KTM 200 SX

The Chug

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. – Winston Churchill

The long winter of racing in Canada has come to a close. Now I say Canada, but really it’s only BC where the Kawasaki Canadian Arenacross series was the only place to line up. I always wonder if the young kids in this series realize how fortunate they are compared to the rest of Canada. There’s not one racer in the world that won’t tell you the best way to get better at racing is to race.

No matter where or who’s on the gate you just can’t get the on the gate – at the race feeling during practice. That alone makes this series so important for the development of young racers on the west side of Canada. I’m sure you’ve all heard of Al Dyck, Dusty Klatt, Darcy Lange, Colton Facciotti, and Kyle Beaton.

They all got their feet wet in this series and all would share that this style of racing and being able to line up so many times is a huge part of their career. It was the end of the beginning for these top racers.

Arenacross is all about the fun with family.

I really have to give credit to the series for helping me get my business of the ground. If this idea keeps rolling the way it is then I’ll be saying the Arenacross series is what helped me get my start. I started back in November at round one and made my way to each round thanks to Cycle North and WASPcam who were the first companies to jump on board. Since then Yamaha, Atlas, Matrix, 100%, Deft, Forma, Big Steel Box, Orthoflex, and Fox Canada have jumped on board.

 It’s been an amazing winter meeting new people, bench racer with new fans, sharing opinions with new parents, and hanging with some of the best moto friends I have in the sport. The little gathering on Saturday night was one of the best ender parties I’ve ever had a pleasure to be part of. The karaoke, cheeks being kissed, the dancing marathon, and lastly red underwear worn by the dancing machine.

That’s the way you close out a really fun series.

Ethan Ladd and Dylan Delaplace are pretty off the track too, but this is ridiculous. LOL

I’m sitting in the Atlas Brace office bench racing about this Arenacross series and trying to compare to others in the past and see where it ranked. The boys say it ranks second all time compared to the 04/05 winter where it had names like JSR, Beats, Newf, McLean, Sheren, Klatt, Cook, Montes, and the list goes on. This year was pretty amazing at times with T Medags, J Medags, Hoyer, Johnson, Newf, Knowles, Howell, Nauditt, Anstett, Jurin, and more.

It’s funny how spraying little extra purse money can help make the gate full of fast racers. Another topic that came up in our bench was how much money Future West had in purse alone. Over a 6 weekend race series – 12 rounds – the purse was $6,870 per night, $13,740 per weekend, so $82,440 for the series. That’s a pretty crazy number for a provincial series.

Looking at that now maybe the Future West crew should have blown that up more in the PR side of things, but regardless that’s unreal dough. Let’s hope that when the numbers get crunched and expenses are all paid it shows a great ROI for the series and next year things stay the same and more riders show up to chase the dream of championship status and fill the bank account to the brim.

It was awesome to have so many big name riders support the series which only helped make the action each night that much better.

In 2008 a skinny little fella with a big smile on his face with a determination inside of him like a gladiator rode a yellow bike with #34 on the side two some great motos and even an overall at the final round of Walton. Since that day he’s piled up the wins and has always fought tooth and nail for a title but never made it happen. Fast forward to 2014 and that same kid with the big smile and gladiator mentality scored his first ever pro title.

This kid is Jeremy Medaglia, who showed that no matter the distance it may take to get to the top, if you believe you can make it, the journey can pay off. The best part of it all was his weekend wasn’t easy to wrap up his first championship. Flat tires at strange moments, a collision with Knowles while in a perfect points position, and lastly a yellow flag in the final main of the weekend that had a few riders bang into each other.

All these incidents could have made for a rough night if they went the wrong way for Jer, but they didn’t. They all worked out and the kid brought home a title for him and his Cycle North team. It was an inspirational championship run for JDags.

Let’s hope we get to see him race with that plate for the 2014/2015 Canadian AX series.

You finally made it happen kid. Congrats.

KTM 200 SX

The Open class title went to Ross Johnson on his Cycle North Honda which was well deserved. He showed up every weekend ready for battle and was the most consistent rider on the big 450. It was also pretty awesome to see how many friends and family he had come up in support of his championship run. There’s not too many times in Canada where a US rider gets the loudest cheers from the crowd.

Family is uber important to Ross and they came and showed how important he is to them.

A very happy Ross Johnson. You can tell he’s feeling good.

So it’s only Monday and the series is now in the past. I’m not sure if it was a successful one for all involved, but I will share that on Saturday night not one person gave a poop about that because it was all about a celebration with the good people that race dirt bikes. Sometimes that’s worth more than money.

The Daytona SX took place on Saturday night under the lights at arguably the most famous course in history. The magical feeling you get just being able to enter that place is something that has to be on the bucket list of any racer in the world. Ryan Villopoto got his mojo back and absolutely destroyed the field. He only made one pass, which was in the first 200 yards, going by Dean Wilson like he was a on a 50cc bike.

He literally was in another time zone this past weekend. I said last weekend that it may be hard for the three-time to get another win after the way he’s ben looking. I guess I’m an idiot because not one racer on that gate even got hit in the face with Poto roost it that main. It was fairly uneventful at the front. Behind him was some great action with Wilson, Dungey and Roczen right up to the 15 lap mark when poor Wilson’s tongue got caught in the spokes.

He still rode great, but that was a nasty fade from 2 nd to 7 th. The other drama involved Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barcia. Barcia is closing in on the “Cause Most Drama” award who I woud say is owned by Mike Alessi at the moment. Though I believe in this situation Barcia made a good move but lost the front wheel taking Mookie down with him.

The aftermath with Stewart whisky throttling into Barcia and his bike should cost him a small fine for unsportsmanlike in my eyes. It was also warranted but again these guys are supposed to be professional right?

I’ll end this with a catch up on rumors which really only have two left, well maybe three. MX101 is about to fill their last MX2 spot with a US rider to go along side Dylan Wright. I’m thinking we will know this week. The KTM race team plans should be announced this week as well since they launched the huge contingency program for the nationals last week.

Lastly the Alessi deal has now started to maybe fade a smidge as they was supposed to be a meeting with JDags and Mike Genova this weekend at Daytona since Jer stays at GPF. Tony tried to make the meet happen but didn’t realize that Jer was in Canada racing this weekend. Jer also hinted that they may stay US and bring him along for the ride this summer but no decision has been made on Canada or the US just yet.

I’ll contact Tony this week and check in to see where the thoughts are. Have a great week race fans!!

KTM 200 SX
KTM 200 SX
KTM 200 SX
KTM 200 SX
KTM 200 SX
KTM 200 SX


  • Test KTM 85 SX 2013: In short, I rolled on the 85 SX…
  • KTM 950 Adventure-KTM
  • 2014 Toyota F-1 Concept press release
  • KTM RC 125, RC 200 and RC 390 photos Biketoq
  • 2012 KTM 500 xcw Review – Saying Goodbye Enduro360.com