2007 MXON
MXON Budds Creek Team Manager Report
The 61st Motocross of Nations was held in the United States for only the second time in its history.
Budds Creek Raceway in Potomac Maryland was the venue Sept. 22 & 23 2007 and the event turned out to be the largest Motocross event ever held in North America.
Having the event within reasonable driving distance for many Canadians resulted in an unprecedented turnout of fans from Canada and interesting benefits, and challenges for the Canadian Team. Fundraising was helped by the charter of two buses, one from Ontario and one from New Brunswick.
The team chosen by the CMA board was comprised of B.C. rider Dusty Klatt, Saskatchewan’s Blair Morgan and Quebec’s Jean-Sebastien Roy. Last years Team Member Colton Facciotti agreed to be the first alternate. Carl Bastedo was Team Manager for the 4th year. CMA General Manager Marilynn Bastedo was the FIM Jury Delegate and CMA President Joe Godsall was also in attendance.
A mid August injury sustained by Klatt put Facciotti on the team representing Canada in MX2. Former Canada Team Member. Quebec’s Simon Homans agreed to be the alternate after Facciotti moved up to the team.
The entire team rode for Calgary’s Blackfoot Motorsports and Blackfoot was able to acquire sponsorship which allowed for the travel of their pit vehicle and supplies to Budds Creek giving Canada a formidable presence in the paddock area and full factory support for the entire team for the first time in our history.
The support and thorough management of the Blackfoot Team allowed for a pre-event test day at Blackfoots Motor builder in Pennsylvania on the Wednesday prior to the event at their test track. The testing included the use of new FIM standard mufflers from Doug Dubach Racing. The sound problem we have had at past Nations was resolved and the bikes where jetted and set up for existing conditions.
The Yamaha Motorcycles supplied by Blackfoot passed through the tech inspection ritual on Friday with no problems.
The team managed to qualify for the A final for the fourth straight year. Saturdays qualifying went well with the exception of an ankle injury sustained by Blair Morgan during the practice sessions. Blair had been Canada’s top point scorer the past 3 years and Morgans injury caused concern for the event Sunday.
The first race on Sunday was MX1 Roy and MX 2 Facciotti. Jean had a poor start and first lap putting him well back in the pack. Colton ran a steady race and by the end Jean had caught up to him finishing just behind at the finish 16th and 17th out of 39 starters.
Moto # 2 was MX2 and Open with Facciotti back out with Blair Morgan. Morgan tried hard but his ankle injury was to painful. He fought hard but could only muster a 30th placing. Colton had his best race of the weekend finishing 12th in spite of running back to back motos.
Moto #3 had Roy, MX1 back out with an injured Blair Morgan in MX3. Morgan tried to ride but had to retire with the pain logging our throw away moto 37th. Roy had his best ride of the weekend coming from well back in the pack to finish a credible 15th.
I felt our overall result of 10th was acceptable but was disappointed we didn’t beat our best 8th overall at Lierop in 2004. The only consolation is that had Blair not been injured we could have finished as high as 6th which is certainly encouraging for future years.
My recommendation to the Board of the Canadian Motorcycle Association for the 2008 MXON is that we begin a re-building program with some of the new young riders coming up in Canadian Motocross. Our Veteran Riders have done a great job getting us into the top ten in the World the past few years and we owe them a debt of gratitude for the sacrifices they made representing Canada on the World stage. Our new goal is for the new generation of riders to put us in a position to top 5 at future Motocross of Nations events.
