Frid'Eh Update #30 Presented by Kermaxx Performance Accessories

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Welcome to the DMX Frid’EH Update #30 on the season but this column is number 1 in your heart. Thanks for reading and checking this little site out, we here at DMX appreciate it and I’m sure the guys and gals who went to Gopher are still picking sand out of their ears and other places (yikes!).

Cole Siebler from last year's Gopher Dunes national. Lissimore photo

This update is dedicated to CMRC national number #30, Cole Siebler who last year rode for the PerformX team of Todd Schumlick and had some pretty good finishes here and there. He’s an American from Idaho and raced some of the Arenacrosses this past winter. The best that I can come up with as far as Cole’s plans nowadays is that he’s doing some local races and riding around his home. If anyone knows what he’s up to now, shoot me an email and we’ll update the crowd.

As usual, I’m writing this from the press tent at an AMA national and this week, we’re on the west coast in the beautiful country of Washougal. This is round seven of the twelve round series and we’re heading into the homestretch. We’re also heading into a two-week break after this and I have to say I’m looking forward to that!

I do like this race though, I love being up in this area of the country. I lived in Victoria for a little while and worked for a privateer from Oregon and the Pacific Northwest is just an awesome place. The track here at Washougal isn’t great but just about everything else is. My buddy Fireman Ron is coming down for the race and we’ll be hanging out together. Buddies. In the Pacific Northwest. It’s a beautiful thing.

Kawasaki’s Chad Reed dropped out of the series with an illness and that opens things up even more for Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey. The Dunge has been dominant and with Reed out, that’s one less guy he has to worry about. Reed’s been struggling and hasn’t been happy with a bunch of things going in regards to his riding so he’s going to sit out for a bit to get that fire back. And get healthy I suppose.

I think this weekend we might see something out of Mike Alessi, the start isn’t very long (it is new) and the dirt is hard-packed. His 350 isn’t going to be tapped out everywhere and really the only place I can see him losing some time is up horsepower hill. Other than that, I think he’ll be good. I spoke to his dad Tony for a long time this morning and they’re excited about their chances at this race. He excused himself to go kayaking after that.

In the 250 class, it seems that its Pourcel’s title to lose but Trey Canard has won two in a row. For Canard to three-peat, he’s going to have to do it without his trainer/coach/life-mentor Tim Ferry as Red Dog didn’t make the trip up the Pacific Northwest. Whatever will he/I do?

Wishing you a speedy recovery Josh. Tabitha Mocon photo

Sounded like I missed a great race at The Dune de Gopher and I wished I could’ve been there. A lot of my Canadian buddies are surprised at this fact, that I have been to Gopher before. Back in the day…like way back in the day. The spring of ’92 I was out in the Toronto area working and practicing when I decided to hit the open practice at the track and then the next week the race. I was a first year expert in Manitoba and a pretty good sand rider (after all, I had plenty of laps at the famed Austin sand track) but I went there and got worked. Still it was a good track and I remember that it got really, really rough. Austin was rolling sand whoops and Gopher had those and chop. The chop is what did me in.

Anyways, that’s my story and here is something from a reader named Shane that’s a fan of DMX, he asked if we wanted something from Gopher and it seemed like his penmanship was so good, he would even make the Maniac cut so take it away Shane.

Thanks DMX! Gopher Dunes ... it separates the men from the boys! 

That sounds good, doesn't it? I think the Schusters should pay me for that slogan. That was certainly the case this weekend as Canada's best beat down the competition decisively. Can't say I'm surprised Facciotti walked away with two moto wins, although Keast kept him honest for much of the second moto. But I expected a little more from Klatt and thought after his success in 2006 and 2008, he would be a bigger factor. The question people are starting to ask at this point, is Dusty riding like the Dusty of 2006 when he beat up on JSR, or is Facciotti just riding really really good right know? 

In MX2 it was again no shocker to see Blackfoot Yamaha's Tyler Medaglia running out front all weekend. However, while he held the series lead, he was admittedly not happy to have waited so long to win a moto again. His younger brother Jeremy echoed the same thing; he wanted to win. It's great to see these brothers not satisfied with a podium finish, or to earn a factory rider, they genuinely want to win races and championships. Little JerBear almost nearly achieved his goal of winning when he held tight to Tyler for the second moto. At some points it looked like there would be some orange and blue paint exchanged. "We've discussed, and the boys have agreed to be careful," stated mother Medaglia, Leanne. 

TM now holds a 41 point lead over Teddy Maier, who would probably rather not talk about his weekend. He and the rest of his Leading Edge spent more time building sand castles at Gopher Dunes, rather than building berms. I think things are going to get real interesting in the next few rounds, especially Sand Del Lee. That's the home track of the Medaglia brothers, and both have impressed with podiums and wins in front of their buddies. No rubbing paint rule might just have to be put on hold.....

Kyle Keast, Kyle Keast, Kyle Keast. Once again that was the name coming up most often surround Gopher Dunes. The local Machine Racing Honda rider is probably the biggest fan of the deep, rough and tough racetrack. It's no wonder, as he's built like a burly lumberjack. Right from the get-go, the usual slow starter, set the third fastest qualifying time and burst out of the gate with a holeshot in moto 1 (he was second around corner one in moto 2). He was finally in his element and wasted no time taking off from the pack, alebit with Facciotti a good chunk ahead. Sadly, the Tim Horton's express came to an end on the last lap, as Keast's CRF450R expired ... he ran out of gas! Apparently, Kyle had tested for this in the spring, at Gopher, and found that his Honda would burn fuel up to 28 minutes. Instead of getting a bigger tank, the team opted to "blow out" the stock tank. "It's almost a litre bigger," said Keast afterwards. "But I rev the bike a lot, and it was just bad luck. We'll be fine the rest of the series."

The blue collar racer didn't let those lost points get him down though. He washed his face, hugged his dad and ate some glass before giving Colton his first good dose of pressure this year. For about 5 laps, Keast destroyed every bump on the track, trying to get by the ever smooth #2 of Facciotti. It was a valiant effort, but he didn't have quite enough to get by. He did however have more than enough for the rest of the field, as he stopped for fuel after the halfway mark and still finished second. 

Will we see Keast take this confidence and apply it to Ste-Julie this weekend? Let's hope so, because someone needs to make things interesting in the MX1 class.....

Billy Whitley has one of the best attitudes at the races. Sure his guys, Troy Adams and Josh Demuth, aren't lighting the world on fire, they getting some respectable results, but Whitley says everyone gets along so well and it's one of the best teams he's worked with. "Troy is really happy with things, and Josh is in great shape, he's trying hard," says Whitley. "We went out golfing on Saturday before the races [Gopher], and just having fun with things." Whitley also hinted about racing some AX next winter ... that wouldn't be too surprising as Whitley took Darcy Lange to AX glory, and Demuth is a proven AX champion.

Thanks Shane, good stuff! Now here’s Chris Pomeroy with his take:

Good afternoon DMX followers, I hope everyone is having a great week.  For those of you who weren’t at Gopher Dunes last Sunday, I thought I would give you some of my thoughts on the day.

The first thing I noticed on Sunday morning was how good the track looked, it was groomed perfectly and the changes The Schuster Family made were small, but great. Last year they left the track a little rough after amateur day and it really didn’t work out very well, this year the pros were allowed to make their own lines right away. The next big thing that happened was the arrival of Ricky Carmichael at the track. PA announcer Dave Bell told everyone the moment RC arrived and there was a frenzied rush to the Monster Energy rig, just to get a glimpse of The GOAT. For the next while RC signed autograph after autograph, then he helped do the TV commentary during the first MX1 moto, the guy was everywhere and all the fans truly appreciated it.

Kyle Keast once again proved himself as a top runner in the sandy depths of Gopher Dunes. Lissimore photo

Speaking of the first MX1 moto, while I was tweeting like a man possessed on www.twitter.com/directmx, I got the privilege of hanging out with John Nelson from Machine Racing. John was obviously cheering on his boy Kyle Keast who was having a good race, trying to chase down Colton Facciotti. At around the 15 minute mark, John wondered aloud that he hoped that Keast has enough fuel to finish, even though they had expanded Kyle’s fuel tank during the week. As everyone knows by now, John’s biggest fear came true with half a lap to go and Keast’s tank ran dry. It was just heartbreaking to watch, but I must admit Kyle handled it with the same class he exudes all the time, there was no throwing googles, no screaming, just the dejection you would expect someone in that position to show. For Moto 2, Keast was forced to make a pit stop for fuel near the end of the moto just to make sure he had enough gas to get to the end, he finished an amazing 2nd.

Right before Keast ran out of fuel, there was an ugly situation with Josh Demuth after he collided with a lapped rider. Josh looked like he ran into traffic on the 401 and got hit by a bus, man was he beat up. I asked a furious Billy Whitley what had happen, he said Josh was lapping rider when the rider veered ridiculously into Josh and down he went. Billy always seems like such a reserved guy, but man was he fired up. Even though Demuth’s case was an extreme one, I thought lappers were generally bad for all the leaders. I guess it was just the nature of the track conditions. 

The Sheriff had a real rough day at the Dunes. Bowker photo

One welcomed sight on Sunday was the cloud cover that appeared around 2pm. Even though it was still hot and humid, the overcast skies did take the edge off. It was a tough day all around for the riders, especially the Western guys who just aren’t used to the heat and humidity together. It was a great day of racing though, and if you haven’t been to a National yet in 2010, you have to come and check one out. If Colton gets his wish in 2011, we won’t get to see him race on Canadian soil for a long time. 

One thing that might help Colton get a good ride down South in 2011 is a good performance in Colorado at the MXON. This might not be possible now, after talking this morning to Carl Bastedo (the Canadian Team Manager), there is a good chance that the Canadian dream team of Colton Facciotti, Dusty Klatt and Dean Wilson will not happen in September. 

Due to a number of circumstances, beyond any one persons control, Canada, once again may not show the motocross world what we are really capable of. I am not pointing any fingers, as it is a complicated process to get the best riders there, but when we don’t send the best and don’t finish where we deserve to, its hurts the entire sport in Canada. The team of Colton, Dusty and Dean is a potential top 3 team this year. What a boost that would be for the sport here in Canada. Everyone would win, especially the CMRC. This is why I don’t understand why they don’t help or at least make it easier on the people who do want to help. Anyways, let’s hope everything gets sorted out asap and we send the best team possible. 

MXoN 2004 saw Jean-Sebastien Roy, Blair Morgan and Dusty Klatt represent Canada at Lierop, in the Netherlands and finish 8th overall. Taken from the feature in Racer X Canada. Brett "flawless" Dailey photo

I guess that is my rant (if you could call it that) for this week. So it is on to the Province of Quebec this weekend for Round #6 of the Monster Energy Nationals. I personally hate the Ste Julie track. It is short, very hard pack and easily gets dusty. There are about 10 tracks in Quebec that far exceed Ste Julie, but it is close to Montreal which makes it easy to get to. I guess that is one good thing.  The exciting news for Sunday is that Mike Brown will be there to ride the brand new KTM 350. It will be interesting to see where Brown finishes? I don’t think he stands a chance of winning but I can see him battling for top 3, especially if it’s hot and humid. The guy is still a machine.

So that is my report for this week, I hope everyone has a great week. I will leave you with a text I receive from Kyle Beaton this morning. KDBeets just started riding again this week and this is what he had to say. “Hey, I started riding on Tuesday and then again yesterday. My thumb feels good, just a little sore and stiff. If all goes as planned I should be on the line for the last 2 Nationals. I can’t wait!!!” Thanks Kyle, we all can’t wait to see you back at the track. 

Thanks Palms and here is James “300mm” Lissimore who is now looking to move back east and away from his beloved west coast judging by his contribution:

Well, it's been an action packed week here out in the east. After flying in last Thursday for the Gopher Dunes national I've been staying on the road and traveling around to a bunch of cool and exciting places and events.

First, on Monday I headed back to Gopher Dunes for the Ricky Carmichael ride day and I think that everyone who attended had a good time. Ricky was super gracious and accommodating and everyone who came to the Dunes left with something personalized by RC himself. I'm sure the three lucky winners who walked away with new DRZ's are glad they came. I put together a bit of a photo report on the day which you can check out here: http://www.directmotocross.com/news/mx-photo/2010/07/ricky-carmichael-ride-day-gopher-dunes

From there I hopped a ride with Ryan Gauld and Richard Grey up to Ryan's place before heading the next day to Kyle Carruther's track for a ride day. I'd been to Kyle's track a few years ago when we did a RacerXCanada ride day there and it never disappoints. It's an awesome place and a big turnout showed up to spin some laps. Riders like Kyle Keast, Freddy Karrle, the Allison's, the whole Murphy Racing team, Kevin Urquhart, Brad Nauditt, Shawn Maffenbeier and many more were all out and enjoying the track.

The scenic Carruther's track.

(l-r) Shawn and Randy Maffenbeier, Kevin Urquhart and PJ Stratton hanging out and enjoying themselves at the ride day.

Kevin Urquhart's day didn't end too well at Carruther's. After riding his race bike because he blew up his practice bike earlier he also blew the motor in his race bike. Ouch!

After Carruther's, I traveled with the Maffenbeier's up to Joe Skidd's place in Frankford. The Blackfoot and SSS Suspension man has a great place in the woods there and a really cool track that weaves around the property. The Allison's also came over and we had a nice little campground going at the Skidd residence for the night. It was a really fun and relaxing time and reminded me what I love most about motocross: The people.

Joe Skidd's backyard track.

The SSS suspension global headquarters.

Joe shows off a helmet from one of the MotoGP riders he previously worked for. Some unknown guy named Valentino Rossi.

I put together a few photos from my weeks travels on my blog which you can check out here: http://jkliss.blogspot.com/

Yesterday, “Big Wave” Billy Rainford and Brett Lee picked me up from Joe's and we made the four hour drive to Montreal. It's been two years since we were last here but it's definitely one of my favorite tracks. We headed down there last night and things are shaping up well for the weekend. With how passionate Quebec motocross fans are this race is shaping up to being one of the biggest of the season.

Oh and one last thing, the Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki has a new rider this weekend to fill in for the injured Shawn Rife. The aforementioned Ryan Gauld! Ryan will be riding and doing a story on his weekend for MXP and is already claiming at least one holeshot. If his 200lb frame nabs one then Frenchie really is a magician.

Thanks James and we'll end things with a little video spot that Kornel Nemeth had on his fan page that everyone will enjoy watching.

Thank you for reading, good luck in Belle Province and see you next week!

See you at the races!