Team Toyota Yamaha Blackfoot Fox Racing's Colton Facciotti is another step closer to winning his first MX1 National Championship, after winning Round 7 of the Monster Energy Motocross Nationals in Moncton, NB on Sunday. Facciotti, who has proved to be a one-man wrecking crew this season, logged his fifth clean sweep of 2008 at Moncton's Riverglade MX Park. In the MX2 title hunt, New Zealand's Mason Phillips took his Royal Distributing Thor Riverside MX factory KTM to the overall win of the day on the strength of 3-2 motos.
With his double moto victory, Facciotti has extended his lead in the series to 21 points over Team Suzuki Rockstar Energy OTSFF's Tyler Medaglia. Medaglia, who dropped to 2nd place in the rankings at Round 6, snared 3rd overall, thanks to 3-3 motos. Although the Kemptville, ON native's consistency at 'The Glade' ensured his 2nd place status was in tact at the end of the day, he lost four points to 3rd in the rankings, 2006 champ Dusty Klatt. The Monster Energy Cernics Kawasaki ace recorded 2-2 motos to mount the rostrum in 2nd overall.
While Team Toyota Yamaha Blackfoot Fox Racing had plenty to celebrate about with Facciotti's sixth win of the season, and sealing the top-five overall with 7-5 motos by Blair Morgan, a season-ending crash by Aron Harvey made it a bittersweet weekend. Harvey, who was in serious contention for the MX2 title, was leading the first moto by some five seconds when he highsided off his bike. A compound femur fracture proved to be the result of his unfortunate crash.
Facciotti is leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that he intends to finish the season swapping his current No.2 plate for the big No.1. The Aldergrove, BC native led both motos from turn one right to the finish, making it look embarrassingly easy. In the first moto, there was some action behind him for 2nd place between Medaglia and Klatt. Medaglia, who installed himself in 2nd place on lap one, managed to fend off the Campbell River, BC native till lap seven. Once Klatt stuck a pass on the Suzuki Canada rider, they both held their positions till the finish line. In moto two, Klatt commanded 2nd place from the get-go while Medaglia occupied 3rd place till the flag was waved.
In the first MX2 moto, Clearbrook Yamaha's Kyle Beaton took the train in tow through turn one to then swap the lead back and forth with Blackfoot Yamaha's Aron Harvey. This battle came to an abrupt end when Harvey crashed on lap nine. Series points leader, Eric Nye, who had started around 6th place, had by this time passed Beaton for 2nd place to inherit the lead from a hapless Harvey. KTM Royal Distributing Thor Riverside MX's Nye would go on to cross the finish ahead of the South African, Kerim Fitz-Gerald. Meanwhile, Beaton, dropped back to finish 5th behind Leading Edge Kawasaki's Teddy Maier.
In moto 2, Beaton pulled out all the stops to lead wire to wire, followed in 2nd place by Phillips, who briefly battled with his teammate Nye for that position until the American went down on lap six and found himself remounting in 27th spot. He managed to pick off ten riders to claim a 17th place finish and 7th overall on the day. Suzuki Rockstar OTSFF's Jeremy Medaglia recovered nicely from a 10th place finish in moto one to take 3rd at the checkered, wrapping up the day with 5th overall. Morgan Racing Honda's Fitz-Gerald rounded out the overall podium in 3rd, thanks to a 6th place at the finish line while Maier, who recorded another 4th place moto, grabbed 4th overall.
