PulpMX Photo Report – Canadian MX Nationals Round 6
Photos and Captions by James Lissimore
After a weekend off, the 2021 Jetwerx Canadian MX Tour was back in action, at the first round to take place outside of the province of Ontario since the Pandemic started. We were at the Deschambault MX track, in the French speaking province of Quebec.
The immaculate Deschambault facility is one of the highlights of the series and this year, like we had the first two weekends, an extra single moto round was added for Monday, to help add length to this condensed Summer schedule.
Here’s a look at what happened…
For a third straight race, we were at a sand track. The Deschambault track surface is more like the previous race at Sand Del Lee than the deep sand of Gopher Dunes. There’s a hard base lurking under there that will bite you.
Darian Sanayei was nailing the starts in the 250 class.
Sunday was an uncharacteristic off day for points leader, Ryder McNabb, as the GDR Honda rider suffered from bad starts and crashes, finishing 4th overall and relinquishing the points lead to Jacob Piccolo. He had a better race on Monday to finish second, and heads into the final round down 3 points in the title chase.
Sanayei and Piccolo had great battles in both motos on Sunday. In the first moto, Sanayei grabbed the early lead with Piccolo charging his way to second. After catching up to Sanayei, he tried everything he could but couldn’t make the pass. In moto two, Piccolo grabbed the early lead with Sanayei having to give chase. It set things up for an epic final lap as Sanayei made the pass for the lead but Piccolo passed him back. The two battled to the finish line but Piccolo held on to take the moto win, overall win, and retake the points lead.
Piccolo takes Sunday’s 250 win.
Tanner Ward has been consistent but has been a tick off of the front group since his win at the opening round. He was solid with three straight 3rd place finishes this weekend but is now 11 points down, in 4th place in the series, heading into the final round. This 250 class has been a blast to watch – any of the 4 top riders could walk away as the champion in two weeks time.
It’s been a disappointing year for MX101 Yamaha’s Marco Cannella, who won a moto at Gopher Dunes and looked to be another rider in the mix for the 250 title but he’s struggled to maintain pace since, finishing 5th on Sunday and 4th on Monday. He’s now 71 points out of the lead and the first rider in the top 10 that you can say is out of the title hunt.
Coming off of Sunday’s great ride, Piccolo retook the red plate and a 10 point lead in the championship. When he grabbed the hole shot and the early lead on Monday, it looked like he was going to stretch out his championship lead even further but then he suddenly started dropping back, eventually finishing 6th. It turns out he snapped off the end of his rear brake lever, and now only carries a tight, 3 point lead into the final round at Walton.
Sanayei took Monday’s win and is now only 7 points back as the series comes into its final race.
Jess Pettis in his customary spot at the head of a 450 start.
2021 has been a struggle for Cole Thompson. The Red Bull Thor KTM rider started off strong at round 1 but has been struggling with illness lately and after getting good starts at Deschambault, went backwards, eventually finishing 6-5 for 6th overall. He finished 4th in Monday’s moto.
Deschambault was the first race this season that saw the riders race in front of a packed house.
Tyler Medaglia showed good speed at Deschambault. He worked his way through the pack to get second overall on Sunday and backed it up with a 3rd place finish on Monday.
Marshal Weltin was another rider who was quietly good at Deschambault. He split 2-4 finishes with Medaglia on Sunday to finish 3rd and then rode to a 2nd place finish on Monday.
Pettis looked good on Sunday, capitalizing on Wright’s second moto crash to take a commanding win and the points lead for Monday’s race.
Things started off strong on Monday, with Pettis out to the early lead with Wright giving chase.
Shawn Maffenbeier bounced back from a rough first moto on Sunday to take 3rd in the second moto, wearing his Keefer Inc gear. Monday didn’t go so well as he went down in the first turn and injured his knee.
Cannibal message of inspiration for T-Dags.
Pettis grabs another hole shot while Maffenbeier and Liam O’Farrell decide to hug it out in the first turn.
Wright had just made the pass for the lead and Pettis looked to be comfortably in second when disaster struck. He went down hard and just like that, this amazing fight for the 450 title was over. Pettis suffered some cracked vertebrae in the crash and will be out for the remainder of the season.
As has been the case all season, Wright was the fastest rider at Deschambault, but a big crash in Sunday’s second moto left him coming from dead last to 6th. He was able to bounce back and take the win on Monday to bookend moto wins for the weekend and with Pettis out, looks to have his title defence locked up with one round to go.
