Colton Facciotti and Tyler Medaglia came, saw, and conquered Wild Rose MX Park to win Round 3 of the Monster Energy Motocross Nationals in Calgary on Sunday.
As he did at Rounds 1 and 2 Facciotti nailed down 1-1 heats in MX1 while Medaglia did the same in MX2, recording his first clean sweep of the season.
Under rainy skier Topher Ingalls grabbed the first MX2 heat holeshot with Spencer Knowles quickly taking over the lead after the first turn.
Knowles’s position at the head of the pack ended, however, when he went down before the end of the first lap. He would finish outside the top 10.
Ingalls, who reclaimed the lead after Knowles crashed, soon had Tyler and Jeremy Medaglia breathing down his neck. After hounding him for a few laps, T. Medaglia stuck a pass on Ingalls and he never looked back.
While battling for second with J. Medaglia, Ingalls jumped off the track, allowing Medaglia and Austin Politelli to get by and take second and third respectively, which they kept all the way to the finish line.
Politelli had to fight his way through the mud and most of the rider field after being involved in a first turn crash.
Kaven Benoit, another victim of the first turn crash, came from dead last to 10th place by the halfway mark. He finished an impressive fifth at the checkered.
Although sunshine favoured the first Women’s and MX1 heats, the second MX2 heat got underway to more of the wet stuff, driven by brisk winds, which again pitted the riders against themselves and the elements.
Politelli made up for his bad start in heat one by taking the holeshot in front of Knowles, T. Medaglia, Kieran Leigh, Benoit and J. Medaglia.
Within a few laps T. Medaglia was in second place; by the fifth lap he took over the lead from Politelli.
Once at the head of the pack Medaglia was never threatened for position, finishing some 10 seconds ahead of Politelli who snagged second overall on the strength of 3-2 heats.
Leigh, who went down for a mud bath, eventually finished eighth. After his crash, Leigh opened the door for J. Medaglia and his teammate Benoit to fight for third place, which went to Medaglia after he stuck a pass on Benoit on the last lap. Medaglia's 2-3 heat finishes assured him the final overall podium position.
Dusty Klatt snared the first MX1 heat holeshot followed by Michael Willard and Kevin Urquhart. A bobble cost an on fire Klatt the lead a few laps later, allowing Willard to move into first.
Meanwhile, Colton Facciotti, who started around seventh, wasted little time connecting with the frontrunners.
First he displaced Urquhart from third, who had already succumbed to Klatt, then Klatt from second, to hunt down Willard and take the lead around the fifth lap.
Klatt soon resigned Willard to third place and leave him and the rest of the chase group to fight it out for top-five finishes.
Matt Goerke and Teddy Maier clashed for the final podium spot, which went to Maier when all was said and done.
At the finish line Facciotti had a five seconds lead on Klatt, who in turn gapped Maier by 15 seconds. Kyle Keast recovered beautifully from a tepid start to seal the top-five.
The start of the second MX1 heat was made a bit more interesting than usual with rain and hail hammering the riders.
But that didn’t stop Facciotti from grabbing the holeshot with Klatt, Hoyer, Keast and Maier in tow. The hail didn’t last long but the rain, at times coming down heavy, hung in for the entire heat.
Up front it would be Facciotti and Klatt all the way, although Facciotti would build a +40 second lead on his teammate by the time the race was over. As in the first heat, the battles were for the remaining top-five positions.
Halfway into the heat Maier was running third, followed by Keast and Bobby Kiniry, who had snuck into the top-five after starting around 10th place.
Kiniry, who had tossed his goggles, stayed on the gas to reel in and pass Maier towards the end of the heat. Keast, who had run as high as third for a while, rebounded on the second last lap to retake Maier and finish less than a bike length behind Kiniry.
For his efforts Keast took home fourth overall on the day while Maier sealed the overall podium with third.
In the final round of Women’s Motocross Nationals West, Denaye Giroux clinched the title in grand style by hammering down her second consecutive clean sweep of the season.
In the first heat, Sierra Roth grabbed the holeshot and led for two laps until she went down on the slippery track.
Missy Hackett, who was in second place, and Giroux then battled for first. They swapped positions a few times until Giroux took control for the second half of the heat all the way to the finish line.
The second heat saw Giroux grab the holeshot and lead wire to wire without ever being threatened for position.
Hackett, who finished runner-up in the series, greeted the checkers some ten seconds behind Giroux to take second overall on the day.
Third overall went to Ross on the strength of 3-3 heats.