Frid'Eh Update #48 Presented by Hindle Offroad

Sponsored by: 

By Kyle Carruthers and Billy Rainford

Hey everyone and welcome to the 48^th edition of the DMX Frid’Eh Update brought to you by Hindle Exhaust here on directmotocross.com. The big 48 means were closing on the New Year and it looks like 2013 is going to hold a world of surprises for the Canadian motocross industry. Although, I feel like 2014 will be even better!

www.Hindleexhaust.com

This week’s update is brought to you by Hindle Exhaust out of Port Perry, Ontario. Hindle makes some the best-performing exhaust systems on the market all right here in Canada. The best part is it’s easy to walk into your local dealer and order one up.  They fit well, they work, and have been tested by top racers everywhere, including the Allison Brothers and Liam O’Farrell to name a couple. Check out www.hindleexhaust.com and their facebook page here to get all the latest news on their products. If you’re going to the Toronto Motorcycle show next weekend at the Convention Center downtown, stop by the Motovan booth and check out the Hindle systems.

Billy Ainsworth at Hangtown. BA photo

This week’s update goes out to 2012 #48 Billy Ainsworth. Familiar name for sure, but I was unable to track him down. Billy, I know you’re out there, so send me an email at kyle@directmotocross.com.

As I said, we are on week 48 and it is the last day of November which means Christmas is around the corner, but also it marks the end of Movemeber. I know many of your ladies are happy to hear that news, but this campaign is in support of a great cause on the battle to beat prostate cancer and men's mental health issues and thousands upon thousands is raised. I spotted this photo of this Yamalube/Blackfootdirect.com/Troy Lee Designs Yamaha rider, Jared Allison. Looks like Jared rocked quite the weapon all month and will be shaving it off shortly...or will he keep it for the nationals?

Jared knows his mother will not be proud of this photo.

Another man famous for growing some the best mustaches going is Royal Distributing Red Bull Fox Racing KTM rider, Dusty Klatt. Dusty announced last week via social media that he has teamed up with trainer Todd Schumlick from PerformX for 2013. Todd trains many of Canada’s top athletes including Tyler Medaglia, Shawn Maffenbeier, Colton Facciotti and many more. This match has worked in the past for these pairings and I am sure this will be the same program with similar goals in mind which is to win another Canadian title.

I spotted this video on RacerX this week called “Blazing the Outback” with Aussie rider Daniel Milner. Check it out as you won’t be disappointed especially you off road guys.

We got another great update on Johnny Montes yesterday. This is what his sister Patty posted:

"Just an update on Johnny Montes. We are getting some positive stuff going on. He has been taken off sedation meds and we are just waiting for him to wake. There has been some movement of his hands, legs and head. Such a wonderful update to give you all. Keep your happy thoughts coming."

Thanks Patty for keeping everyone update and this is fantastic news! There is a great thread going on at vitalmx.com on Johnny and one on Mxforum.com if you want to post support.

KTM had a great program in place this year called the “KTM Off-road Support Program.” KTM and its dealers helped raise over $5000.00 to help fight organizations against off-road riding. The money will be spread out over these 6 clubs below nationwide. Click the PR here to see all the details on the program and how you can help.

    Nova Scotia Off-Road Riders Association (NSORRA)

    Fédération Québécoise des Motos Hors Route (FQMHR)

    Ontario Federation of Trail Riders (OFTR)

    Saskatchewan Track & Trail (STNT)

    Rocky Mountain Dirt Riders Association (RMDRA)

    British Columbia Off-Road Motorcycle Association (BCORMA)

MX Stars of tomorrow returns to the SUPERSHOW Jan. 4th, 5th and 6th.

The MX Stars of Tomorrow Program at the Motorcycle Supershow in Toronto on January 4^th 5^th and 6^th will be kicking off again. It is a great program with a great vision where future stars of tomorrow can set up a display to represent their sponsors and help attract new ones. All participants get some interview time on stage and get to take part in many great seminars with pro riders and industry people who will help all participants gain new sponsors and educate them on the proper way of doing so. We will be accepting applicants soon and spaces are limited. There will be a PR posted today on how you can submit your application to be an MX star of tomorrow. There will also be spots available for kids who only want to come in on select days to take part in the seminars.

Last weekend was the first ISOC snocross race in Duluth, MI. Canadians Tim Trembley and Iain Hayden had some great rides. Trembley ended up second overall in the last final of the weekend and Hayden took home 8th place. I got this update from Hayden on his weekend:

"Hey, Yeah it went alright. The weekend started out slow but finished off much better. We missed the first final due to a first turn pile up. On Sunday qualified for the front row and finished 8th. So it was better. Still room for improvement but was good to get the first race out of the way and blow the dust off."

Ok now now over to Bill.

Thanks, Kyle. I was lucky enough to get the chance to spend the week down south at the Thor Winter Olympics (Mini O’s) in Florida last week. This week, I’ve been just trying to get everything in order around my place and regroup for the next moto adventure. I’ll get to some Mini O’s stories later, but wanted to start off by talking about what’s going on out in BC for this coming year. Here is a Press Release we received from the folks a Future West Promotions earlier in the week:

Future West Promotions are pleased to announce its plans to stage a 7 round British Columbia Motocross Championship set for spring of 2013.

Commitments from six tracks in Southern, British Columbia have been made for the Future West promoted no licence required racing series which is set to kick off in March. Future West’s John Hellam has been hard at work the past two weeks nailing down clubs and tracks.

Future West will be the organising body and administrator for the series.

Commitments from the following tracks have been made:

Mission
Ashcroft
Kamloops
Victoria
Chilliwack Heritage Park (Outdoor) X 2
Pemberton

Discussion is also ongoing with other tracks for involvement in this unique new series.

Stay tuned for more information and schedule.

I wanted to try to get to the bottom of what this all means, so I spoke with John Hellam (FWP) to get some more information on this subject.

 DMX: First of all, now that the dust has settled on the first 3 weekends of Arenacross, how are plans coming for January and February.

John Hellam: Things are going good. We are ready to get back to promoting the series here in December and start selling some tickets and promoting the sponsors and riders of the KTM Canadian Arenacross Championships.

We see from your press release that you have initiated a new Provincial Motocross series and have a cross-section of tracks on board. Can you give us an update?

Yes, that’s right. We were hoping to get six tracks initially, but we now have six confirmed and two more in the wings.

Which tracks are confirmed so far?

The tracks and clubs I have initial commitments from are:
Mission - Mission Raceway Park - Lower Mainland Motocross Club
Ashcroft - Eagle Motorplex
Victoria - Westshore Motocross
Pemberton - Green River MX Park
Chilliwack - Chilliwack Heritage Park - Future West
Kamloops - Whispering Pines - Greater Kamloops Motocross Association

Who are the other two?

We have also recently been contacted by the Kelowna club requesting a round of our series and are still in discussions with Popkum. If the enthusiasm continues at this rate, we may look at a fall series to accommodate other tracks.

Wait, what track in Chilliwack?

For many years we have been looking at staging an outdoor event at the back of the arena in Chilliwack. Most people that go to the Arenacross events don't even know that there is a 5/8 mile horse track at the facility and Heritage Park have given Future West the green light to install a temporary track on the infield of the horse track for the Spring and early Summer. We will be able to utilize the grandstands that are used in the Arena and the horse track will be available for pits all the way around the track which means families will be able to park on hard standing right beside the track. We are looking at staging 2 rounds of the series at Chilliwack which will make it financially viable for a temporary track. Just to assure everyone the area is very large and the track will be plenty big enough for a full-on motocross course. We are very excited to stage our own round of the series at this new track.

You mentioned Kelowna, which I understand is the home base of CIMX (another new organization in BC). Are you linked with them in this series?

The Acheson family are CIMX and we are not involved with them or their series in any way.

Would it not make sense to work together with the CIMX?

Ideally, it would be great to have all of the racing in BC under one umbrella. There are presently too many licence fees in BC. The CIMX calls it a ‘series fee’ but it amounts to the same thing in the end. It's more cash out of the riders’ pockets and more cash out of the track organizers’ pockets in regional fees. Many BC riders have opted to go practicing and drop out of racing altogether because of the excessive license or series fees which are collectively out of control. I believe that excessive license fees are dinosaurs and generally seen as a ‘cash cow’ for the recipient with little in return for the riders and tracks who, in the end, take all the risks and do all of the work.

There will is obviously be some cost involved to Future West to administrate this series. How will you cover those costs?

Well, in contrast to all of the other organizations, we will not be charging the riders or tracks any fees.  As you know, we have been in the race promotion business for over twenty years—it's all we do. Future West is a full-time business and we run an office with workshop facilities and a lot of equipment that we have developed and acquired. We already have these things in our annual budget and we also have support from sponsors for Arenacross , so the best scenario is that we will attract sufficient help from them. The worst scenario is that we will stand the cost ourselves to get the series off the ground. In the end, building the sport up again is good for every one—including our company—so it would be a worthwhile investment. Our semi will be at most of the rounds promoting our AX series and our sponsors.

The no license fee is an interesting change for the sport in Canada. Do you have any more plans to change the sport through this series?

Eliminating the fees is the big one, but, as I mentioned earlier, we will be taking the semi to the events which means we can offer hospitality for sponsors and utilize our equipment at the events like the foam bales, banners, finish line truss, backdrops etc. making the series look more like a national and something that the public would like to attend.

Well, good luck with this undertaking. It points to some interesting things currently going on in our sport across Canada. Your series may act as the litmus test for things to come. Thanks for chatting with us and I’ll hopefully see you in January for the next rounds of the AX Series.

No problem. Thanks for the call.

Speaking of the KTM Canadian Arenacross Championships, I've been in touch with a couple pro riders who would love the chance to line up in the final few rounds. Ontario rider, Derek Hamm, mentioned he would love to get out to them if anyone had a bike they would like to see on the line. If any riders or dealerships read this out there, please get in touch with me and I will pass on the information to Derek. This hard-working guy is currently working in the oil indistry to be able to fund his run at the nationals next year.

I know that most of us involved in motocross take the physical fitness aspect of the sport pretty seriously and train hard to stay fit. I have a friend who organizes a run in Oakville and she posted a link to a story that disputes the physical benefits of hard training as we age:

So now you're telling me NOT to train hard??? Google image

From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323330604578145462264024472.html

One Running Shoe in the Grave

New Studies on Older Endurance Athletes Suggest the Fittest Reap Few Health Benefits

By KEVIN HELLIKER

In a five-kilometer race Thanksgiving morning, Ralph Foiles finished first in his age group, earning the 56-year-old Kansan a winner’s medal.

Or was it a booby prize?

A fast-emerging body of scientific evidence points to a conclusion that’s unsettling, to say the least, for a lot of older athletes: Running can take a toll on the heart that essentially eliminates the benefits of exercise.

“Running too fast, too far and for too many years may speed one’s progress toward the finish line of life,” concludes an editorial to be published next month in the British journal Heart.

Until recently, the cardiac risk of exercise was measured almost exclusively by the incidence of deaths during races. For marathoners, that rate was one in 100,000—a number that didn’t exactly strike fear. Moreover, data showed that runners generally enjoyed enormous longevity benefits over nonrunners.

What the new research suggests is that the benefits of running may come to a hard stop later in life. In a study involving 52,600 people followed for three decades, the runners in the group had a 19% lower death rate than nonrunners, according to the Heart editorial. But among the running cohort, those who ran a lot—more than 20 to 25 miles a week—lost that mortality advantage.

Meanwhile, according to the Heart editorial, another large study found no mortality benefit for those who ran faster than 8 miles per hour, while those who ran slower reaped significant mortality benefits.

Those two studies—presented at recent medical conferences—follow the publication in recent months and years of several other articles finding cardiac abnormalities in extreme athletes, including coronary artery calcification of a degree typically found in the utterly sedentary.

Opinion is nearly unanimous among cardiologists that endurance athletics significantly increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, an arrhythmia that is estimated to be the cause of one third of all strokes. “Chronic extreme exercise appears to cause excessive ‘wear-and-tear’ on the heart,” the editorial says.

Not everyone is lining up behind the new data. “The guys advancing the hypothesis that you can get too much exercise are manipulating the data,” said Paul Thompson, an elite marathoner and nationally renowned sports cardiologist at Hartford Hospital. “They have an agenda.”

Sports cardiologist James O’Keefe, an author of the Heart paper, counters that Dr. Thompson—a marathoner himself—is an exercise addict. “He, like many chronic exercise addicts, is the one with an agenda,” said Dr. O’Keefe, a sports cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City. “My ‘agenda’ is my patients.”

Critics of the newer research say that the idea that running can harm the heart is based on research showing only an association—meaning that exercise may not be the cause of the problem. The note that in any large group of runners, high-mileage and high-speed athletes may be too few in number to be statistically significant.

Yet by all accounts, dosage is no less relevant to exercise than to any other medical treatment, and for years the endurance-athletics movement has prompted words of caution from none other than Kenneth Cooper, the Dallas physician widely credited with launching the aerobics movement nearly half a century ago. “If you are running more than 15 miles a week, you are doing it for some reason other than health,” said Dr. Cooper, adding that he suspects—without hard evidence—that extreme exercise can render a body more susceptible to cancer.

The most vocal proponent of cutting back for cardiac reasons is Dr. O’Keefe, a 56-year-old cardiologist and former elite athlete. From 1999 to 2004, he won outright the largest sprint distance triathlon in Kansas City, a testament not only to his athletic abilities but also to hours and hours of early- and late-hour training.

But a sense that this regimen was aging him prematurely, coupled with the mounting awareness of cardiac issues in extreme endurance athletes, prompted Dr. O’Keefe to slash his running to below 20 miles a week, never faster than eight minutes a mile.

Asked if he ever runs a 5-kilometer race for time, he said, “Not for the past three years. After age 50, pushing too hard is probably not good for one’s heart or longevity.”

Meanwhile, Dr. O’Keefe’s fellow author on the upcoming Heart paper, Carl Lavie, continues racing at speeds slightly above what their editorial recommends. “I did a turkey day five-mile race in 38 minutes,” said Dr. Lavie, a cardiologist at the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans. “I train slower than I race, and when I race I know the risks. That’s all we’re trying to do: Let people know the risks and make up their own minds.”

The conflict between pursuit of health and of athletic glory is particularly acute in Meghan Newcomer, a 32-year-old professional triathlete who in recent years passed out during several races, requiring acute medical attention and prompting her loved ones to ask her to slow down or retire. She has a promising medical career, after all: Why not quit competing?

Instead, after undergoing in-depth study at a Connecticut sports-medical clinic, she was told to triple her intake of sodium during races. Yet she was also told to slow down, advice that helped her this summer complete—without passing out—her first Ironman-distance triathlon.

The idea that serial marathoners may earn no cardiac advantage over couch potatoes will surely amuse serial viewers of “Seinfeld” reruns. But don’t expect the running boom to grind to a halt. Optimal health isn’t necessarily the Holy Grail, even for aging athletes.

“Even if I knew for sure that running fast had an element of risk, I don’t know that I would back down,” said Foiles, the 56-year-old runner who lives in a Kansas City suburb. “To finish at the front of my age group, yeah, that’s an inspiration.”

A version of this article appeared November 27, 2012, on page D6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: One Running Shoe in the Grave.

Well, what do you think about that? Most of you reading this are nowhere near the age where it seems this will start to matter, but, for those of us closing in on that magic number, it might give us something to think about. Most of you who race motocross are very competitive people and will, no doubt, thumb your nose at this article. However, I know of a lot of racers who have been told to ‘slow down to go faster’ so…

Ok, so I spent last week at the Mini O’s in Florida thanks to MX101 and the Goheens. By my count, we had 18 Canadians racing. That’s a pretty good number, don’t get me wrong, but where were all our fastest riders? I’m not even just talking about our up-and-coming hot shot amateurs. Where were all the pro/intermediate riders trying to get faster or even open the eyes of potential American teams? We have a lot of fast young riders who could have raced in the Pro Sport class against some great competition.

I got to thinking about this the other night and came to this conclusion: Perhaps not everyone wants to race at the highest level. Bingo! Being in the moto media, I always go on about how I want to see all our riders taking a stab at the U.S. series and blah, blah, blah. Well, that’s not for everyone. I came to this realization and it helps me sleep at night. Going south, bank-rolling the whole thing, taking time off work or school, sleeping in a van, and risking getting hurt is a huge commitment. It’s not for everyone. We look south at the top-level riders and see what it has taken most of them to get there and say to ourselves, “Ya, I love motocross, but not THAT much!” Families get torn apart, people go broke, and riders get injured. Those are 3 things that would scare most people away. With this realization, I now see why so many Canadian riders are happy going to school all winter and then race our 9-round series in the summer. There are only a small handful of riders that will ever get a sniff at racing at that top level and the journey to the top has probably almost cost the majority of those rare few an absolute fortune both physically and mentally!

Having said all that, we have a few young riders with the skill and drive to get to that point. I know there isn’t money sitting around in the manufacturers’ parking lots just looking for a place to be spent, but I will stand on my head and hold my breath until a couple of these kids get taken in by someone and groomed for the future. I’m talking about kids like Westen Wrozyna, Dylan Wright, Kyle Biro, Christopher DaSilva and more (I didn’t mention Jesse Pettis because Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki has already stepped in). I talk to these families and ask them why they weren’t at the Mini O’s, for example, and the answer is usually money. Most of these kids are great in school so I know that’s not the reason. Dylan Wright is a 95% student! Anyway, I can’t wait for the day when our sport gets on par with some of the others in this country. I bet the next Sydney Crosby is finding a way to get to hockey tournaments!

They're floating around out there somewhere! Google image

Can you believe this? The Mini O’s had around 3700 entries this year! Like I said in my photo reports, this is a great sign for our sport. I have had the chance to go to this event a few times now and I could tell as we drove into the place on Monday that the numbers were up. A couple years ago the pits weren’t nearly as packed as they were this year. The only problem with this popularity is trying to get through the races and keeping the track in good condition. There were 3 gates of 42 riders in one of the C classes! Many of the classes had 3 qualifiers. The goal is to have the event finished on Saturday so they were forced to shorten the final motos by a lap and managed to get themselves back on schedule. If you missed any of the photo reports from the week, be sure to go back to DMX and check out how our Canadians did.

Now THAT'S a busy race-day schedule! Bigwave iPhone photo

The AMA released the schedule for the return of women’s pro racing down south. They will be competing in the Triple Crown. It will be a three-race series competing at the Hangtown, High Point, and Southwick nationals. There was fear that the series was to disappear altogether so this is good news. It seems women’s racing is struggling to find its way on both sides of the border. I was pleased to see that there was a need to run qualifiers in the women’s class at the Mini O’s last week, so the numbers are increasing at the amateur level, at least. I haven’t heard anything about the women’s series here in Canada, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. You can read the article on Racer X here. 

Speaking of women’s racing, I saw this report from Eve Brodeur after her successful trip to the Albany, NY Arenacross. I copy/pasted this from Eve’s website:

PR: Albany Kicker's Arenacross Race Report

11/30/2012

November 17th was the Kicker’s Arenacross in Albany N.Y.  Eve was racing Supermini and Women. She was nervous about racing her big bike into a tight indoor Arenacross track for the first time.  Unfortunatly, a blown Shock seal as a result of the long travelling and below freezing point temperature set her back and she had to race her supermini in both class.

Practice and heat race went good. She had to race the Last chance qualifier to get in the supermini’s final (only the first 14 out of 25 racers were making it into the final). In the Women’s afternoon heat race, she started in first place and led from start to finish.

In the night program finals, she finished 10th in supermini and again led from start to finish in the Women’s class.

Next Schedule race is the first round of the AMA Arenacross race in Worchester Massachusetts on January 4-5-6 2013.

Eve would like to thank: Duroy Racing, KTM Canada, Forma boots, Langelier racing team, Kutvek, Amerika, OCS suspension, Motovan.com, Garage EMP.

Congratulations on the win, Eve. Keep up the good work.

Speaking of the Mini O’s, I had a funny thing happen that reminded me of the scene in the Simpsons when Ned Flanders is trying to escape from Shelbyville in his rv but he’s having troubles getting any power. It turns out Homer is in the back cooking a huge turkey in the oven robbing the rv of power.

After racing each night, I borrowed Jay Thompson’s big diesel pick-up to head into town to use internet. A couple times, Brent Feeney, Kieran Doherty, and Terry Doherty came with me. It was Thanksgiving night and my regular Starbucks was closed so we had to venture farther to find somewhere. There was another Starbucks at the I-75 that was open so we went in. I pre-warned them that they were in for a long night because photo reports always take a long time to do and internet is sometimes sketchy at best.

Well, I finally made it to the point that I was uploading the photos to the DMX site when the internet basically ground to a halt. I let out a disgusted sigh and just sat back to wait for the photos to upload. At a table across the room, Terry sat up equally disgusted and said, “Man, the internet just slowed down. I’m having trouble streaming this movie!” I busted out laughing at the thought that we were there to get this photo report done and he was chewing up all the bandwidth trying to stream a movie. He closed his laptop and the photo report was done in mere minutes. These trips always produce some great memories both on and off the track.

I noticed on Racer X that almost-Canadian, Bobby Kiniry, will be riding on the newly-formed Velocity3 Race Team for the Supercross series. He will team up with Kyle Chisholm on Yamaha 450s. Best of luck to Bobby.

We received a couple Press Releases from the Gopher Dunes Racing Team (GDR) and it looks like they have made it official that Tyler Medaglie has a home again for next season. Here are the PRs:

GDR Amateur Support Program

Gopher Dunes Racing is proud to announce that in addition to competing in the 2013 Canadian Nationals with Tyler Medaglia, it will be adding an amateur support program for the upcoming 2013 season. At GDR we feel that rider development through grassroots amateur racing is critical to the future success and growth of Canadian Motocross.  

GDR will be looking for three up-and-coming riders from across the country to support for the upcoming season. To apply to be a GDR amateur racer in 2013 please send your rider resume to: derek.schuster@gmail.com  Resumes can also be mailed to the address to: Derek Schuster 4389 Hwy 59, RR1 Courtland, ON N0J1E0

The deadline to send your resume in by is December 31, 2012 and the successful applicants will be announced on January 15, 2013. Applicants must be Canadian residents.

Look for more details and team partners to be released in the weeks to come.

That's great news and it speaks to what I was talking about earlier. I like where this is heading!

I would just like to say a few things to a couple guys who are going through some struggles right now. Johnny Montes was in a terrible car crash on his way to work and is in a struggle for his life. We're all thinking about you, Johnny, and pulling for you to make it through this brutal time. Watch for updates on his condition here on DMX.

Brent 'Airmail' Worrall is still going through difficulties in his quest to resume a normal life with his condition. It seems he's been fighting bladder infections once a month since his injury. Brent, you are a guy that we all look to for strength and encouragement as you are the type of guy who will always get through things like these. Keep moving forward and never give up hope. Your moto family is with you.

On a positive note, Brent Feeney, who suffered a spinal cord injury while road racing last year, is slowly making the move to a chair-free existence. It was great getting to know Brent on our trip to the Mini O's last week. He's a fun-loving guy and will be back to almost-normal soon. Keep working hard on your physio, Brent.

Brent Feeney at GPF standing beside the chair that came very close to being home. Bigwave photo

That's going to do it for me this week. We're heading into the Christmas season and motorcycle show season. Both of these mean it was time to check the Forgotten Rebels' website to see if they are touring. It turns out they are. Tomorrow night right here in London! I've probably seen hese guys over 100 times over the years. Classic Canadian punk rock band. For me, they are Christmas. That doesn't sound right, but...

Wow, it was really hard to find a song that was ok to post here!

RIP Jantz Grodzicki.