Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

It’s the Monday before Christmas. I hope everyone gets a chance to relax and be with family and friends. I always think back to the Christmas of 1984. Yes, it was a very long time ago but it’s memorable because it was 12C and we were still out at Shaw’s Dairy Dell ripping up the practice track. We were sometimes at risk of having a green Christmas but it was never warm enough to comfortably drive over to the local track and ride. That was a one-time deal.

It also reminds me that I still had my 1984 Can AM 125. I thought it looked a little cooler without the side plates on it, so that was how I ran it during practice. I’d ring that thing out and hang on for dear life as I tried to stay ahead of the riders I was accustomed to beating easily.

We’d all take a break and for fun I’d say, “OK, let’s see someone else try to ride this thing fast around here!” Not always but sometimes someone would take me up on the offer. Nobody, and I mean nobody, was riding these things anymore so some people just wanted to try it to say that they did.

Every time we did this, I’d hope on whichever Japanese brand they were racing and immediately be 10 seconds faster around the track.

Every time we did this, they’d climb off the Can Am and happily hand it back to me saying something like, “How the hell are you racing this thing???!!!” Ya, I know.

I know I’ve moaned about this bike in the past, and I’m sure I will again, but this time of year always gets me thinking about these memories.

I also remember showing up at Hully Gully House League on this thing when it was new and having everyone come up to check it out. Mostly, they just couldn’t believe we’d taken a chance and went to a non-Japanese brand. And you know what? I hindsight I wish we’d gone the usual route. Not only was it slower and clunkier but it was more expensive! None of it made any sense.

Man, I could go on complaining about this thing for the rest of the morning, but I won’t. Here it is in all its glory at Motopark. Not only did I hate that bike but someone beat me to #145 that spring so we just mixed the numbers up and went with 451 for a season. 451 was a phone exchange in this area, so it was an even worse number! PS I was 6’2″ at the time. That bike was huge!

OK, I’m back.

The big news this past week was the moving of the TransCan at Walton Raceway to after the final Canadian Triple Crown Series MX National. We’ll have to wait and see how this affects things.

Round 2 of the AMA FIM North American Arenacross Championship took place Saturday night from Ford Idaho Center in Boise, Idaho. I’ve got the RydeTV app so I watched the action.

The rider numbers were down but the arena looked pretty full. We had 2 Canadians to cheer for at this one. #58 Liam Dodds from Revelstoke, BC joined #16 Cole Thompson for his first attempt at one of these races.

Liam rides for the newly formed Dusty Rocks MX team and he raced both the Pro Lites and AX Pro classes on his Yamaha 250.

He set the fastest time in Lites qualifying, so he was feeling good heading into this class.

Ryan Gauld is usually paired-up with Kyle Thompson at the studio back in Brigden, ON calling the action. With Kyle moving on Ryan was left on his own for this broadcast. It seemed like there was a bit of rust from the long break between rounds 1 and 2, but it all came together and I was happy to check it out from the comfort of my couch.

For me, the funniest part of the broadcast was when Kristin Banks mistakenly said Kyle Bitterman was having a boy when they didn’t know the sex of their baby yet. Quick on her feet, she said, “Surprise, it’s a boy!” I thought that was pretty good.

Oh, and I also think Cole Thompson made some new fans in the piece they did with his Heartbeat Hot Sauce Solitaire Yamaha teammate Robbie Wageman. Brad Nemeth held the camera and asked the questions and Cole’s deadpan, sarcastic delivery was also very good. I think it gave people a better look at what’s going on in Cole’s head. He’s funny.

#58 Liam Dodds:

Pro Lites: 2nd (2-2)

AX Pro: 10th (12-9)

AX Pro Lites Overall Positions
1st#33		DANE MORALES HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA	Main 1:3rd Main 2:1st
2nd#58		LIAM DODDS 🇨🇦 REVELSTOKE, BC	Main 1:2nd Main 2:2nd
3rd#48		TRINNYTIE BATCHELOR MOUNTAIN HOME, ID	Main 1:1st Main 2:3rd
4th#618		TANK SUMNERS RIDGECREST, CA	Main 1:4th Main 2:4th
5th#714		RYDER PATRIDGE SANTA ANA, CA	Main 1:5th Main 2:5th
6th#817		SAWYER CAINK ALISPELL, MT	Main 1:6th Main 2:6th
7th#27		ROCCO MORSE BURBANK, CA	Main 1:7th Main 2:7th

#16 Cole Thompson:

AX Pro: 4th (2-4)

AX Pro Overall Positions
1st#98		AUSTIN POLITELLI MURRIETA, CA	Heat 1:1st Main 1:1st Main 2:3rd
2nd#200		RYAN BREECE POST FALLS, ID	Heat 2:1st Main 1:3rd Main 2:2nd
3rd#14		ROBBIE WAGEMAN NEWHALL, CA	Heat 2:2nd Main 1:5th Main 2:1st
4th#16		COLE THOMPSON 🇨🇦 BRIGDEN, ON	Heat 1:2nd Main 1:2nd Main 2:4th
5th#581		KYLE BITTERMAN PELZER, SC	Heat 1:3rd Main 1:4th Main 2:5th
6th#316		EVAN STICE CARMEN, ID	Heat 2:5th LCQ 1:3rd Main 1:7th Main 2:8th
7th#636		LUKE KALAITZIAN SUN VALLEY, CA	Heat 1:5th LCQ 1:1st Main 1:9th Main 2:7th
8th#461		HAYDEN ROBINSON MENIFEE, CA	Heat 1:7th LCQ 1:2nd Main 1:10th Main 2:10th
9th#33		DANE MORALES HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA	Heat 2:4th Main 1:8th Main 2:12th
10th#58		LIAM DODDS 🇨🇦 REVELSTOKE, BC	Heat 1:6th LCQ 1:8th Main 1:12th Main 2:9th
11th#2		JEREMY FAPPANI SCOTTSDALE, AZ	Heat 2:3rd Main 1:16th Main 2:6th
12th#73		STEVE MAGES SARDINIA, OH	Heat 2:6th LCQ 1:4th Main 1:11th Main 2:11th
13th#177		KADEN LEWIS KINGMAN, AZ	Heat 1:4th Main 1:6th Main 2:16th
14th#618		TANK SUMNERS RIDGECREST, CA	Heat 2:7th LCQ 1:5th Main 1:13th Main 2:13th
15th#714		RYDER PATRIDGE SANTA ANA, CA	Heat 2:8th LCQ 1:6th Main 1:15th Main 2:14th
16th#27		ROCCO MORSE BURBANK, CA	Heat 1:8th LCQ 1:7th Main 1:14th Main 2:15th

AX Pro

Series Points

Pos		Racer	10/11/25	12/20/25	12/21/25	Total
1st#200		RYAN BREECE POST FALLS, ID	31 pts1st	29 pts2nd		60
2nd#16		COLE THOMPSON 🇨🇦 BRIGDEN, ON	30 pts2nd	28 pts4th		58
3rd#14		ROBBIE WAGEMANNEWHALL, CA	28 pts3rd	28 pts3rd		56
4th#98		AUSTIN POLITELLIMURRIETA, CA	16 pts9th	30 pts1st		46
5th#636		LUKE KALAITZIAN SUN VALLEY, CA	23 pts6th	18 pts7th		41
6th#2		JEREMY FAPPANI SCOTTSDALE, AZ	24 pts5th	12 pts11th		36
7th#316		EVAN STICE CARMEN, ID	13 pts10th	19 pts6th		32
8th#461		HAYDEN ROBINSONMENIFEE, CA	17 pts7th	14 pts8th		31
9th#581		KYLE BITTERMAN PELZER, SC		25 pts5th		25
9th#6		BRANDON RAY VALLEY SPRINGS, CA	25 pts4th			25
11th#12		JUSTIN STARLINGVALRICO, FL	17 pts8th			17
12th#33		DANE MORALES HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA		14 pts9th		14
13th#58		LIAM DODDS 🇨🇦 REVELSTOKE, BC		13 pts10th		13

I sent a few questions over to Chris Dodds and he was nice enough to point his phone at Liam for a pst-race interview. Thanks for doing that, guys. Here’s the interview:

I didn’t mention this before but thought I would. We were able to use our connections for good last month. I got a DM from a motocross fan in Australia:

“Hello my name is Paul Jorgensen and I am the proud father of Zoe Jorgensen. My daughter has been battling a lot of health issues such as thyroid cancer and now being diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of just 15. She is a HUGE super cross fan and on the 29th of this month I am surprising her with tickets to the event at CBUS Super Stadium on the Gold Coast 2 days before she goes in for her first treatment for leukaemia. I was wondering if you could help me out with a meet and greet with Haiden Deegan her all time favourite rider. I would move heaven and earth for my daughter just to see a smile on her face again. Can you please help me out?”

Wow, what a tough break for this young girl.

I don’t know Haiden personally but I figured we could use our other connections to get close and maybe get something done. It was a “6 Degree of Kevin Bacon” thing.

I knew Kourtney Loyd and Ben Schiermeyer would know how to get in touch with Haiden and/or his team so that was my first contact.

Next thing you know, Paul and Zoe were all set up for a short meet and greet with Haiden. And now Paul and I have struck up a friendship and there’s even talk of swapping houses so he can see some snow and I can surf on the Gold Coast!

I’m so happy we were able to make this happen for them. Check it out:

What a touching story. I think we’ll leave it here on this heart-warming note. Merry Christmas Zoe and Paul!

Thanks for another great year here at Direct Motocross. Thank you to everyone who continues to support what we do here. We’re looking forward to another fantastic year here at DMX, covering our Canadian riders wherever they go.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours.