 38 Thynan KEAN KTM 14 5 10 29
12 43 Mackenzie O’BREE GasGas 10 10 8 28
13 6 Byron DENNIS GasGas 1 12 13 26
14 27 Liam ATKINSON Triumph 12 8 3 23
15 36 Zane MACKINTOSH Kawasaki 4 6 7 17
16 51 Ryan KOHLENBERG Yamaha 6 3 6 15
17 39 Kallam ORCHARD Kawasaki 2 7 5 14
18 225 Reid LEHRER KTM 3 4 4 11
19 47 Bailey MALKIEWICZ Yamaha 11 11
20 19 Connar ADAMS KTM 7 2 9

SX2 Series Points

Pos No Name Machine Redcl Redcl Race 3 Total
1 12 Shane MCELRATH Honda 13 25 25 63
2 2 Cole THOMPSON Honda 14 22 20 56
3 88 Brodie CONNOLLY Honda 16 18 22 56
4 86 Reid TAYLOR Kawasaki 22 9 18 49
5 7 Jayce COSFORD Yamaha 18 14 15 47
6 66 Kayden MINEAR KTM 15 15 14 44
7 16 Kaleb BARHAM Yamaha 8 13 16 37
8 29 Noah FERGUSON Honda 25 8 33
9 21 Ryder KINGSFORD Yamaha 20 12 32
10 5 Alex LARWOOD Honda 12 20 32
11 27 Liam ATKINSON Triumph 11 10 7 28
12 22 Rhys BUDD Husqvarna 9 16 25
13 6 Byron DENNIS GasGas 5 11 8 24
14 43 Mackenzie O’BREE GasGas 7 7 9 23
15 28 Cambell WILLIAMS Husqvarna 4 4 13 21
16 174 Sam LARSEN Yamaha 6 1 11 18
17 70 Ben NOVAK Honda 2 2 12 16
18 38 Thynan KEAN KTM 5 10 15
19 75 Jack KUKAS Husqvarna 10 3 13
20 18 Myles GILMORE Honda 3 6 9
21 36 Zane MACKINTOSH Kawasaki 6 6
22 51 Ryan KOHLENBERG Yamaha 5 5
23 39 Kallam ORCHARD Kawasaki 4 4
24 225 Reid LEHRER KTM 3 3
25 47 Bailey MALKIEWICZ Yamaha 2 2
26 19 Connar ADAMS KTM 1 1
27 118 Mitchell NORRIS Kawasaki 1 1

SX 1 Round 3

Pos No Name Machine Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Total
1 17 Joey SAVATGY Honda 16 25 25 66
2 1 Dean WILSON Honda 22 22 22 66
3 4 Luke CLOUT Kawasaki 25 20 16 61
4 14 Jed BEATON Yamaha 18 18 18 54
5 9 Aaron TANTI Honda 20 10 20 50
6 64 Dylan WILLS GasGas 15 16 15 46
7 11 Jack MATHER Husqvarna 14 11 14 39
8 5 Joel WIGHTMAN Yamaha 12 13 13 38
9 8 Zachary WATSON Husqvarna 11 12 12 35
10 45 Hayden MELLROSS KTM 10 14 8 32
11 199 Nathan CRAWFORD KTM 13 15 1 29
12 162 Luke ZIELINSKI Yamaha 8 9 11 28
13 215 Liam JACKSON GasGas 9 7 6 22
14 81 Joel EVANS Yamaha 6 8 7 21
15 J05 Jesse MADDEN Honda 5 1 10 16
16 32 Joel CIGLIANO Kawasaki 4 6 3 13
17 75 Caleb GOULLET GasGas 2 4 5 11
18 34 Brandon STEEL Yamaha 1 5 4 10
19 51 Robbie MARSHALL Husqvarna 9 9
20 49 Cody O’LOAN Yamaha 7 2 9
21 22 Jesse BISHOP Honda 3 3 2 8

SX1 Series Points

Pos No Name Machine Redcl Redcl Race 3 Total
1 17 Joey SAVATGY Honda 22 25 25 72
2 1 Dean WILSON Honda 25 20 22 67
3 4 Luke CLOUT Kawasaki 20 22 20 62
4 14 Jed BEATON Yamaha 14 18 18 50
5 9 Aaron TANTI Honda 18 14 16 48
6 64 Dylan WILLS GasGas 13 16 15 44
7 45 Hayden MELLROSS KTM 16 15 11 42
8 5 Joel WIGHTMAN Yamaha 12 10 13 35
9 11 Jack MATHER Husqvarna 8 9 14 31
10 162 Luke ZIELINSKI Yamaha 11 11 9 31
11 24 Brett METCALFE Kawasaki 15 12 27
12 8 Zachary WATSON Husqvarna 7 6 12 25
13 81 Joel EVANS Yamaha 10 8 7 25
14 102 Matt MOSS Yamaha 9 13 22
15 J05 Jesse MADDEN Honda 6 7 6 19
16 32 Joel CIGLIANO Kawasaki 4 3 5 12
17 49 Cody O’LOAN Yamaha 5 5 1 11
18 199 Nathan CRAWFORD KTM 10 10
19 215 Liam JACKSON GasGas 8 8
20 75 Caleb GOULLET GasGas 3 4 7
21 51 Robbie MARSHALL Husqvarna 4 2 6
22 34 Brandon STEEL Yamaha 1 2 3 6

OK, it’s time to head to the airport. I’ll keep working on my flights and try to get as much up as quickly as I can. I’ll leave you with this little “rumour” we heard here in the Glen Helen pits, and it involves a certain #1 450 rider in Canada moving over to a more blue bike for 2025… We’ll leave this ins the Rumour Mill file for the time being until we get it confirmed by the parties involved. Things may have just gotten spicy heading into the new year!

Have a great week, everyone. We’ll leave you with this Honda CR500 burnout celebration.