KTM Riders Brown and Benoit Win in Montreal

Montreal, Quebec - The Montreal Supermotocross event is one of the oldest running sporting events in Montreal. This year marked the 33^rd running of the annual event and brought out over 150 riders and 40,000 spectators to the Olympic Stadium.

 

The most popular Quebec rider of the night was KTM’s Kaven Benoit. The Canadian rider competed in both the MX1 and MX2 classes. Benoit easily qualified for the 25 rider MX2 main through a fast practice time earlier in the day, but had tough luck in the MX1 class. He missed qualifying from his heat and was sent to the last chance qualifier. He quickly moved out front in the LCQ and went on to win the race and take a final transfer spot to the main event. Although it was exciting for the young rider to make it into the MX1 race, where he really shined was the MX2 class.

 

Benoit rode a strong race in the MX2 class leading every lap of the main event. Benoit garnered a 3^rd place start and moved into the lead before the end of the first lap. From his early lead he continued to charge forward eventually taking the win by 5 seconds over 2^nd place rider Tyler Medaglia. Benoit’s teammate, Jeremy Medaglia finished the MX2 race in 6^th position.

 

The Montreal Endurocross course was one of the largest ever built. The course was designed with tough technical sections and fast-paced race elements that made it the highlight of the evening. KTM sponsored riders Mike Brown and Kornél Németh proved to be among the riders to beat after each turned a fast lap in practice on their KTM 450 SX-F race machines.

 

Brown easily won his qualifier followed by Németh in 2^nd place to have the top gate picks heading to the main event. The main event saw Brown with the holeshot. Once Brown took the lead he never looked back. In the short 8 lap race, Brown tackled the course at top speed and lapped up to 5^th place. He eventually took the win with a 17 second lead over Németh.

 

Brown was one of few riders that decided to race both main events, qualifying 7^th earlier in the day into the Supercross MX1 main. The Endurocross Champion quickly raced over to the starting line of the MX1 race which was set to take off just minutes after he wrapped up his podium interviews.

 

A fellow competitor commented, "Mike (Brown) is an animal. He came over to the starting gate dripping wet from the EnduroCross main and lined up ready to go again."

 

 

 

Brown was joined on the line by Royal Distributing/Dragon Fuels/Thor/KTM riders Phil Nicoletti and Michael Willard. Both Nicoletti and Willard were piloting the KTM 350 SX-F in its first-ever Supercross race. Nicoletti transferred from the second heat with a 3^rd place finish while Willard qualified 6^th out of the same heat.

 

When the gate dropped for the main event, Nicoletti got a great jump. "I was first to the corner but I had a weird angle going into the turn and came out about 5^th. Nicoletti quickly set out toward the top runners. By the second lap he had moved up behind holeshot winner Jason Thomas and Nick Wey. Nicoletti caught Nick Wey and made a block pass on Wey to move into 2^nd. A few corners later, Nicoletti went wide to set up for the step up and an aggressive Wey moved into his line making full contact and sending Nicoletti to the ground.

Nicoletti was pinned under his bike and took a few seconds to recover. He moved from 2^nd position to 7^th position by the time he recovered. "I tried to get right back up to speed but the crash caused me to ride more tight and I got armpump right away," stated Nicoletti. Despite the crash, Nicoletti was able to charge back up to 5^th place before the end of the 14-lap main event. Michael Willard, who started 10^th  was able to work his way up to 7^th position while 38 year-old Mike Brown was able to finish the race in an impressive 10^th place after winning the Endurocross just minutes earlier.

 

Overall Results Endurocross –

1)    Mike Brown – KTM

2)    Kornél Németh – KTM

3)    Bartosz Oblucki

4)    Julian Cerny – KTM

5)    Ryan Graffunder

6)    Ben Rego

7)    Geoff Nelson – KTM

8)    Jason Thomas – KTM

9)    Brian Wojnarowski

10)Guy Giroux

 

Overall Results Supercross MX1 –

2)    Teddy Maier

5)    Phil Nicoletti – KTM

7)    Michael Willard – KTM

9)    Dusty Klatt

10)Mike Brown – KTM

 

Overall Results Supercross MX2 –

1)    Kaven Benoit – KTM

2)    Tyler Medaglia

 

 

 

3)    Tim Tremblay

4)    Brock Hoyer

5)    Kyle Beaton

6)    Jeremy Medaglia – KTM

7)    Simon Homans

8)    Spencer Knowles

9)    Marc-Antoine Genereux

10)Yuri Alexandre