The Monday Gate Drop Presented By Yamaha Motor Canada- Things Are Heating Up!
Greetings! I hope everyone had a great final weekend of April. In 48 hours we will be into my favourite month of the year, May not only produces some of the best riding weather we get all year, but it’s also my birthday month. Last year, I turned 50 so now I’m most certainly on the back nine and doing whatever I can to finish off my round in style. Sorry, a little golf analogy on a rainy Monday morning.
Walton Raceway is officially open for practice. Photo by James Lissimore
My weekend fun began early as on Friday as I headed over to Walton Raceway so my son could do some riding with Tanner Ward, Dylan Kaelin, and Hayden Jameson. The Walton crew put together a shortened version of the main track that featured lots of corners, and a sub-minute lap time. After I dropped him off at Walton Raceway I headed to London, Ontario and the Legacy Tattoo Studio. Once there, I met up with pro-racer and professional tattoo artist Zack Zager, and he gave me a new tat to honour my Dad. Zack is a true artist and great at what he does, so if you ever need some ink work done, please look him up at Legacy Tattoo, Body Piercing and Laser Tattoo Removal. Also, as many of you know, getting a tattoo doesn’t exactly feel the best, so having Zack do it was perfect, as all we did was talk moto the entire time. After that, I returned to Walton Raceway to watch my son’s final few moto sessions. During their final moto I ran the stop watch for he and Tanner, and I ended up correcting one of the biggest mistakes that many of us parents or mechanics make when it comes to our riders. The spot that I was watching from (20 feet back from the fence) was smooth, and due to its location I couldn’t see the rest of the track. I wrongly started to assume that the entire track was similar to the section in front of me. So after the moto, when the guys were commenting on how rutted and challenging the track was, I was kind of perplexed, I even commented that it didn’t look that bad from where I was standing. Soon after my son and Tanner each gave me a look that said (without saying) that I might need glasses, I decided to hop on my son’s bike (sans gear) and go ride a slow lap of the track. Well, to my surprise I could hardly make it around as some of the corners had multiple two foot deep ruts in them, and even some of the short straights had several foot peg grabbing ruts. Thankfully, I survived the lap in my sneakers and when I returned to the shop, I told the boys that I had the utmost respect for them that they were able to ride that track, and with consistent lap times. My point is that things aren’t always what they appear to be, and in most cases the track looks much different from the sidelines or mechanics area.
Today Julien Perrier announced that he will be bringing his Partzilla PRMX Team back to Canada this summer. Photo by James Lissimore
Speaking of Tanner Ward and the rest of the 2024 Triple Crown Series riders. The Partzilla PRMX Team will be lining up this summer with three title contenders. The news dropped today with a Press Release that Team Owner Julien Perrier will bring Hunter Yoder, Mitchell Harrison, and Australian rider Aaron Tanti to Canada to compete in the Triple Crown Series. Yoder will race in the 250 class, while Harrison and Tanti will race in the 450 class. This will no doubt be a strong team that should compete all summer long for podium finishes, and race wins too. Harrison is obviously no stranger to Canada and how our series runs. Also, he is a great 450 rider and has been getting some solid results in SuperMotocross Series in the USA. Yoder is a young fast rider with some good speed and a ton of potential in the 250 class, and Tanti is fast and knows how to ride tracks similar to those found in the Triple Crown Series. Finally, the PRMX will be providing support to Drew Adams as the SX Futures phenom will travel north this summer to race selected rounds of the Triple Crown Series. Dylan Rempel, who has been fast in the SX Futures Series, will be racing selected rounds of the Triple Crown Series, but he also wants to focus on racing Loretta Lynns this summer. Is it just me or, in the last month or so has the 2024 Triple Crown Series gone from each class having a 4-5 really fast riders to one of the deepest fields we’ve seen in sometime? Also, I haven’t even mentioned that Preston Kilroy will be racing a 450 for the MX101 Yamaha Team this summer. I’m not sure if Kilroy can wins races in the 450 class, but he’ll be right there, and as the series goes on who knows what this kid is capable of. I love it and with the series opener in Calgary just over a month away, it’s time to get real excited!
Dylan Wright and Jess Pettis are two of our top pro riders who are planning to get some pre-national races in this spring. Photo by Lissimore
Let’s stick with the pro-class as on Friday one of the questions we asked Ryan Lockhart was what should our young pro-riders be doing right now with the opening round fast approaching? Newf’s answer was simple, “Race as many races as you can before the gate drops in Calgary.” I think this is excellent advice for not just our young contingent of pro-riders, but for everyone who plans on racing the series. Whether it’s Dylan Wright or someone hoping to crack the top ten. All of top pro-riders have been down south training for some time so, their conditioning is top notch right now, there is no question about that. What is a question for all of them is, “what will happen when the gate drops for the first moto in Calgary”? No one knows the answer to this as having a crystal ball unfortunately, isn’t a part of their sponsorship package. The sport has changed in many ways over the years, as back in my day we didn’t spend as much time preparing down south, but we did race a lot more then pro-riders of today race before the National Series kicks off. Now, this isn’t an ode to us of yester-year, or a criticism of today’s rider, it’s just how things were and how there are today. Case in point, prior to the opening round of the 1996 CMRC Pro National Series at RJ Motosports in Barrie, I had raced approximately twelve times, including several USA SX events, an outdoor National in the USA, two German SX events, the Toronto SX, the Riviere du Loup AX, and several Regional races in Ontario. So that year, the mystery for me wasn’t what was going to happen when the gate dropped at RJ’s, it was more about what was going to happen in the final minutes of the four motos that day. I knew my race craft was as good as it ever was, the only question was if my conditioning was good enough for four long motos. Fast forward to 2024, and although it’s not possible for our pro-riders to race that many events before the opening round in Calgary, and let’s be honest, I don’t think they need to, they all need to experience a few meaningful gate drops. Last weekend at Gopher Dunes, we heard a couple of riders state they had to fight through some arm pump on the rough track. Now, some of that was due to the cold temperatures that always hamper blood flow and lactic acid build up, but also, some of that was due to ‘Raceday’ nerves and how they affect the body. Every racer knows that no other riding day feels like a Raceday. From the moment you wake up you feel different, your food tastes different, the track looks different, and your sense of awareness is extremely heightened. Finally, when you get on the track with 30 other riders, your adrenaline is going, and you can end up getting tight and not riding to your true ability. As I said, this can happen to any rider on the track, regardless of their speed, skill, or experience. The only way to break through this barrier of anxiety is to put yourself through it as many times as you can, and hope that your body and mind adapts. This is why Newf said what he did on Friday, and why you’re seeing more and more top pros trying to get in as many gate drops as possible before the opening round in Calgary. Even our multi-time Champion Dylan Wright will most likely race 3-4 times before Round 1. Last weekend at Gopher Dunes we saw several top pro-riders on the gate, and I’m sure we’ll see much of the same this coming weekend at Auburn Hills.
Jason Anderson had a solid ride in Philadelphia as he grabbed third in the final corner.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great start to May, and hopefully the weather is starting to get consistently nice for riding. I see they’re calling for snow in Alberta this week so that isn’t good. In closing, how entertaining was the 250SX East race this past weekend in Philadelphia? It was a great battle for the lead, and congratulations to Max Anstie on the big win. In the 450SX class, after second dominating win in a row it appears as though Jett Lawrence is well on his way to his first-ever 450SX Championship. Unless something drastic happens, this title belongs to Jett, and rightfully so as he’s been the best rider all series long. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions, please email me at [email protected].
