By Billy Rainford
So, I leave home in Ontario and they’re in the middle of some 20-degree C weather! That figures. I hope everyone reading this from back there is enjoying this rare treat of warmness in November. I’m sure all the local tracks are licking their chops at the thought of being able to squeeze in a few more days of full track profit!
I’m out in BC for the 2020 Future West Moto Canadian Arenacross Championships and the weather is oddly cold. As it usually goes out here during the winter months, if it’s clear then it’s cold. You can’t have both.
We just finished Round 6 of the series yesterday and the racing was really good. Casey Keast took the win in the Pro Am Lights class and Brock Hoyer passed and held off Keylan Meston for the win in the Pro Open class.
Jake Piccolo is the other rider who has the speed to take wins but he messed with the bull that is Keylan and got the proverbial horns. These two kept finding each other in vulnerable positions in corners and let each other know that they weren’t going to give any positions without a fight.
Paint was traded, as they say, and these guys are not likely to be sending each other Christmas cards this year. As a spectator, it was fun to watch. I just wish we were able to see them both fight for wins in the mains.
Casey now has a nice lead in both classes (6 up on Keylan in Pro Open and 7 up on Julien in Pro Am Lights) and is going to be difficult to stop from taking the titles. He looks smooth and in control of the situation. In fact, I feel like we’re seeing a new and dedicated rider in Casey this season.
He’s had to battle through some injuries in 2020 but he’s showing me that he really wants to be there and challenge for wins and titles. It’s a good look for the Kelowna, BC rider.
If you’d didn’t get to watch, we broadcast the entire day of racing over on the Future West Moto FB page and you can click there and check it all out:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=653126338927760
Pro Open Main: 3:59:30
Pro Am Lights Main: 4:54:00
There were 34 qualifier races run, so it was a very full weekend of racing on both days. We’ll do a report on the amateur side of the racing this week, so be sure to watch for that.
Motocross in the west is in great hands! There are some really fast young racers out in this area who will benefit greatly from racing these indoor events.
There are standouts in every class and it’s going to be fun to watch who will continue to progress all the way up to a successful Pro career over the next bunch of years.
I just posted a Photo Report from the Pro racing on Sunday, so you can check out a closer look at the Main action from both days below:
Saturday Round 5 Pro Photo Report click HERE
Sunday Round 6 Pro Photo Report click HERE
I’m about to hop in the car and head back to Kamloops to visit with my sister and my mom, so I’ll move this along. Of course, they’re calling for some cold and snowy weather, so this might be my chance to meet Jamie Davis from Highway thru Hell in person. Wish me luck…
Kade Walker takes 3rd in the 2020 EMX 2t European Championship!
From: FIM-Europe.com:
EMX Open and EMX 2T European Championship: the final round at Garda Trentino
The European round of Garda Trentino has concluded and with it we saw the final stage of the EMX2t Presented by FMF Racing and EMX Open Championships, which saw Karel Kutsar claim the EMX Open title in the second race of the day.
Meanwhile in EMX2t Presented by FMF Racing, with the Brad Anderson of Verde Substance KTM crowned champion at the previous round here in Italy, all was left was the battle for second and third in the championship, which made for some very interesting racing.
EMX2t Presented by FMF Racing races saw Nicholas Lapucci of Fantic Racing dominated the races once again, as he was victorious in both heats with quite an impressive margin, over the newly crowned 2020 EMX2t Presented by FMF Racing Champion, Brad Anderson of Verde Substance KTM. With two second place finishes, Anderson ended the season with his 5th podium of the series. While, JK Yamaha Racing’s Manuel Iacopi was the third rider on the podium today, with some nice battles in the races with Anderson, which saw him finish 4th and 3rd in heats one and two.
With Anderson securing his third EMX title at the previous round of Pietramurata, this shifted the focus onto who would occupy second and third in the championship standings.
Two 5th place finishes, were enough for Husqvarna Junior Racing Maddii’s Federico Tuani to claim the silver medal, after races that saw him battle with Kade Tinkler-Walker and his teammate, Eugenio Barbaglia. Tuani completed the season with 3 podiums, with his best result in Faenza during the opening round of the championship, where he finished 2ndoverall. Though it was the fight for the third spot that was the main focus in the second race, as there was nothing in between Walker and Loris Freidig. Walker rode a strong race and had some nice battles to claim 5th, while Freidig had a much tougher time and only finished the race in 13th.
Eventually, Walker secured third in the standings with a 7-point advantage over the Swiss. Looking back on the season, Anderson dominated the first three rounds in Faenza, as he took 5 race wins and 3 overall victories. His lowest point scoring results came here in Pietramurata, as he finished the two rounds second overall, behind Lapucci, who dominated the last two stages of the championship, winning all 4 races.
Apart from Anderson and Lapucci, the only other rider, to win a race, during the 2020 campaign, was Freidig, who was victorious during the first race at the round of Italy.
EMX2T Presented by FMF Racing – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Nicholas Lapucci (ITA, Fantic), 29:09.002; 2. Brad Anderson (GBR, KTM), +0:24.588; 3. Kade Tinkler-Walker (CAN, Suzuki), +0:28.366; 4. Manuel Iacopi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:28.760; 5. Federico Tuani (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:40.323; 6. Loris Freidig (SUI, Yamaha), +0:40.948; 7. Eugenio Barbaglia (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:45.696; 8. Emanuele Alberio (ITA, KTM), +0:46.259; 9. Martin Michelis (EST, KTM), +0:54.480; 10. Paolo Ermini (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:55.830
EMX2T Presented by FMF Racing – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Nicholas Lapucci (ITA, Fantic), 29:35.389; 2. Brad Anderson (GBR, KTM), +0:12.792; 3. Manuel Iacopi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:16.207; 4. Eugenio Barbaglia (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:26.144; 5. Federico Tuani (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:27.580; 6. Kade Tinkler-Walker (CAN, Suzuki), +0:44.162; 7. Emanuele Alberio (ITA, KTM), +0:48.799; 8. Paolo Ermini (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:54.574; 9. Mario Tamai (ITA, KTM), +0:56.291; 10. Martin Michelis (EST, KTM), +1:15.469
EMX2T Presented by FMF Racing – Overall Top 10 Classification: 1. Nicholas Lapucci (ITA, FAN), 50 points; 2. Brad Anderson (GBR, KTM), 44 p.; 3. Manuel Iacopi (ITA, YAM), 38 p.; 4. Kade Tinkler-Walker (CAN, SUZ), 35 p.; 5. Eugenio Barbaglia (ITA, HUS), 32 p.; 6. Federico Tuani (ITA, HUS), 32 p.; 7. Emanuele Alberio (ITA, KTM), 27 p.; 8. Paolo Ermini (ITA, HUS), 24 p.; 9. Martin Michelis (EST, KTM), 23 p.; 10. Loris Freidig (SUI, YAM), 23 p.
EMX2T Presented by FMF Racing – Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Brad Anderson (GBR, KTM), 235 points; 2. Federico Tuani (ITA, HUS), 167 p.; 3. Kade Tinkler-Walker (CAN, SUZ), 154 p.; 4. Loris Freidig (SUI, YAM), 147 p.; 5. Eugenio Barbaglia (ITA, HUS), 143 p.; 6. Manuel Iacopi (ITA, YAM), 140 p.; 7. Mario Tamai (ITA, KTM), 131 p.; 8. Emanuele Alberio (ITA, KTM), 131 p.; 9. Marco Lolli (ITA, YAM), 117 p.; 10. Martin Michelis (EST, KTM), 105 p.
I See You, Billy Van Vugt!
36th Annual Dubya World Vet Championships at Glen Helen
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Overall
If you’re like me and like to look over results sheets, you can check out the complete results HERE.
MXGP Awards Concludes the 2020 MXGP Season in Pietramurata
PIETRAMURATA (Italy) 8 November 2020 – With the final Grand Prix of this incredible 2020 season of the FIM Motocross World Championship settled, it was time to celebrate the amazing achievements of the paddock with the annual MXGP Awards.
The MXGP Awards is a prize giving ceremony, designed to celebrate the accomplishments from this season in the MXGP paddock. The awards were hosted by the voice of MXGP-TV Commentator Paul Malin and MXGP-TV Presenter, Lisa Leyland from the studio in Pietramurata and it was live streamed worldwide on www.MXGP-TV.com and on MXGP’s official Facebook page.
The awards ceremony was a little different this year, in respect with the COVID-19 rules, though that did not stop the fun, as we celebrated one of the hardest, yet most exciting seasons of the FIM Motocross World Championship, to date.
The evening kicked-off with a special message from Infront Moto Racing’s CEO David Luongo and FIM President Jorge Viegas who shared a few words about the incredible season of the FIM Motocross World Championship.
David Luongo, Infront Moto Racing CEO: “Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a good evening. It was crazy for everybody. Starting from March when the Covid-19 pandemic exploded to the world and we had to stop the season and then it has been a sprint to restart the season and be coordinated to be able to make it happen. After many efforts, we re-started in Latvia. We were in new format with triple header races and now, we are here in Trentino, we had a fantastic World Championship with Tim Gajser and Tom Vialle that really deserved the title and we had also the Championship that finished in European and the Women classes, so I think the works has been done and I’m really proud of all, the MXGP family, the media, the riders, all staff. Motocross represent more that 2000 jobs world-wide during the season. So, it is very important to maintain those jobs and this was our main mission this year. We can be proud that we achieved together, and I also want to thanks the FIM President Mr Jorge Viegas because during all these months, we were keep on making the Championship happen together. It is done. We will have a nice wintertime and we already start thinking about racing next year. I also had special feeling for some riders this year Gautier Paulin, Clement Desalle, Tanel Leok who were also with us for many years, they had fantastic achievements career and also we have new younger riders coming. I cannot wait for the next year. So, thank you very much. I hope you will enjoy this evening”.
Jorge Viegas, FIM President: “Thank you for this opportunity. I’m very proud of Infront Moto Racing, my colleagues in the FIM, and above all, I am proud of all the volunteers, the clubs, the national federations that made this amazing FIM Motocross World Championship possible. We thought, we could not do it and then we started, as David said, we had a lot of help from people all over Europe and we could finalize this amazing World Championship Calendar. This is part of the popular discipline we still have, at this moment, we are still running the Enduro and the MotoGP and only this weekend we had 4 World Championship races from different disciplines, so we are showing to the world that sport can be done with all the care and all the rules that we have introduced, to prevent the virus. But we had the guts to go ahead. We motorcyclist, we are strong because we are united, and we are good family. Thank you again”.
The Awards ceremony then continued, as the winning teams and manufacturers were presented with their awards, followed by this year’s champions in the MXGP, MX2, WMX and EMX classes, who each received their prizes. EMX125 Presented by FMF Racing Champion, Andrea Bonacorsi, was the first to take to the studio, followed by a special video message from this year’s EMX250 Champion, Thibault Benistant and then of course the EMX2t Presented by FMF Racing, EMX Open and Women’s Motocross World Championship winners, Brad Anderson, Karel Kutsar and Courtney Duncan, who also celebrated their championship wins this season.
This year, Maxime Renaux was the recipient of the Jan de Groot Award that honours the most promising young talent, for his impressive achievements this season, as he placed third overall in the MX2 World Championship.
Additionally, World Champions, Tim Gajser and Tom Vialle were both presented as the winners of the Tag Heuer Fastest Lap competition in 2020, receiving a fine-looking Tag Heuer watch as the prize for the most ‘best laps’ set during this year’s races.
Then Tom Vialle and Jorge Prado were presented with the Fox Holeshot Award, for their incredible starts this season, that saw Prado claim 16 Fox Holeshots and Vialle an impressive 21. For Prado, this was his third consecutive Fox Holeshot Award, while for Vialle it was his first.
The evening then concluded with the awards for the two FIM Motocross World Champions, Tim Gajser and Tom Vialle, who each received their championship plaques, along with two fine Tag Heuer watches, as part of their prizes for this season.
Here is the complete list of winners, below:
MXGP Manufacturer World Champion: KTM
MXGP Winning Team: Team HRC
MX2 Manufacturer World Champion: Yamaha
MX2 Winning Team: Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
WMX Manufacturer World Champion: Yamaha
WMX Winning Team: DRT Kawasaki
“Jan De Groot” Award (cheque €5.000): Maxime Renaux
EMX 125 European Champion: Andrea Bonacorsi
EMX 250 European Champion: Thibault Benistant
EMX 2T European Champion: Brad Anderson
EMX Open European Champion: Karel Kutsar
MXGP Best Cooperation: Spain
Women’s World Champion: Courtney Duncan
TAG HEUER Best Lap Challenge – MXGP & MX2: Tim Gajser & Tom Vialle
FOX HOLESHOT Award MXGP and MX2: Jorge Prado & Tom Vialle
MXGP Best Organizer: Latvia
MX2 World Champion: Tom Vialle
MXGP World Champion: Tim Gajser
OK, have a great week, everyone. Hopefully, we’re back in action to wrap up the Arenacross series this coming weekend in Chilliwack, but it’s anything but a sure thing at this point.
