Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

Good morning. I hope everyone had a great weekend. There aren’t too many left in the season when you’ll be heading to the tracks in short sleeves, so enjoy them while you can! Although the leaves are slowly deciding to fall to the ground, there is still tons of racing to pay attention to. Here’s what went on this past weekend.

Team Canada MXON Raffle Draw

The Team Canada MXON Raffle Draw was finally held on Saturday and the winner was none other that Iain Hayden from Motopark.

Iain has announced that he will pass the winning trip to the Parts Canada TransCan at Walton Raceway over to one of his riders for 2017. Nice gesture, Iain.

Congratulations to everyone who purchased a ticket in support of the team. I know a lot of the riders and support staff will be heading over to Italy at the end of the week (us included) so things are about to get very exciting for Canada in international competition! #GoCanadaGo

MXGP of USA

The final round of competition took place in the 2016 MXGP World Championship at the 18th stop at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernadino, California. I liked how the intro to the event on MXGPTV showed all the surfing and beautiful sights of the Los Angeles area. Have you ever been to Glen Helen? Well, it sits smack dab in ‘The 909’ and there are no beaches or movie stars in the area. lol

Here is the highlight video:

GNCC at Unadilla

Top Canadians, Felicia Robichaud and Tyler Medaglia, made the trip to Undadilla for round 10 of the Amsoil GNCC race. Here’s a look at their results in the the top Pro classes:

You can watch the entire XC1 Pro race in the video below. If you don’t have time for that (ain’t nobody does!) at least watch it until Tyler comes past and is the only one doubling through the section in front of the camera. He gets a nice mention from the announcers, too.

Canada AX Tour Will Start in Sarnia | Montreal Canceled

www.arenacrosstour.ca

Shelby Turner Wins Again in Salt Lake City

Soaring Eagle Casino ‘Edge of Summer MX’ Results

Saturday – Pro Night

RIP Paul Smith

I never met Paul Smith personally, but these tragedies hit all of us hard in the motocross family. Here is the CBC.ca story on his death: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/motorcross-star-paul-smith-california-crash-dartmouth-1.3757045

Team Canada at the Vet MXDN

We’ve gotten used to Team Canada Vet member, David Halawell, writing a great story from the events, so we’re hoping another one is coming soon. I spoke to him this morning and he ensured me one is on its way. Good stuff!

Get writing this year’s story, David Halawell. We’re waiting… | Team Canada Vet MXDN Facebook photo

Colton Facciotti on New Arenacross Track at Gopher Dunes

I headed over to Gopher Dunes on Friday to watch as Rockstar OTSFF Yamaha rider, Matt Goerke, put in a bunch of testing laps on the new arenacross track. Matt will contest the Amsoil AMA Arenacross series starting in January. Also on the track was Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing’s #2 Colton Facciotti. Colton has been sidelined since his ugly crash at Pleasant Valley so it was great to see him back in the saddle. #46 Yamaha Canada Fox Motopark rider, Marco Cannella, was also there to learn from these two guys and put in a bunch of laps. He will either race the first couple of Canadian AX Tour events or head south to prepare for the Mini O’s. Here’s Colton putting in a couple laps on his 450:

Matt Goerke at Gopher Dunes preparing for his run at the Amsoil AMA Arenacross championship | Bigwave photo

#46 Marco Cannella getting some time in at the new arenacross track at Gopher Dunes | Bigwave photo

Oh, and congratulations to Hayden Halstead on winning the World Enduro Canada (WEC) event this past weekend at Walton raceway. Also, Kaven Benoit lined up for the Rally Crush Canada event north of Trois Rivieres, Quebec. I spent a big chunk of time this morning trying to find results for these events but came up empty handed.

Have a great week, everyone. Monday Morning ‘Cappuccino‘ will likely be coming to you from a table at a café in Venice, Italy, next week. We’re going to head over a few days early and do some sightseeing before things get serious starting next Wednesday when the team will hit practice track in preparation for their run at the 2016 MXON at Maggiora. I can’t wait!