Best Races with ... Doriane Facciotti

Photos courtesy of Doriane Facciotti


For this week’s “Best Races” feature, we caught up with Doriane Facciotti, mother of 2008 Canadian National MX1 champ, Colton Facciotti. It’s been a long and successful journey for Colton, and Doriane’s been right there beside him. Whether it’s updating fans of Colton’s progress on forums, helping find sponsors, or simply giving him a hug after a big win or a shoulder to cry on after a tough loss, Doriane is dedicated to seeing her son realize his motocross dreams. Doriane not only shared a few of her favourite racing memories of Colton, but she also added a little insight into the personality and character of her son that sometimes is overlooked because of his quiet demeanor.


Colton’s first race
“Do you remember those red K-Mart Jeeps? He used to ride that around when he was 2. He would ride it all over the yard and he would start crying when the battery died. He was never a kid to sit in front of the TV; he always had to be outside so we bought some extra batteries and he would just ride around non-stop. The motor was made of plastic, and he rode it so much that the gears went smooth. His father Rich is really handy and he went and found this old, orange, fat little Honda and we put training wheels on it. He got that when he was 3.

 “Rick and I had bikes. We’d just twiddle around some flat roads and go camping and stuff like that. Once Colton could ride this other bike, we went and saw my nephews race and Colton said, ‘Oh, dad, I could do that!’ So we traded my bike in for a 50.

 

Rich shows his son, Colton, where the throttle is, and he hasn't let off since. Our next DMX Poll: Should Colton Facciotti bring back his mullet? I say, heck yes! (I'm sure his GF, Jocelyn Killough, is telling me to shut up right now....)

“We went to Agassiz for his first race when he was four-years-old and they let him race. That was it—he was hooked. He even got second in that race. The next race was on his birthday, April 18. He was so proud of his birthday, and when they asked how old he was, he said that he turned 5 today. Then they said, ‘Sorry, you can’t race. You’re not old enough.’ But they didn’t ask him his age the week before!

“We thought, ‘Oh, crap,’ cause he liked racing. Fortunately, we found Hanagan, which is in the States, and they have no age limit. That’s what forced us into the States. That’s the first big race I remember watching Colton at. We were just so happy. We decided to do Friday night races at SIR [Seattle International Raceway]. There were lots of good riders. First place received a seven-foot trophy and you got a coat. Rich took off from work early every Friday and drove him all the way to SIR to race. It came down to the last race—and I left work that day to come watch—and who ever won, won the whole series. He won just by a nose and he was so excited. We had a little van at the time, and we had to tear down the trophy because it didn’t fit inside [laughs]. It was exciting for us, too, because we were just getting into the sport as well. It’s still my favourite memory of Colton racing, and it was when we realized, hey, this kid could be fast.”

 

Ha, I bet Colt is now as tall as his first trophy!

Facciotti vs Alessi
“Probably one of my most embarrassing races is from the World Minis in Las Vegas. It was the 60cc class, and it started out with about 100 kids, and they split them into groups of 50. He was the top rider in his group to make it into the ‘A’ main. I think the top-20 went into the main from each group of 50. The leader in the other group was Mike Alessi and he had one point and Colton had two or three points; you wanted the least amount of points. I was sitting in the stands watching the first race and Colton won it. It was fair and square and he beat Mike Alessi.

 

Not too many riders can say that they've beaten Mike Alessi, but Colton Facciotti can. He accomplished that feat years ago in the 60cc class at the World Mini GP in Las Vegas, NV.

“We were from Canada and knew this kid and couldn’t believe that Colton had beat him. We had finished second in the 50 class the year before, so they already knew who we were. Colton was still down a point to Mike; he had to win the race but someone had to be between them for Colton to get the overall; I didn’t know this at the time. I was never a good watcher when he was small, so I was sitting backwards in the stands. I just couldn’t dare to watch; I had a whole of week of this and my nerves were shot. There was this nice lady sitting beside me and she asked if I had a kid racing out there. I said the kid in third was mine, and I was just going crazy. She said, ‘Oh, he’s doing really well, you should watch,’ and I replied, ‘Oh, no, the kid that he is racing against is just so good and I can’t watch.’ I always watched the last half of the last lap, and when I turned around, Colton won again! She said, ‘Congratulations, by the way, I’m Mike Alessi’s mom.’ I was totally embarrassed [laughs]; I had no idea who she was.”

Recent Standouts
“Winning the MX1 championship last year was probably the highlight of it all. We worked all of our lives for it.”

“That was his first overall [Regina 2007]. We weren’t there, but he phoned me and told us that he’d won. We didn’t believe him and I told him to get lost—you did not [laughs]! I didn’t believe him. A lot of times he will phone and say he got dead last, and then he’s won. So I thought he was joking, because up to that point, he hadn’t really won anything [at the nationals].”

Quiet but confident
“Colton is a quiet guy; he’s quiet but confident. Mom has done all of the PR and resumes. He just likes to race. He never thought it was a big deal and never told people at school that he raced. He’s come a long way [laughs], like for talking and podium interviews. I remember his first interview under the Richmond tent; you couldn’t get anything but ‘yep’ or ‘nope’ out of him. They didn’t want to interview him again because he never said anything. If you’re in a close setting, with friends, he will talk, but he has the worst jokes in the world [laughs].”

Colton the Mechanic
“Dad hasn’t worked on a bike for years. Colton’s very mechanically inclined; he can work on cars, he can do woodworking. He gets it from his dad. Rich would do most of it when Colton was younger, but Colton would be right there watching. He wasn’t out playing while his dad worked. He wanted to figure it out. He can fix anything on a bike. When he goes over to England, or wherever, he needs to know how to take care of himself. At first, it was detrimental to him, he was so used to knowing what he did that it was hard for him to have another mechanic, or they didn’t believe that he knew stuff and wouldn’t listen to him. They thought he was older in some ways, but then younger in other ways. It should have been mixed the other way around, but I guess it worked out in the end.
 

Can Colton Facciotti successfully defend his #1 plate?

photo: James Lissimore

Colton has heart
“I know he will [win the 2009 title]. Once he has a taste of it … you never beat him twice. You might beat him once, but he will just dig deeper. I think that doesn’t come across because he’s so quiet. I remember when he was racing Raymond and he had a broken wrist. He came off every race, crying, in pain, but kept going back out there. He ended up winning the Gaerne Bronze Boot. He’s always had it inside, but people don’t realize it because he rides so effortlessly and is so quiet and calm.


AMA Supercross?
“That’s our goal. We already know that he can go and get top-10 in a pick-up truck, but you get nothing from that, except that the people on MXForum will be happy that you’re there. Realistically, he makes good money going overseas—he makes more money overseas than I make working all year. He’s already gone down on his own dime, twice, and we didn’t get a ride out of it; Kyle Beaton didn’t get a ride out of it. The best thing is to win the Canadian Nationals, and with Blackfoot’s help, try and find a ride down there. It’s a job. He raced down in the States when he was younger, but he’s going to be 21 this year, and he needs to start thinking about a house and all of that kind of stuff. This is a time when he can make money.”