Let’s have some fun with another look at the people under the helmets and around the pits in this week’s instalment of ‘Faces at the Races‘ from Round 3 of the 2026 Canadian Triple Crown Series at Ste Julie brought to you by FXR Moto.
I joked about Paul Kingsley checking spokes of these Pro riders at tech. He said he finds at least 1 bike that needs them attended to every week. I thought he was joking but I was there when he caught one this week! I won’t mention any names though…I always make sure to grab a shot or 2 of Gilles Braun when we visit Quebec each year. There he is now!It’s funny how you just never know how your day is going to do at this point in the morning. Kade Johnson was about to have a good day.Josh Clark is from Connecticut and going full privateer in his van with his wife. Their 2 little kids were there this week too. 17th for Josh in the 250 class at Round 3. I tried to catch Harri Kullas in a Pablo Escobar meme moment here up against the #DMXDirtCareVan. The ’90’s are back, baby! Did they ever leave?This is how close Jordan Jarvis and Jamie Astudillo are ON the track too! Sorry to crop you out, Logan Leitzel. You weren’t key to this caption. I always check out what riders are having for breakfast while attending the riders meeting. It was an egg sandwich type thing for Quinn Amyotte.Same team, similar brekkie for Tanner Ward.A crazy day was on the horizon for Daniel Elmore. Thanks for all the added followers, Danny.Blake Davies rode more like we expect out there and finished 6th in moto 2 for 8th overall. He’s been dealing with a couple things and top 5-8 is where I think we’ll see him for the rest of the season.Kuuuuuuch!!! Computer programmer by day, 2-stroke warrior on the weekend. Oh, that’s #100 Cale Kuchnicki from Michigan.It added a bit of excitement to have Kelana Humphrey racing the 250 class on a Stark. I didn’t see what happened by 39th means something was up.If you were a child of the 70’s and/or 80’s, you can relate.Dylan Rempel stands out as a unique character in our sport. Not much seems to bother this guy.We got a ton of rain in a short period of time Saturday night so first qualifier was a bit of a mess. #33 Joe Tait (last season’s Snuffleupagus) showed up at Round 3 from Connecticut and finished 14th.It was great to see Jay Dasilva again helping out Chris and Michael. I saw a photo of a Walton trophy from the 1990’s from Nick Wey.It’s also great to have Kyle Murdoch back for the east rounds. He’s from Massachusetts and was 15th.Hannah Cole got caught behind a downed rider in qualifying and really struggled to get up the finish hill. Remember 2025?You couldn’t tell how deep this was so they decided to walk.I told you the 90’s were back!Tegan Kortenbach topped Q1. He’ll head to the Moto Combine at Red Bud on Friday then get himself back to race Gopher Dunes. The kid is on the rise!Ayrton and Chris Pomeroy talking over track strategy. Or maybe just quoting Seinfeld…Did I see D-Spec on the track on Saturday?No pressure at all when you’re in Moto and your name is Jeff Ward…Cale Foster and Kaylie Kayer checking out qualifying. Hey, I left without a fresh jar of Fosterholme Farms maple syrup!Something was up with Noah Viney’s 450 during Q1. I just like seeing Ulf Viney get his shoes muddy.The new brain trust behind Red Bull KTM. That’s Darian Sanayei and Kaven Benoit. Matt Deroy has big shoes to fill.And that’s Jeremy Pronovost. He’s the man behind Sweemo energy chews. Hudson banged into my ankles and then I realized it was Jeff who was doing the driving!I like it when Brett Lee gives me a nice high hat sound after a punch line too.White watch, pink shirt. What was I saying about the 90’s?TJ Lanphear is a pro racer himself and the man behind Dirt Care USA. He’ll be spinning the wrenches for Kade Johnson. They’re a perfect 2-for-2 at this point. #118 Chris Dasilva is the guy behind the DRT brand and #20 Jeremy McKie is one of his riders. I guess I should have used this photo…I have photos of riders coming through this tunnel from back as far as 2007. I worked for Mizuno at the time. We sponsored the Ottawa Marathon that morning then I high-tailed it to Ste Julie. I didn’t think Tee Perrott was coming east. I was wayy off. He’s not showing in the results and hasn’t posted on Instagram since May, so I’m not sure what happened. And now a word from our sponsor…Cale Callan emerging from the tunnel. It could also be Kenzie Hennessey, no?I meant to ask for one of those hats while I was there. The 450 vibrated him to sleep and he fell off on the way down the hill. True story…I’m gonna break my “No Track Riding Shots” rule here because…well…It sounds like everyone noticed #85 Alex Gatt wayy over-jumping the uphill triple during qualifying. He capital S Sent it!This guy.Like I said, you never really know what’s going to happen when the gate drops. Orrin Elmore took MVP for his deep water bike retrieval. James Lissimore was likely beside me for some of my 2007 tunnel photos. The AMA Pro Motocross off weekend brought a bunch of riders north. #281 Cory Carsten came up on some yellow bike and finished 26th. Necessary? No. Look cool? Yes. But now we have to look for the Dunlop logo!Guillaume St Cyr would have been another rider on a Stark, but he made a mess of his finger at the Riviere du Loup Arenacross. Broke it in 3 places lengthwise. Wow.Some emotion when we point the camera at you is all we ask. Thank you, Kiana Kurtz. 5th in WMX.Pay attention, Logan. This is what you do in a podium speech. Oh, wait… ZING!That was the last race for Matt Deroy as Team Manager. He heads to BRP Global now. Thanks for all the memories, Matt.Kaven and Darian will take it from here.This would end up being a rough day for Vincent Wey. I haven’t seen an update yet but we’ll know Friday if he races the Combine at Red Bud. I tried to find Tanner Scott’s pits. He was actually parked across the street. 9-9 put him 8th.I assume these 2 are somewhere not far from me this week. Bryon is a nice little suburb of London.#41 Jayden Riley is quietly having a solid season so far. He finished 7th and sits 10th in points right now.Cole Pranger and his frosted tips (more 90’s!) are tied with Jayden at 59 points.#27 Josh Boaz is also having a nice summer so far. He finished 6-4 for 4th overall and sits 6th. It’s his week for the Frid’Eh Update, too, so we’ll get to know him a little better. Unfortunately, I found out who lost their expensive Rode microphone at Gopher Dunes in the pre-season and now I’m assuming Brad Nemeth will want it back. He’ll have to catch me first!I’m still waiting to get out for a MTB loop of Fanshawe Lake Justin Roney. It’ll happen.Let’s see if I can make this awkward all summer long. I wouldn’t bet against me!Ryan Lockhart called the jump before the finish home during the races like most other team managers. You can see almost the entire track from here. Told you I got you, Eve Brodeur. She tied Kiana for 5th and was 6th.Dirt Care umbrellas were popping off everywhere!If you’re old like me, you refer to this as the “Sears catalogue pose.”Some Dylan Wright support.Brett Lee was the TV podium interview guy this week. I haven’t watched the broadcast yet. How did he do?Get used to seeing this smile because Hayden Dupuis is coming for your trophies!This guy used to be at the races as much as anyone. It was great to see Steph Leblanc again. He’s the customer service guy at KTM Canada.Here’s how I’d explain it: Jordan Jarvis is used to being faster than Jamie Astudillo, but Jamie is far from accepting that arrangement. It’s made for some great racing this season.2 motos, 2 thumbs up from Kiana. #241 Sarah-Kim Villeneuve doesn’t race the Nationals very often anymore, but when she does she’s one of my favourites to watch. She finished 7th. Maybe we’ll see her again at Motocross Deschambault.Mathieu Gervais promised we’d do 2 more “family shots” for the 250 and 450 podiums. What happened, Mathieu? Ellie’s fate is sealed. Kaven and the fam.He was always up to something then and he’s always up to something now. Always great to see Jerome Therrien at the races.And you should also remember the names Tyler Kirby and Jonathan Bergeron. They’ll be here soon too. Biiig smiles from the Kade Johnson crew. As always, Mathieu did a great job switching between English and French for the mixed crowd.There’s Kade getting his TV interview for his first overall up here.I posted a 2015 photo of JC Bujold and Guillaume St Cyr together last week on Instagram, so we had to get another one 11 years later.I went up to #180 Raphael Gosselin on the line and talked about how much fun it was to watch him toss the bike around. He gave me a perplexed look… Raphael was 16th.Turns out it was #188 Ashton Arruda who was throwing the bike all over the place out there. He was 21st.Sebastien Racing is starting to believe he should be on the podium every week. He was 4th.After taking 12thin moto 1, Payton Morningstar was forced out of moto 2 early after bending up his bike.#2 Preston Kilroy looked very comfortable moving up to the 450 class. However, he’d better get a little uncomfortable because Sebastien is gunning for him! 3-3 for 3rd.#268 Gage Stine was another rider who came up from the USA to race Ste Julie. He finished 10-9 for 9th. Hopefully, we see more of him up here. Nick Zoratti making #36 Tyler Shewchyk’s 450 look like a supermini. Tyler was 17th and was up in the mix early on.#515 Anthony Lebel is doing it for the Snocross crowd while Crayden Dillon recovers from shoulder injury. Anthony finished 20th.Kyle Keast’s summer is about to get a lot busier as we head closer to the TransCan at Walton Raceway. #199 Travis Byrom finished 20-20 for 23rd. Oh no, where have we seen this before? The AVL team also drained a bike at Round 1 in Calgary.It was Eve Bourdeau’s Surron I rode for my Track Lap at the end of the day again this year. Thanks, Eve. She’s a medic and also raced on Saturday.Medic talk. I’m no expert but that sounded like fluent French to me.Jeff Ryan set me up to fail during my Walk and Talk and led me over to some rando who made no sense at all. Thanks, Jeff. That’s the better half of the Kilroy operation. I’m still trying to get an acceptable amount of attention from their doodle!Anything to add, KT?One more of Matt before we close this one out. The Pepin clan did a great job with the race weekend. It sounds like they are going to take some well deserved time to travel around after this one. See you next year. Thanks for treating us all so well.And they have to save up for some replacement lumber. I wasn’t able to get him to shed a tear…Last one. Here’s what Tanner thinks of my sarcastic captions. Go ahead, Tanner: “See you at the races…”
Thanks for checking out Faces at the Races. We’ll see you this weekend at Gopher Dunes. It’s 35C and 44 with the humidex right now. At this point, the rain is supposed to hold off on Sunday until the races are done, but you never know what the next couple days could bring with this ridiculous humidity.
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