It’s time for another Monday Morning Coffee column. This week, we focus on our 3 Canadians who raced Supercross in San Diego over the weekend…
By Billy Rainford
Let’s get right to some Monster Energy AMA Supercross talk from Round 2 at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. I remember being at this race a few years ago when we made the move over from PetCo Park right on the water in the city. It was a pretty nice set up there but I remember having to pay $70 to park one of the years and that didn’t sit well with a lot of the photographers and videographers who didn’t get the nodder in for free.
I also remember at Snapdragon it was Week 3 for the DMX Frid’Eh Update and I sat out in the parking lot in the back of the red DMX Van talking with Shawn Maffenbeier for a long time. It was a tumultuous time for him, but Shawn is now enjoying post-racing life as a helicopter pilot and doing great.
We had 3 Canadians trying to make the 250 West Main again this week. So far, #800 Preston Masciangelo from Brantford, ON looks to be getting the hang of this indoor stuff the quickest of the 3. I wasn’t at the race but was glued to the SMX Video App all afternoon and Preston was getting a lot of the TV time during the 250 B group qualifiers.
We’ll grab him for a podcast interview later today to have him take us through all of this excitement.
In the first qualifier, Preston ended with a best time of 58.355 which put him 23rd. It was #585 Blake Davies from Mission, BC who was right behind him in 24th with a very close time of 58.635, so both of these guys were ripping pretty good!
#214 Tyler Gibbs from Abbotsford, BC was our 3rd rider trying to make the field and he was struggling a little bit early and could only muster a best lap of 1:00.615. That time had him sitting in 43rd place, just outside the Fast 40 to head to the night show, so he had some work to do before Q2.
For reference, the top 3 after Q1 went like this:
- 47 Levi Kitchen 53.647
- 1W Haiden Deegan 54.011
- 34 Ryder Difrancesco 54.418
Kyle Springman was onsite and feeding me some information from the pits and said that Gibby wasn’t very happy with his riding and would try to step it up next time out on the track.
In Q2, they all went faster. Preston dropped his time to a 57.298 which was enough to put him 25th overall and into the night show. It seemed almost like Preston got all the TV time on the broadcast! It was pretty cook how much they showed him.
Blake also went faster and clocked a fastest time of 57.745 to finish 28th to earn a spot in the night show. As always, this was a gate drop situation and Blake crashed just after the first turn and it took him a bit to get going again and up to speed.
Tyler went improved his time by a couple seconds and dropped his best to a 58.968 late in the session on lap 11. It put him in the dreaded 41st position and meant that he was first alternate to make it onto the line for the Heat races.
As often happens, there was an incident and that meant the entry list for the night show rolled down to 41 and Tyler was in!
Again for reference, here are the top 3 times after Q2:
- 1W Haiden Deegan 52.927
- 47 Levi Kitchen 59.979
- 34 Ryder Difrancesco 53.011
Blake’s crash sent him over to the Alpinestars Medical trailer to get his shoulder checked out. He came out with his arm in a sling and just took it easy during the brake to see if he was going to be able to head to the line for his Heat race.
Of course he lined up!
Blake was in 250 Heat 1. He actually got out to a good jump and start and was up around 10th place as they made their way around turn 1 and out on to the track.
He got pushed back to 13th and went back and fourth from 12th to an eventual 13th at the flag to head to the LCQ. He said his shoulder was not ideal. he was 14 seconds off of #137 Ayden Shive in the final transfer spot of 9th.
Preston and Tyler were in 250 Heat 2.
Preston got a pretty good start and was up in 7th place early on. Tyler was on the outside of the gate and was around 15th early.
Preston’s race would see him go 10, 11, 12, and 11th at the flag. He was 10 seconds off the back of #173 Hunter Schlosser who took 9th.
Tyler was way outside on the start and his race sort of went 14, 16, 15, and 16th at the flag.
All of our Canucks were headed to the LCQ.
Holeshot to Preston Masciangelo!
Preston led the first 5 laps of the 7-lap LCQ and got more TV time than he’s ever gotten for Supercross. Probably more than all the other time added together! It was pretty great to see him looking that comfortable out there. #42 Dillan Schwartz closed on him and Preston didn’t put up much of a fight when he came up to make the pass with just 2 to go.
Preston crossed the line in a very impressive 2nd to head to the Main. It was also wild to see him doing the big triple out of the left corner!
Blake and Tyler were 13th and 15th off the start.
They both moved back and forward throughout the LCQ and ended up less than 2 seconds apart in 12th and 14th at the flag. The top 4 make it in and Blake was about 13 seconds behind that position.
Let’s have a look at their stats in the LCQ:
800
Fastest lap: 57.871
Average lap: 58.491
Consistency: 99.262
585
Fastest lap: 58.475
Average lap: 1:00.197
Consistency: 98.176%
214
Fastest lap: 59.395
Average lap: 1:00.371
Consistency: 98.758%
On to the 15-minute Main with Preston Masciangelo on the line.
Off the gate he got pushed wide and was in around 18th right away. He crossed the line to end the first lap in 20th. He got himself up to 18th position and that was where he finished to earn some points. His fastest lap was a 58.811 which didn’t come until lap 15 of his 17. His consistency was 97.880%.
Preston earned 4 points for his 18th and is now in 23rd place in the standings after the first 2 rounds. On to Anaheim 2 this weekend.
As we all know, Haiden Deegan won the 250 Main and now has a 1-point lead over his teammate #61 Max Anstie who won round 1 and then finished 5th at round 2. Hmm, is there more to this story?
My opinion? I don’t think Haiden should have taken out his teammate at round 2. People argue it’s every man for himself out there, and while I agree to a point, you still have teammates. Team sport? No and very yes. And I’m sure Haiden would appreciate the expected help from Max if this series happens to come down to a tight points battle between him and let’s say Levi Kitchen.
“Oh, you wanted me to run interference so you could win this title? I thought there was no such things as a team out there on the track?” You see where I’m going with this.
I won’t get into everything that happened for the non-Canadians racing here in this edition of MMC. We’ll post that on its own.
Hey, how about our old friend Zeb Dennis from Motopark winning himself “Firefighter of the Year”?! Congratulations, Zeb.
We also had the 2 riders for the newly former Dusty Rocks MX pro team, Liam Dodds and Noah Porter, in a race where they’re training in Mesquite, Nevada, over the weekend.
OK, I hope that got you through another nice cup of coffee to start the week. It’s snowing like mad here in London again, so it looks like I’ll be firing up the snowblower again in a short while.
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