Photo by Marc Landry. Thanks to MXPMag.com
For the second consecutive week, weather was the top story at the Monster Energy Motocross Nationals. This week, it was Shadow Valley Raceway in Morden, Manitoba that subjected the riders to extremely muddy conditions that ended in the shortening of 3 of the day’s 4 motos. On Saturday night, a brief but powerful storm came through, dousing the already soaked area with even more water. On Sunday morning, despite decent enough weather, the track was extremely wet. Most riders skipped practice and only did one or two laps in qualifying, with times ranging from 3 to 6 minutes. Clearly, it was going to be a day where simply surviving was important.
The point of surviving was hammered home hard in the first MX2 moto. Tyler Medaglia was able to get out front early on and stay relatively mistake free in taking the win. Behind him, Austin Politelli worked his way into second place, passing Kaven Benoit on the way. However, just a couple of laps in, Politelli’s bike began to smoke. Despite a great ride, the engine eventually let go and Politelli was forced to retire from the moto. Luckily for him, by this point, there were so few riders left, that he was still credited with 15th place. In taking the win, Tyler Medaglia lapped all the way up to third place, Jeremy Medaglia. Perhaps even more remarkable, was that fifth place was a full 2 laps down while tenth place was 3 laps down. Roughly only 10 or 11 bikes remained on the track when the 30-minute plus 2-lap moto was complete. KTM Canada’s Kaven Benoit finished second, becoming the meat in the Medaglia brothers sandwich.
With the first MX2 moto out of the way, it became clear that perhaps the conditions were a little too hard on the bikes for a full moto, so the MX1 motos were cut back to 20-minutes plus 2 laps while the second MX2 moto would be 15-minutes plus 2. With the shortened motos and dreadful conditions, no doubt many riders were wondering if they would be able to finally stop Colton Facciotti, Dusty Klatt and the Blackfoot Yamaha domination. Things weren’t looking good for those hopeful few, as Klatt and Facciotti were in positions 1 and 2 just a lap into the first moto. With rain beginning to come down once again, teammates Klatt and Facciotti engaged in yet another ferocious battle for victory with Dusty leading the charge. The two were seemingly miles ahead of the rest of the pack, but somehow only a few seconds separated them from each other.
By the time the 2 laps to go board came out, it started to become apparent that Klatt was going to do what was once looking impossible: beat Colton Facciotti. Then, disaster looked to strike. Klatt tipped over in a corner and allowed Facciotti to close right in. Everyone seemed to expect Colton to make the pass, but strangely enough, Klatt immediately began pulling the lead back out. The #1 rider was really beginning to show why he earned his championship just a year ago. Sure enough, Klatt took the checkered flag for his first moto win of the season, ending Colton’s 6-moto streak and any talk of a potential “perfect season.” Kawasaki privateer, Kevin Urquhart finished in 3rd place, just shy of 3 minutes behind the leader.
During intermission, some speculated that perhaps the second set of motos might be canceled–as they were during very similar conditions at this very race track in 2007. That was not to be, however, much to the delight of the sizable Morden crowd that appeared undeterred by the muddy, somewhat slow-paced racing.
In the second MX2 moto, regular front-runners Kaven Benoit, Tyler Medaglia, Jeremy Medaglia and Austin Politelli–who suffered a mechanical DNF in Moto 1–were all near the head of the field. Politelli was running in second early in the first moto when his engine expired. However, his laps completed still allowed him to get credit for fifteenth at the finish. In an almost exact-duplicate of the first moto, Tyler Medaglia found himself in the lead with Politelli in second, Benoit third and Jeremy Medaglia fourth. This time, though, Politelli appeared bent on staying in this one to the end, putting on a great charge to catch the leader. And that’s just what he did: rallying from a 5-10 second deficit to find himself all over the rear wheel of Tyler Medaglia. But before he could make a pass attempt, he got stuck in one of the seemingly hundreds of ruts, and fell over. He managed to get back up and running without losing a position, but he lost considerable ground to the leader with time in the shortened moto running out. In the end, Tyler Medaglia continued his streak of overall wins, recording the clean-sweep on his way to 4-straight victories. Kaven Benoit recorded second overall on the strength of 2-3 motos while Jeremy Medaglia rounded out the podium with 3-4 scores. Politelli would be forced to settle for 8th overall after his first moto DNF.
Some drama arose before the final moto of the day as Kevin Urquhart–who finished third in the first MX1 moto–was standing at the gate without his bike. It turned out that his bike was toast after the first race, and his mechanic had to swap out engines. It was looking like he was going to be forced to sit out the moto and lose any chance of a solid result, but as the riders were firing their bikes up, the #9 KX450F made its appearance on the concrete start pad.
Grabbing the holeshot was Shawn Maffenbeier on his Schrader’s Yamalube YZ450F, with Colton Facciotti on his tail. Colton wasted no time making the pass, but Maffenbeier was determined not to let him get away and appeared to be the more aggressive of the two riders. Meanwhile, disaster had struck for first moto winner Dusty Klatt, who found himself on the ground and in near dead-last position. Along with Klatt in the back of the pack was Urquhart, whose bike had died as the gate dropped. He was able to get it re-fired, but he had made his job very, very difficult.
Back at the front, Maffenbeier was still keeping Facciotti in sight when he began getting a little too aggressive and suffered a few crashes in quick succession. Eventually, he found himself stuck in a rut and unable to finish the race. Still, it was a great showing for a young rider who has had a very promising season thus far. Inheriting second was Royal Distibuting KTM rider Michael Willard on his KTM 350SXF. Willard–who hadn’t been getting the results many believe he is capable of so far this year–was looking solid in the sticky mess.
Somehow, Dusty Klatt had miraculously worked his way up to third by the halfway point and was all over Willard. With the pass made, he began to charge, riding almost as if the track was dry. Facciotti seemed unable to do much as his 15 second lead began to dwindle. In only a few laps, Klatt was able to see Facciotti and was still closing. Then, Klatt was seen rubbing his goggles with his hands, before taking them off completely–not a good sign on any track, much less in rain and mud. Dusty was forced to slow down as he dealt with lapped riders, and that was all it took for Facciotti to win the moto and his 4th-straight overall. Willard rounded out the podium in the moto, but KTM’s Kyle Keast took third overall with a pair of fourths behind Facciotti and Klatt.
If the Blackfoot Yamaha team looked dominant before, they must be looking pretty close to invincible right now. Regardless of the conditions or track before them, they have achieved the best possible results at each race of the season so far. However, a 2-week break now awaits the riders before they head to the sands of Gopher Dunes in Courtland, Ontario. One thing has been constant at the dunes over the years: Kyle Keast hauling ass. Armed with a factory bike, Keast is no doubt planning his attack on his home turf. It should be a good one!
MX1 OVA:
1. Colton Facciotti
2. Dusty Klatt
3. Kyle Keast
4. Michael Willard
5. Kevin Urquhart
6. Mason Phillips
7. Teddy Maier
8. Jared Allison
9. Jay Burke
10. Iain Hayden
11. PJ Stratton
12. Bobby Kiniry
13. Parker Allison
14. Shawn Maffenbeier
15. Shawn Robinson
16. Jared Stock
17. Josh Penner
18. Brock Hoyer
19. Josh Snider
20. Adam Gamble
MX2 OVA:
1. Tyler Medaglia
2. Kaven Benoit
3. Jeremy Medaglia
4. Morgan Burger
5. Kevin Lepp
6. Nicky Beaty
7.Parker Hoppe
8. Austin Politelli
9. Kory Snelgrove
10. Marc Antoine Belanger
11. Cale Barr
12. Kerian Liegh
13. Brad Nauditt
14. Spencer Knowles
15. Bryton Allison
16. Kylan Meston
17. Zane Wyper
18. Trae Franklin
19. Bill Law
20. Zack Ruff
Morden Thoughts Video by Ryan Gauld Thanks to MXPMag.com and Ryan Gauld for all their help.
