Frid’Eh Update #9 | Dylan Wright | Brought to You by Dirt Care

Frid’Eh Update #9 | Dylan Wright | Brought to You by Dirt Care

By Billy Rainford

Welcome to Week #9 of the DMX Frid’Eh Update brought to you by Dirt Care. I’m currently sitting in the Media Centre at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Like everyone out there, this event is one that stands out in my mind every year.

I first came to this race in the Spring of 1985 when I was a rather goony Junior racer on a 1984 Can Am 125. It was a dark couple seasons for me, if I’m being honest. Weird knee surgery and trying to ride a pull-out couch saw me fall behind a full season compared to my usual competition. I can’t remember most things but I can remember exactly how things went wrong 40 years ago…

Anyway, this is always my favourite Supercross of the season. As a rather die-hard outdoor MX fan, this is as close as we get until we make the switch in May down here and June back home.

Eli Tomac is the absolute MAN at this race and I think it’s great for the sport that we have our superstars like that. Not that I’m supposed to have a favourite rider, but I think the sport itself wins when Eli wins at Daytona.

I’m back in the media room after the riders hit the track for Media Day. Right now, none other than Jeremy McGrath is addressing the room before his Holeshot King that will take place tonight at 7. The names he listed off that will compete are pretty impressive! Looks like I’ll be hanging around the stadium a little later than I thought I would.

Week #9 belongs to Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing rider Dylan Wright. Dylan is the 4-time 450 champion who is coming off a couple disappointing season for him due to injury and mechanical issues. He was at the Toronto Motorcycle and Powersport Show at the Enercare Centre in Toronto last week, so I took the opportunity to grab him for an interview to talk about the last couple seasons and what he’s got planned for this winter’s training and next season.

Podcast:

Direct Motocross: All right, let’s catch up with Dylan right here. Dylan, man, haven’t talked in a little while. What have you been doing? I know you’ve been down South. You’ve been where everybody’s been down in Mesquite.

Dylan Wright: Yeah, yeah. Just obviously down in Mesquite right now training. We got new bikes and everything right around January 20th. And then (Dylan) Rempel and I headed down to Mesquite, down to the Brough’s place there, and just been riding, training and having fun riding dirt bikes again.

It’s been kind of a crappy winter. I think all of us can attest to that, and especially eastern Canada here. So it was fun to get back down and get some riding in and yeah, start training. And yeah, was up in Idaho. We’re doing some engine work and stuff and I get to test some new motors next week so it should be fun.

What’s with the all the Canadians down at Mesquite? What’s everybody doing down there?

Yeah, just riding, enjoying it. Obviously, you know, the Broughs racing up in Canada, just kind of got to know them through the Hymas family as well, because obviously I’m pretty close with the Hymas family. So I’m just, I mean, the moto world is so small when you kind of break it down.

So I got to know them and then doing some work with Chris Hymas and stuff like that. So he lives not too far. So it was just like we go out and hang out with Gary and the Broughs. They’re just awesome people. And yeah, they’ve been helping us out quite a bit at the track and doing stuff for us. So it’s been great. Been working a little bit with Riley and just on the bike stuff.

And it’s close to Mr. Hymas and yeah, just doing a bunch of work with them and just made sense. Something to change it up, ride some hard pack stuff, get out of Florida for a little bit. Done that for a long time. So just change it up, have some fun and, you know, the desert out there is kind of cool. So it’s, yeah, it’s been awesome.

Nice. So, after coming out of a couple seasons like you did, are you more motivated than ever to come back and try to go for this time or what?

Yeah, I mean, more motivated than ever? I don’t know, I’m motivated all the time to go win. That’s kind of why we do this. But yeah, after the last couple years, it’s been, it’s been shitty I’m not going to lie, it’s been tough.

We’re changing a bunch of stuff in the program and I think, you know, we’re ready to come out swinging in 2026, I think. And yeah, come out swinging and go for the number one plate. That’s the goal in mind. And I don’t think we’ll settle for anything other than that. We’re working really hard to get that back to the Honda and to the team and everybody. So I’m looking forward to it.

Now, you mentioned changes, obviously, suspension and motors. Those are big changes.

Yeah, suspension changes, obviously switching over to MP1 for next year. So you know, Mike‘s (Parliament) working really hard. We’re coming up with some set up. We’re going to be doing some testing here in the next couple of weeks for that and then motor stuff. Just changing where we’re getting our heads and everything done, where we’re getting the motors done. Got some different parts in there too. That should should help. I don’t know if I can talk about that yet. So excited. I was actually up building…well, I wasn’t building motors, but I was up helping last week. So it’s it’s been good. We put some bikes on the dyno last week and stuff. I really enjoy that side of it, like the whole building process.

I guess you can say as I get a little bit older, you know, you start to appreciate all the work that goes in behind the scenes. It’s just a little bit more honestly. And yeah, so it’s been it’s been pretty good. And I get to do some engine testing this week coming up when I get back from the show. So it’s I’m looking forward to it. It should be really fun.

It’s kind of like, you know, kind of my own kind of program I guess that I’ve kind of hand picked a little bit. So I think I’m looking forward to it should be really good.

Nice. OK, preseason races, what do we have to look forward to to see you on the track?

Yeah, I’ve got some stuff planned, obviously. Probably start with AMO at Gopher Dunes. I don’t think we ever missed that race, assuming the weather’s good. We’ve had a not good winter, No, but yeah, the winter’s kind of been crappy. So hopefully that race, but it all kind of depends on weather and then obviously kind of go from there.

I think I’m going to try and do a little bit different stuff this year. I’m going to try and do like some Ontario stuff, some BC stuff, some Alberta stuff, some East Coast stuff, just to kind of spread a little bit of love around the country a little bit.

And you know, just be there for the dealers across the country a little bit more than just for the national. So try to try to do some events here and there, but probably start with AMO, then probably do an East Coast one.

And then we got our photo shoot testing and stuff here. And then, heck, I might do Revelstoke. We’re trying to figure that one out because apparently it’s really nice. So yeah, I’m not sure. We should have a schedule out soon for that.

And then we had talked about maybe Pala. So, yeah, so I’d like to do Pala the weekend before the Nationals, but that one’s a tough one to get everybody on board just because it’s so tight. But I’m going to see if I can do it because I’d like to do Pala.

And then the last three US nationals, kind of my goal, I guess. And yeah, that’s, I’d have a lot of fun doing that. So hopefully I can make that work.

And then I heck, you might see me do some like weird gait drops in Florida and in Mesquite. I think they got a race in like 2 weeks maybe. So maybe I’ll do that one.

But yeah, just try to get some gait drops in wherever we can and support, you know, the dealers and Honda across the country.

Great to catch up with you here. Do you enjoy doing these bike shows or what?

Yeah, I do, for the most part. Sometimes it’s some long days. I mean, heck, we’re here like 6:50 today, I think. But it’s fun, you know, you talk to a lot of people and heck, the Toronto one, like a lot of people don’t really know motocross. So you’re kind of talking to a lot of people, introducing them to like where they can ride and you know, where some nationals are because they’re like, “Hey, where do you guys race?” to kind of get introduced into the series and stuff.

So I think that’s good, just bringing more fans and new fans into the sport, which is which is awesome and how you can attest to it. You’ll see most of the industry here too.

So I see a lot of friends from like all the manufacturers for the most part are pretty good friends with a few across the board. So it’s fun to catch up with everybody and I have a couple of beers at the bar with the boys at night and yeah, just have some fun.

Hey, thanks for catching up and maybe I’ll see you down in Florida somewhere. Good luck with everything and we’ll see you at Round one.

Heck yeah. Awesome. Thanks, Billy.

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Moto Money Race at Pax Trax in Florida

Canadians made up a big chunk of the entries at the 3rd annual Moto Money Race at Pax Trax in Bunnell, Florida, this past Wednesday. They didn’t have transponders so you couldn’t follow along with live timing, but CJ Harris sent over photos of the results for us to check out.

The biggest winner was #64 Wyatt Kerr in the Pro and Collegeboy classes. Here’s a look:

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OK, the 4:00pm deadline has come and gone. We’ll end this one here. I just spoke to Noah Viney here at the side of the track and he said his big brother Bjorn Viney is going through the wringer with his leg after his street bike crash. I just want to tell Bjorn we’re hoping for the best for him as he deals with this.

It’s time for the good old fashioned Meet ‘N Greet here. Have a great weekend, everyone. Lot’s of racing and coverage coming up here from the Daytona area.

If you want to look at some photos from Media Day here today, click the link HERE.