Monday Morning Coffee

Grab yourself another cup for this week’s Monday Morning Coffee column about some of what happened in Motocross and usually more…

By Billy Rainford

That off weekend couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for me. As I was laid up on the couch, feeling pretty sick from a cold, I was able to simply watch both the Motul ACU British Motocross Championship and the J Day Off-Road Regional Championship from the comfort of my living room.

Did you catch one or both of these races? We had Tanner Ward racing his first-ever MX1 championship round at the legendary Hawkstone Park track and Tyler Medaglia hitting the hybrid course at Club MX in South Carolina.

First up were the MXGB races.

You can watch the whole thing on their Youtube channel here:

2:34:30 MX1 moto 1
3:51:55 Tanner Ward interview (well, he doesn’t really give Tanner much opportunity to talk, actually…)
5:03:00 MX1 moto 2

In moto 1, Tanner almost pulled the holeshot and was up in the top 3 in turn 2. Unfortunately, he crashed and fell back outside the top 30 and had his work cut out for him. He crashed on a hill later and was stuck there for a while. He managed to cross the line 21st.

In moto 2, he was just inside the top 20 off the start but got himself into 11th early and that seemed to be where he stayed the entire race. He crossed the line in 11th.

Let me say this, I am not a big fan of the way Speedhive My Laps app works for timing and scoring. To use one of Tyler Medaglia’s favourite words, “janky” comes to mind. I also didn’t like the way the on-air scroller on the left didn’t show all the gaps and lap times for us. It just randomly shows gaps and every once in a while someone’s lap time. Not user friendly at all. Hopefully, they can address this moving forward this season because that doesn’t have me wanting to sit and watch another a far away race on TV.

In the interview, Tanner said he’ll fly back to the USA to continue training with his Priority MX GasGas team. He’s open to future possibilities and, if I know Tanner, he won’t be happy with his finishes over there and will look for an opportunity to show them a little more, should he get the chance.

Next on my couch it was the J Day races at Club MX.

Valley Yamaha Callus rider Tyler Medaglia was the star of this show. After a troubled first round at Bostwick MX a couple weeks ago in Florida, Tyler was looking to capitalize on this hybrid track that definitely favoured his long history of winning Motocross races.

Pro moto 1: 4:32:00
Pro moto 2: 8:29:40

Tyler got out in the first moto in 3rd behind Joey Crown and Grant Davis. Joey would be his own worst enemy in both races, having to pick himself up at least twice in each race. Tyler got into the lead and Davis suffered some sort of mechanical.

Joey spends his time as the MCR Suspension guy for the Club MX Racing program, so he hasn’t been on the bike riding as much as he would have liked, heading ito a race against the likes of Tyler, but he somehow managed to put on a late charge and make a pass stick on the last lap!

At the stage afterward, you could tell it was everything Joey had because he disappeared for a while and was very red in the face.

Go to the 5:08:00 point of the first moto and watch the last lap. Check out Joey’s pass on Tyler!

In the second moto, Tyler was 3rd ealy but got himself into the lead early and never looked back in this one. Well, he would have been looking to see where Joey was because he was putting on another late chrge in 2nd as he tried to hold off Gus Riordan who was putting int some of the fastest laps of the moto on Joey’s rear wheel.

At the flag, it was Tyler 10 seconds ahead of this great battle for 2nd place. The first moto in the results should have Joey first then Tyler 2nd and Angus 3rd.

We had some other Canadians out there for this one. Ryder Heacock and Carlos Ponce, both from Ontario, were out there in the 250 A class.

You can check out all the results HERE.

Al Strickert ran into a fellow Canadian when he was at Spyder MX near Bushnell, Florida, on Sunday. That’s Blaine Prest from Nova Scotia. Their family runs MillHill MX back home in Canning, NS. He actually won the +55 class at the races on Sunday. Thanks for sending this over, Al.

Short and sweet this week. I need to crawl myself back to the couch…