Spoiler alert: I didn’t go to RedBud, but I’m sure it was its typical awesome self—great track and facility, Independence Day holiday, and what’s not to like, right? Well, I was headed about five hours away, outside of London, Ontario, for round four of the Canadian national series at Gopher Dunes.

I hadn’t been to a Canadian national in a long time. The guys at Gopher have been wanting me to come up. Racer X’s own Phil Nicoletti was back racing the series. I’ve been to RedBud a lot; Gopher Dunes is deep sand and always interesting to watch, and, well, yeah, I just went for it.

Did I have some FOMO from RedBud? Yes, I did. I made this commitment before I knew that the great Antonio Cairoli was debuting the Ducati at RedBud, and I did want to see that. But also, I enjoyed my trip up to the Great White North as well.

So, OBS this week will be about the Canadian series—soak it in, everyone!

The series itself has been sort of stagnant for a few years. There have been new owners for a while now, and it’s funny to say that the old guy who was the grand poohbah of Canadian moto, Mark Stallybrass, is missed by some in the pits. I didn’t think I’d ever hear that. Obviously, we live in a different world these days; Canadian moto is a very small piece of the sporting landscape, and COVID hit, etc., but man, it’s not looking very up-and-coming these days. Stallybrass seemed to always pull someone out of the woodwork to pump some money into the series, whether it be energy drinks or MACS stores or whatever. He did put some new money into the series. The Triple Crown guys lost Rockstar a few years ago, and I don’t see any new companies helping the series out. The guys who own it now, the Thompson family, are great at TV production, and one could say that with the series being on the RYDE TV app, things from a TV production point of view have never been better. It’s just everything else, to me anyways, that seems worse. Sponsorship, track presentation, pits, etc., seem worse off than ever. Some new teams, sure, but the rider depth isn’t anywhere near what it used to be.

I’m not sure the Triple Crown guys are great promoters, you know? They’re great at TV stuff for sure, but in my opinion, someone needs to step in and try to get some outside money—not “more” outside money, just ANY outside money. And look, maybe the Triple Crown guys have knocked on every door in Canada and been shot down; maybe there’s just no money out there, and they’re doing all they can do. There’s a chance of that for sure, but the old guy used to pull deals in—why can’t we do it now?

So, the two big dogs of the series, MX 101 Yamaha’s Jess Pettis and GDR Honda’s Dylan Wright, were all set for a mano a mano battle for the MX title this year. Wright’s a multi-time champ, Pettis won the title last year, and switched to Yamaha this year. They opened up round one swapping moto wins, with Wright winning the OA. The next week, Wright’s gas tank broke from an O2 sensor coming off, and he DNF’d a moto, which gave Pettis a huge points lead. And this thing is only eight rounds long, so yeah, DNF’s hurt. The next week, Wright crashed during the week and hurt his elbow, so he came into round three hurting, and it showed; Pettis dominated while Wright got second.

Pettis had over a 30-point lead going into this weekend, and really, if he just went 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 the rest of the season, he would win the title. Which for him wouldn’t be that hard. Wright needed something to happen, and he got it in practice this weekend when Pettis ate it hard, KO’d himself, and then had chest pains that necessitated a trip to the hospital. This was it; Pettis was out for the day, and Wright was gonna go 1-1 and be up 18 points or something at the end of the day with four rounds to go.

But then disaster struck Wright when he had a 40-second lead in moto one; his gas tank broke somewhere along the line, and he lost fuel. It made his bike cough over a small double, and he endoed hard! Besides not having gas, his bike was also destroyed by a lapper. Wright DNF’d moto one!

Somewhere in nearby Tillsonburg, Pettis was probably in the hospital fist-pumping. Maybe ripping all the wires out of him to try and make moto two. The day was already nutty and was about to get crazier.

In the second moto, the GDR team put a stock tank on and decided they would have to make a fuel stop, which would be okay because Dylan was going to be up by a million. So, while he pulled in around the 20-minute mark, the team took his cap off and... hot pressurized fuel spewed straight out of his tank like it was Mt. Rushmore erupting! It was unreal; there are videos of it on social media. Wright’s mechanic just got a face full of Pro-6 like it was out of a fire hose. I bet the team lost more fuel out than they put in. See, the team uses the one-way vent hose from a Yamaha, but also the stock Honda tank has a one-way vent in the cap, so in effect, the team was double venting the fuel, and that locked it in there. Unscrew the cap, and there she blows!

Wright won the moto after that chaos, and his DNF-1 got him 8th overall and pulled him to within nine points of Pettis, who barely held onto the red plate, and is now tied with…

OUR OWN Phil Nicoletti!!!!! Yes, you read that right. Walton Kawasaki’s Phil Nicoletti has been doing his thing up there, getting third every week (except for when Wright DNF'd, and then he got second). So, with Pettis out, our guy Phil was looking good to hold the red plate all by himself, except it’s Phil. Nothing goes easy for our guy, and on a track where his fitness and old man grit should pay off, I thought he could win the overall if anything happened to Dylan, which, amazingly enough, it did!

But like Eeyore the donkey, Phil crashed once on the opening lap of moto one, worked his way from last to about 18th, and then crashed again. So now he came from around 30th to 7th at the end of the moto. A lot of work for our guy, but hey, he pulled the holeshot in moto two and led! IT WAS NOW ON!!!!

Except it wasn’t. Our guy felt the effects of all the work in moto one, and on a gnarly hot, rough sand track, Nicoletti started drifting backward. Honestly, it was surprising to see. It’s very unlike Phil. He ended up sixth for sixth overall, and it was a bad day for Phil, but hey, he does hold the red plate. Has there ever been a day in motocross history where a 7-6 gets you the red plate in a series? Well, kids, now there has been.

Tanner Ward took his first 450MX overall win of his career with a great day. Yes, he got some luck with Wright having issues, but he’s on a new team, Priority MX, this year (the team is backed by an HVAC guy, and he gives the riders on the team jobs in the off-season to help out! That’s so Canadian moto, and I love it). Ward won the first moto in style once Wright went out, and in both motos, he battled Quinn Amyotte a bit. Amyotte might have had as much speed as Ward early in the motos, but Ward’s fitness won out as he pulled away each time from Quinn. Ward’s a good guy, and I think most of the people in the pits were happy to see him win. Good for him and his team. Tanner’s a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan like me, so we’re generally used to getting our souls crushed a lot. Nice for him to get a lift here.

Amyotte went 3-3 for second overall, and like Ward, he’s more of a privateer than, say, Wright or Pettis. He’s been in MX2 his whole career and just moved up this year to the big bike class. He’s a super funny kid off the track and seems to be a hard worker as well.

Lars van Berkel, a Dutch beach racer who has moonlighted in the AMA and Canada, joined the series for a full-time ride this year. I don’t know what team he’s on, but he’s driving across the country and appears to be having fun doing it if you follow him on Instagram. Lars was not in ideal conditions during the first three rounds, but he was now in his home sand. He doesn’t just like the sand; like Bane, who was born in the dark, Lars was born in the sand. He could’ve won the overall if his starts had been any good. His fitness really allowed him to work up to 2-4 finishes for third overall on the day. Afterward he was so tired he just sat on the podium for about 30 minutes before he walked back to his truck. Van Berkel was Van Bonked after the second moto.

Evan Stice is a privateer from Idaho who impressed the Triumph Canadian team enough to pick him up for a fill-in spot, and he had a lot of speed early in the motos, but the sand gods got to him. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a pro more tired than him in either moto at Gopher. The speed was good, though!

Check out the points here with four rounds to go—yes, Pettis (if he’s okay) and Wright are the huge favorites, but through some weird circumstances, we have ourselves a real title fight in MX1!

In the MX2 class, it was thought to be more of a battle between GDR Honda’s Ryder McNabb and MX101’s Preston Kilroy. McNabb is very good at this track and had an all-new motor set-up as well. He didn’t have a great round in Quebec, so Kilroy, who moved down to MX2 after a good season in MX1 last year (his first in Canada), came in with an 18-point lead on McNabb.

Kilroy’s not much of a sand rider, so it was impressive to see him reel in McNabb in moto one, and those two put on a show. They swapped spots and collided in the air at one point, and yeah, it was a great race. McNabb held onto the win, setting up what I thought was going to be another great race in moto two.

Only not with those two. Kilroy told me afterward that he knew on lap two he didn’t have it. His first moto had worn him out, and fourth was the best the series points leader could do. McNabb was out front, and one would think he would walk away with it, but the track and heat got to him as well, and he slipped back to third.

If McNabb loses this title by five points, he’s going to look back at Gopher and those points he lost as a turning point for sure. After the race, he looked smoked like a lot of other guys. Kilroy going 2-4 and losing only five points wasn’t too bad for him; he’s up 13 now with eight motos to go.

So, with the two top guys having their own personal sand demons to deal with, it was KTM Canada’s Dylan Rempel who won his first overall ever with 3-1 scores! Some eyebrows were raised when KTM cut some budget, let Pettis go, and settled in with Rempel as their guy, but at 17 years old, he’s got a bright future for sure. His fitness in moto two shined through, and he looked great out there.

Kilroy’s teammate Sebastian Racine went 4-2 for third overall, and he, like Rempel, didn’t seem to let the heat get to him. In the second moto, at some laps, Racine and Rempel’s times were six to seven seconds faster than the riders right behind them (who happened to be 1-2 in the points), and others were 2-4 seconds. Impressive stuff for the kids right behind the other kids.

Club MX brought up Ryder Malinoski, who we’ve seen in the USA racing SX and MX combines, and in his first Canadian national ever (I think—don’t fact-check me), went 5-5 on the day. Not too bad for the kid, right?

Thanks for reading OBS from the Great White North! You can watch the series on the Ryde TV app and follow it through the guys at Directmotocross.com and CMXU on Twitter. Email me at [email protected] if you want to chat about this or anything else.