Frid'Eh Update #1 Presented by Toronto Supercross

Sponsored by: 

By Kyle Carruthers and Billy Rainford

Hey everyone and welcome to the first Frid'Eh Update of 2013 brought to you by the Toronto Supercross. First off, let me start by saying Happy New Year from DMX to you! A new year means new things for everyone. It's going to be an exciting year for Canadian motocross. So many cool things are coming down the pipe this season. It will be a year of change (hopefully for the better) and DMX will be here to take you guys every step of the way.

The Monster Energy Supercross Championship makes its annual appearance in Toronto March 23rd. Get your tickets now! Bigwave photo

This Update is brought to you by the folks at Feld Entertainment and the Toronto Supercross. The Monster Energy Supercross Championship visits Canada once a year for all of us Canadians (at least us Ontario residents) to get a taste of it in person. Tickets are on sale now so make sure you check out www.supercrossonline.com for tickets and other information.

This week the series kicks off at Anahiem for round one. So much is on the line and the suspense is killing me! We have 4 Supercross champions lining up healthy and we know all four of them have a chance at winning it. I know we say this every year, but could this be the best season ever? Only time will tell, but I think it's going to go Villopoto, Stewart, Reed, Barcia, Dungey. What do you guys think? Let us know on our facebook page here.

Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki rider Matt Goerke earned the #1 plate for 2013 and rode a few laps with it during practice last year. Bigwave photo

This week's update also goes out to #1 Matt Goerke. Matt, who won the Canadian title and the Montreal Supercross on a Leading Edge Kawasaki, will be lining up this weekend on his Butler Brothers BTO Sports KTM as he works towards a successful Supercross season. He definitely has main event speed and with him being an honorary Canadian now it will be hard not to root for him. We will be catching up with the Canadian champ after the weekend to see how it went and get the low down on the rest of 2013.

This weekend is the 37th annual Toronto Motorcycle SUPERSHOW at the International Center by the airport in Toronto. DMX will be there in full force to help run the MX Stars of Tomorrow program. The MX Stars program is a great program started by Peter Derry of the SUPERSHOW and Chris Lee of Walton 7 years ago and it still goes on giving up-and-coming racers a chance to show support to their sponsors and pick up news ones as they participate in seminars and stage interviews to hone their PR skills. It's one of my favourite weekends of the year, so if you're at the show come by Hall 4 and say hi to the kids and check out all the other great off road and motocross displays at the show. CMX, MMRS, OCMC and Off- Road Ontario will all be there as well signing up new members for 2013.

I would also like to thank the sponsors that stepped up to make the MX Stars of Tomorrow program possible including, Race-Tech, Hindle Exhaust, Scott-Sports, Ryno Tech, Klotz, Ryno-Power, OrthoMed MX and the North American Motorcycle SUPERSHOW.

Also, if you're in the area make sure you come by the Hooters Restaurant at 171 Carlingview Drive  Etobicoke, ON after for a little Supercross social as they will be playing the race live for everyone at the show to enjoy. There will be lots of great people and an all-around good time and a great way to enjoy A1.

To make the following video clip relevant, skip to 3:05...but I suggest you enjoy the entire thing.

There are lots of good rumours going around this week and it looks like Yamaha has finally got the right guy lined up to race the YZ 250 2-stroke. I will let Billy touch on that more later as I have to run to the show to get things underway.

First though, I want to say congratulations to Brett Lee for one of his new gigs/projects he will be doing. I'll let Billy touch on that as well.

Hope to see you guys at the show! Come by and say hi and make sure to introduce yourself. Now over to Billy.

Thanks, Kyle. You tee'd up some good tid bits there for me. More on them later. Let me start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year and to say thank you for a great year in 2012. DMX got the chance to cover many different events and that is all due to the support from the motocross community. My favourite thing to do is go to as many different races and events as I can and give them the exposure they deserve. We have riders and racers sacrificing an awful lot for this sport and I feel it is necessary to cover as many of them as we can. I promise you that we will do everything we can to get to as many of them in 2013. Thank you to all of our sponsors and to all of you for reading our site throughout the year. We could not possibly do it without any of you. 

I've been a little out of the loop this past week as I agreed to an adventure that would prove to be a momorable one. I drove a brand new 12-passenger short bus with a retirement home wrap all over it from Indiana to Edmonton for the GDR team supporter Matt Bannon. Yep, that just happened. How could I say no?! Life is about creating memories and I just made a whole bunch more. I even got to stop in at a few moto-friends' places along the way. I went to a London Knights game with Matt and Derek Schuster of Gopher Dunes on the way to Indiana. I got to have a coffee with Loudmouth Canada's new western guy Brett Simmons in Saskatoon on New Year's Day. I then got to hang out with Adam 'Crawdaddy' Crawford in Edmonton for a night after we took his tire-studded Honda 250F out into the sticks east of the city. My non-moto friends can't belive that we know people in just about every city across this country, but for those of us who get the opportunity to travel this much you know that's just part of the allure of the whole thing. It's a great sport full of great people.

Ok, so I got in touch with Brett Lee to see what he has coming up. There seem to be many rumours floating around about what the respected moto guy will do now that he has left his CMRC post. I gave him a call and we talked about all kinds of stuff and then he sent me this more official statement on what is going with the two basic questions I asked him on the subject:

Brett: Well, that is a little premature. First, my focus remains still on building the Walton Raceway along with our team putting on the very best 2013 Parts Canada Walton Transcan we can. The guys at CMX, especially Skip, has been a friend of mine for many years, so naturally the conversation of working together comes up. I have had calls from several groups about different projects and I'm considering a number of different options. CMX and I have had some talks about what we can do together, but nothing is official. Motocross is changing a lot in this country and I have said it before that sanctioning bodies need to be relevant, have purpose and bring value to sponsors, racers and tracks. I know the CMX guys feel the same and creating that is something that interests me, for sure. I need to make sure of everything and if there is a deal to work out helping create needed amateur programs in motocross then I am interested.

I never left CMRC because I was burnt out on motocross or didnt like Mark (Stallybrass) or anyone. In fact, I really like them and love this sport. I left CMRC because I want to grow Walton Raceway, wanted to expand my own visions of motocross, and wanted not just responsibility but authority to make positive change. I still believe that national sanctioning and national consistency is key to motocross growing in Canada. CMRC is the national body and I am proud of the national championships we hold in Walton and whatever I do in the future will be about growing the sport in a way that is good for everyone. Maybe I am a good candidate for bringing people together.

Thanks for the chat, Brett. I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say that the sport of Canadian motocross is better with him in it. Good luck in the future.

Is Shawn Maffenbeier the first contender to enter the 250 2-stroke ring? I'm betting so. Bigwave photo

Kyle also mentioned that someone highly ranked will be aboard a 250 2-stroke in MX2 when the gate drops in Nanaimo. I sort of outed this guy a few weeks ago in the Update and now it looks like the rumours have some teeth, as it were. I gave fan favourite Shawn Maffenbeier a call today to get to the bottom of it. He was as elusive as ever but I'm going to go ahead and say that you can expect to see the Swift Current, SK rider on a Rockstar OTSFF Yamaha 250 2-stroke lined up in the MX2 class this summer. How cool is that? I asked him if he knew how to ride a 2-stroke and he assured me he did his fair time on a 125 2-stroker back in the day so this should shake things up at the front of the class. I know one thing for sure, he will be in all of my photo reports just for getting out there on that bike! I'll also have to make sure we get ample video of it so we can all sit back and enjoy the sound.

Dawn McClintock shared this on Facebook and I thought it was hilarious. There is some profanity right at the start so be prepared for that:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151389151080087

Good luck to Quebec rider Eve Brodeur who is in Worcester, MA racing the Arenacross Series. Check out her number plate with a classy tribute to Freddy Laflamme.

Good luck this weekend, Eve Brodeur. Eve Brodeur photo

I missed it last week but I want to say a big congratulations to Kerri McDonald and Derek Schuster on their engagement. It seems love is in the race gas-filled air these days!

The Dakar Rally has begun for 2013 and we have a couple Canadians in the bike category. #110 Don Hatton and #154 Patrick Beaule will be competing on their KTMs. I did a little snooping around the Dakar website and Hatton's story is pretty crazy! Here's the quote from his bio:

“On the Dakar, anything after day 5 is unknown to me. In 2009, I was in the shape of my life but certainly too confident. After catching up with team mates, I wanted to put a gap on them, and hit a jump at 150km/h. I remained unconscious for 2 hours. When I returned in 2010, I wasn't fully recovered and showed up on a big 690 KTM. I hadn't done any riding during the year. On Day 1, I got food poisoning. It was just awful and then on day 5, I got bad fuel in my tank that forced me to quit the Dakar. Last year I was really ready to go. On Christmas day while working on my farm, bails collapsed on me. I was lucky not to die. The 2013 Dakar has got to be the one. I deserve this Dakar. I was inexperienced in the past so I might pace myself a bit more. My goal is to have an uneventful race. I'm not looking for a position. Now if all the leaders are hit by a storm, I'd be happy to win.”

Patrick Beaule has also been to the race before but never as a rider. Here is his bio quote:

“My first experience in a car with David (Bensadoun) was pure pleasure. We had a perfect connection and I must say that we laughed a lot. We never got lost and really learnt to be patient despite having many punctures. But on the 15th of January, I knew that if I was to come back on the Dakar it would have to be on a bike. By passion for bikes! I've had a very busy year preparing. For my first Dakar I was “invited” by David. This time I had to raise money to enter the race. I sold all sorts of things like my van and my caravan. I also worked on being physically prepared. My ambition is just to finish. I don't know about the position. I'm pretty sure that I have what it takes to finish, but then again, you never know what can happen.”

You can follow along with Patrick as he Tweets about the experience @Pat Beaule @motobenny and @RallyRaidCanada

Good luck, guys!

Guy Giroux at the 2002 Dakar rally. Photo courtesy of Guy Giroux

I talked to Husqvarna Canada sales guy (a BMW group), Guy Giroux, about his experience in 2002 at the race and asked him to give any insight he could into this incredible event:

"All that I can say is that I'm pretty jealous sitting here and I will be watching every day on my computer for resuts and video of the race. I've been watching closely since I was there. A lot of guys I raced against are still there every year so I watch how they do. If I could give them a tip (I did tell Pat) is to take the first week really slow, learn, manage the bike and their body because the second week is where everything happens!"

Thanks, Guy.

If you're interested in seeing what a couple Canadian motocrossers are doing in the off-season, you can watch the Amsoil Snocross Championship Presented by Traxxas live on Ustream this weekend. Click here to watch.

I was wondering what the Medaglia brothers were up to so I tried to get in touch with them both. Tyler is down in Florida and was actually at Hard Rock when I talked to him today. He says he'll be renting a house in Gainesville for six months. He mentioned that he might race the Florida Winter Am race at Reddick tomorrow and says he feels pretty good on his Team GDR Red Bull TLD Honda. He also said he might try to run a couple training camps down there, so be sure to stay tuned for any further information on that. I will say that I love the pure racer's attitudes of the Medaglia brothers. They are just pumped to be on a bike and racing whenever and wherever they can. It's great to see.

I was unable to get in touch with Jeremy before this Update went up so I won't even speculate on what he's got brewing. I know that spots on the main teams are filling up so I hope he's got something that is about to be signed. I have to assume there are talks between him and the possibly now-vacant MX2 spot over at Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki. (Did I just say I wasn't going to speculate and then do just that in the following sentence?) I had a good spit-balling session with Leading Edge owner, Jason Hughes, and there is really nothing I can say on the record yet. Suffice it to say that they are still looking to finalize the second riders on both the 250 and 450. Jason also wanted to wish Matt Goerke all the best this weekend at A1. He also said that we are going to be pretty impressed with Tyler Villopoto on the small bike. I can't wait to point a video camera at him on some big step-down!

1986 Canadian Senior Nationals program. Recognize any names?

Well, while we're on the subject of 'Old School,' here's a photo that you might find pretty funny. This is what I looked like with hair...and just to prove that I actually did race back in the day!

1986 Baja Acres in Millington, Michigan. Best track on the planet? Could be. That long-haired hippy on the left totally dominated the B class that day! Bigwave Sr. photo

I saw that injured racer, Johnny Montes, will be home from the hospital for the weekend and will be able to watch A1 from the comfort of his own couch. He will be heading to Fredericton for mre rehab next week. The donation account for him will only be open for a few more days so get in there and give what you can. CIBC King an Germain St.John,NB Transit #00004, Institution # 010, Account # 8223831

With A1 just one day away, I want to end this Update on the subject. We have lots to watch for this season. Canadian content is floating all over it! The Velocity 3 team has Bobby Kiniry on it and Kyle Chisholm's mechanic is none other than Scott 'Donk' Donkersgoed! I talked to Donk on the phone earlier to wish him luck and ask him how things were coming along: 

This is where Donk was just yesterday! Photo courtesy of Donk

"It’s been a really busy week. We usually have the race bikes ready by now but Kyle (Chisholm) decided he wanted to race his practice bike frame rather than his brand new race bike frame so I’ve been slaving away getting the old hacked up frame ready for the last couple days. I’m just about to put the graphics on the bike and head over to Anaheim now. He didn’t get enough time on the new bike and he wasn’t comfortable on it because it wasn’t broken in enough yet. Yesterday I made his race bike his practice bike and his practice bike his race bike. We’re going out to the Yamaha test track this morning to do one last session with suspension then back to the shop to take the suspension off the now practice bike and put it on the now race bike.

The team is great. It’s owned by former factory mechanics, Brian Berry, and Kenny Germain."

I asked him about his summer plans to be Colton Facciotti's mechanic on the Red Bull Royal Distributing Fox KTM team and he said that although the deal hasn't actually been inked, he and Andy White have been working on the deal since about 2 weeks after Walton last summer. He joked that he'll be spying on Bobby Kiniry all supercross season so they know how to beat him next summer. Good luck this weekend, Donk. We'll be cheering for the big #11 out there for ya!

Ok, that's going to do it for me this week. Have a great weekend and come out to the Hooters by the Toronto Airport if you are in the area. There will be lots of moto peeps there bench racing and enjoying the wings (wink). Who are you picking for the wins?

This is how the O'Farrells roll in South Africa! See you at the races... Photo courtesy of Pamela Blam-O'Farrell