Observations from Walton

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Photos by Jame Lissimore

Soon after the checkered flag flew at Unadilla Sports Center and Ryan Dungey secured his eighth straight win, I jumped in the rented Ford Fusion with my buddy Trevor (who always seems to wear those tight t-shirts and we all call him “Sexy tight t-shirt Trev) and drove the six hours or so up to the metropolis known as Walton, Ontario to check out the final round of the CMRC Canadian nationals.

Last year I went to four races, the year before I managed to hit three but unfortunately for myself and anyone that actually likes me, Walton was the only Canadian national I was able to make all season. The new AMA schedule combined with a new job for me meant that I couldn’t make too many of the CMRC races. Still, I was happy to go and it’s better to make one than none right?

Last year was my first time at Walton and I kept wondering what happened to the track that I used to see on TV. It was tilled up deep, moist, rutty and pretty rough. Last year it was pretty dry, pretty smooth and looked like there was zero berms to be found anywhere out there. Last year was actually pretty good though because this year, I would say the track was even worse.

There wasn’t a bump on the thing, it looked pretty smooth everywhere I walked around and it was hard packed. I’m not sure if the ripper they used in the past has broken the last few years or what but I (and many riders I spoke to) was not impressed. This is motocross people! Make it rough and rutty! The most challenging thing out there for the riders were the rocks that were bombarding them at every turn.

The 450 title was already decided when Dusty Klatt clinched the title last week, it was Klatt’s second career big bike title and showed that, once again, you just never know what can happen and you should never give up. We (and I think Klatt would admit this) all know that Dusty’s teammate Colton Facciotti was the fastest rider in Canada this year but Colton couldn’t keep it on two wheels and had two massive garage sale crashes that knocked him out of the series.

Klatt suffered two mechanical DNF’s at Edmonton that put him way back in the points but he kept at it, charging hard and trying to do his best. Combined with that and some fortunate series of events (Colton’s crashes, Kiniry’s mechanicals), he ended up with the title at the end. He was so dominant that he clinched before the final round even!

Klatt didn't win the race but he won the hearts of many people at Walton. The pugs would have been proud.

On that note, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a series with as many top riders DNF’ing due to crashes and mechanicals. All told there were 24 motos where the top ten in points scored zero points! That’s nuts. By comparison, in 2009 there were only 12 motos where the top ten scored zero points. Only four riders made the top ten in both 2009 and 2010. It was a crazy year for sure.

So really, that means that every single moto, almost two riders in the top ten in points didn’t score points. Nuts!

On yet another note, I can’t believe the amount of double DNF’s from the teams as well. Klatt and Bobby Kiniry both suffered problems this year. Kiniry’s problem was a spark plug cap and Klatt’s was a stator. You just never really hear about teams down south suffering from electrical problems in both motos, maybe something happens to the bikes in Canada? Maybe there is Timbit particles in there from customs.

So with Klatt having clinched the series, there was no reason for him to go out there and kill himself in trying to win but that’s exactly what he did in the first moto. The Klatt-ster got a crappy start, worked his way into second and then went down in a corner. He got up, dusty-ed himself off (get it?) and chased back after the pack. Eventually he got into second again and was all over the leader Bobby Kiniry when they made contact and Dusty was back on the ground. The Campbell River Crusher would not take no for an answer and he once again charged hard but could only get to third by the time the flag flew.

America, Canada, Mexico or Belgium, it doesn’t matter where the race was, this was a great ride and the heart and determination that Dusty showed was amazing. Great ride for the new champ and when I spoke to him during the day, it’s good to see that Dusty hasn’t let success change him at all. As a matter of fact, he seemed like he would rather be taking a nap then racing his dirt bike.

T-Dags clinched the 250 title and congrats to him and Blackfoot Yamaha.

Tyler Medaglia proved that he was a top 450 rider but yet accepted a ride from Blackfoot Yamaha in the 250 class. Some would say it was a demotion (especially when you look at the purse money compared to the 450 class. Someone needs to tell the CMRC that the 250 guys now race all nine rounds. They seem to think it’s still a regional series) but T-Dags was pumped on the opportunity to ride for the blue crew and jumped at the chance to try and win his first Canadian title.

And at Walton, he managed to finally win it. Tyler just needed to go 6-6 if his main rival Teddy Maier went 1-1 and seeing as how Medaglia had made the podium in 15 out of the 16 motos this year (and the one time he didn’t was when his bike blew up) it was a safe bet that Tyler was going to make this happen. First moto out he put an exclamation point on his title by out-riding Maier for the win and in the second moto, he rode around safely and let just about everyone pass him in the second half.

He got the points he needed and won, giving Blackfoot Yamaha a championship sweep and with his win, it also marked the first time since 1999 when Blair Morgan swept both classes, that real-live Canadians won every pro title up for grabs. Oh Canada indeed!

I like Tyler, he’s a good dude and I’m happy for him to win. In watching the races and talking to people who were there, it seems there really wasn’t much to separate Maier and Medaglia. They were the class of the field (although I suppose Shawn Rife would be right there if he stayed healthy and off the ground) and I admire that both of them kept it clean and there was no real drama between the teams.

Before the season started, myself and many others spoke about the depth of the 250 class. There was former champions Eric Nye and Maier. Of course Medaglia and his teammate, the ultra-fast and ultra-unlucky Kyle Beaton. Tyler’s brother Jeremy “Jesus” Medaglia. Add in the Allison brothers, Kyle McGlynn and Shawn Rife.

In the end though, Nye was off the pace and then got hurt, Beaton got hurt before the racing even started, Jeremy Medaglia was a bit of a slow starter and the Allison brothers showed that they are not quite there yet. The last men standing were Maier and T-Dags and they battled to the end.

Bobby Kiniry won his first Canadian national and I say couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Except if it happened to Tim Ferry.

Jeremy ended up third in the series and he was a tick off Maier, his brother and Rife most of the time. In the past, Jer-Bear always seemed blazing fast but would end up cartwheeling himself at some point (or breaking his bike from the constant revving) but this year, on the new KTM, he seemed like he smoothed out a bit but lost a little speed somewhere along the way. He’ll be better next year for sure.

Bobby Kiniry was number 3 last year in his first year up north and told me numerous times, on and off the record, that he had a lot of fun racing up north but was frustrated with his lack of starts. Which is weird because Kiniry is known on the AMA circuit as a great starter. For 2010, Bobby switched to Suzuki’s and seemed to find his starting ability somewhere also. With Facciotti going out, Bobby found himself the points leader for a little while and definitely would’ve had second (or maybe first) if he hadn’t had a myriad of mechanicals the last little while. He had the above-mentioned electrical problems, crashes and flats that hurt him near the end of the series.

Still, Bobby wanted to win a national and what better one to win than the last one at Walton where they give out a giant-ass mid-evil sword for the winner. Kiniry went 1-2 on the day for the win and third overall on the year. He can just leave those numbers on for next year.

Y’know it’s funny how expectations work because a lot of people were touting that Facciotti was going to have his hands full with the addition of the giant from Hungary Kornel Nemeth for the full nine round series. Nemeth showed last year that he could run with the best guys but couldn’t get a start to save his life but he had speed and had endurance. You can teach the starts right?

But the massive behemoth struggled in the beginning of the year with his speed and, shocker, his starts. Nemeth turned it around though when the series headed east and wound up on the box in six out of the last seven motos to finish the year in second overall. It was quite a turnaround from early on when Kornel the friendly giant couldn’t make it happen. So what was the difference?

Jared Allison had a good season, fifth in the 250 points and then had a good moto on the 450.

Well it seems that Nemeth wasn’t in tip-top riding shape before he came here for the start of the series and was dealing with being away from home for a long time. Nemeth has a wife and child over in Hungary and I guess just dealing with all that was holding him back on the track. Once he started eating more than bread and got comfortable, it was on and he was pretty good. I still don’t think he was as good as last year but he was close. I wonder if he’s coming back next year?

Guess who was at Walton? Two-time 250 champion Michael Willard that’s who! Willard drove up through the night from Unadilla (just like me!) to ride the all-new KTM 350 for Andy White’s team and just like Mike Brown in Quebec, his ride the week before and Mike Alessi’s season for that matter, it didn’t go well. After setting a fast time in practice, Willard blew the 350 up and without any spare parts (his spare parts were on the other 350 that McGlynn was racing), his day was done. Willard wasn’t very pumped on his day to say the least.

I have to say that I was surprised when Monster Kawasaki hired Josh Demuth to come up to Canada and race the series. Demuth isn’t exactly known as an outdoor rider and last time he raced up north, he didn’t do much. I know Billy Whitley (the team owner) is a great guy and friendships mean a lot to him but I just couldn’t see The Sheriff doing very well.

Man, was I wrong. Demuth showed heart all year, had some good speed and had some good crashes from what I hear as well. At Walton, Josh was in a fight with Kyle Keast to secure fourth in the 450 class and had a good day. In the end, with Keast’s bad luck, he almost did it but still finished fifth overall on the year. And that’s about five spots higher than I thought he would get to be honest.

Over in North America, the KTM 350 definitely hasn't had very good success. Willard's day didn't go well.

And on the other end of the scale, there’s Troy Adams. Adams is my buddy and I pushed hard for him to get on Billy’s team. I was touting top five easily and maybe even better but in the end, once again, I was wrong. Adams never really got it in gear like I know he can. On the sand tracks of Gopher and Sand de Lee, he was great but too many inconsistent rides in between.

Troy’s a great guy and he’s been riding with his Florida buddies Chad Reed, Jason Thomas and Tim Ferry during the weeks and I hear all about how effing fast he’s going. Then he travels up north and the border patrol confiscates his speed or something.

At Walton, he cut his chin open big-time in practice and then crashed off the start in the first moto and couldn’t have been any more in dead last. He raced hard and did the best he could do but that moto went well compared to his second moto when he got a rock in the face and had to pull off. I don’t think that after this incident (and last years) that the Lee family should look for any “Miss You!” postcards from Adams anytime soon.

It was good to see John Nelson from Machine racing again and there was another special guest there in Thor head honcho Dave Gowland. Great guys and I could sit around and bullshit with them for hours and hours.

Nelson’s rider, Kyle Keast, didn’t have a good day at all. He got stuck in a mud puddle early on in the first moto and then nailed a haybale later on. The collision wrecked his radiator and forced him to DNF. Second moto, only the people on vendor row got a worse start than Kyle and he was forced to work up from the back. Luckily for him, he held on to fourth in the series points which is a career high for the Timbit Warrior.

Leading Edge Kawasaki's  Shawn Rife won the 250 class on the day and got a little overshadowed but he rode great. If he comes back up north, he'll be a title contender.

Jared Allison grabbed Yamaha’s YZ450 that was laying around, threw some suspension on it and raced the 450 class. His ride in the second moto was pretty good and I imagine the smooth power delivery that he had with the stock exhaust on there was pretty helpful on the now mega-hard packed Walton track.

An intermediate rider named Richard Grey grabbed the holeshot in the first 250 moto and that was good to see. He’s one of Canada’s up and coming riders but as Dylan Kaelin has shown, Canadian amateur success doesn’t mean a whole lot once you get to the pros.

Some quick thoughts here:

-Where were the Poutine shacks?

-I thought Spencer Knowles looked better on the Yamaha to be honest.

-Where was Danny Brault?

-I never got to try the deep-fried Mars bars from a nearby stand but I kind of wish I had to be honest.

-To see how fragile Canadian motocross success is, see KyleMcglynn.

-I don’t know what Ryan Millar’s deal is. He’s got youth on his side and did battle an injury for a little while but being from my home province of Manitoba, I keep up on the kid. He had a tough year and a tough day at Walton. I think he needs to have some adversity in his career and we’ll all see just how hard he wants it. Because I think if you add desire to that riding style, you should have a winner.

-Willy Shatrau, I’d like to dedicate this column to you and your ride the last few weeks.

-Good to see Peter “Superfan” Swanton there as well. Always like that guy!

-Heal up Colton and then please get the hell out of Canada. You’re still young and if it doesn’t work out in America, you can always come back north and whoop up on everyone.

-I never got to talk to him which was a bummer but it’s great to see Jay Burke back on the track and doing well. He had a horrific accident last year and sat out the entire season. Jay’s good people.

-Good to see The Mez there and hanging out.

-Always good to see Travers.

Thanks for reading and if you came up to me to say hi on Sunday, thanks for the ego boost!