Well, I’m going to have to start this first Photo Report of the 2023 Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals with some devastating news – apparently, my mom has made off with my little note pad where I keep all my race notes. I know I have to be very careful with what I leave out in my sister’s house here in Kamloops, but she’s pretty sneaky and I guess she made off with it.
Anyway, we were back in Edmonton again after a long layoff in, I want to say “Northern Alberta,” but it still goes a long way north of the home of the Oilers and it’s not even half way up the province! Either way, we hadn’t been at “Castrol Raceway” in a long time. It’s now called RAD Torque Raceway and our summer series made its first stop at the multi-use facility with high hopes.
We’ve already covered most of what was a problem at Round 1, so I don’t want to beat a dead horse here in this report. My photo reports are about the racing action, the riders, and the families that travel along with our moving circus. Anything that happened at the organizational level of the races is not what this article is about.
The weather was perfect and we were on a “hybrid” track that combined Supercross with Motocross. It harkened back to the olden days of moto where we didn’t really have a firm idea of what the sport was going to become. Let’s have a look at how the racing went.
It was a 3 X 15:00 moto format. I will say right now that I am not a fan of this. Our riders train all winter to be in better shape than their competition and then they don’t really get the chance to show their work like they would in the longer races. Not only that, but I think it’s just too much racing throughout the day and everything gets a little lost. Outdoor motocross has a hard enough time attracting spectators and I don’t feel this is the answer to that issue. Let me be clear, this is just my opinion.
250 CLASS
There were 2 huge stories to start the day’s racing.
Jake Piccolo crashed in the first turn of the first moto and went down hard on his left shoulder. The end result was a separated shoulder and he was out for the day and likely into the eastern swing. Heal up, Jake.After qualifying first in the 250 class with a late heater lap, the day went south for #8 Mitchell Harrison.He had an engine let go and then the team had to jump into action.
We did a podcast interview with Thor GasGas team owner Alex Parker where he takes us through how everything went down:
#81 is Josh Bryan who is out west for the first time competing as a Pro. He finished 26-27-26 for 28th overall. Watch for him to improve on these results this week in Kamloops.#48 Devyn Smith from BC is just getting over a health issue and could only muster 27-28-24 motos for 27th. Like Josh, watch for those numbers to improve drastically as we move forward.I was surprised to see the name Lalonde on the back of #171. We haven’t seen Ryan Lalonde in a few years! 22-26-19 put the rider from the Island in 24th place. I don’t know for sure but I have to assume we’ll see him this weekend and then in Calgary but then maybe no more this summer??? I should ask him…#33 Tanner Scott is out west for the first time and is a new Pro. His day kept getting better, going 30-18-15 for 22nd overall. He hurt his shoulder early and was riding through some pain. #181 is Alex Gatt from Penticton. His numbers went the other way, but let’s wait to see what he has this week. 15-19-25 for 19th.Another rider out west for the first time is #409 Brennan Schofield from Nova Scotia. 18-20-21 put the 6’5″ rider 18th but he should move up from there this week.One of the most impressive riders of the weekend was #53 Marcus Deausy from 100 Mile House. He finished 28-16 and then a very good 10th in moto 3 for 17th. #600 Noah Porter from Williams Lake, BC finished a consistent 17-17-17 to finish jusy ahead in 16th.#19 Wyatt Kerr from Cambridge, ON said he fell in every moto, so things could have been worse than 14-21-16 for 15th overall. Watch for these results to improve this week. Plus, his dad, Andy Kerr, will be here this week so the coffee will be flowing!I told you to watch out for the rider from Bermuda this summer! #441 Jyire Mitchell qualified 3rd fastest out of the B Group. He had troubles off the start but came back to finish 3rd in moto 2. 19-3-28 shows you how the races went for him. He crashed hard and hurt his knee in the 3rd moto for a DNF but thinks he should be fine this week.For me, the most impressive racer of the day was #43 Clayton Schmucki from Red Deer, AB. He grabbed the first holeshot of the season and went 13-10-13 for 13th overall. For his day, I’m awarding him with our first Ryno Power Privateer Performance of the Week.And how about the rides from young Intermediate rider #56 Blake Davies?! 9-14-12 for 12th was an amazing result for the BC rider in these conditions. Let’s see what he’s got this week at the WCAN and on Sunday.Not the start to the season #84 Tanner Ward wanted or expected. He got caught up in the first turn and spent the day chasing from behind. 20-9-6 put him 11th.Kind of a quiet day for the return of #28 Sam Gaynor. He cracked the top 10 with 8-12-14 moto scores with very limited time on the bike. He’ll make more noise this week, I’m sure.#44 Dylan Rempel had a very good first moto up in 7th and then finished 15-11 in the others after fighting from back a ways. He was 9th overall. #30 Tyler Yates from Duncan, BC had a solid day up in 8th place with 11-13-9. He had some good performances last season and is a rider on the move!#31 Zach Ufimzeff is a big team guy this summer. We knew he’d be one of the riders in the tight battle for top 5-8’s and he went 10-11-8 for 7th.Supercross regular #173 Hunter Schlosser from Texas is up here to mix it up. He was up in the battles all day with 6-6-7 motos for 6th overall. I don’t know if he’ll be faster or slower in this group when we hit the other tracks. We’re about to find out.#12 Sebastien Racine was as consistent as it gets with 5-5-5 motos for 5th. He got bitten in the last turn in one of the motos and I think he’ll be a podium threat on the other tracks.#14 Quinn Amyotte was the one who did the biting. He was up near the front the majority of the day and just missed the podium with 3-7-4 motos.#23 Josiah Natzke from New Zealand was also in the mix all day. I think a lot of riders did just enough to not crash last week. He finished 4-4-3 for 3rd.Forget what I said about #1 Ryder McNabb starting out slowly due to his leg injury! He was able to come through the pack and win from the front. 2-8-1 put him in the runner-up position. The other riders could be in trouble already.Let’s just get the “fine wine” comment out of the way right now! #126 Kaven Benoit came out and showed us all he’s here to win this thing…again. 1-1-2 gave him the win and I don’t really know what this means for the rest of the season.250 podium: Kaven Benoit, Ryder McNabb, Josiah Natzke.
I didn’t see what happened in moto 2 but what a solid start to the season before that for #51 Jesse Royan from Saskatchewan. He was right at the front early and finished 14-30-DNF. I hope he’s good for Round 2.I saw his last name on the line and made sure I got a photo…then I got a message about #119 Brent Pilon from Saskatoon. Dammit, now I can’t find the message or where it even came from! Pretty sure Brent is like 49 years old though, so kudos for him lining up! 26-29-DNF are his scores.I think this is #190 Riley Gray from Washington. It’s great to see so many riders crossing the border to race our series this year. He finished 29-23-27 for 28th.#91 Ethan Ouellette from Campbell River is back and finished 21-28-26 for 27th. Here he is putting a move on #55 Cale Kuchnicki from Michigan. Cale was 21st (22-19-22) and sent us that GoPro video we collaborated on.I saw #34 Ryan Derry down in turn 1 of one of the motos. However, looking at his results, it didn’t seem to make any difference because he still finished 19-18-18 for 18th.I was kind of surprised to see young #174 Zane Mellafont in the 450 class this season. It’ll be interesting to see how he does this week in Kamloops. He finished 20-17-17 for 17th.Another Supercross regular racing in Canada is #538 Addison Emory from Arizona. He was close to the top 10 with 11-20-12 motos putting him 15th.It seemed like a very quiet day for #18 Parker Eales, but that may just be because I didn’t talk to him. I’d say he just did what he needed to do to make it to Round 2 and placed 13-13-14 for 12th at Round 1.The effort of #41 Brandon McKee also impressed me on Saturday. He came very close to cracking the top 10 and placed 15-11-11 for 11th and showed he has the pace to get it done this season. Let’s wait and see if he decides to go east or not…#936 is the Belgian husband of Avrie Berry, Andy Truyts. He’ll likely be a consistent top 10 threat this summer. 9-10-10 put him 10th.It’s great that #22 Tyler Gibbs managed to get to the races after parting ways with his team. He snagged a holeshot and ended up 8-8-9 for 9th.Young #26 Julien Benek is up in the 450 class this summer and looks comfortable on the big bike. He was in some good battles and should keep things fun in the top 10. 6-9-8 put him 8th.#25 Daniel Elmore from Telkwa, BC showed us he is that guy who will be fighting to crack the top 4 this summer. 10-5-7 put him 7th but watch for more out of him this week.#20 Jeremy McKie is a 450 rider, simply put. He looks comfortable and rides the big as it should be ridden. I’m looking forward to seeing how high he can finish in this class. He too grabbed a holeshot and finished 7-6-6 for 6th.#10 Keylan Meston showed up and showed us he’s still got some things to say in the sport. He was solid and consistent with 5-7-5 motos for 5th. Let’s all try to talk him into doing the entire series.#5 Tyler Medaglia found himself in the middle of some chaos as his team focussed on getting Harrison back on the track. He put his head down and got to work and traded places with Maff for 4-3-4 motos and 4th overall. These two should be fun to watch all summer.#3 Shawn Maffenbeier probably loved the hard-packed dirt last week. He showed great pace and chased down T-Dags to finish 3-4-3 for 3rd on the day.Welcome back, #15 Jess Pettis. Jess has been out since Drumheller last summer. He broke the moto win streak of Dylan Wright and could be the one to spoil his remaining overall streak. 1-2-2 put him 2nd.#1 Dylan Wright did what he had to do to take this win. He came through the pack and finished 2-1-1 to leave round 1 with the points lead. Kamloops should be a real test to see how close the rest of the field is to him.Some of the other riders go very well at Whispering Pines.450 podium: Dylan Wright, Jess Pettis, Shawn Maffenbeier.
Overall
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