Located in the longitudinal center of Canada, the prairie province of Manitoba is known as ‘gateway to the west’ and the vast agriculture fields lay flat, sprawling for over 600,000 sq/km (250,000sq/mi). Round 3 of the MX Tour was held at McNabb Valley Raceway which is surrounded by rolling canola fields and is a popular layout amongst the riders.
Poor weather was lurking, and while rain is otherwise welcomed for farming, the skies turned on race day and conditions became one of a struggle and strategy. After qualifications were in the books, it was announced the moto’s would be shorted five minutes each. But after the first moto’s struggles, the Jetwerx promoters were required to announce the second moto’s would be canceled; and first moto scores would count as the Overall positions.
250cc – Dylan Wright: 1st Overall.
Mud riding requires a wide-open throttle and Dylan Wright’s riding style always favours a pin it to win it setting. Clocking the fastest qualifying time of the morning when the track was still in an adequate condition, Wright earned himself the very important first gate pick in Moto 1.
The most important part of the mud race is always going to be the start. Wright held on to come around lap one in 4th place, but without vision. Putting his head down and gritting it out passing his way into the lead by lap five, Wright rode out the next five laps to take an impressive moto win, and the subsequent overall victory keeping his 250cc series points lead and the Red Plate.
450cc – Colton Facciotti: 2nd overall.
Coming into Round 3 with the momentum of last weekend’s first overall victory and carrying the 450cc series leading Red Plate for this thirteenth weekend, Colton Facciotti needed to back it up before the MX Tour takes a month long break before Round 4 resumes in the East.
Looking strong in Qualifications with a second place time, Facciotti made his gate selection and hoped for the best. A bad jump off and slow pull down the start left Facciotti working his way around the track on lap one in 5th place. After picking off several downed riders at the mid-way point of the moto, Facciotti settled into 2nd place and rode it in for the eventual Overall Podium finish. With his podium finish, Facciotti extended his points lead to 8 and continues his Red Plate streak to 14 races in a row.
450cc – Mike Alessi: 9th Overall.
Still looking for his first podium finish of the season, Mike Alessi has had a consistent West coast, leading laps and racing inside the top five battles each moto. Qualifying in 6th place, Alessi would hope for a patented MA800 holeshot to keep him up front in the muddy Minnedosa conditions. Unfortunately, Alessi got his season’s worst start in 12th place and was buried in the pack salvaging his way up to 9th place by the end of lap eleven. Alessi will start the East coast with in a respectable top five and be in full stride for his podium run.
The next race of the MX Tour will be in the deep sand of Gopher Dunes. The South-Western Ontario track is the home base for the Honda Canada/GDR/Fox Racing team and they will proudly carry both Red Plates to the starting line of their home race. The GDR Squad has been red hot this season and has been on every Overall podium in both 250cc & 450cc classes at every race this season. The mid-season break will be utilized wisely by the team to come back even more prepared to win.
250cc Round 3 Results:
1st – Dylan Wright (1-DNS)
2nd – Luke Renzland (2-DNS)
3rd – Tyler Medaglia (3-DNS)
4th – Marshal Weltin (4-DNS)
5th – Tanner Ward (5-DNS)
450cc Round 3 Results:
1st – Matt Georke (1-DNS)
2nd – Colton Facciotti (2-DNS)
3rd – Dakota Alix (3-DNS)
4th – Mike Brown (4-DNS)
5th – Cade Clason (5-DNS)
250cc Series Points:
1st – Dylan Wright; 3-2-1 (133 pts)
2nd – Marshal Weltin; 4-1-4 (123 pts)
3rd – Josh Osby; 1-4-17 (111 pts)
4th – Jess Pettis; 7-3-6 (111 pts)
5th – Tyler Medaglia; 6-5-3 (109 pts)
450cc Series Points:
1st – Colton Facciotti; 2-1-2 (139 pts)
2nd – Phil Nicoletti; 3-2-6 (131 pts)
3rd – Cole Thompson; 1-6-11 (110 pts)
4th – Mike Alessi; 4-4-9 (108 pts)
5th – Matt Georke; 6-8-1 (106 pts
The Fox MTB team had a busy weekend at the annual Crankworx Festival in beautiful Innsbruck, Austria. Brett Rheeder, Kaos Seagrave and Jackson Goldstone each collected wins while Keegan Wright picked up valuable points which propelled him into second place in the King of Crankworx Competition.
In what was one of the most exciting freestyle competitions in years, Brett Rheeder dug deep on his final run to lay claim to his first Crankworx Innsbruck Slopestyle victory. The event was postponed for over 5 hours on Saturday before being moved to Sunday due to high winds. By Sunday afternoon the winds had calmed down enough to allow the competition to move forward and after the first of two runs, Brett sat in first place with a top score of 92 points. That position didn’t last long as Emil Johansson threw down an impressive 95. Brett would have to wait through 11 rider runs before getting his chance to reclaim the lead. In the end, he did just that with a solid run where he added additional difficulty on several of his jumps. After a lengthy review, the judges awarded Rheeder the victory by just a half a point over Johansson. The win is his second Crankworx Slopestyle in a row to start the 2019 season and keeps his journey toward the Crankworx triple crown on track. The third and final round will take place this August at Crankworx Whistler.
After several podium finishes in the event, Fox athlete Kaos Seagrave finally cracked the code and landed on the top step of the Crankworx Whip-off podium in Innsbruck. The jam format of the Whip Off event is always exciting, and Kaos threw down some of the most stylish and over-rotated jumps of the day. The competition pushed hard and brought their A games, but Kaos’ consistency and volume helped him edge past the rest to claim his first ever Crankworx victory.
Keegan was once again one of the busiest Fox athletes over the 5-day event as he competed in nearly all the elite men’s contests on offer. Finishes of 19th, 7th, and 4th - in various events - earned him valuable points for the overall King of Crankworx title. His performance at Innsbruck propelled him to second place, less than 60 points off the lead heading into Crankworx Whistler. In one of the most talked about performances of the week, Keegan rode his enduro bike to a top 20 finish in the men’s elite downhill race, outperforming more than 85% of the competitors racing on purpose-built downhill bikes. Always a crowd pleaser, Keegan will be looking to claim the King of Crankworx title in August.
Fox team rider Jackson Goldstone took first place in both youth events in Innsbruck. He started off with a hard-fought victory in the Dual Slalom event on Thursday. The Canadian phenom followed that up with an impressive seven-second victory in the IXS Innsbruck Downhill race. Jackson will be looking for another solid performance, on home soil, at Crankworx Whistler in August.
