Photo Report | 2024 Canadian Triple Crown Series | Calgary – Round 1
Photo report looking at the racing action from round 1 of the 2024 Canadian Triple Crown Series Motocross Nationals in Calgary, Alberta.
By Billy Rainford
It’s nice to finally have a Canadian Triple Crown Series MX National to cover! After all the guesswork and bench racing, we’ve now got some hard data to base our opinions on. We were at Wild Rose MX in downtown Calgary, Alberta, on Sunday, so let’s get right to the action and my thoughts on it.
250 Pro/Am
There was a lot of excitement and anticipation heading into the smaller of the 2 pro classes. For Canadians, Red Bull KTM’s #26 Kaven Benoit and Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing’s #5 Tyler Medaglia were our hopefuls to turn back the hands of time and race the 250 class again. How would they do against the young up-and-coming talent from Canada as well as a few hot names coming to do battle from the USA?
Top of that list was #300 Drew Adams from Georgia. Drew is the top-ranked A class rider down south, so you had to know he would be one to watch. We also had #402 Gage Linville here to race on the Partzilla PRMX team in the class. Let’s have a look:
The worst part of the day was when #5 Tyler Medaglia went down on the first lap of moto 1 and got tagged by Drew Adams. He hit his head and headed beck to the pits with some help. At this time, Tyler thinks he’s racing Round 2 but they will take it day by day. Team owner Derek Schuster said they do not want to rush it. I’ve been doing this a long time and it’s very rare to see Tyler’s name at the absolute bottom of a result sheet.#120 Jacob Frederickson crashed crashed and didn’t return. I haven’t heard how he is but I know he was gone once Jim Frederickson ran over to where he was.#112 Owen Paquin has some nice style. He was here from Saskatchewan and finished 36-29 for 33rd.Top finishing local rider was #141 Danny Robertson from Calgary. He raced on Saturday in the Intermediate classes and finished 18-19 for 18th on Sunday.#113 Brayden Spangle is here from Washington State. He finished in the mid-teens after 14-16 motos put him 15th.#14 Quinn Amyotte looked great in the first moto and had a nice battle with Linville. He took 3rd in the moto. Unfortunately, he was up in 4th again behind Gage at around the 20-minute mark of moto 2 when he collided with a lapped rider in the air and crashed hard in Shaw Valley. His race was finished with a broken throttle. 3-36 put him 12th.He was pretty bummed but handled it as well as it could have been handled.It was #991 Talin Fox who he collided with. Poor Talin just wanted to apologize to Quinn right away but it was just a little too soon. Talin finished 17-37 for 21st.I had to look at Live Timing more than once to sort out who #32 was. Clayton Schmucki looked really good on Sunday. He was in a nice battle with #25 Tanner Scott late in moto 2 and traded moto scores with him. 9-11 put him 11th.#25 Tanner Scott will be travelling the series with his buddy #50 Craydon Dillon who is in the 450 class. Tanner was happy to do better than last season in Calgary and his 11-9 cracked the top 10.Keep an eye on #59 Wyatt Kerr this summer. He went from dead last in moto 1 to 12th and then sort of ended up on his own in moto 2, taking 7th for 9th overall. He made it through the race that took him out last year, so that’s step 1.#24 Zach Ufimzeff went and made a mess out of, arguably, the best-looking bike on the track. He ran way up in 4th place past the 1/2 in moto 1 and took 8th. He was up in 4th early in moto 2 as well but troubles put him limping it in for 10th and 8th on the day.#143 Tiger Wood dislocated or at least tweaked some ribs early in the day and went to the line in some discomfort. He had to work for his 10th in moto 1 and then grabbed a good start in the 2nd moto, running 3rd early. He was in a good fight with Linville and Amyotte and finished 8th for 7th.#29 Blake Davies got out to 2 good starts and put himself in position for a good day. The 15-year-old is riding beyond his years and ended up going 6-6 for a very impressive 6th.#316 Evan Stice is from Idaho and missed all of last year due to a wrist injury that required 4 surgeries. He also got off the concrete pad well and put himself in good positions and finished 7-5 for 5th.#12 Sebastien Racine is looking good right away this year after a very success off season this year. His last lap of moto 2 was his fastest as he made passes. Kep an eye on the #12. 5-4 put him 4th.I wasn’t sure where #402 Gage Linville would be up here, but he showed me pretty quickly. He ran down Amyotte at the end of moto 1 and a great battle between the two Kawasakis. They went at it again in moto 2 until Quinn crashed and finished with a very solid 2-3 to land on the podium.Nobody should be surprised that the top-ranked A-class rider from the USA is on another level. #300 Drew Adams was up in 3rd behind Medaglia at the start of moto 1 but hit Tyler and went down. He charged back and then messed up again, ending up 4th. In moto 2, he got around #26 Kaven Benoit early for the lead and checked out. He was 27 seconds out front at the flag, showing us all what we can expect. 4-1 put him 2nd.#26 Kaven Benoit did it again – he came out and took the overall at round 1. He grabbed both holeshots and went on to a 15-second lead in moto 1. Once Drew got by him in moto 2, he held onto 2nd and was 20-seconds ahead of 3rd in the 2nd. The 36-year-old still has the speed to take this title if Adams leaves after Round 3.250 podium: Kaven Benoit (1-2), Drew Adams (4-1), Gage Linville (2-3).
With only 30 riders making the 450 motos this year, we have 10 fewer riders to keep an eye on.
#221 Kale Cuthbertson is from close by and finished 27-25 for 26th.#40 Brendan Sipple is all the way from Austin, Texas, and cracked the top 20, finishing 22-19 for 19th.The rider who gets the honour of being the top from Calgary is #85 Charlie Johnson who finished 18-18 for 18th.#252 Brock Henry from Kelowna, BC had a good day, going 17-14 to break into the top 15.#377 Daniel Elmore came in with high expectations but had to deal with arm pump. It kept him from his potential and he finished 12-10 for 12th.#17 Julien Benek told the bear story for us. He ended up finding Elmore in both motos as we predicted and finished 9-12 for 11th.The working man, #18 Parker Eales, landed in 10th with 11-9 motos.He had a nice battle with #670 Gavin Brough.It’s great to see #10 Keylan Meston at the races. He had Donk as his mechanic and ended up 8-11 for 9th.#670 Gavin Brough held it down for the Brough family. He was in the mix and finished 10-8 for 8th.Australian #109 Aaron Tanti took a shot from Dylan Wight in moto 1. I think we’ll see Aaron get stronger as the summer moves on. 6-7 put him in 7th.I think smooth and steady was a great move by #808 Preston Kilroy at round 1. 5-5 for 6th is a great start.I’m pretty sure there was a motor swap between motos for #84 Tanner Ward. He was fighting it in moto 1 to a 7th and came back for a solid 4th in moto 2 for 5th.#23 Josiah Natzke ended up all alone in 3rd in moto 1 until #15 Jess Pettis fell and he closed in. He was way back in moto 2 and had to work past the field all the way up to 6th for 4th overall.Solid day for #8 Mitchell Harrison who I think also got a new motor between races. He fell in moto 1 but still ended up 4-3 for 3rd.Defending champ #1 Dylan Wright passed his way to the lead in moto 1 and took the win. He had one of the most impressive rides we’ve ever seen in moto 2 when he had some shock failure but continued to press! He managed to hold off Harrison and Ward late in the moto for 2nd on a bike with no rear suspension. His streak is over but he may have just saved this title.#15 Jess Pettis finally took the overall, splitting wins with Dylan. He was 6 seconds back in moto 1 and then put 25 seconds on everyone in moto 2 to land on the top step. He gets great starts and will make everyone else work for wins.450 podium: Jess Pettis (2-1), Dylan Wright (1-2), Mitchell Harrison (4-3).Dylan rode away for a while to cool down after moto 2 and then came back and turned on the charm for the appreciative crowd. It was a very “pro” move.Congratulations to Jess Pettis for getting it done.
Overall
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