January 17, 2006 - After a well deserved Christmas break the team including a recovering Blair Morgan trained and tested hard on the team’s Winnipeg test track preparing for the all important Canterbury Downs race weekend in Shakopee MN January 14-15

Track conditions were great with large technical jumps, tricky tight turns and deep moguls to challenge the riders.

Pro Vet, BMRT rider Earl Reimer swept his qualifiers and proceeded to decimate the field in the final winning easily with a 14 second cushion.

Semi-pro open qualifying went well with all 3 team riders winning some heats and making it into the main event, albeit Elam and Coonishish were back row starters having come through the LCQ qualifier. The semi-pro open main event went well with all 3 BMRT riders getting decent starts. Turcotte ran in the top 3 and Coonishish and Elam worked their way through pack from the back row at a frantic pace. At race end, Coonishish found himself with a comfortable lead, Elam worked a last lap pass for 3rd and Turcotte recovered from an off track excursion for 4th. A very strong showing from the BMRT’s semi-pro racers.

Semi-pro stock saw Turcotte and Elam making the field for the final. On the start Elam pulled the holeshot and started to check out, while Turcotte found himself upside down after a first turn run in. Elam had set sail out front, literally! A slight miscue on the huge front straight triple put Elam off the track and out of the race….Turcotte recovered and drove his damaged sled around the track for 13th place. With Elam sidelined, Zack Patton cruised to the win.

Pro Stock racing was full of surprises, team leader Blair Morgan struggled with a 3rd and 4th in his first two heats, and then picked up the pace to win his 3rd heat with hopes of qualifying for the final. The big surprise was that Morgan with 8 points was the top qualifier, which indicated that all the teams were struggling. Taylor also went to the front row of the final, but Allard failed to make the field finishing a disappointing 6th in the LCQ. The final started off promising with Morgan pulling the holeshot, but on the tricky front straight his right hand was hit by a competitor’s ski causing Morgan to slow and falling back to 11th at race end. Taylor had a great race going working into the top 5, but a last lap incident dropped him to 10th at the flag. Ross Martin led every lap of the 12 lap final for his first win of this season.

Pro Open qualifying went well with all 3 BMRT riders making the final. At the start, Taylor tangled with TJ Gulla and flipped, his BMRT team mate Allard got collected up in the turmoil. As the field sped off, Allard restarted his sled while an injured Taylor was treated by the safety crew. Morgan cruised around the track at a pace that his injured body could maintain finishing 7th. Ross Martin again led flag to flag for a rare Canterbury pro class sweep.

The team is now preparing for the Hill City National round January 21, 22……..then it’s off to Aspen CO where 5 BMR riders, Morgan, Taylor, Allard, Elam and Coonishish are qualified and will be chasing gold!