Photos by James Lissimore
Captions by Matthes
Photos by James Lissimore
Captions by Matthes
A lot of American riders race the Canadian MX series, but with an off weekend in the AMA series, even more came up to try their hand at the toughest track on the Canadian tour – Gopher Dunes in Southern Ontario. On top of the deep, rough sand, throw in extremely hot temperatures and it was not a pleasant day. Here’s what went down, with a focus more on the US side of things…
 |
|
| Round five of the Canadian series got underway at Gopher Dunes, a flat out sand track on the level of toughness as any in the world. Yes, I said world. | |
 |
|
| Canada has Monster girls also. | |
 |
|
| Austin Politelli has a big lead in the MX2 class and a bad second moto at Gopher didn’t hurt him too much. | |
 |
|
| Politelli hit a downed rider here, sending him over the bars. Took a while to get going again and he could only get back to 29th. | |
 |
|
| Bobby Kiniry is up there doing his usual never-say-die thing. He just missed the podium on the day. | |
 |
|
| Yep, the temperatures even took their toll on Meathead. | |
 |
|
| Brett Metcalfe was looking to extend his lead on a surface that he excels at. | |
 |
|
| After losing the first round, Metcalfe has gone undefeated in the other four races losing only one moto in the process. | |
 |
|
| And he won again at Gopher despite a bad start to his second moto that saw him near last. | |
 |
|
| Washington State’s Brad Nauditt is a regular on the podium in the MX2 class but Gopher wasn’t his best day. | |
 |
|
| Blake Savage of the GDR (Gopher Dunes Raceway) team didn’t have his best day despite being backed by the, uhh, actual track he was racing on. | |
 |
|
| The only man to beat Metcalfe this year, Colton Facciotti was on hand, recovering from his injuries and signing autographs. | |
 |
|
| Hey look! KTM Canada’s fill-in for Facciotti is Cole Thompson who was doing the series in the USA. He’s now going to make money instead of spending it. | |
 |
|
| Thompson worked hard all day to get a fourth in the first moto and while leading the second moto with a big lead (Metcalfe had gotten a bad start) he crashed and had to pull into mechanic’s area for repairs. | |
 |
|
| Another American rider doing the whole series is David Gassin. He’d been battling for top 10’s most of the season but Gopher didn’t do him well, going 22-DNF. | |
 |
|
| There’s a rule in Canada that say you can ride a 250 two-stroke in the MX2 class. And this kid, 15 year old Dylan Wright scored a third overall on it. It was a fantastic ride for the B rider (they’re also allowed to race pro nationals) and his future is bright. | |
 |
|
| Gavin Gracyk went 10-10 on the day for 8th overall. | |
 |
|
| Heath Harrison scored a seventh overall in the deep, deep, deep, deep sand. | |
 |
|
| Josh Clark had a good day going 6-4 in the MX2 class. | |
 |
|
| One of the few American’s to take advantage of the 250 2-Stroke in the MX2 class rule was Jerry Lorenz. Unfortunately, he seemed to have problems with it all day. | |
 |
|
| On paper, James Roberts’ DNF-30 looks bad, but he was running 3rd with a lap to go in the first moto when he ran out of gas. He was fast all day. | |
 |
|
| American Jesse Wentland took advantage of the break in the USA series to come up and race. He was strong with a second overall. | |
 |
|
| Kyle Keast showed up for his first national since breaking his femur last year and had a great race at a track he loves. He hit a tire late in the second moto (nice fender) and STILL got second behind Metcalfe. | |
 |
|
| Idaho’s Morgan “I Need a” Burger didn’t have his best day. | |
 |
|
| Yep, this is Gopher Dunes. | |
 |
|
| Remember Mike Sottile, the Southwick local who qualified number one there a couple years ago? He was at Gopher and no surprise, fast in the sand. He led both motos before finishing 5th overall. | |
 |
|
| Tyler Medaglia pulled the holeshot in both of the motos. T-Dags would go on to have a great day and land on the box. | |
 |
|
| Topher Ingalls won his very first MX2 national in what seemed like a couple of dominating rides. Great job to him and the RTR team. | |
 |
|
| Another Washington local, Ross Johnson went DNF-13 at the Dunes of Gopher | |
 |
|
| Seth Rarick came up from New York for his first ever Canadian national and went DNF-8. | |
 |
|
| Ingalls celebrates with the fans. | |
 |
|
| Teddy Maier and Metcalfe await the start of the moto. It was very hot! | |
 |
|
| Gopher’s all on flat land but it’s got some man made jumps. And oh yeah, did we mention it gets rough? | |
 |
|
| No one knows what’s wrong with Tyler Villopoto, he probably doesn’t even know. But whatever it is, he’s a shell of his last years self as he struggles in MX2. |
