Dave is our racer up in Canada. For those of you who don't know about Canada, it's the other country that shares an international border with Alaska, just like Palin describes.
Subject: We Won!
Good Morning Friends,
I have some good news to share; we are once again the holders of the #1 Plate in Canadian Supermoto.
Heading into the weekend it worked out (through an abbreviated schedule, rain outs and prior race results) the championship was down to two guys with a mathematical chance; current champ KTM's Maxime Sylvestre and myself. Winner of the day takes home the plate.
The qualifier was a battle between all four past and present National Champions and no one was more than two bikes apart for the whole deal. Maxime came from fifth riding like a madman and systematically picked off each one of us. However a lap after getting the lead he lost the front end in a high-speed sweeper and went off the track in a heap. Doug Beattie won, and I grabbed second.
In the final I yanked a killer holeshot and stretched out a four-bike length lead, which I held until just past the halfway mark. Then I started to make small mistakes, which allowed the battle raging behind me to catch up. With three laps to go 2004 Champ Doug Beattie slipped by when I spun on the face of a jump and I hugged his tire until the checkers. I knew there was at least one rider between Maxime and myself so the championship was secure and there was no way I was going to risk a crash trying to be a hero.
That was the easy part of the email to write, this is more of a challenge, in a good way.
Racing is business and you’re not going to hit it off with everyone, not everybody operates with the same ethics and not everyone is interested in being your friend. To some you’re just another resume, only as good as your last race, which is just part of the game. On the bright side, over the years it became very obvious there were a few who genuinely cared, who always had a kind word of support ready and who were always in my corner interested in what I had going on.
If you are one of the eight names who received this email this championship is for you!
Many times this summer I battled myself trying to decide what to do based on a myriad of factors. How many races could I afford to do? Would my beat up Jeff Ward 2005 TLD Honda do the job one more time? When is my injury number going to come up again? Etc.
In the end, when the season got shortened to a point where I could see finishing it with (more or less) the resources I had, I made up my mind I was going out on top, going there to win it for the people who always believed in me, and to prove to the people who have talked a lot of shit about me…they were full of it.
I don’t know what the future holds for SM in Canada and in turn for me. This may be the last National Championship Series held for a while. History may have it that I came in as the first champion and went out as the last, time will tell.
Either way it’s been a great ride and I wanted to let each of you know, aside from the products, it was your personal touch, kind words, boot in the ass, get well card, smiles and warmth that made all the difference. It motivated me every year to keep going because I knew I had my crew I could count on, you eight really stood out and the times we shared are something I’ll never forget.
Thank you so much!
Dave Arnold
Team Machine Racing Troy Lee Designs
2008 Canadian Supermoto National Champion
2008 Canadian Supermoto Vet +35 National Champion
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