It was Round 2 of the 2020 Rockstar Triple Crown Tour MX Nationals August 8-9 at Walton Raceway in Walton, Ontario. We’ll be making another stop for “Walton 2” this coming Sunday.
With a 2-day schedule, Saturday consisted of just one moto for each the 250 and 450 classes. We were actually all finished by noon!
The weather was perfect on Saturday with 27 degree C, clear skies, and very little wind. The crew did a great job giving the riders an amazing track.
Sunday was a different story.
Rain moved in around 3:30am and the crew had to get up and start packing the track in, as the forecast didn’t show more than a 10% chance of rain.
The damage was done and they were forced to postpone the Sunday schedule until 10:30am for free practice.
Very few riders went out for free practice on Sunday. Gate choice for day 2 is based on Day 1 finishes so it was straight to racing after practice.
On Saturdays, the 450’s go first, but Sundays are back to normal with the 250’s kicking off the show.
Here’s a closer look at some 250 racing action.
250 Class
It was all smiles Saturday morning, as the riders and teams were greeted by perfect conditions. Jess Pettis and his new hair were ready to keep his streak alive.This was to be young #942 Preston Masciangelo’s debut Pro National, but he took a rock to the pelvis in qualifying and was unable to line up all weekend. Hopefully, he’s feeling better and we see him on the line soon. Hunter Vaughan is here from Nova Scotia. The Intermediate rider went 25-31-DNS on the sheets. They actually pulled him off in that mud race to save his bike for the long week ahead. Watch for him at the TransCan battling for podiums. Wyatt Waddell is here all the way from the opposite coast in BC. He’s having a tough season so far. He had a flat and a broken chain this week giving him 39-23-36. He’s overdue for a good round.Eve Brodeur is racing more than anyone with 4 motos per day. She’s the clear favourite in WMX and finished 33-34-29 in the 250 class.I haven’t had the chance to talk with #295 Keenan Peterson yet, but I’m sure he’s not happy with his 26-24-26 motos for 29th this past week. He’s definitely faster than his results show.Joshua McGinnis is one of the few privateers up from the USA this season. His commitment to racing here earns him a place in this report. 34-25-25 for 28th.#119 Jared Petruska’s season is off to a rocky start also. He finished 18th on Saturday but an injured thumb kept him off the track Sunday. Fortunately, his better half, #6 Dominique Petruska, had a career day in WMX, finishing 3rd overall (5-2).There was a lot of this on Sunday morning. #511 Jordan Lebel managed to keep it running and finished 23-28-18 for 24th.#17 Cheyenne Harmon’s day went from bad to….well, it stayed bad. An early pile-up off the start on Sunday morning drained his rad of fluid and that was it for him in that one. The final moto got off to a similar start. 12-DNF-35 for 21st. He’s also overdue for some better luck.BC Intermediate rider #170 Julien Benek is now in the + 6-foot club. He looks fast this season and will be a contender this week at the TransCan. Rumour has it he’s a stand-out on a 450! 16-27-15 put him 19th.#92 Richard Taylor is from California and cracked the top 10 in the 3rd moto. His 15-29-9 put him 17th and probably showed him he belongs up closer to the front. #21 Quinn Amyotte came out with a solid 8th place effort on Saturday but struggled in the conditions a bit on Sunday. 8-17-19 gave the 2019 Most Improved Rider 16th.#381 Jacob Piccolo doesn’t like to do things the easy way, I don’t think. He’s clearly got the speed, he just needs to tidy things up and he’ll be the contender he’s always been slated to be. 38-16-7 for 14th illustrates my point.#118 Christopher DaSilva put together his best moto ever on Sunday, running 9th until a final lap tip-over dropped him to 11th. He was pretty pumped on his performance. 21-11-11 put him 13th.#325 Tallon Unger turned some heads on Sunday. I loved the attitude he showed by being the first rider on the track in the mud Sunday morning. He looked really fast and finished 13-8-20 for 11th, just missing the top 10.14-9-17 for 10th was a weird way to go to break the top 10 for #66 Jamie Powell. #11 Davey Fraser keeps snagging pretty good starts this season. He said he just needs the rest of his riding to click and he’ll be happier. 10-10-14 put the Nova Scotia rider in 9th.Like I said before, it’s easy to forget #164 Ryder McNabb is still an Intermediate! He’s a top 5 threat but had some trouble in that mudder (I’m sure you’ve all seen photos and video of his bike in the bucket of the skid steer). 6-19-5 put the Manitoba rider 8th. #41 Jeremy McKie had a stellar weekend at Walton. He suffered a rear brake issue that dropped him back a bit in moto 1 but he’ll be consistently in the top 5 if he keeps riding the way he just did. 9-5-13 put him 7th o/a.#30 Hayden Halstead is just one of those guys who loves to race, no matter the conditions. He was docked 3 spots in that mud race after finishing 4th. I guess he went off the track a little too much off the start. 7-7-8 for 6th.#123 Ryan Surratt is so light he probably just floated over the mud Sunday morning. He grabbed the holeshot Saturday and finished 5-8-6 for 5th.#18 Tanner Ward had a few racing issues to get through during his motos (smoking bike, big stick in rear wheel…), but he held strong and finished a consistent 4-4-4 for, you guessed it, 4th.#46 Marco Cannella gave 2nd place Marshal Weltin all he could handle at Round 2. It was a lot of fun to watch them go at it. 3-3-3 put him 3rd.#19 Marshal Weltin went out and did the big step-up on the first lap in that Sunday morning free practice! You could tell he was ready to go. He grabbed the second moto holeshot and went back and forth to take the moto win. 2-1-2 put him 2nd.#15 Jess Pettis may have lost his moto win streak but his overall streak is still in tact. It’s probably a little weight off his shoulders, actually. Anyway, I think this is his to lose, but we’ll keep dropping gates to make sure. 1-2-1 gave him top spot.250 podium: Jess Pettis (1-2-1), Marshal Weltin (2-1-2), Marco Cannella (3-3-3) (2nd place on the left next time, please).
