Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

Wow, it took me an entire day to recover from that humidity at Red Bud. Friday for the MX Combine was off-the-charts hot! I bet if you talked to any one of them who were on the line they’d tell you it was comparable to Loretta Lynn’s in Tennessee in August. Saturday started out overcast and bearable but then the clouds moved away and the day got hot and humid. It was pretty brutal.

After a weekend at home it was nice to be back on the road and driving to another big race. I first went to Red Bud way back in 1984 (you heard me!) and it’s always been one of the most energetic atmospheres you’re going to find at a motocross race. This entire weekend was no different.

I was happy to bump into #654 Vincent Lauzon and #430 William Crete from Quebec on one of my walks back to the van for sunscreen. Vincent was going to try to race an AMA Pro Motocross National for the first time, but was going into it with a sore back – not a great way to start. William has hit quite a few AMA races and was going to try the 250 class, but wasn’t expecting much because he’s a working stiff these days…they both are, actually!

They’d be joining #336 Derek Hamm who was going to try his first-ever AMA Pro National after racing in Canada as a Pro for over 18 years!

We also had our 2022 250 Canadian Triple Crown Series champion #84 Mitchell Harrison in Michigan in the Thor GasGas team’s van with his wife lining up in the 250 class.

But before I get ahead of myself, it was still Friday and that meant the Moto Combine where we had #64 Ryder McNabb, #800 Preston Masciangelo, and #43 Noah Viney (half Canadian status?) lining up.

Team McNabb had considered racing Saturday in the Pro class but they spoke with their “people” and decided it’d be better for the advancement of Ryder’s career to race the combine, and I agree. He’s still eligible so it just made sense to go that route. The risk of racing the pro class is being overlooked or forgotten as “just another rider” in that group. He’s only 17 and eligible to race it, so it was all positives to do so.

Preston Masciangelo is concentrating on Loretta’s this summer but will also race Gopher Dunes this week and Noah Viney lives in California and is filling in for the injured #4 Jake Piccolo on the Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing team and it was a week off, so he was back with his SLR Honda team for the Combine.

Instead of typing a complete recap, let’s just post the YouTube video we put up that should give you a pretty good idea of how things went:

In moto 2, #66 Casey Cochran got out of shape at the drop of the gate and came over on McNabb. Ryder was outside the top 10 as they headed out while Casey was able to get out front and run away. Check out how close these two were in speed in moto 2:

Ryder was a upset that he didn’t get the win, but I’d say his performance taking 2nd was as good as winning. He came from way back and passed most of the top young riders and showed he’s a racer who deserves a look for racing on a factory team down south. The guys in the booth were talking about his riding constantly!

Here are our conversations with Ryder and Preston at the end of the day:

Ryder McNabb:

Preston Masciangelo:

I never got to talk to Noah at the end of the day.

Saturday:

William Crete wasn’t expecting to even make it into the motos but then found himself up in 28th place after 250 qualifying! He admitted he wasn’t in AMA race shape but headed to the line with his trademark smile on his face and went for it.

Unfortunately, he suffered some severe stomach cramps in moto 1 and was forced to pull out. They decided to call it a day, but guess what? He was still smiling! Lol Here’s our conversation after qualifying:

In the 450 class, #654 Vincent Lauzon missed making it into the Consi or the motos after qualifying in 83rd position. As I mentioned, he had a bad back going in and wasn’t expecting a lot from himself on this particular day. Here’s our conversation at the end of his day:

#336 Derek Hamm qualified 73rd and headed to the Consi where he finished 32nd. Here’s our conversation after qualifying:

We’ll have a column up on the Pro racing later here on the site.

I managed to make it home through torrential rain just before 1:00am and collapsed. We’re heading to Gopher Dunes this coming weekend for Round 4 of our series. I’ll head over there tomorrow to see everyone getting one last ride in:

My back is still pretty messed up making it difficult to sit and type, so I’m ending it here. I hope everyone had a nice Canada Day long weekend. The weather pretty much sucked in southwestern Ontario. Have a great week and we’ll see everyone at “the beach!”