Frid’Eh Update #49 Presented by MP County Line

Frid’Eh Update #49 Presented by MP County Line

By Jeff McConkey and Billy Rainford

Week #49 belongs to Victoria, BC rider, Graham Scott | Bigwave photo

Welcome to Week #49 of the DMX Frid’Eh Update this week presented by MP County Line. In 2016, #49 was Victoria, BC native, Graham Scott. Graham came into the season hoping for good things and had a great result at round 2 at the wastelands in Nanaimo. He finished that one with a 12th overall (16-10) and even broke into the top 10 in the second moto. Things were looking good for the likeable Islander.

Here’s the conversation we had today:

Direct Motocross: Hello, Graham. We haven’t spoken to you since you left the series early last summer. Let’s start by telling people a little bit about yourself.

Graham Scott: Hey, Billy. Ya, it’s been a while. Well, my name is Graham Scott, I am 20 years old and I’m from and grew up in Victoria, BC.

You raced the first 4 rounds of the Rockstar Energy series last year and even had a 12th at the 2nd round in Nanaimo. Can you take us through those first 4 rounds?

Ya, for sure. It wasn’t the year I was expecting but I did have a couple high points. Round one in Kamloops was a cooker. I ended up crashing pretty hard the first moto and gave my head a good thump. I re-grouped from that for my “home” race in Nanaimo the following weekend where I had a career best finish of 10th, which was pretty cool. The rest of my season I found my self in the wrong place at the wrong time. I got tangled up in a few pile ups which took quite a toll on my body.

Graham Scott hit the first 4 rounds of the Rockstar MX Nationals in 2016 but had to cut it short due to a knee injury | Bigwave photo

What did you get up to in the months after that?

I took about a month off after coming home from nationals to try and heal the body. I then started training full time again for Stu Mcqueen‘s BC championship series in September. I had a great time doing those events and it was awesome to leave with the Pro Open championship. It made my year feel a little less disappointing (Laughs).

How are you hoping to end the AX series?

This weekend, I feel way more prepared and am wanting to be up in the mix a bit more. Above all, I’m just here for some fun and experience. Getting to go to work on Monday healthy is top priority (Laughs).

Graham will be in Chilliwack this weekend for the final rounds of the Future West AX Series | Bigwave photo

Well, glad to see you back out there racing. Good luck and who would you like to thank?

Thanks, Billy, for the chat! Hope to see everyone come watch us Pros go at it tonight in the barn! I’d love to thank Scotty, SG Power, Honda.ca, Factory Connection, Proven, 100 Percent, Lime Nine, MotoSeat, my family and my mechanic, Alex!

Thanks for the chat and good luck this weekend, Graham | Bigwave photo

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JEFF McCONKEY

Happy Friday, everyone. Well, it officially looks like outdoors is over here in Ontario. The last man standing, Gopher Dunes, will be closing after this weekend. Yes, I know it’s December and I should consider us lucky, but it’s just hard to swallow.

Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing

This past week, we got our first glimpses of the 2017 Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing team, and it looks pretty good. Once again, Colton Facciotti will be the top dawg, with young Dylan Wright making the jump to the big red machine. It was sad to see Dylan leave his longtime home at MX101 Yamaha. Motocross is a cruel sport and with such a short career span, you have got to make your moves before your window passes you by.

Colton is on his way out west to compete in the final round of the Future West Arenacross Series. He will instantly become a strong favourite heading into the final rounds, after his dominating AX Tour appearances. If anyone can step up and challenge Colton, it will most likely be the #20 MX101 FXR Yamaha of Jess Pettis. Jess, once again, has been the most improved rider as he just keeps getting better and better.

Colton Facciotti returns to action this weekend at the final rounds of the Future West Arenacross Championships in Chilliwack, BC | Bigwave photo

Future West Arenacross Round 5 Results and Point Standings

Round 5 Results

Chilliwack Arenacross Round 5 – 11/26/2016 Chilliwack

Pro Am Lights   Points for this class

Overall Nbr Name Heat Moto 1 Moto 2 Points Earned  1st  #59  NOAH MCCONAHY ,   1st Heat 1 1st 1st 25  2nd  #20  JESS PETTIS PRINCE GEORGE, BC  2nd Heat 1 2nd 2nd 22  3rd  #15  SHAWN MAFFENBEIER ,   1st Heat 2 1st 3rd 20  4th  #1  ROSS JOHNSON ,   2nd Heat 2 2nd 4th 18  5th  #8  KEYLAN MESTON ,   4th Heat 2 4th 5th 16  6th  #21  DAVEY FRASER ,   5th Heat 1 5th 6th 15  7th  #87  CHRIS HOWELL ,   3rd Heat 1 3rd 7th 14  8th  #101  RYAN LOCKHART LANGLEY, BC  3rd Heat 2 3rd 8th 13  9th  #49  GRAHAM SCOTT ,   7th Heat 2 7th 9th 12  10th  #50  KYLE SPRINGMAN ABBOTSFORD, BC  4th Heat 1 4th 10th 11  11th  #997  JAMES MORAN ABBOTSFORD, BC  5th Heat 2 5th 11th 10  12th  #33  CASEY KEAST KELOWNA, BC  DNF Heat 1 DNF 12th 9  13th  #526  PARKER EALES MAPLE RIDGE, BC  8th Heat 2 8th 13th 8  14th  #126  TEREN GERBER ,   DNF Heat 1 DNF 14th 7  DNF  #35  SEBASTIAN LAVE ,   6th Heat 1 6th DNF 0  DNF  #728  AUSTIN BREDA ,   6th Heat 2 6th DNF 0  DNS  #x98  GRAM KLASSEN ,   DNF Heat 1 DNF DNS 0

Dash for Cash

Overall Nbr Name  –  #21  DAVEY FRASER ,   –  #87  CHRIS HOWELL ,   –  #1  ROSS JOHNSON ,   –  #35  SEBASTIAN LAVE ,   –  #101  RYAN LOCKHART LANGLEY, BC  –  #15  SHAWN MAFFENBEIER ,   –  #59  NOAH MCCONAHY ,   –  #8  KEYLAN MESTON ,   –  #20  JESS PETTIS PRINCE GEORGE, BC

Open Pro   Points for this class

Overall Nbr Name Heat Moto 1 Moto 2 Points Earned  1st  #15  SHAWN MAFFENBEIER ,   1st Heat 2 1st 1st 25  2nd  #20  JESS PETTIS PRINCE GEORGE, BC  1st Heat 1 1st 2nd 22  3rd  #87  CHRIS HOWELL ,   3rd Heat 2 3rd 3rd 20  4th  #59  NOAH MCCONAHY ,   2nd Heat 2 2nd 4th 18  5th  #1  ROSS JOHNSON ,   2nd Heat 1 2nd 5th 16  6th  #8  KEYLAN MESTON ,   5th Heat 2 5th 6th 15  7th  #33  CASEY KEAST KELOWNA, BC  3rd Heat 1 3rd 7th 14  8th  #101  RYAN LOCKHART LANGLEY, BC  4th Heat 2 4th 8th 13  9th  #49  GRAHAM SCOTT ,   4th Heat 1 4th 9th 12  10th  #728  AUSTIN BREDA ,   5th Heat 1 5th 10th 11  11th  #526  PARKER EALES MAPLE RIDGE, BC  DNS Heat 1 DNS 11th 10  DNF  #35  SEBASTIAN LAVE ,   6th Heat 1 6th DNF 0  DNF  #21  DAVEY FRASER ,   6th Heat 2 6th DNF 0  DNF  #x98  GRAM KLASSEN ,   DNS Heat 2 DNS DNF 0

Series Points

The Ever-Improving Jess Pettis

I can still remember the first time I saw Jess at Walton. He was a tiny tiny kid with crazy style riding Kawasaki’s.  Every year at Walton, there’s a list of special kids that you go out of your way to make sure you don’t miss their motos. On minis, Jess was of those kids that you just had to watch. He struggled a bit at the end of his amateur career, and the start of his pro career. No, I don’t think he was doing anything wrong, I just feel like he wasn’t strong enough at the time. Fast forward a few years, and ‘Little’ Jess is no longer little. He has steadily been working his way to the front of the pack and will, no doubt in my mind, land on the top spot on the box this summer.

“[Jess Pettis] has steadily been working his way to the front of the pack and will, no doubt in my mind, land on the top spot on the box this summer,” says Jeff | Bigwave photo

2016 Thor Winter Olympics – The Fab 3

The Mini O’s have once again come and gone. Congratulations to all of the Canadians who made the trip. Some had some very solid results, and some had results that they’d like to forget. In my opinion, the “Fab 3” of Tanner Ward, Marco Cannella, and Austin Watling are still the cream of the crop and the ones to watch. The sky is the limit for these 3, and it’s anyone’s guess on which member of the group will have the most success.

Austin Watling with his plaques from the 2016 Mini O’s | Bigwave photo

That’s it for me this week. Check out this week’s ‘On the Radar‘ with Damon Tse. Not to be out done by her younger brother, this week’s Shrader’s ‘Out of the Blue‘ featuring Shelby Tse is a great read. Word on the street is that the Tse family has two more rising stars that we will be featuring next week. You have got to love a moto family this strong! Have a great weekend and always #smilforBC!

BILLY RAINFORD

Thanks, Jeff. It’s great to be home again after a long week of racing down in Florida at the 45th Annual Thor Winter Olympics. We had a strong group of racers in attendance this year, so it was a lot of fun watching our guys rip it up on the supercross and motocross tracks.

If we learned anything last week it’s that starts are even more important at these talent-filled events than anything most are used to. Seriously, even the top riders in each class were susceptible to the problems of poor starts last week. A rider who won one moto after grabbing a holeshot could sometimes be found wallowing around outside the top 10 in another after a bad start – the fields are just that strong at these things…in every class.

We saw that riders like ‘The Fab 3’ had the speed to challenge for podiums in the ultra-competitive B classes IF they got out with them from the start. If you’re not with them after the first turn, you simply aren’t going to carve your way to the front like you can at other races.

Here’s a look at how our Canadians did at the Mini O’s this year:

Mini O’s – The Canadians

#25 Estrella Cemovic – Brampton, ON

#196 Chloe Metcalfe – London, ON

#141 Eve Brodeur – Laval, QC (Congrats on the Vanier Cup)

#111 Mario Boisvert – QC

#853 Riley Clapp – Amherstburg, ON

#8 Vincent Fortin – Roxton Pond, QC

#25 Tristan Dares – Woodstock, ON

#22 Preston Masciangelo – Brantford, ON

#43 Noah Viney – Morgan Hill, CA (Canadian)

#101 Matthew Cemovic – Brampton, ON

#494 Thomas Rendall – Orleans, ON

#53 Bjorn Viney – Maorgan Hill, CA (Canadian)

#46 Marco Cannella – Waterdown, ON

#327 Brandon Gourlay – Ottawa, ON

#317 Cooper Larche – Woodstock, ON

#184 Tanner Ward – Woodstock, ON

#424 Austin Watling – Corunna, ON

#343 Max Filipek – Grimsby, ON

#34 Westen Wrozyna – Newtonville, ON

If I missed anyone, I’m sorry.

I headed over to MP County Line Monday morning to check out what Iain Hayden and the gang have in store for the Panama City, Florida (Fountain, actually), facility. They’ve been working tirelessly on the track itself and made it look a lot better. The sides of the jumps and the safety of the track have been greatly improved.

Now that Marco Cannella and Westen Wrozyna are there for a couple weeks, they are going to work together to make a few changes to the track and make it even better. Be sure to check them out.

The Rockstar OTSFF Yamaha guys, Matt Goerke and Chris Blose, were set to show up a couple days after I left to do some suspension testing etc.. Sorry I missed them.

Sam Cannella prepared one last meal for the kids (and me) before joining me on the long drive north.

Marco and Westen patiently waiting for burritos before hitting the track.

How juicy does this berm look?!

Marco came in and laid it over for my camera. I shot a bunch of video, too. That will be up soon…

A little feet-on-the-pegs-in-a-berm action.

Westen comes in to send some sand flying.

The approach to the berm.

Channeling his inner Dusty Klatt.

Westen heading for the berm.

Slammy!

Nice approach position.

All the cool kids are doing it…

That looks a little more like it, Westen.

Marco threw down some pretty textbook ‘opps’ off this jump.

WE had some fun shooting photos and video.

Some crafty product placement.

You’re not supposed to look over your shoulder, Marco.

Thanks for a good visit, guys.

Next time, order the 3-pack special at Ruby Tuesday, Westen!

The new Arenacross track at County Line.

Home sweet home for the next week or two. Have fun, guys.

And then the long drive north started…

“It’s a balmy 37 degrees and there’s a gentle 80-mile-an-hour breeze coming down the river…” That’s as close to the Johnny Fever quote I can get ~ WKRP in Cincinnati

Chino, Calif. (December 1, 2016) – RCH/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing will field a pair of Suzuki RM-Z450s in 2017 for riders Broc Tickle and Justin Bogle and will once again compete for championship honors in Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship and the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship with full factory support from Suzuki Motor of America, Inc. (SMAI).

Tickle returns to the seat of the No. 20 Suzuki after spending the previous four seasons with RCH. Last season, the former Cary, N.C., resident was fifth in points and off to his best Pro Motocross start since 2012 before being sidelined for the final third of the campaign after suffering an injury at Spring Creek.

Bogle, the 2014 Eastern Regional 250 SX Class Champion, makes the move to RCH from Geico Honda where he will pilot the No. 19 RM-Z450. The Cushing, Okla., native notched one top-five and six top-10 finishes during his rookie 450 class Supercross season.

“Combining the strengths of RCH, Yoshimura, and Suzuki into a single factory racing effort has been rewarding,” said Kerry Graeber, Vice President, MC/ATV Sales and Marketing for SMAI. “And with Broc returning and Justin joining the Suzuki family, we are eager for the 2017 season to begin.”

RCH is coming off its most successful season to date after finishing second in the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross Championship and collecting its first premier class title where Ken Roczen rode the No. 94 Suzuki RM-Z450 to the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.

“Broc has been with RCH since 2013,” said RCH Racing co-founder Ricky Carmichael. “He’s one of the sport’s most respected veterans and one of those guys who gets better every year. We’re really happy to keep Broc in the mix at RCH and to bring him along with us as part of our Suzuki Factory effort. Justin won a championship in the 250 class and has shown great promise on a 450. We’re excited to see how quickly he meshes with Broc, the team, and our championship-winning Suzuki RM-Z450.”

“After winning the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship this summer, we’re chomping at the bit to get back racing,” added fellow RCH Racing co-founder Carey Hart. “We have been working alongside Suzuki and Yoshimura to refine this new program for 2017. We are excited to have Broc back and to be able to bring a rider of Justin’s caliber on board.”

RCH/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing will be led by team manager Kyle Bentley and will make its 2017 debut January 7 at the Monster Energy Supercross season opener in Anaheim, Calif.

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Cole Thompson Wins Final Round of Costa Rican MX Championship

Cole Thompson was back in Central America to finish off the Costa Rican MX Championships (Campeonato Nacional de Motocross MOTUL 2016) a couple weeks ago. You can watch both motos here in this video.

Fast forward to 38:50 to watch both MX1 motos where he battles Ben Lemay and Roberto Castro.

Racer X Amateur ‘Film Festival-Gate’ — Mitch Goheen DQ’d

Ah crap, really???!!! Well, it looks like the fix was in. I’m kidding to be dramatic. However, it looks like Canadian Mitch Goheen from Just Giver Productions has been disqualified from the Racer X Amateur Film Festival due to the actions of an over-zealous and well-intentioned fan of Mitch’s work.

I was worried he was DQ’d due to us posting links to the contest and ‘suggesting’ votes click on Mitch’s video, but it turns out that wasn’t it at all. A whole pile of votes came in from the Toronto area on a Blackberry phone by someone who was apparently able to circumvent the ‘one vote per day’ rule and floaded Mitch’s video entry with votes.

Mitch was down in Georgia at GPF and in Florida the Mini O’s during the time the votes poured in, so it wasn’t his doing, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, whoever it was that did it, has made it look suspicious enough that the guys running the festival had no choice but to pull Mitch and his great video out of the contest.

Mitch is obviously pretty bummed about the whole thing and especially because it turns out the votes came in “on a Blackberry of all phones!”

I heard back from Jordan Roberts (Racer X Marketing Manager) and he said, “…this is very unfortunate. It hasn’t been ruled that he’s been DQ’d yet, but it’s not looking good.”

Sorry to hear this, Mitch. Keep up the good work and put this behind you.

[*** Since this Update went live, results have been posted over at Racer X. Click HERE to see them. ***]

Mitch Goheen has been DQ’d from the Racer X Amateur Film Festival in ‘Film Fest-Gate’ | Bigwave photo

OK, that’s going to do it for this week. Thanks for reading and we’ll try to get to work and post some of this video footage we shot from the week up on the site. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Why is this Update over so soon???!!! See you at the races…