Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

Hello and welcome to Championship Monday. The inaugural Canada AX Tour has come and gone and we have crowned champions in all three Pro classes. But guess what? It was the same rider who won all three!

Monster Energy Thor Kawasaki’s #100 (or should I say, #1?) Jacob Hayes came to Canada for his first time and did what was expected of him…win. In every post-race interview we did with him, he said the same thing at some point of the conversation: “Monster Thor Kawasaki hired me to win.” He expected to win and wasn’t happy finishing in any other position. What made the series exciting was that neither were the two riders chasing him for the titles.

Both Royal Distributing Fox KTM rider #148 Cole Thompson and Monster Energy Thor Kawasaki’s #101 Chris Blose had the exact same attitude about results. For whatever reason, Blose was just a little off the pace of the other two at most rounds but was always right there to capitalize on either one’s mistakes. Cole Thompson didn’t have a bike for the first two rounds of Lites competition, and his focus was always on the 450 class and the Clash for Cash.

The Clash race is something new to many competitors. While the other main events were 10 laps, these main events were twice that at 20. With the word ‘clash’ in the title, it seemed like a predetermined smash-fest was written into the rules. An judging from what happened between the top two riders, they thought it was written into the words Lites and 450, too!

We’ll get into the Hayes/Thompson on-track shenanigans in a later article dedicated to just that, but, for now, suffice it to say that it was an intense rivalry that had spectators waiting to see what would happen next every time the gate dropped.

For a quick rundown of what we were looking at at the final round in Calgary, here is what the title races looked like going into Saturday:

Lites

1. Hayes 157

2. Blose 151

3. Thompson 104

450

1. Hayes 155

2. Thompson 151

3. Blose 146

Clash for Cash

1. Thompson 164

2. Hayes 163

3. Blose 140

As you can see, it was a two-man battle in all three classes right to the wire!

Let me not forget to mention just how much fun we had doing the Valvoline AX Tour LIVE shows each week. Andy White, Chris Pomeroy, Ryan Gauld, and I made up the on-air team and we had a blast every time the cameras were rolling. Never in Canada have we seen a live broadcast of an entire series with so much production value! It was a pleasure working with Justin Thompson and the entire Jetwerx crew. Paige and Mitch Goheen were behind the cameras and did a great job capturing all the nail-biting, bar-banging action.

In case you missed the live broadcast, here is the entire final round from the Agrium in Stampede Park in downtown Calgary:

Canada AX Tour Round 8 Results and Final Standings

Jacob Hayes with Luc Caouette after winning the Lites, Open, Clash, and Parts Canada $25000 bonus. – Bigwave photo

Saturday, Nov 7, 2015

Agrium Arena

Calgary, AB

Lites Pro

1. 148 Cole Thompson KTM

2. 100 Jacob Hayes KAW

3. 51 Brock Leitner KAW

4. 55 Keylan Meston YAM

5. 90 Jared Stock YAM

6. 322 Zach Roth HON

7. 150 Mat Scott KTM

8. 613 Kyle Skelton KTM

9. 118 Boston Calder YAM

10. 819 Todd Sewell YAM

AX Pro

1. 100 Jacob Hayes KAW

2. 148 Cole Thompson KAW

3. 101 Chris Blose KAW

4. 55 Keylan Meston YAM

5. 116 Cody Matechuk YAM

6. 51 Brock Leitner KAW

7. 392 Cody Littau SUZ

8. 819 Todd Sewell YAM

9. 613 Kyle Skelton KTM

10. 150 Mat Scott KTM

11. 90 Jared Stock YAM

Clash for Cash

1. 100 Jacob Hayes KAW

2. 148 Cole Thompson KTM

3. 101 Chris Blose KAW

4. 55 Keylan Meston YAM

5. 51 Brock Leitner KAW

6. 118 Boston Calder YAM

7. 90 Jared Stock YAM

8. 116 Cody Matechuk YAM

9. 322 Zach Roth HON

10. 392 Cody Littau SUZ

11. 819 Todd Sewell YAM

12. 150 Mat Scott KTM

Final Point Standings

(unofficial after 8 of 8 rounds)

Pro Lites

1. 100 Jacob Hayes KAW 179

2. 101 Chris Blose KAW 151

3. 148 Cole Thompson KTM 129

4. 20 Dylan Wright YAM 73

5. 55 Keylan Meston KAW 66

6. 373 Jacob Williamson KAW 61

7. 65 Scott Champion KAW 60

8. 727 Dave Blanchet KAW 56

9. 10 Nathan Bles KTM 52

10. 34 Westen Wrozyna HON 51

AX Pro

1. 100 Jacob Hayes KAW 180

2. 148 Cole Thompson KTM 173

3. 101 Chris Blose KAW 166

4. 373 Jacob Williamson KAW 68

5. 55 Keylan Meston YAM 66

6. 51 Brock Leitner KAW 59

7. 65 Scott Champion KAW 56

8. 34 Westen Wrozyna HON 51

9. 20 Dylan Wright YAM 48

10. 7 Bobby Kiniry YAM 47

10. 727 Dave Blanchet KAW 47

Clash for Cash

1. 148 Cole Thompson KTM 186

2. 100 Jacob Hayes KAW 188

3. 101 Chris Blose KAW 160

4. 55 Keylan Meston YAM 65

5. 51 Brock Leitner KAW 61

6. 34 Westen Wrozyna HON 58

7. 727 Dave Blanchet KAW 53

8. 20 Dylan Wright YAM 53

9. 373 Jacob Williamson KAW 50

10. 10 Nathan Bles KTM 50

Furture West Arenacross Championships

Things got back underway out in BC as the Future West Arenacross Championships headed into Cloverdale Friday and Saturday. The track looked pretty soft and rutted up to keep the racers on their toes.

Friday Podiums

Clayton Racicot photo

Lites Podium:

1. Jake Anstett

2. Noah McConahy

3. Ross Johnson

Clayton Racicot photo

Open Podium:

1. Brad Nauditt

2. Ryan Lockhart

3. Ross Johnson

Saturday Podiums

Clayton Racicot photo

Lites Podium:

1. Noah McConahy

2. Jess Pettis

3. Ross Johnson

Clayton Racicot photo

Open Podium

1. Jess Pettis

2. Noah McConahy

3. Ryan Lockhart

Full results can be found at www.arenacross.ca

World Vet Championships from Glen Helen

Over 30 Pro
1. Ryan Morais (KTM) 2-1
2. Tonni Anderson (KTM) 5-2
3. Kris Keefer (Yam) 4-3
4. Arik Swan (Kaw) 3-4
5. Billy Jurevich (Kaw) 8-5
6. Andy Mathieu (Yam) 7-6
7. Matt Karlsen (Kaw) 9-7
8. Jason Thomas (Hon) 10-9
9. Broc Armbruster (Yam) 12-8
10. Mike Sleeter (KTM) 1-19

Over 40 Pro
1. Kurt Nicoll (KTM) 2-1
2. Doug Dubach (Yam) 1-2
3. Gordon Ward (Yam) 3-3
4. Mike Reefman (Yam) 4-5
5. Danny Tollet (KTM) 5-6
6. Kenjiro Tsuji (Yam) 9-4
7. Roger Suessson (Ym) 6-7
8. Shawn Wynne (Suz) 8-8
9. Brandon Milstead (Suz) 7-10
10. Ed Foedish (Kaw) 10-11

Over 50 Expert
1. Doug Dubach (Yam) 1-1
2. Kurt Nicoll (KTM) 2-2
3. Kevin Foley (Hon) 3-3
4. Ed Foesdish (Kaw) 4-4
5. Pete Murray (Yam) 6-5
6. Isao Ida (Hon) 5-7
7. Andy Jefferson (Hus) 9-6
8. Rob Engel (Kaw) 8-8
9. Jon Ortner (Yam) 7-10
10. Ian Fitz-Gibbon (Yam) 10-11

Over 60 Expert
1. Don Grahn (KTM) 2-1
2. Pete DeGraaf (KTM) 1-2
3. Rick Johnson (Hon) 3-3
4. Will Harper (KTM) 5-4
5. Jim Latendresse (KTM) 4-5
6. Bob Rutten (KTM) 9-6
7. Mike Brubaker (Kaw) 7-10
8. Mike Marion (Yam) 11-7
9. Larry Rowland (Yam) 10-8
10. Scott Smith (Yam) 13-9

Over 70 Experts
1. Roque Colman (Yam) 1-1
2. Bart Kellog KTM) 2-2
3. Nobuhiro Furuta (Yam) 4-3
4. Lars Larsson (Hus) 3-5
5. Bruce Hoover (Hon) 5-4
6. Gary Anderson (Hon) 7-6
7. Jan Lindmark (KTM) 6-7

Genova SX Results

SX1 Overall
1.	Cooper Webb	16-20	Yam
2.	Broc Tickle	14-14	Suz
3.	Justin Bogle	10-16	Hon
4.	Justin Brayton	20-5	KTM
5.	Dylan Ferrandis	12-12	Kaw
6.	Cedric Soubeyras	11-11	Yam
7.	Matteo Bonini	9-10	KTM
8.	Valentin Guillod	7-9	Yam
9.	Cyrille Coulon	8-8	Kaw
10.	Angelo Pellegrini	5-7	Suz

Superfinal

1. Justin Brayton
2. Cedric Soubeyras
3. Valentin Guillod
4. Dylan Ferrandis
5. Justin Bogle
6. Broc Tickle
7. Cyrille Coulon
8. Angelo Pellegrini
9. Nick Koewenberg
10. Matteo Bonini

SX2 Overall
1.	Brian Hsu	Suz
2.	Nick Kouwenberg	Hon
3.	Francesco Muratori	Suz
4.	Kade Tinkler	Suz
5.	Marco Maddii	KTM
6.	Alberto Forato	Hon
7.	Filippo Zonta	Hon
8.	Kevin Auberson	KTM
9.	Andrea Winkler	Hon
10.	Lorenzo Camporese	Kaw