Jesse Royan and Brendan McKee come flying over the Widow Maker at the Lucas Bachman Memorial Raceway on Sunday morning in their first race of the season. The two have been friends since they were both new riders, and most recently, they both returned from winter training in the States to keep their skills sharp when the snow flies back home. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
After a long Canadian winter, motocross is officially back in the Border City, but for two local riders, the winter break was almost non-existent thanks to training in the States.
Brendan McKee, 18, and Jesse Royan, 20, recently got back from winter training down south and were racing this past weekend in the Midwest Amateur MX Series at the Lucas Bachman Memorial Raceway.
Both riders are classed as professionals with McKee holding sponsorship from Lethal Motorsports and Royan a member of team Lloydminster Honda.
McKee spent a few months at ClubMX in Chesterfield South Carolina and Royan spent six weeks in Phoenix.
The two have been friends since they started riding together roughly a decade ago, and they’re now doing their best to keep growing as riders, while also helping the next generation of pros get to the next level.
Jesse Royan and Brendan McKee were back on their home track over the weekend after training in the States during the winter. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
“I’ve been racing for 10 years and Jesse was one of the faster guys when I started racing, and we’ve been riding together right from the start,” said McKee. “Over the years, I got faster and Jesse got faster, and we kinda just battled, and now we’re pro and might just be the best in Saskatchewan.”
The two learned quite a bit while training in the States, but one of their biggest lessons was how much time riders have to spend in the gym to get to the next level.
“Club MX where I was, it was like, gym three times a day, and if you were missing gym you were running laps on the track. There were some tough days, and if you’re not going to give it your all, it’s not worth going,” said McKee.
For Royan, the biggest lesson was to never give up and to put the work in to achieve your goals.
“It just takes that commitment and the willingness to actually go out and get the training a guy needs,” said Royan.
“Having the ability to go out and do that and come back and learn, and be able to put it on the track here, that’s what you gotta do.”
As a local pro, last year Royan started offering training to anyone who wanted to get faster and safer on their motorcycles.
“I started doing that because I remember when I was young and coming up, all of the local pros that were here would always help me out, and they did that on their own time, so I thought I could do something along those lines and follow in their footsteps,” said Royan.
“Doing that for others made me fall in love with the sport all over again.”
McKee and Royan are currently throwing around ideas to start a moto school this season to help pass on the knowledge they’ve acquired over the years.
“So, we’ll come out here and split up into groups and we can work on stuff with some kids and help them get to the next level.”
