Greetings! Welcome to the first Monday Gate Drop Column of June! This is the month when summer officially begins, or at least it’s supposed to begin. Other than a few nice days here and there, the weather in Southern Ontario has been anything but summer-like. Hopefully, these early June days will welcome in some much nicer weather.
As everyone knows I’m sure, this past weekend was the opening round of the 2025 Triple Crown Series at Wild Rose MX Park in picturesque Calgary, Alberta. The Wild Rose MX track, or tracks as there are two on the property, is located on top of a hill overlooking the downtown Calgary city landscape, and it’s probably one of the most scenic tracks on the planet. From the track, you can be downtown in 15 minutes, to the mountains in an hour, and to the Calgary International Airport in 20 short minutes. It goes without saying that the location for this track is ideal and I know the local motocross community takes great pride in it. Unfortunately, the entire facility is on city owned land and soon this track and facility could be replaced by a roadway connecting two main traffic arteries. In talking to a few locals this past weekend, it sounds as though the track will be okay through 2026, but after that everything is still up in the air. It’s a real shame that our sport as a whole doesn’t have more influence with all levels of Government in this country. I also know from talking to people involved with the track, the Wild Rose MX club and its membership have been fighting the good fight to keep this facility opened past 2026. Only time will be able to give us a complete answer as to what the future holds for Alberta’s most popular riding spot. In the meantime, things are running normal at the track and it was great to see the Triple Crown Series kick off there this past weekend. If next year is the final year of racing at Wild Rose MX Park, one very cool idea that was floating around this past weekend was to hold two rounds of the Triple Crown Series there in 2026, using both tracks on separate weekends. Without moving the paddocks, the series could run the main track on one weekend, and then switch to the back track the following weekend. It was good to hear some outside-the-box thinking about next year as we prepared for the opening gate drop of 2025.
Coming into the opening round the big talk was obviously surrounding the top riders and which ones were favourite to not only win yesterday, but also take home their respective championships. In the 250 Pro/Am class, the favourites were Ryder McNabb, Preston Kilroy, Dylan Walsh, and Sebastien Racine. All four of these 250 riders come into 2025 with a lot of experience and either race wins or past titles on their resume. In the 450 class, most people in the know assumed defending 450 champion Jess Pettis would have to battle Dylan Wright, Phil Nicoletti, and Tanner Ward if he wanted to have a repeat of success like he had last year. Another interesting note to factor in for this year, is that all the riders that I just mentioned are racing bikes that just a few months ago were all new to them. Pettis switched to Yamaha for this year, Dylan is riding the all new 2025 CRF450R, while Phil and Tanner were both riding other brands last year. Switching brands (or to a new model as Dylan has) at this level is much more complex that just having to look at a different colour front fender. It involves months of testing and hours upon hours of repetitive laps in order for a top rider to feel completely comfortable on their new machine. In some cases, the final version of a race bike can change multiple times in the weeks leading up to the opening round as the rider searches for that last bit of comfort. Usually, the final few tweaks are small ones as it’s more about fine tuning instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. In talking to Jess, Dylan, and Phil after the race yesterday, as expected the top two riders only made very minor changes to their bikes throughout the day at the opening round, while Phil said he made a major suspension change in between motos and felt a lot more comfortable in moto two. With the way the track was yesterday, I believe it was difficult and almost impossible to find the perfect setting. With half of the track being dry and hard packed, and the other half being rutted, somewhat tacky and choppy, one setting would make the bike feel good on half of the track, while a different setting would work well on the other half. So what did most riders do yesterday? They basically found a window to where their bikes felt balanced and somewhat comfortable, and they did what all good riders do when conditions are like what we saw yesterday, they adjusted their lines and riding styles to suit the conditions the track gave them. I always say that you can set your bike up anyway you want, but at the end of the day you have to take what each track and each moto gives you. The track is the boss, and it dictates how you ride it.
Throughout all of the motos yesterday, the riders had to balance out the need to start the series fast and be aggressive, with a track that best suits a rider with a calm demeanour and a steady throttle hand. In the 250 Pro/Am class, the winner certainly possessed both of those attributes as MX101 rider Preston Kilroy put on an absolute clinic in both motos. His YZ250F barely reached 3/4 throttle in any part of the track as he short shifted and kept the revs low, and his rear tire hooked up. Contrast that to the rider Kilroy battled all day long, Ryder McNabb, he was much more aggressive with the throttle, and even a newbie fan could hear the differences in how their bikes sounded while racing for the lead in both motos. Kilroy won both motos yesterday, but as I eluded to, his victory didn’t come without some entertaining battles with McNabb. If yesterday was any indication of what the rest of the summer is going to be like in both Triple Crown Series classes, we are in store for one heck of a treat.
In the 450 class, the most entertaining battle to watch was the race for the lead in both motos. Jess Pettis was out to prove that last year was just a sign of things to come, while his arch rival Dylan Wright wants to show everyone that his disappointing 2025 summer was just a blip on the racing radar. Right from the opening gate drop these two wasted no time in laying down some fast laps as their battle took shape. Pettis led early as he’s done so many times in the past, Wright appeared to sit back and be patient in the early laps of moto one, opting to let Pettis take the brunt of the pressure while he navigated the over-watered track. Once the halfway board came out, Wright began to charge harder and at one point he even surprised Pettis with a pass. However, by that point in the moto Pettis was feeling quite comfortable himself, and didn’t want anything to do with being in second place. Pettis immediately passed Dylan back and then the two fell back into line for the rest of the moto. Wright did try to get to the rear wheel of Pettis a few mores times and riders lost and gained time on each other thanks to lapped riders, At the end of the opening 450 moto of 2025, Pettis drew first blood with Wright second, and Phil a very distant third.
When the gate dropped for moto two, Pettis was again up front, only this time Wright was a few spots back. However, after a few laps the fans were once again focused on the top two riders as Pettis and Wright were only feet apart. For the next 25 minutes the two leaders gave the fans and everyone watching at home just about everything they could want in a motocross race. During that time, both riders would go down (Wright went down twice), they went back and forth with each logging very fast lap times, and they once again put a lot of time between them and third place. But the real drama came with five laps to go when Wright, who at the time was 12 seconds behind Pettis after his second crash of the moto, decided that he did not want to settle for second place again. For the next few laps Wright dropped his lap times and was almost three seconds faster than Pettis. And it wasn’t that Pettis had slowed down, it was more like Wright had dropped the hammer. Then, as the white flag came out Wright turned in his fastest lap of the day and managed to catch Pettis by surprise in the Shaw Valley section of the track. I’m sure Pettis knew he was there, but I’m not sure if he knew how close Dylan was and just how fast he was going. Wright took the moto win, and the overall for the day with a 2-1 moto score. It was an amazing conclusion to the opening round, and after the race both Wright and Pettis appeared satisfied with their day. Even Nicoletti seemed happy with his 3-3 moto score as he was much better in the second moto. Quinn Amyotte also had solid first race in the 450 class, as his 4-6 moto score gave him a very solid 4th OA. As you can see, all four motos were very exciting. It was also interesting to see the contrasting styles that the leaders used to find success on Sunday. With another hard-packed track coming this weekend in Cold Lake, will we see the same type of results?
In some other news from the opening round of the Triple Crown Series. Shawn Maffenbeier was hanging out and helping Keylan Meston with some mechanic duties. I had a long chat with Maff on Saturday and it was good to hear that he’s doing very well with his flying. Currently, he’s doing crop spraying not too far from his parent’s home in Saskatchewan, so his helicopter flying career is progressing nicely. Also, it was good to see new teams like the Guaranteed Comfort Honda Racing Team in the paddock. With riders like Quinn Amyotte, Lars Van Berkel, Zach Umfizeff, and Tyler Shewchyk under the tent in the pro classes, and Ayrton Pomeroy waiting in the wings as the team’s Intermediate rider, this new team certainly has a strong line-up for the 2025 season. In some unfortunate news, both Wyatt Kerr and Julien Benek were unable to race on Sunday due to previously sustained injuries. Kerr hurt his knee a few weeks back, and although he tried to ride on Sunday, the pain was too much and now he’s out until at least Round 3. As for Benek, he injured himself in SLC and will need a little more time to heal up before he’s ready to race in the 450 class. However, another BC rider who showed up this weekend and battled hard was Tyler Gibbs. Racing in the 250 class, Tyler went 7-7 on Sunday, and what was interesting was how he got to 7th place in each moto. In Moto One, Tyler started up front and then slowly drifted back to 7th. But, in Moto Two he was dead last on the opening lap and charged hard to finish 7th. Overall, it was a solid day for Gibby, and hopefully, he can build on that and finish even better this coming weekend.
Well, that is it for me this week. Please stay tuned this week as I’ll be putting together a massive James Lissimore photo report, as well as some very cool behind-the-scenes photos from the opening round in Calgary. Finally, my Rider of the Week is the WMX winner from the weekend, Katrine Ferguson. As you may remember, last summer Katrine made some big strides with her riding after being mentored by Eve Brodeur during the east rounds of the Triple Crown Series. Katrine lived and trained with Eve all summer long, and it helped a lot. This past weekend, Katrine took her riding to a new level as she went 1-1 for his first-ever win in the Triple Crown Series Thor WMX class. After the race, Katrine told me that she worked extremely hard during the off-season balancing her first year of University with training, and the occasional trip down south to ride. So far, the work has paid off for Katrine and this is why she is my Rider of the Week. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
