Frid'Eh Update #45 Presented by Orange Motorsports

Sponsored by: 

By: Kyle Carruthers, Billy Rainford, Allison Kennedy and James Lissimore

Hey everyone and welcome back to the 45^th edition of the DMX Frid’Eh Update. I hope everyone’s Friday is going better than mine so far. I am stuck on the couch with the Flu writing this hoping to be rested enough to get another ride in tomorrow. As I currently look outside it is snowing here in Bowmanville Ontario and a chilly two degrees. Lucky for us it is supposed to warm up for tomorrow and offer us some sunshine.

At least being on the couch all day has allowed me to take in some of the amazing Remembrance Day TV shows being played right now. Remembrance Day is a day I hold close to my heart and I feel some people don’t take it as serious as it should be taken. What the men and woman who have served our country have done for us most of us will never realize or understand it. Just remember when you’re sitting there today playing the new Call of Duty and yelling at your buddy over your head piece that some one actually experienced those kind of events and weren’t able to just get up and “respawn” for another try.

I would like to give a shout out to a soldier I got the chance to know this summer. Ryan Bohm is an active motocrosser and just returned this summer from one of his tours in Afghanistan. We welcomed him home with a BBQ at Dawns house and a race weekend at Gopher Dunes. The crew from SCOTT and Mica Sport Canada also gave Ryan an amazing deal on a new bicycle which is pretty cool! Ryan thanks for everything you and your crew did for us overseas!

Ryan Bohm in the Sand box. Photo rightfully stolen from Ryan's Facebook (sorry).

Now this update is brought to you by one of the most popular dealerships in Canada which is none other than Orange Motorsports out of Port Hope Ontario. Siert and crew are offering some amazing deals right now. All accessories including tires in the store are 25% off so make sure you go and check out their new and bigger show room. OMS is also offering snowmobile and ATV repairs for the winter at $65.00 per hour.  To top it all off, if you buy a 2012 KTM SX model and Orange Motorsports will buy your race membership for a club of your choice! Pretty cool!

Orange Motorsports is also offering all the options you need to make your KTM into a full blown racing machine to compete right up to the pro level. Whether it be getting your suspension dialled in by SSS or getting the KTM Hard parts, Orange Motorsports has what you need to make your replica KTM race bike for 2012. Check out www.orangemotorsports.ca for more details and directions.

Orange Motorsports is the place to go for all your KTM Needs.

This week’s update also goes out to national #45 Nicky Beatty. Nicky who I nick named the holeshot kid at Walton in 2010, took on the whole series for 2011. He also banged out both hole shots at the Riverglade national and earned #25 for 2012 by the time the mud dried up at Walton. Look for Nicky to make a statement on the circuit in 2012.

Beatty taking the Holeshot in Moncton. James Lissimore Photo.

The Penticton AX is taking off tonight and is going to be a great event. With riders like Keast, Beaton, Jeremy Medaglia, Dylan Kaelin, Ryan Lockhart, Haws, Lepp and more pros it is going to be a great weekend of racing. James Lissimore will be there tonight and he will have more on the event later on in the update.

Now after gathering a fantastic amount of news this week I am going to pass this over to Billy Rainford.

We have Canadians spread all over the place right now competing in smaller arenas in both Penticton, BC and Stuttgart, Germany. The sole Canuck overseas is Tyler Medaglia and we wish him luck tonight and tomorrow night.

The Canadian Arenacross Series gets underway in beautiful British Columbia and there should be some good battling up at the front with Kyle Beaton, Kyle Keast, and Jeremy Medaglia all favourites for wins.

We tried very hard to get out there to broadcast the event live from my laptop, but, in the end, we just weren’t able to make it happen.  I know that Rick Hamer-Jackson will be there pushing Brent ‘Airmail’ Worrall around on Saturday night. What a pair THAT is! There’s enough moto knowledge between those two to fill a complete volume of Encyclopedia Britannica. Be sure to stop by and say hello to that dynamic duo while you’re there.

This weekend was also to be the Glasgow Supercross over in Scotland put on by Future West Promotions and the Hellam Gang. Unfortunately, the event has been canceled. John Hellam is quoted as saying, “Ticket sales were not the problem here. The event was selling well and expected to sell out.“ He blames, “Last-minute inflation on prices by event contractors.” It’s never good news when moto events get canceled but they are confident that next week’s Belfast SX in Ireland will be a success. You can get information on the series at www.fwsx.com

I did what I could to dig up some news on some of our National riders, but we are in a difficult time of year as most are still trying to solidify their rides for this winter and next summer so the ink isn’t quite dry on a lot of deals. Here’s what I got:

We’re still waiting to hear where a few of our top riders land, so, until then, we can’t really say too much about Dusty Klatt, Tyler Medaglia, Jeremy Medaglia, Kyle Keast, or Kaven Benoit. Basically, I think it comes down to who KTM Canada selects for their roster before the rest of the teams can jump on the remaining top guys. The retirement of the Blackfoot Race Team has really made this ‘silly season’ interesting and it means some other teams will be able to get themselves closer to the front when the racing starts next June.

2012 National #6, Shawn Maffenbeier, is on his way to Pemberton, BC to begin his training with Todd Schumlick of Perform X. Shawn won’t be ready to compete in Penticton this weekend, but says he would like to do the rest of the AX Series if he has bikes. Look for this guy to be ready to bang bars when the time comes next summer. 2011’s ‘Most Improved Rider’ (I just gave him that title) should be one to watch next year.

Remember Ryan Millar? Sure you do. Well, one of Canada`s most naturally-gifted riders is planning on coming back to the Canadian Nationals for next summer. At the moment, he`s just waiting to get back to his training down in Texas and has been on his `skid loader` ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid_loader )`24/7” back in Manitoba. After suffering multiple shoulder injuries, a broken wrist, and a broken femur last year, he is, right now, in a cast while a crushed navicular bone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navicular bone  in his foot heals. He has a few more weeks before he is able to get back on his motorcycle. It’ll be good to see The Millars back on the scene next summer.

Millar will be back on the Canadian tour for 2012. James Lissimore Photo.

With Cole Thompson our next Canadian to take his shot at the US Scene, we need to keep our eyes on young Kade Walker, too. Kade is currently competing in the European SX series in the Rookie class. He is going for the title and there are also a lot of interesting things coming up for him. Kade has been testing the 2013 KTM SX85 big-wheel bike and will be racing it in the last two rounds of the EU Series. He’s racing in Milan, Italy this weekend (tough life) where it’s been raining, so it should be a mudder as the arena is ‘open air.’

The next round is in Genoa, Italy. Apparently, Chad Reed and Justin Barcia will be there and they have arranged for Kade to hang out with them for Media Day. The race in Genoa will be Kade’s last race on the little bike. He then comes back to North America until February when he heads back to Europe to prepare for his competition in the 2012 FIM World Championships where he will compete in all six rounds of the 125 Class. It sounds like Kade is living the moto dream and we wish him all the best. I see a trip to Europe next summer. Time to go sell some more blood…

I spoke to a few ‘Honorary Canadians’ to find out which part of the world they were currently in and what their plans were. Kevin ‘Big Sexy’ Urquhart is home in Menifee, CA and just got back on a bike for the first time on Wednesday. He was getting checked for his shoulder surgery and they determined he also needed hernia surgery. He’s on the mend and plans on doing the AMA SX Series in the 450 class on board a Team Urquhart machine.

Dylan Schmoke is getting himself ready for A1 and Tyler Sjoberg is in the middle of finalizing his ride for AMA Sx where he figures he’ll be competing in the Lites East. We are going to have lots of familiar faces to cheer for when A1 finally gets here!

Kieran ‘Goose It’ Leigh is currently back home in New Zealand where he just got the locking screws removed from his knee and hip that secured the nice rod he has in his femur. He figures he should be riding in a week and plans on racing a big event down there at Christmas time and then will be getting ready to compete in the NZ Nationals starting in February. We all wish the friendly Kiwi the best of luck.

It’s the time of year when a lot of Canadian riders make plans to head south to train, compete, and just escape the deteriorating, Canadian weather. The first big event on the calendar is the Florida Mini O’s which run from November 21-26. It starts out with a couple days of SX followed by the outdoor racing. Lots of Canadians make this trip and this year seems to be no different. I tried to compile a list of who’s going and here’s what I have, so far: Westen Wrozyna, Taner Ward, Brandon Gourlay, Coleman, Rendal, Dawson Tracey, Keenan White, and Mitch Goheen. I’m sure there are more people heading down on big bikes, but I haven’t heard from them. Perhaps Kyle has a better idea. Good luck to everyone and try to be careful in the SX portion of the week; it always seems to claim more than its share of riders.

That’s it for me.

Thanks Billy and awesome news to see the Red and White getting represented all over the world these days.

I also got a chance to talk to Alberta’s Jared Stock this week and he is getting ready to go for next year already. After being couched with his shoulder injury he is chomping at the bit to get back to work and back to racing and training in California. Check out this video below of Jared. He has entered in thw Champion Spark Plug Contest so make sure you watch the video and then click this link to vote for a fellow Canadian.

Now over to Allison.

Hello all and hope you’re enjoying the first signs of snow that blasted parts of Ontario last night. Up here in Collingwood, we get pretty excited about snow as it means the snowboard season is just around the corner. For others, it means snowcross is coming soon and for others it means it’s time to stud the tires for ice racing. I have heard that it might bounce back up to plus 14 on Sunday so who knows? Maybe you’ll get one more ride in.

There’s not much happening on my end in the moto world but I have been making a few calls for a project I am working on for DMX. I had a chance to catch up with KTM Canada’s Andy White and got to ask about Colton Facciotti’s transition to the team. White had this to say,” We’re going to be taking him down to Vegas next week for the Endurocross to introduce him to Teddy Baluziak, Mike Brown, Kurt Casselli, the whole off-road program just to make him feel more at home and help him understand the whole orange-bleeding program of KTM. Then we are going to take him to the head office to meet Roger DeCoster and Dungey and Roczen.”

While Andy and I were talking, I was asking a few more questions about KTM support for Colt if he chooses to try and race select U.S. rounds. White said that this trip was part of that process and that it was the first step in getting him comfortable in the U.S. “Those people know who he is and I think it would be cool for him to know them—just to be a little bit more relaxed when he’s at a US event and to know that those guys are looking at him. He deserves to be looked at. He’s a Canadian National champ who went down to the U.S. and proved that he can run with the guys between third and sixth on any regular day.”

 White also explained that Colt’s contract allows him to race the final three U.S. Nationals once the Canadian season is wrapped up and that KTM will help him out in doing so. I have to admit that I am warming to the idea of seeing Colt in Canada for another year. The more I talk to industry folks in the U.S, the more I realize just how difficult a time this is for a Canadian rider to try and head south.

That’s really all for me this week.  I am off to my annual photochicks weekend. 13 chick photographers in a condo at Blue Mountain, trash talking brides and sharing war stories from the season. Not the type of thing Bowker or Lissimore would enjoy but hey…we’ll have fun! Have a great weekend all!

Thanks AK. I am going to leave this with James with your Penticton Update to wrap it up.

James here, typing from the bleacher's at Penticton's South Okanogan Events Center and tonights shaping up to showcase some great racing. We've got a solid lineup, with Kyle Beaton, Jeremy Medaglia, Brock Hoyer, Kyle Keast, Dylan Kaelin, Kevin Lepp, Zach Ruff, the Lockhart brothers, Kirk Haws and more. I heard Brad Nauditt was on his way up as well but haven't seen him yet. The track's your typical arenacross track - a start straight rhythm section, whoop section and finish line double. Nothing too fancy here, just keeping it simple.

Tonight's arenacross is coming from the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton, BC

The Penticton track is a traditional arenacross track, unlike the bigger surface the riders usually ride on at Chilliwack.

James Lissimore photos

I actually wasn't going to come this weekend as I've got a wedding to shoot tomorrow but when Billy was unable to make it I decided to brave the snowy mountains and come up for the day and I'm glad I'm here. I've been catching up with a lot of people I haven't seen in a while so that alone has made the trip worth it. Not sure how I'll feel at 2am when I'm driving through a blizzard but I'll worry about that later...

Nice drive through the mountains this morning on my way to the race.

RTR Performance's Craig Fortune talks with his rider, Kyle Keast(r). The pits feature these lockable cages - nice to know you don't have to worry when you leave your stuff down there.

James Lissimore photos

Other than the race this weekend, I put together my favorite slideshow yet this week as I pulled my favorite Blackfoot Yamaha photos of 2011. I've had too many great times with these guys and I'm going to miss working with them. Check it out: http://www.directmotocross.com/news/features/2011/11/behind-lens-blackfoot-yamaha-slideshow

Ok, I'm going to wrap things up and get ready for practice here. Stay tuned to DMX for updates and have a great weekend!