Race Report: Montreal Supercross

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A storybook ending—that’s what everyone inside Olympic Stadium witnessed on Saturday night at the Montreal Supercross. It was the King of Canadian MX, Jean-Sébastien Roy’s final appearance at Montreal, and his loyal fans were packed to the rafters anxiously waiting to see the final chapter’s unfolding. Fortunately, for them, and their King, it couldn’t have turned out better as JSR grabbed the holeshot and led every lap en route to his fifth Montreal victory.

But the night was far from easy for the Team Toyota Yamaha/BlackfootDirect.com/Fox Racing rider. During practice, his teammate, Blair Morgan, another icon of Canadian MX and snocross, crashed hard and was immediately driven to the hospital. Rather than spoil the evening, the Blackfoot team kept Morgan’s condition quiet until it eventually leaked out following the MX1 final: Morgan had suffered a serious spinal-cord injury. He and his family remain in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

His friend, teammate and longtime competitor’s health was no doubt weighing on JSR’s mind, along with the pressure of performing in front of 44,000 fans in his final race. Then, during his qualifier, JSR’s head pipe was damaged in the first corner and he fell outside of qualifying position. The champ rose to the occasion, however, winning the LCQ and then destroying the decibel meter as fans cheered him on to his final victory at the “Big O.”

Monster Energy/Cernic’s Kawasaki’s Jeff Gibson had JSR in his sights early on, but he fell back to fifth by the checkers. Two-time Canadian MX2 champ Michael Willard surprised everyone by working his way into second, even making up some ground on JSR around the halfway point. He was unable to get within striking distance, though, and settled for second ahead of Jason Thomas.

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In the all-Canadian MX2 final, it was another runaway show from Suzuki/OTSFF/Rockstar’s Tyler Medaglia who recorded his second consecutive win. Medaglia and Kyle Beaton were leading the pack into the second corner when the two riders bumped heading into the whoops, causing Beaton to go down along with five or six other riders, one of which was Yamaha of Troy’s contender, Jeremy Medaglia. Both remounted, with Jeremy working his way up to sixth and Beaton coming back for tenth. French Canadians Simon Homans and Tim Tremblay impressed at their hometown race, completing the podium behind Medaglia.