Monday Morning Coffee
By Billy Rainford
Just when you think you’re going to take a week off and maybe hit the beach or get some work done around the house…BAM! Jeff McConkey just pulled a double-header and way upped his moto street cred. He and Melissa made the drive from east of Toronto to Ironman MX just west of Indianapolis, Indiana, in Crawfordsville. That’s a long drive.
Ironman MX
We had 3 Canadians giving the final round of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross a shot at the rather gnarly track that also plays host to the final round of GNCC racing. If you haven’t seen this track, be sure to check out the video online when you get a chance. There are a couple jumps that would impress even the most hardened FMX aficionado – they’re huge!
Canadian riders:
#223 Dylan Wright (250 class) – Why 223? Well, he’s a twin, and his birthday is on the 23rd.
Dylan Wright’s #223 Ironman MX race bike | McConkey photo
#146 Shawn Maffenbeier (250 class) – Why 146? Sorry, I only know Dylan’s story.
#146 Shawn Maffenbeier trying to avoid cramping at Ironman MX | McConkey photo
#926 Kaven Benoit (450 class)
#926 Kaven Benoit and Mathieu Duroy after a tough 450 moto at Ironman MX | McConkey photo
Jeff will have his ‘McThoughts’ on the racing later on, so I won’t say too much about it here. He also did podcast interviews with the guys, so look for them up on the site as soon as you get finished your coffee this morning.
It’s really cool that these guys went down and tried their luck at the most competitive series in the world. If you’ve never been to an AMA national, it is not a vacation. These days are intense! From the moment you pull into the pits, there really isn’t much time to sit around. Riders meeting is early and then it is go, go, go.
And if you think you’re going to get a few seconds to cruise around when the gate drops, think again. Yes, I understand you’re not supposed to be ‘cruising’ at our nationals either, but it’s just different at the AMA events. The gate drops and it’s a pure sprint to the finish, and the tracks get so rough you can’t believe these guys are hitting the things they do at the speed they go. Seriously, it’s impressive.
Kaven has done these races before and it showed. He did very well and had people in attendance wondering who the fast, 3-digit guy was dropping Andrew Short and trying to pass Matt Bisceglia and Dean Wilson. It also had them asking how to say his name, I’m sure. But like I said, we’ll leave the details for Jeff’s reports. No, we haven’t forgotten about our ‘half-Canadian’ friend, #761 Cade Clason, but we’re just talking about the 100% Canadians here.
Almost-Canadian, #761 Cade Clason, hamming it up at Ironman MX | McConkey photo
Here are the race highlights:
Here’s a look at the results and final point standings:
MMRS Madoc National
The 6th Annual MMRS Madoc National Presented by Orange Motorsports KTM took place this past weekend, too. This is an event that I think I’ve only missed once (2015). I set the alarm for 3:30am Sunday morning and hit the 401 and headed east past Toronto toward the beautiful town north of the MacDonald Cartier Freeway on Highway 62. To my surprise, Jeff got in touch and said he wanted to go with me. He had just gotten home from Indiana at about 4am and I was passing his place around 6:30. Like I said, he upped his Moto Media street cred on this one!
I missed the event last year, and so the track looked different to me (it was in this same configuration last year). What I noticed when I ‘raced’ there in 2014 was that it was an extremely fast track with long straightaways that lead up to huge jumps. If you only race once a year, that’s not what you want to see! Let’s just say I’m not a very strong ‘scrubber.’ Anyway, the changes they made seemed to slow certain areas down nicely.
There were 654 entries that I added up down the right side of the race schedule. There were also quite a few Americans who showed up to take a shot at the $30000 purse offered up. Every Canadian you speak to that comes to Canada to race our Pro series says the same thing: it is very ‘laid back’ compared to their series. Well, if you think that’s laid back, you should check out the MMRS Madoc National. This event has one of the nicest atmospheres of any race I’ve ever been to. Everyone helps one another and you just get the feeling it’s one big, extended family.
The Pro winner on the day was #8 Kyle Keast who finished 1-2 ahead of #424 Austin Watling (3-1) and #53 Taylor Arsenault (2-4). Again, we’ll have Photo Reports up on the site later so I won’t say much here. I will say this…I spoke to someone with yellow plates who said they took home $1900 this weekend. That’s pretty good! Oh, we also did another episode of ‘Tailgating’ with Austin Watling and Tanner Ward. We’ll post that this week too.
The look from the highway at the MMRS Madoc National | Bigwave iPhone photo
#424 Austin Watling grabbed the final Open Pro moto holeshot and led to the checkered flag | Bigwave photo
#79 Kassie Boone took the Women’s Pro money home after looking great out front from start to finish | Bigwave photo
#161 Jamieson MacDonald is a name to remember | Bigwave photo
You can find full results at: http://www.mmrs.ca/raceresults.php
MXON Entry List
Team Canada MXON Raffle Tickets Available until Sept 10
There’s still some time to help support Team Canada’s MXON by buying a raffle ticket for $100. The draw has been moved to September 10th. Please get in touch with me at billy@directmotocross.com or contact team manager, Kourtney Lloyd, to get entered in the draw.
Prizes:
Trip to 2016 Monster Energy Cup in Las Vegas
or
$5000 cash
Shelby Turner Wins Round 1 of Moose Racing Endurocross in Atlanta
From: Endurocross Series Facebook page…
Shelby Turner took the women’s class win at the Atlanta opener. Rachael Gutish and Morgan Tanke took second and third. | Endurocross Series FB page photo
Let’s end this Monday with a ‘Get Well Soon’ to BC’s John Bowman who took a hard fall out at Popkum and underwent some wrist surgery and extensive scans. It sounds like it all went well and he’s back at home now.
Have a great week, everyone, and be sure to check back later for lots of content from a busy weekend of racing!
