Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127965
Valvoline Montreal Supercross Brock Sellards topp ed the 21st running of the Montrea l Supercross at Olympic Stad ium. By J a s on T. Gr iffith s MONlREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, SEPT. 26 anada has never been known for ha vin g a strong su percross series, . bu t it d oes ha ve one superc ross even t tha t rival s m any SX races in the United States : the Montreal Su percross. Yea r after year, crow ds of more tha n 50 ,000 fl ock to Olym p ic St a di um t o w at ch the int ernati on al su pe rcross compe tition an d Ohio's Brock Sellar ds come away wi th the w in. , A long lis t of A me rican riders showed up, inclu di ng Nick Wey, Sell ards, Tim Ferry, Mi ke Jo nes, Ro b b ie Skaggs an d Cha d Pederson . There w ere also many rid ers from Europe, and they all came to challenge Canada's top rider, [ean-Sebasti en Roy; an d th e rest of th e ting ent. ,....., Can adian conSt adium was missing the Olympic N .ca nvas ro of that u su a lly en cl os es the l-o d om e, and, as fat e would hav e it, rain ill .c fell and turned the he avy clay track base o ..... . int o a slimy mess. Track crews worked u ,qui ckly to rescue the raci ng by covering th e co u rs e wit h truckload s of sa nd. Asid e from th e in conveni en ce of th e rai n a nd sa nd , racers found th e tr ack C A l8 ~ o 44 exce p tio na l in terms o f supe rcross tracks. Man y of th e America n riders have tradition all y used th e Montreal Supercross as a warmu p for the AMA Supercross Series. On th is, the 21st ru nning of "t e Montreal Supe rcross, Sellar ds, of the h FMF Honda team, sto le the victory from cr owd fa v o ri te Ro y , just a few laps before the finish . Thi s was Sellard s' first Montreal Su pe rcross even t, an d his trip to the ve n ue was a littl e on th e hect ic side. Sellards, his mom (who was also acting as his mechan ic for the weekend), and his girlfriend, Tricia , drove all nig ht in a jam-packed minivan and arr ived in Mon tr ea l o ne ho ur before sign-up on Saturday morning. ' " I brought up m y 250, but I never really rod e it, because I on ly rid e 125s," Sellards said. "I' ve never even rode it on a supercros s track before." Despite hi s tigh t sc hed u le" Sellards put it all tog ether ' and ad de d the Montreal Supercross to his trophy list. " Mo n trea l is re all y an am a z in g event," Sellards said . "The people in the stands w ere th e most loyal fans of their country 'that I ha ve eve r see n in my life. I m ean, w he ne ver j ean-Se bastien Roy p a ssed me, there were 51,000 people cheering h im o n - in clu d in g th e flagmen. It got to the point - w hen I w as on the last lap an d Roy was ahead of me ,th at I could n' t even h ear m y bike r unning. I've never hear d an yth ing like this; my head wa s ringing." . Canada's fas tes t motocrosser, Roy, grabbed th e lead from Se llards th ree la ps before the finish and had the Canad ian fans stand ing o n their sea ts. Man y of them still remember ed Roy' s Mon treal victory in 1996, bu t this year he w as ro bbed of the w in less tha n 30 seco nds before the finish line. W hen the m oto sta rted , it w as th e Quebec co n nectio n of Suzuki ' s Ma rco Dube and Roy heading the pac k. The fans w ent wild un til Du be crashed co m ing down off the up per-d eck sect ion , taking Roy ou t with him. Roy picked his bike up, got back int o the race in fourth and eventua lly finished the race in second . Warren Ed w ards, from Great Britain, filled the last podium spo t, finishing th e eve n t in th ird after another d own-tothe-wire battl e with New Jers ey's Kevin Crine. Greg Schne ll, from Cali fornia, finis hed fifth , with Canadian Kawa sak i cha mp Blair Morgan fin ishing sixth. ' Morga n w as in good positio n off the start bu t go t th e ba d end of a collision wi th Sellards. "I act ually had' a re ally good sta rt, " said Blair. "I was pretty far to the inside an d Marco (Dube) was beside m e, and he swapped right out sideways, and ad to avoid him . Then Brock Sellards was ou t sid " w a ys in th e sa nd, too . I T-bo ned Brock. Brock saved it and I we nt straight down ." Bla ir res ta r ted in la st p lace and foug ht his way back up to sixt h, where he wou ld fin ish . Beh ind Mo rgan was seven th -plac ed Kawasaki rid er Shae Bentley, who d rove all th e way from Geo rgia to race. Mik e Jon es, a fo rm er Canadian outdoor title ho lder, finished e ig h th; while Ty Wallace fini shed in ninth . Canadian rid er Ja son Fr enette had recovered fro m the life-threa tening kidney injury th at he susta ine d in a local Alberta rac e and finished in 10th. Fellow Ca nad ian rid er Doug De Haa n, who had ju st recover ed from a sho u lder in jury, finish ed 11th. On e of the pre-ra ce fa vo rites, Tim Ferry , had bad lu ck in the main event. A good start put him up front ea rly, but he d etoured from the track and had trouble fin d ing e no ugh tr acti on o n the s lic k cement to get back on the course . " I had a reall y good sta r t," Fer ry said. "In the main, I came out in second, and I mad e a litt le bobble and Roy got by me, and I d id about two more turns, hit the whoops, and they really slicked up from the rain an d I just slid off the track and h it the co n cre te . I ju st slid right out. I w as just sp inning; I could n' t get back on the track." ' Fe r ry w as d isappointed wi th his 12th-p lace finish . Frederic Vialle, fro m France, finished in 13 th, while early race lead er Dube recovered after his hard crash and finished 14th. Darryl Atkins, a Kawasaki rider fro m Belgium, finished 15th , w hile Rob bi e Skaggs, from California, finis hed a disappointing 16th. _ The two remainin g Ca nadians to m a ke it into th e to p 20 we re C h ris Pomeroy an d Alexandre Lan gevin. Pro C ircuit /SplitF ire /Kawasaki 's Nick Wey was consid ered to be one of the ' favorites to wi n in Mo nt rea l, but a firs t-t u rn derailment in the m ain took the Mich igan native ou t of the running. " I p icked the o utsi de to start on" beca use I knew it wou ld be reall y slick on th e inside," Wey said . "I was hopin g to get a good -enoug h h o lesh ot th a t wo u ld a llow m e t o b e o u t th e r e b y myself, but that wasn' t the case . Everyone sta rte d slid ing int o me, and I went off onto the cement. I got up an d going and then crashe d again. I th in k I was maybe tryi ng a bit too hard , because I wan te d to win prett y ba d. T hen I crashed ano ther time and ben t my handlebars, and my bike lan ded on my leg. I tweaked it a litt le bit, and after tha t I knew I wasn't going to do very we ll. I had my leg X-rayed on 'Mond ay and it wa sn't broken, but they said I pulled my Achi lles' tend on rea lly good." ":\ Montreal Supe rcross Montrea l, Quebe c, Canada Res ults: Se ptember 26, 1998 O/A: 1. Brock Sella rds (Hen): 2. jt.,m·St..·bas til·1\ Roy ' (Ka ......); 3. Wa rren Ed wa rd!"(Hun); 4. Kevin Crine (Ka w ); 5. Greg Schnell (Yam); 6. Blair Morga n (Kaw): 7. Shill' Bent le y (Ka w): 8. Mik e Jones (K.1 W); 9. T y WOl II.1 C(' (Ya m); 10. Jason Frenette (Kaw).