Round two of the new look Rockstar Energy MX Tour Canadian National series took place near my home, in Popkum, British Columbia, so in my biased opinion, it was the best race of the season. Sleeping in your own bed will do that.
You can climb that mountain in the background and get a pretty sweet, birds-eye view of the track.
Plenty of greenery around the track and pits.With the track close to Washington state, Smartop Honda owner, Mike Genova, came up to check things out.
Coming off his dominating performance at the opening round in Calgary, Colton Facciotti was rocking the red plates coming into round two.
British rider, Jake Nicholls, decided he wanted to try his hand at a Canadian National so with the help of the GDR Honda team, he made the journey out to BC.
Red Bull KTM Canada’s Tanner Ward grabbed the hole shot in both 250 motos.
There were great lead battles in both 250 motos. Shawn Maffenbeier(1), Jess Pettis(15) and Josh Osby(18) all battle for the number one spot.
Osby led for the first half of moto one but Pettis managed to get by to take his third straight moto win to start the season.I don’t know anything about Chad Saultz but it says he’s from Illinois in the results so I’ll throw him in here. He finished 14th overall in the 250 class.
Pettis has been on fire to start the 2018 season. His 1-2 moto finishes gave him the overall win for the second straight week and will continue to run the red plate as he heads into his hometown race in Prince George next weekend.
Michigan’s Joey Crown was just a tick off of the podium guys, finishing 5-4 for 4th overall.
The defending champion, Shawn Maffenbeier, finally ended Pettis’ win streak at 3 as he took the moto two win.
The 450 class blasts off into the beautiful British Columbia scenery.
It was an off weekend for Dillan Epstein as the California native could only manage 9-7 moto finishes for 7th overall.
On the flip side, it was a good weekend for Texas’ Cheyenne Harmon who landed in 9th overall with 10-11 moto finishes.
Matt Goerke had a good battle with Colton Facciotti in moto one and the Florida native took the win.
Mike Alessi led the first moto for over half of it before dropping back to third. In moto two he rode to sixth, giving him sixth overall.
Jake Nicholls was fast all day. After qualifying second, he fell early in moto one before coming back to sixth. In moto two he grabbed a good start and rode second behind his teammate, Facciotti. His 6-2 finishes gave him 3rd overall.There was plenty of bar banging between Matt Goerke and Cole Thompson in moto two as the pair battled over the third spot. Goerke would ultimately grab the position.
Things got quite heated between the pair after the checkered flag fell.
So far in 2018, Colton Facciotti has been the man to beat. He worked his way up from fourth in moto one to take a close second, and then led wire to wire to take the moto two win and the overall victory.
Facciotti, Goerke and Nicholls were your 450 podium.
Ryan “The Newf” Lockhart. Not only can he battle for AX titles, he can jump on the wrenches and deliver riders to the podium.
Kaven Benoit demonstrates how rocky the track was.
Photo Gallery – Popkum Canadian National