Frid'Eh Update #28 Presented by Troy Lee Designs Canada

Jul 10 - 2:15pm - Steve Matthes

Frid'Eh Update #28 Presented by Troy Lee Designs Canada

Hello everybody and welcome the Frid’eh Update edition number 28 and we’re pumped about that. That’s a unique milestone to hit as 28 is the number of Dominos, the number of teeth we have in our mouth, the number of days in the solar calendar and the number of times I read Wikipedia to get these facts for you.

It’s also the CMRC number of South African and all around good guy, Liam O’Farrell. Liam, who rides for RTR/Orange Motorsports, was the belle of the ball in the DMX pre-season predictions as his spring races were fantastic. A lot of people thought he’d take that next step up and get into that front pack but so far in the 2009 series, it hasn’t happened. Crashes, an injury and more crashes have put a dent into O’Farrell’s plans for world domination. He sits fifteenth in the points right now and hopefully the X-Brand goggle athlete can improve on that. I think that, as with the Medaglia’s, Fitz-Gerald and a few other guys, he’s hoping that the move out east will change his fortune. I’m betting it will. Oh and Liam will also have Kuli wrenching for him which should be good for 5 positions. We’re just not sure which way those will go! Just kidding Kuli…

O'Farrell is looking to turn it around on the east side. He'll have his tracks and Kuli on his side. Photo by Lissimore

Well it was another week off in the series and the pros are getting rested up for the remaining rounds and I have to say, I like the schedule and the way it’s set up this year. Four in a row, two weeks off and then five in a row to end it off. Good job on that CMRC!

I just got back from what might be the best AMA national of the year in Redbud, Michigan. The race fell on the actual date of America’s birthday and that might have something to do with the cool-ness of the race but probably not. It was more like the perfect dirt, awesome track, big, fun jumps and the perfect weather that combined to produce a hell of a national.

The racing was great as Josh Grant handed everyone their lunch in the 450 class and that makes it five first time winners in that class and to that I say, thanks to James Stewart for sitting on the couch as well as RC retiring! It’s been a great battle in the class and is settling down to Reed, Short, Tedesco and Grant for the title. One of those four will be taking home their first 450 outdoor title.

The 250 class was great also as the top two guys went 1-8, 8-1 and when was the last time that you saw that? That harkens back to the mid-80’s when Micky Dymond was in the class and won only three nationals on his way to the title. That’s parity and that’s good for the sport folks.

So far we ran a photo of Jer crashing in the blog section and a crappy photo in his interview. We owe it to Jeremy to finally run a nice photo of him from last weekend in Redbud. Pic by Carl Stone

Great to see Jeremy Medaglia line up and race against the world’s best. I like that family and their go-get’em attitude. They don’t just sit home in Canada and rest on whatever status they have. They line up and race wherever and against whomever to try and get better. Tyler would’ve been at Redbud also but he’s rehabbing an injury plus there was the ECAN in Sand De Lee to go to which is understandable. He and the Hot Dog Vendor are tight!

We started a chip-in for Canada MXDN fund last week and I’m shocked (shocked!) at the support we’ve gotten. That would be the lack of support I suppose. DMX put in $100 and a guy from Sweden put in $20 bucks. It’s laughable really. $120 bucks? Seriously? That’s it? Maybe you guys need some incentive so we’re throwing in a Team Canada T-shirt and a free one-year IMX subscription to the first 50 people who donates $25.00 or more. Just help out the boys as they go to Italy HERE.

It would be nice to see Canada's official magazine of the CMRC Nationals put the politics aside and do something for the guys as well. After all, Dean, Tyler and Mitch need the support and they don't care who is running the team or who the sanctioning body is, they just want to race their hardest and bring some family members over. Gauldy, I read your rant and you have some good points but don't make the guys suffer. You should've heard how pumped Mitch and Dean were to be first-timers! The gauntlet has been thrown down.

You know, there's about 6000 of you that read this column every week. What if each of you chipped in one dollar? That's it- just a buck. We'd be there!

Ok rant over and back to the ECAN, did you see our own Sean Bowker’s reports from the race? Sounds like there was some rain, some accidents and some more rain but as usual the guys there produced a great track for everyone and sounds like there was good racing.

We also got a WCAN report from the people out there and let’s not forget about that race, one of the longest running races around. Check out this report HERE.

Teddy Maier is two points down of Eric Nye with five rounds left. It's going to be a great race to the finish! Photo by James "Ad Guy" Lissimore

I spoke to Monster Energy/Cernic Kawasaki team manager Derek “don’t call me Darrin” Sorenson and he was telling me that, right now, the top three guys (Facciotti, Carpenter and Klatt) are untouchable and it’s going to be an uphill climb for his rider, Paul Carpenter, to make up the points that he needs. Right now, the team really needs Bobby Kiniry to get up into the mix and Derek thinks he can but it’s going to be tough. Apparently the riders all love their bikes as well because the team hasn’t done any testing since the opening round and are running with their initial set-up. Derek also went on to say that he can’t believe the amount of riding that the three New Yorkers (Carpenter, Kiniry and Jack Carpenter) do as they are constantly sending out motors and other parts to the three amigos.

Derek seemed to think that with less travel woes, tracks that suit their styles better and a little refreshing break to recharge the batteries, Paul can get up there and start winning more consistently.

We announced our Directmotocross.com/Ignition Racing Factory Riders for a Day this week and we’re excited for Kyle Ward, Jared Stock and Nick May. Those lucky bastards are going to get a ton of support from all our sponsors as well as the man-friending duties of our own Dan Stenning. Dan may not have the best bike-working on skills but he can make a mean sandwich! We asked him to write a little report on what it was like contacting the winners. Look for a full interview with all three guys next week. Here's Dan's report-

Thanks Steve, as the one who has the manfriend duties for the FRFAD riders, I was chosen to give them a all call and chat with them to get to know them a little bit. You have probably seen the interview with each of them already, but you for sure missed some of the text messages I’ve been getting from them since my chat with each of them. Firstly, our Gopher Dunes rider Kyle Ward said he’s going to get a jar of Gopher Sand and sprinkle a little on his breakfast every morning. I also mentioned that sleeping with some under the sheets is uncomfortable but might help. He is going to try and make friends with it as best he can. He then mentioned that he was also going to try and pay Derek Schuster to make him a secret line like Blair Morgan did a couple of years ago.

Dusty has been great all year and that's awesome to see him be a factor for the lead again. Is it Carpenter and Dusty stepping up or Colton stepping down? You decide... Photo by JKLiss

Our San Del Lee rider Nick May was probably the most noticeably excited selectee when I spoke to him. You could just tell he was really excited to have been chosen. He texted me right after we spoke: “2 years ago my seat fell off during my quali cuz I forgot to put in the seat bolts after changing a filter when I was in a rush getting bike ready for next race lol. So maybe I’ll be less stressed this time”. During the interview, when I asked him who had influenced him, at first he wasn’t sure and I suggested Gene Simmons, trying to be funny. Didn’t work. He wasn’t really sure who Gene Simmons was. I explained that he is in the band Kiss and has a really big tongue. He tried to save my embarrassment by saying, “oh, Kiss, Yeah, yeah.” He then texted me that he was googling Gene Simmons. Thanks for trying Nick. I think he was thinking about what he had said while on the phone because the next text was this: “Hey could you just email me those questions I swear ill give them back asap lol it will be easy er than trying to decipher my mumbling and ranting lol” I told him that if I couldn’t understand something I would make something up. His response. “K K lol you got to make me sound like a factory rider for the day too. Like when you say how does it feel to get this say something like…Ya it;s the sickest thing that’s happened to me all day ;) don’t write what I probably actually said lol” My response, “That is the sort of thing a good manfriend does. :D”

Our three amigos, Stock, Ward & May. Sounds like a law firm.

Our Walton rider Jared Stock was out on the track when I first called him and then when I called the next day he was working on his bikes. When I was typing out his interview he spoke of the old track in Medicine Hat. He mentioned that there were some “coolies” there that most other people rode and I wasn’t really sure if he had said coolies or not, so I asked him via text.

Me “Hey, I can’t make out something you said. There are ‘coolies’ by the track in Medicine Hat? ‘coolies’?”

Jared “Yeah, the track was beside a river. So hills are what I meant I guess.”

Me “so you call hills coolies?”

Jared “ha ha ok now that I see it looks stupid lol. It’s just what everyone called them when I was little. I really don’t know where the word came from.”

Me “It’s not stupid. I have weird names for stuff too. Like…well, I can’t think of any right now but I’m sure I do.”

Jared “Funny, I’ve never seen coolies written out before. Hahaha. I don’t like the looks of it.”

Me “ well it could be koolies. Or, I’ve got a friend named Kuli.”

Jared “Coolies sounds like a gang of kids in high school ha ha”

Me “ lol yeah. Here a coolie is a thing you put on your beer to keep it cold.”

Jared “did you google it?”

At this point I was wondering if google should open up an educational institution to teach kids the finer things in life, like who Gene Simmons is and what a coolie is. Turns out that there are tons of uses for the word coolie. And I asked Nick May what he found out about Gene Simmons: “He’s got one big ass tongue the chicks all dig.”

All the riders seem really excited to be getting this chance and so am I. Actually, I’m hoping that someone calls me and does an interview with me for being chosen as the FRFAD ManFriend. I’ve got my answers all written out and ready.

Sorry Beets but I had to run this. Here's Kyle's season in a nutshell so far. Let's hope the two weeks gives his wrist some time to heal and he gets back at it. Lissimore shot it, he's the one to blame Kyle!

Thanks Dan, here’s a trip down memory lane with Allison Kennedy…

All this talk about the Motocross Des Nations got me thinking about the year the MXDN turned into the impromptu World Cup. That was my first taste of how cool it is to see three riders pull together under
the banner of one country. Back in 2002, when the photos of the locked gates at Competition Park started showing up on the internet, I still remember sitting with Jason Mitchell and the Blackfoot crew,
along with Marco Dube, deciding what to do. We were at Olympic Stadium, wrapping up that year's supercross, and the very next weekend was to be the MXDN in California. But now we weren't sure if
there would be a race? Would the team go to the World Cup? Would it be worth it? We decided that if we could still get the crew some guaranteed media coverage (I was working for IMX at the time) that it
would be worth the trip. So, we went. We had no real clue what we were in for. Who would show?

Team Japan had it going on at the World Cup! Photo by AK

Would it be representative of the world stage or just a scaled down version? We went, and to be honest, considering the chaos surrounding the event, the organizers threw together a pretty cool race. The team that year was made up of JSR, Blair Morgan and Marco Dube. Roy and Morgan were part of the Blackfoot team while Dube was riding for Diablo Honda. All of the cheesy descriptions you hear are true though, despite being competition during the year, once you are at an International event like this, you lose the labels and become one thing together: Canadian. In the end it was a great weekend. It was a close points race and the Canadian contingent actually wasn't sure if they'd made the overall podium.

I remember that the World Cup was my first race back with Red Dog, then Blair took him out in the third moto and he hated Canada. Anyways, here's a helmet and goggle ready...Photo by AK.

We were sitting in the tent, running the numbers, when someone came to collect the team for the podium presentation. Canada got third place at the one and only World Cup. It wasn't a full-on MXDN, but the boys rode like it mattered, and it did, because they were riding for our country. Sure there are complications this year, it seems there are complications every year with this country's team, but you know, for what it's worth, I can guarantee you that Mitch, Tyler and Dean will ride their hearts out, pull together, and be proud that they were chosen to ride for Canadian motocross fans everywhere.

JSR, Blair and Marco represent!

See you at Gopher... AKD.

Thanks Allison, I love the old pics and now let’s get a report from our James Lissimore-

Well, I've been spending most of my time off this week working on my house but I did have time to bang out a few things for the site. I put together a photo gallery of the unsung heroes of our sport, the Privateers which you can check out HERE. These guys get much coverage but they're out there regardless, doing it for the love of the sport. Without them, our starting gates would be pretty empty these days.

I also threw together a fresh set of wallpapers from Morden which you can check out HERE. When it's not raining, Morden is one of my favorite tracks to shoot at.

And last but not least, I finally got around to writing a new edition of my "Behind the Lens" column. I've pretty much been a deadbeat on writing this since like April but I'll be bringing it to you regularly from here on out. This week’s photo is one that always gets me stoked when I see it, and the rider is now the most dominant man in Canadian moto but at the time was only beginning to show the potential that we've all now come to see. Check it out HERE.

Well, I don't really have much else to add this week. One more week and we'll be back in action at Gopher Dunes. I always love shooting sand so I'm excited to see what I can come up with. See you there!

Gauldy's too tired to give the thumbs all the way up.

Thanks James, check out pulpmx.com if you're really bored.

Thanks for reading the Frid’eh Update! See you next week with an early report from the Dunes.

Dungey's Livestrong gear from last weekend. I love how everyone at the moto races all of a sudden becomes HUGE Tour fans when Lance shows up. Last year, crickets. Photo by Stone