PulpMX Photo Report – Walton Canadian MX Series Finale

Walton Raceway in Southern Ontario is the traditional final for the Canadian MX series and the home of the Walton TransCan Amateur National Championships.

A rare sighting of Dig in the wild.

After taking a month off to heal up from his horrendous injuries suffered at Raymond, three-time and defending 450 champ, Dylan Wright, was back for the final round.

With the winner of the 450 class at Walton receiving a sword forever, this year the Walton folks cooked up shields for the second and third place riders.

New Zealand’s Josiah Natzke was focused and looking to make up the nine point deficit on his teammate, Jess Pettis, to try and take his first Canadian title.

With 8 points separating Drew Adams and Kaven Benoit for the 250 title, there were several more Kawasakis on the line than normal, including Adams’ Team Green teammate, Krystian Janik.

Donk was tasked with spinning the wrenches for yet another Kawasaki rider who was coming in to race Walton – New Zealand’s Dylan Walsh, who was racing with the hometown WLTN Kawasaki team. Unfortunately for Donk, he crashed while racing the TransCan and broke his shoulder, making for a tough weekend of wrenching with one arm.

KTM Canada arranged for Marvin Musquin to come up and hang out at the TransCan during the week and then line up in the PreMix class on Sunday.

As you’d expect from a former World Champion and Supercross winner, Musquin took both moto wins on his KTM 150.

Musquin and family enjoyed their trip to the Great White North.

The 250 class blasts off.

Russia’s Alexander Fedortsov, who trains at ClubMX, made the trip up to race during the week at the TransCan, where he won the Schoolboy 2 class, and then raced the Pro National on Sunday, where he grabbed an impressive 4th overall.

New Zealand’s Dylan Walsh made the trip over from England, where he races the British Nationals, to line up for the hometown WLTN Kawasaki team. He qualified second and worked his way up to second in the first moto before a rock knocked out his goggle lens and he dropped back to sixth. A fifth in moto two gave him sixth overall on the day.

Tyler Medaglia’s perfect steak of third place finishes since his return to the series at round four was finally broken at Walton. An off day with 7-9 finishes gave him 8th overall.

Orange Brigade KTM racer, Luke Fauser, wrapped up his Canadian season with 10th overall.

Idaho’s Evan Stice raced the full Canadian series and finished things off with 17th overall at Walton.

Gage Linville had a roller coaster of a season, with podiums all through the West and a clean sweep overall win at River Glade, but also bad races at Gopher Dunes and Sand Del Lee that knocked him out of the title fight. He finished things up at Walton with 5th overall and wrapped up third in the Championship.

Australia’s Tiger Wood cracked the top 10 with a ninth in moto one but a 13th in moto two knocked him down to 12th overall.

After racing the Gopher Dunes round, Team Green’s Krystian Janik was back for the final round. Trying to get in between Adams and Benoit to help Adams in the title fight, things got a bit heated but in the end, he would settle for a pair of thirds and third overall.

Canadian racer who now lives in California, Noah Viney, was back up in Canada for the final round after racing most of last season for the GDR Honda team. He had good starts but ultimately finished the day in 14th overall.

Seems like a lot less mess than killing inside.

Down 8 points going into the final round, Drew Adams knew he needed things to happen if he was to take the title over the ever consistent Benoit. He did his part by taking both moto wins but made a couple moves in the closing laps of moto two while battling with Benoit that he wasn’t happy about.

Ever the wily veteran, Kaven Benoit did what he had to do to win his third 250 championship. He worked his way up to second in the first moto, and then led all of moto two until two laps to go.

The legend of Kaven Benoit grew in 2024. 35 years old, two kids, away from the sport for 4 years – mounts a comeback and manages to outfox the kids to take his third Canadian title.

He was angry directly after the moto but anger quickly turned to jubilation for the new champion.

Drew Adams was impressive on many fronts this summer. Not just his speed, which was to be expected, but his maturity and ability to process and learn as he went. Despite coming up just short in his bid to win the title and some heated words after the race, Adams came on the stage, apologized, showed real respect to everyone and showed why he’s got a bright future ahead in America.

250 Series Overall Podium – 1st Kaven Benoit, 2nd Drew Adams, 3rd Gage Linville

Josiah Natzke grabs the holeshot to kick off the 450 moto.

After racing the previous round at Deschmbault, France’s Adrien Malaval was back again for the final round. Another solid showing with a 5-6 for 5th overall.

An up and down day for Australia’s Aaron Tanti, who crashed in moto one and finished 13th, before coming back to finish 4th in moto two. He would end his first season in Canada 4th in the championship.

Julien Benek wrapped up his first full 450 season with a 7th place finish.

In the first moto, Josiah Natzke did everything he had to, grabbing the holeshot and leading every lap to take the win. His second moto didn’t go as well though, as he got a bad start and could only muster a 5th.

After racing a 250 2-stroke in the 250 class at the other East rounds, Connecticut’s Josh Clark lined up in the 450 class for the final round. 12-13 for 12th.

It was a rough day for Denmark’s Matti Jorgensen, who wrapped things up with a 14-DNF.

Utah’s Gavin Brough raced the first four rounds of the series and then came back for the final round with his brothers, Riley and McCoy, in tow to all line up for the 450 class. Gavin finished the best of the three with a pair of 9th’s for 9th overall.

Big brother Riley, who used to race the Canadian series 10 years ago, finished two spots behind with 10-11 finishes for 11th overall. In moto one, the Brough bros finished together in 9th, 10th and 11th respectively.

Wyoming’s Preston Kilroy really started to hit his stride as the series wrapped up. Another hard fought podium battle for the MX101 Yamaha rider who finished the day with 4-3 scores for 4th overall and grabbed 3rd overall in the series.

Riding for the hometown team, Tanner Ward finished up the season in 6th overall.

Great battle in the early laps of moto two between Pettis(15), Wright(1) and Kilroy(808).

After getting by Kilroy, Wright set his sights on making the pass on his archival, Pettis.

Despite missing half the season and losing out on his fourth straight 450 title, Dylan Wright returned for the final round to remind everyone who the man is in Canadian Moto. He made a big push to catch Natzke in moto one, finishing just behind in second, before putting on one his signature charges in moto two to push his way to the front and take the overall win for the final round of the year. Now he will head south to try to get at least one AMA National in before the end of the season.