Roy romp comes to an end

From Bullseye Media

JOLIETTE, QC -- It had to happen sooner or later and it happened in his home province: Jean Sebastien Roy failed to win Round 6 of the CMRC MX1 Canadian Motocross Championship this weekend in Joliette, QC. That honour went to his Team Honda Canada Blackfoot Fox Racing teammate Damon Huffman. The California native left no doubt in anyone's mind that he remains a force to be reckoned with in MX1 by nailing down the overall with 2-2 moto results.

Despite JSR's failure to dominate the proceedings – as he did at the first five rounds of the championship – Blackfoot still ruled the day with Huffy and Dusty Klatt. Klatt, looking better and better each time out, carded second overall for the team on the strength of 6-1 motos.

JSR, meanwhile, rode conservatively both motos registering 4-7 finishes at the checkered flag. According to Blackfoot team coordinator Dean Thompson, Roy experienced more problems than usual with an old knee injury, which was especially aggravated by Circuit de Joliette’s killer rocker section. The Acton Vale, QC native carded a still respectable fourth overall, and with it another 32 points towards the title hunt which he continues to lead by a hefty margin.

"When I came here this weekend it was with the intention of winning in front of a home province crowd, but my knee just wasn’t cooperating," said Roy. "I knew I had to take it easy and make sure I didn’t reinjure the knee so it ended up about riding for points instead of the win."

Morgan Racing Yamaha's Craig Decker, who grabbed the first MX1 moto holeshot, carded his second podium of the season with third overall. The Californian rode consistent motos that saw him chalk up 3-3 results.

Winner of the first moto, Gavin Gracyk, piloted his Team Suzuki OTSFF RM-Z450 to the second moto holeshot only to go down hard in the rockers a few laps later. The crash took him out of the lead and out of the race with an apparent leg injury. This unfortunate turn of events for Gracyk saw him vacate his second place in the points rankings, which is now occupied by Huffman.

In MX2 East action, the status quo got turned upside down by Richmond Racing Kawasaki Canada's Kyle Chisholm. The American – a last minute addition to the Richmond stable just before the eastern series got underway – established himself as the new points leader in the tiddler class thanks to 1-1 motos and a tepid showing by last week's winner, Chad Charbonneau. The American Honda backed rider, who raised everybody's eyebrows at Gopher Dunes, rode less spectacularly in Joliette to card seventh overall on the strength of 5-11 motos.

Blackfoot's Mitch Cooke, carrying the weight of his team in the MX2 title hunt due to teammate Donnie McGourty’s inability to race because of a wrist injury sustained at Gopher, charged his way to 3-2 moto results that saw him card second overall. Cooke, who was in sixth place in the points rankings after Round 1, fast tracked his way into second, just eight points behind Chisholm. Chisholm, for his part, took a giant leap from eighth in the points last weekend to the top of the scoreboard after two rounds.

Ryan Lockhart, who DNFd both motos with mechanical problems at Round 1, was able to prove his mettle this time out to card third overall on the strength of 6-4 motos.