PulpMX Photo Report – Gopher Dunes Canadian National
Photos and Captions by James Lissimore
Like every other sport in the world, the COVID pandemic forced the delay, and later cancelation, of the first half of the Rockstar Energy Canadian MX Tour. With favourable conditions for holding sporting events in the province of Ontario, the Jetwerx team were able to put together a revised schedule consisting of four events at Ontario tracks, with a final round at the Quebec track of Deschambault. To increase the amount of racing in this revised schedule, they added a third moto, to take place on Saturday’s, making for a combined three moto score for the weekend.
The first round of the new schedule took place this past weekend at the deep sand track of Gopher Dunes. No spectators were allowed but everyone was happy to finally be back racing and it showed on the track. Here’s a look at what went down at the first round of the strange 2020 season.
The first round of the revised 2020 Canadian schedule brought everyone to the deep sand and hot temperatures of the Gopher Dunes track in Southern Ontario. Nothing like kicking off the season at one of the toughest MX tracks in North America.
Gopher Dunes and multiple, man-made berms go together like peanut butter and jelly.
It was glass smooth on Friday but you knew that wasn’t going to last for long.
Socially distanced pit areas.
Masked bandits, Chad Goodwin, of the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team and 5-time Canadian champ, Jean-Sebastien Roy, of the Red Bull Thor KTM team.
Saturday started with the 450 class going first. Sunday would feature a more traditional schedule.
One of the title favourites going into the first round, Cole Thompson, turned out to be nursing an unknown infection from a crash a couple weeks before the race. He grabbed the holeshot in Saturday’s moto and slowly faded back to fifth before crashing on the final lap. He would go to the hospital and elect to sit out Sunday’s motos, ending his chances at the 2020 450 title.
With the border shut to non-essential travel, there’s not as many Americans racing the Canadian series as usual, but Josh Cartwright is riding for the PRMX Kawasaki team and turned in an 8th place overall finish.
South African turned Canadian, Liam O’Farrell, doesn’t race full time anymore but he still shows up every year at Gopher Dunes and puts it in the top 10, at his adopted hometown track. This year he grabbed 7th overall.
Some good battles between the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki duo of Matt Goerke(2) and Tyler Medaglia all weekend long. Goerke would have the better race, finishing on the podium in third place, with 4-3-3 finishes.
Tyler Medaglia is back in the 450 class for 2020 and started things off well, grabbing second in Saturday’s moto. His 2-4-5 finishes gave him fourth overall.
Caught in a first turn crash on Saturday, Shawn Maffenbeier got better each moto, going 6-5-4 for fifth overall.
The wild card in the 450 class going into the weekend was reigning 250 National Champion, Dylan Wright, who’d made the jump up to the 450 class for 2020 to replace the retiring Colton Facciotti. Always blazing fast but wildly unpredictable, could Wright hold it together for three motos at the track his GDR Honda team is based at? The answer turned out to be an unequivocal “yes” as he motored to three dominating moto wins to start his 450 career off with a bang. He still has to prove his consistency but Wright served notice that he is here and ready take a run at the 450 title.
As you would expect, Phil Nicoletti, wasn’t going to let Wright take the win without giving it everything he had, and even though the Honda pilot was able to get away in each of the three motos, Filthy Phil never let up for one second, riding hard to the checkered flags. He fell in moto one, but came back to get Matt Goerke at the finish line, for third, and then rode to two second place finishes in Sunday’s motos. Unsprisingly, the closest Phil got to besting Wright was in Sunday’s final, hot, humid and rough moto, where Phil kept him in sight all moto but couldn’t pull the trigger. He’ll no doubt be the biggest rival for the 450 title as the series rolls on to two straight weekends at the harder packed, Walton Raceway.
Gauldy runs the socially distanced mic for 450 winner, Wright.
2020 podium shot. So much joy from Phil and Matt.
Phil plots his revenge for two weeks time.
Dylan Wright celebrated his undefeated start to his 450 career with a dip in the pond.
In the 250 class, 2018 champion, Jess Pettis(15), was the clear favourite and didn’t disappoint, grabbing good starts and winning every moto.
After finishing second in 2017, Ryan Surratt hadn’t been back to Canada since, but is racing for the Sky Racing Kawasaki team this season. He finished fifth overall.
Tanner Ward made the off-season switch from the Red Bull KTM Thor team to the hometown GDR Honda team and battled for the podium all weekend, finishing just off in fourth overall.
Son of X-Brand goggles owner, Rich Taylor, Richard Taylor has joined Surratt on the Sky Racing Kawi team for 2020. He got caught up in a first turn crash during Saturday’s moto and ended up finishing 14th overall for the weekend.
With Luke Renzland electing to stay south of the border for 2020, Marco Cannella is the top rider for the MX101 Yamaha team and he nabbed the final spot on the podium with third overall.
Pettis came out on top but Marshal Weltin showed that he’s not going to take the challenge lying down as he was flying all weekend but fell in each moto. He would end up in second with 2-2-4 finishes.
Injured for much of last year, Pettis looks healthy and confident, and ready to add a second Canadian title to his resume.
A tough track to start the season off on, the hot, humid conditions, proved tough for many of the riders.
