Monday Morning Coffee Opinion Column

It’s time for the first Monday Morning Coffee of the 2025 season where we talk Motocross and usually much more.

By Billy Rainford

I’m sitting in the back seat “rolling” up the infamous 405 in an Uber on my way to LAX after a great weekend in California for Round 1 of the SMX World Championship / Round 1 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series in Anaheim. To be honest, I started getting worried because no driver seemed willing to pick me up in Huntington Beach to take me there during worst rush hour in North America. Go figure.

I’m sure the first thing you’re wondering about doesn’t even have to do with the racing but about the fire situation here in Los Angeles. Well, it’s really weird how it seems that if you’re not directly affected by the disaster it’s business as usual.

The Santa Ana winds blow from inland out to the ocean, so it didn’t affect where we were in Anaheim. Sure, you could see some smoke in the distance but it wasn’t getting to us at the track.

When I arrived at LAX we could see ash dropping from the sky and we all wondered what was up with the fact that SX hadn’t made a statement about it that we’d seen. Once we saw what was happening and how the flames seems sort of isolated to the Pacific Palisades area it all made perfect sense.

The sky is actually a bright blue so far on my drive into the airport but I can definitely see it turning grey in the distance ahead of us.

Thank you, Brown Dog Wilson.

I stayed with Brown Dog Wilson for the weekend and want to thank him for the hospitality. I’m sure he doesn’t usually have gusts, so I want to give him some extra praise here. He even had an extra electric scooter that we brought to Angels Stadium that made all the difference for me to boogie around on throughout the race day.

Here’s something you may not know: Brown Dog was a tennis pro back in his heyday. We’ve always talked about playing together but could never find the time on our busy race weekend schedules. Well, my shoulder, elbows and knee probably shouldn’t be running around a tennis court these days but it didn’t matter because Pickle Ball is all the rage these days!

I had never played before a couple nights ago and I’m embarrassed to say that I loved it! Yes, it’s similar to tennis but it’s different enough that I was a complete fish out of water both nights we played. I liked it so much that when BDW had to leave for a while I stayed and played a bunch more games with complete strangers until the lights went out on the courts and Brown Dog came back to get me!

However, I’m paying the price for it this morning with a sore knee, adductors, right elbow and lower back. Hey, getting old is better than the alternative, as my father always said!

The following Mattslyon Instagram hilarity is very accurate:

I have to admit that I didn’t want to like it, but I did.

It hasn’t rained here in the LA area for many, many….many days, so we weren’t in danger of having a mud race this year, that’s for sure. As I love to do, I spent a lot of my time at the track looking for fellow Canadians to chat with and snap iPhone photos of.

Actually, when I landed on Thursday, I spoke with Derek Schuster from Gopher Dunes and he set me up with Fox Racing Canada‘s Jeff Fullerton in his rental car for a lift over to the track with a full SUV of Canucks. It was a great start to the weekend. We had people from all across the country along for the ride.

Although this drive is taking a long time, I won’t get into race coverage here in this MMC. I’ll save that for something on its own once I get to where I can focus on it.

Let’s get back to the Canucks!

As always, the first Canadian I saw at the track was Craig Randell from BC. He was there to help Privateer Paddock rider #113 Braden Spangle from Washington State.
Craig and Braden in the pits.
Brady Sheren from Matrix Concepts Canada / Atlas Brace was in town for business and pleasure.
I was flip flopping on whether or not to leave the track Thursday (long story) and Kourtney Lloyd came to my rescue with half of her Panera sandwich in the Lawrence VIP area as Ben (look on the roof) worked away.
I like to pretend that Partzilla PRMX team owner Julien Perrier is only pretending not to be thrilled to see me at the races…
This shot of James Lissimore sitting with all our friends might just be my favourite shot of the weekend.
I met mechanic Jerome Levesque who is working for our old friend Chad Saultz. It’s funny that he just says his name “Lavesky” for the American crowd.
Top Canadian SX racer Cole Thompson in the Team Solitaire pits with a couple dudes from Heartbeat Hot Sauce up in Thunder Bay, ON.
Preston Masciangelo and his dad in the AJE Motosports GasGas pits.
Blake Davies and his dad. Did you watch our interview with Blake after qualifying?
I didn’t actually know this, but this is Breanna Rose and Derek Hamm’s HONEYMOON! A family that motos together…
Caden Lee pushing Vince’s bike to the line.
Ethan Ouellette working with Mitchell Harrison.
Tough day for Guillaume St Cyr and Anna. Shoulder was the end result of that crash and we’ll wait and see what the prognosis is.
Noah and Ulf Viney.
I scootered over to the Fox Grill and Chill again this year and shot the breeze with a bunch of Canadians. That’s RickBradshaw from Schrader’s. He’s still the sponsor of our ‘Out of the Blue’ WMX column by Jensen Amyotte. If you’d like to be featured, let us know.
Chris Buckrell and Sandra Smith.
One of the best to do it in Canada Serge Gregoire (centre) with a Quebec contingent.
That’s Lethbridge Honda and Royal Distributing taking it all in.
Chris Bruno and MX Dreams California. Chris bought a Scott Foil from me a bunch of years ago. What a bike!
That’s one of a couple Canadians spinning wrenches for the ClubMX team, Cam Callaghan.
And Billy Van Vugt may call Big Bear home these days, but he’s from my hometown of London, ON.

We’re almost at the airport…

OK, so now I”m actually in the airport and sitting down. I’m running out of time before my Milk Run home so I’ll end it with some results and then a little story.

Crayden Dillon Looks to Defend His Amsoil Snocross Pro Lites Title

Points after 2 rounds:

Position Rider Hometown Sled Points
1 Crayden Dillon Zephyr, ON 130
2 Anson Scheele North Branch, MN 102
3 Emil Mikalsen Talvik, 20 101
4 Cameron Cole Medina, MN 96
5 Drew Freeland Corcoran, MN 95
6 Eric Downs Jordan, MN 82
7 Tyler Archambault Mancelona, MI 79
8 Evan Christian Finley, ND 79
9 Brandon Nelson Stacy, MN 76
10 Adam Ashline Hartland, VT 75

And Blair Morgan was onsite!

So, I’m walking to the security line and get my shoes off and get ready to go through the detector. They used the scan machine on me and it didn’t make a noise so I was through. Oh no, wait, “Step over here for me sir, there was an anomoly in your groin area.”

Well I says, “PARDON?!” I looooose it! (Google it, Bowker!) Nah, I took it as a compliment and waited for at least a smile that never came. Maybe I’ll go back and check again.

OK, It’s back to the snow in London. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back later for some editorial stories from the first race of the 2025 SMX season. Have a great week, everyone.

I said, “Don’t worry, Ryan Breece, it’s just ALL OF FRANCE back there!” in an Instagram post and I was pretty proud of it, so I’m going to try and hammer it home again here to end this MMC. 🤣 See you at the races…