Grab another cup and dive into Monday Morning Coffee where we talk about what happened in Motocross and usually lots more.
By Billy Rainford
It’s time for the weekly weather report to start off the week: You’ll be happy to hear that it looks like we’ve put the extra-wet spring season behind us and we’re finally heading into the sunshine and warmth of summer in my neck of the woods. Finally! That was a tough few weeks for us in southwestern Ontario.
As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve got way more than our fair share of tracks in the London area. No kidding, there must be 10 tracks you could ride within an hour from the city.
One track called Swiona MX Park just southwest of the city held Round 4 of the TVR MX Spring/Summer series and we had a “spy” on the ground who sent us a short iPhone video of Red Bull KTM Canada 250 rider #24 Dylan Rempel finishing up his prep for the Canadian Triple Crown Series that starts next week at Wild Rose MX in downtown Calgary, AB.
I can’t believe that all these years later, Cary Hitchen is so into racing again! You may remember:
That’s Cary at Hully Gully on a 1981 Honda CR80 in what looks to be 1982, judging from that blurry and pixilated Yamaha in the background. Next to Scott Hepburn, Cary had some of the best old school turn down/cross up style in the game!
And yes, that’s full head of hair. I used to go to the barber and they’d always say, “Man, you’ve got the thickest head of hair I’ve ever seen. No chance you’re going bald!” 🤔
Sorry, I got sidetracked with that little detour down Memory Lane…
The big race of the weekend above the border was the 43rd Annual Riviere-Du-Loup Arenacross in, you guessed it, Riviere-Du-Loup, Quebec. I’ll tell you this, they don’t make it the easiest race to follow along with!
As usual, it looks like it was a full house and the small town nearing the mouth of the St Lawrence River really got behind the event once again.
The only thing I could find were a few little updates from riders. Our old friend Josh Cartwright was there again for his 7th time. He was up on the podium again in 2nd place.
Here’s a link to an update from him:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HeQn2jW9E
We always like chatting with the rider who calls Texas home now, so we’ll try to get him for an interview as soon as he’s able to.
If you’ve never been to the oldest AX in North America, you should really put it on your calendar for sometime in the future because it’s really like no other you’ve seen.
43rd Annual Riviere-Du-Loup Arenacross Results
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Riviere-Du-Loup, QC
LITES 250
| # | Name | Q1 | Q2 | LCQ | Final | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 126 | Ayrton Pomeroy | 7 | – | – | 1 | 25 |
| 101 | Ludovik Rivard | 4 | – | – | 2 | 22 |
| 99 | Tristan Charest | 3 | – | – | 3 | 20 |
| 347 | Michael Comtois | 6 | – | – | 4 | 18 |
| 71 | Xavier Beaulieu | 5 | – | – | 5 | 16 |
| 316 | Nicolas Simard | 8 | – | – | 6 | 15 |
| 619 | Dylan Adams | 10 | – | – | 7 | 14 |
| 79 | Maxime Paradis | 2 | – | – | 8 | 13 |
| 18 | Samuel Malenfant | 9 | – | – | 9 | 12 |
| 777b | Philippe St-Pierre | 1 | – | – | – | 0 |
PRO OPEN
| # | Name | Q1-A | Q1-B | Q2-A | Q2-B | Semi | LCQ | Final | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 225 | Charles Lefrancois | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 25 |
| 519 | Josh Cartwright | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 22 |
| 7 | Tim Tremblay | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | 20 |
| 26 | Kaven Benoit | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | 18 |
| 551 | Guillaume St-Cyr | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5 | 16 |
| 516 | Francois Doré | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | 15 |
| 686 | Alexandre Morin | – | – | – | – | – | – | 7 | 14 |
| 101 | Ludovik Rivard | – | – | – | – | – | – | 8 | 13 |
| 12 | Jeremy Robichaud | – | – | – | – | – | – | 9 | 12 |
| 79 | Maxime Paradis | – | – | – | – | – | – | 10 | 11 |
| 118 | Christopher Dasilva | – | – | – | – | – | – | 11 | 10 |
| 126 | Ayrton Pomeroy | – | – | – | – | – | – | 12 | 9 |
LADIES OPEN
| # | Name | Q1 | Q2 | LCQ | Final | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 119 | Laury-Ann Fortin | 3 | – | – | 1 | 25 |
| 21 | Linsey Doyon | 2 | – | – | 2 | 22 |
| 279 | Eloise Ouellet | 1 | – | – | 3 | 20 |
| 275x | Morin Alyssa | 4 | – | – | 4 | 18 |
| 43 | Sandrine Lévesque | 5 | – | – | 5 | 16 |
Full results HERE
And what about that little race that took place at Fox Raceway in Pala, California, you ask? Oh ya, that also happened…
Round 1 of the 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship took place and we were all glued to our TV’s and phones to see how it would play out.
The 250 class went as planned and #1 Haiden Deegan “showed everyone the short was around the track and just flat killed it.” (Can anyone guess who I was trying to sound like there?) He grew up 20 minutes from the track and so this is the track that it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he took the win. Next week in Hangtown, it will be interesting to see if anyone can go with him.
As fans, we are going to be witness to a fantastic summer of racing in the 450 class. We’ll finally see a healthy Eli Tomac up against Jett Lawrence. Fox may not have been Eli’s best track, so let’s not jump to any conclusions until we see what happens this coming week.
And what a contrast in styles watching those 2 battle at the front. Eli crying for more power and Jett just seemingly effortless. Very different.
I was going to talk about the racing a little more than this, but I’m running out of time. It was worth it though because I just got off the phone for a podcast interview with #519 Josh Cartwright who was 2nd at the Arenacross on Saturday. We’ll get that up on the site a little later this afternoon, so watch for that.
Interestingly, he really likes the area and tracks around London. I doubt he knows that our area code is 519.
He also expressed an interest in coming up to Canada to race a couple rounds of our series. If Brett Lee is listening or reading, how about we talk to Canadian Kawasaki and get a bike for Josh at the final round at Walton Raceway?
I’ll end this by saying how great a job Luc Caouette did at Fox Raceway on Saturday. It was his first-ever Pro Motocross race where he was taking photos and not working on bikes. He works in INDY Car these days and has fallen in love with photography.
I will use his photos for a more in depth report on Round 1 as soon as I get the chance.
I’ll load up the DMX Van for another cross-Canada trip Tuesday morning. Fortunately, we won’t make it farther west that Calgary, so I’ll avoid the mountain passes in the old girl. I think if anything were to go on the van it would be the transmission, so it’s probably good that I won’t be pushing it through Roger’s Pass and beyond. Sure, it’s the most beautiful part of Canada but…
Have a great week, everyone. Next Monday we’ll know how everyone looks up against the 2 who are likely going to be the ones to beat here in Canada, Ryder McNabb in the 250 class and Dylan Wright in the 450 class.
I know there are some other riders who want to be in this conversation, so let’s see what they’ve got on the hard pack of Wild Rose MX!
Can defending champ Jess Pettis continue his winning ways? Will Preston Kilroy be as fast as we think he might be after dropping down to the 250 class? Phil Nicoletti is a top 10 guy in AMA, but does that automatically translate to wins up here? Is Wyatt Kerr 100% healthy after we heard rumours of a knee injury? Can Sebastien Racine up his game to run at the front? Will Dylan Rempel thrive on the factory KTM Canada team? Is Dylan Walsh recovered from that bad crash at the Denver Supercross? Can Tanner Ward run at the front on his new ride?
So many questions! We’ll have our answers soon enough! See you out west, everyone.
There is a Press Conference scheduled for Frida in Calgary, so be sure to tune into that. Get your Ryde TV app loaded up and ready.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you back here a little later.
After making racing a 450 at the front of the field look almost effortless at times, let’s let Jett Lawrence say it this week:
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