Greetings! Welcome to this first day of June edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column, which is once again presented by the awesome people at Yamaha Motor Canada. With just a few days to go until the gate drops on the opening round of the 2026 Triple Crown Series, the MX101 Yamaha Team is ready to go with their three rider team of Jess Pettis (450 class), Preston Kilroy (250 class), and the newest member of the Blu Cru team, Ryder Malinoski (250 class). The stage is set and soon it will be time to go racing at Wild Rose MX Park.
In keeping with the opening Triple Crown Series round, the talk surrounding whether this will be the final Pro National at Wild Rose MX Park seems to be a fluid situation. For months, it’s been assumed that this would be it for the Triple Crown Series visiting this iconic track as moving forward the facilities future was just too unpredictable. However, as of late last week it appears that the City of Calgary has extended the Wild Rose MX Park’s lease through the 2027 season. So, will we see at least one more Triple Crown Series round next year? It sounds like it could be a real possibility now, but as I mention above, this appears to be an ever changing situation. However, regardless of whether or not their able to host another Pro National next year, this is just amazing news for all of the riders in Alberta and in particular, the local riders and members who use this facility on a weekly basis. So, even though this weekend might not be the last dance at Wild Rose MX Park, I’m honestly taking it all in and treating my few days in Calgary like I might now be back for some time. I’ve always loved travelling to Calgary, whether it’s been for motocross, leisure, or family events (my brother has lived in Calgary for years), I’ve enjoyed every visit. Even though I’m a born and bread Ontarian, Calgary has always seemed like a place that I could live. Anyway, I will board my flight to Calgary on Wednesday evening with the same excitement as I always have. But, with my son racing this weekend my normal excitement will be surely mixed with stress and anticipation as we inch closer to Sunday. Between my media obligations this weekend (and summer) and Ayrton racing all eight rounds for the AVL Husqvarna Racing Team, my Sunday’s are going to be both busy, and no doubt stressful. However, all of the hats that I wear on the weekend will all fall under the category of exciting. I’ve been blessed that my entire life has been filled will making special and unforgettable moments, and this summer will no doubt be another exciting chapter in that journey. So, here’s to a safe and successful summer, for all of the pro riders, race teams and series personnel. The curtain is ready to go up on yet another Triple Crown Series this weekend in Calgary.
Do you ever wonder what this week looks like for our pro riders in preparation leading up to the first national? Well, I can tell you that whether it’s 1996 or 2026, the mindset and the challenge of this week is exactly the same. These next five days are extremely difficult as our pro riders balance trying to remain active and sharp on the bike, with not doing something stupid that could hinder their results this weekend. These days, this is even more of a delicate balancing act as not many of our pro riders have raced that much in 2026. In my day, we were racing every weekend from early April right through until the end of August, so in most cases, the opening round of Pro Nationals almost seemed like just another weekend at the races. We didn’t have to deal with the uncertainty of how fast other riders were going and where we’d fit into the results. The biggest and really only anxiety we even felt in the 1990s heading into the opening round, was how four 30-minute motos were going to feel. In 1997 for instance, in the weeks leading up to the opening round at Ste Julie, almost all of the top series riders all raced each other several times at the Ontario Provincial Series. So, we knew where we all stood. Now, if we take two of our top 450 riders today, Dylan Wright and Jess Pettis, they haven’t raced each other since the final round last summer at Walton Raceway, so I’m sure there is some curiosity with both riders regarding the speed of the other. Also, with top riders in all three classes from the East, West, and the USA, all meeting up at Wild Rose MX Park this weekend, there are a plethora of fast riders who as of yet, haven’t even seen each other yet in 2026. That is the nature of our sport now, and at the end of the day, all each rider can do is worry about themselves, and control what they can control. This is a week where as a rider you’re not going to make any gains as far as your physical preparedness. The work (hopefully) has been done, and now all you need to do is remain active, loose, maybe ride once or twice, eat right, stay hydrated, and get mentally prepared for not only this weekend, but for the entire summer. Seeing as I was a real ‘thinker’ when I raced (looking back now I probably over thought a lot of things) I always like to come up with two plans for each national in the days leading up to Sunday. I would think about what I would do if things were going well, but I also thought about what I would do if things started going badly. Sometimes this practice worked, and sometimes it didn’t, but I feel it’s important at this level to remain constant and not chase habits based on results. Finally, and this goes back to trying to only control things that are in your control leading up to the weekend, I would over prepare with items like my gear, goggles, and knowing where I was going to eat etc. I felt like it was almost a therapeutic exercise to make sure my goggles were clean and ready for tear-offs before the weekend. Things like that made me at least feel like I was in control of my weekend destiny. Of course, I wasn’t but, but at least I felt like I was. So, my advice would be to have a light workout today, perhaps ride tomorrow and Wednesday, get to the Calgary area as soon as you can as there is more elevation there than you think, hydrate, visualize what you hope to accomplish this weekend and beyond, and then try and enjoy these final few days of peace and quiet, because the battle is about to begin!
This past weekend, we got a taste of outdoor pro motocross as the gate dropped on the 2026 Pro Motocross Championships at Fox Raceway in California. The opening round of any pro motocross series is a challenging one as the utter brutality of long outdoor motos on a rough track takes its toll on every rider. On Saturday, unless you were Hunter Lawrence or Seth Hammaker, it was a very tough day and I’m sure everyone was sore on Sunday morning. It didn’t really surprise me that either of these riders won the opening round, obviously Hunter brought in a lot of momentum having almost won the SX title last month. The same goes for Seth, as he also held the red plates during the SX series for a few races at least. Also, both riders got great starts on Saturday and really made life easy for themselves while their competition did the opposite. As for the Jett Lawrence/Haiden Deegan battle? We got to see a few laps of it in the opening moto, but for the most part Jett, was by far the better of the two. I found both Jett’s and Haiden’s post-race interviews interesting. For Jett, it sounds as though his ankle/foot is far from 100% right now, and this summer could be all about building more strength, mobility, and really just managing it. It actually sounds very scary as one wrong move on the track could put an end to Jett’s summer of racing. To hear him talk about managing the race, dealing with arm pump in moto one, and pretty much riding with one good leg was shocking. If that was Jett at say 75%, I hope we get to see him close to 100% at some point in this series as that was very impressive. I know Jett’s technique and raw speed has received a ton of praise over the past several years (as it should), and on Saturday we witnessed his toughness as he soldiered through both 450 motos. But, I think one item in Jett’s arsenal that we don’t talk about much is his incredible vision of the track. The track this weekend was tough as it had multiple lines that went everywhere. In multiple corners, just because they entered on say a rut on the inside, didn’t mean you automatically exited on the inside, as some ruts crossed over. It was up to each rider to know where each rut not only began, but also, where it ended and no one does it better than Jett Lawrence. His peripheral vision is better than every other rider on the track right now, and that really helped him on Saturday. I hope that his injury continues to improve and that this doesn’t become a long term issue. This sport needs Jett Lawrence as it allows fans and people watching to see how a dirt bike is supposed to be ridden. Yes, there are many ways to ride and be fast and successful, but every sport needs at least one athlete to make it look easy and to make people watching feel like they could do it. On the opposite end of that thought, Haiden Deegan did pretty much what I feel like most people thought he’d do on Saturday. He rode well and gave it everything he had, but he was as expected, off the pace of the elite 450 riders in this class. Even his teammate Justin Cooper was a little better overall on Saturday. During Deegs post race interview you could tell that he was pretty spent and almost humble. This was a track that he knows very well having grown up not far from there, so I think Saturday presented a good chance to finish on the podium. I’m sure he was bummed with the overall result, but hopefully pleased at the same time that he made it through his first 450 national. I think Saturday proved that this series isn’t just about Jett vs Deegan as much of the pre-race hype told us it would be. Congratulations to Hunter Lawrence on his win, and hopefully Eli Tomac, who took a nasty crash on the opening lap of moto one, is okay moving forward and hopefully we see him back sooner than later.
Well, that is it for me this week. Look for a complete preview of the 450, 250, and WMX classes later this week as we inch closer to the opening round. Thank you for reading this week, and if you have any comments or questions, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com. Finally, the Motovan Canada Rider of the Week is Jett Lawrence, who somehow found his way onto the Fox Raceway 450 class podium with an ankle that does not look to be anywhere close to 100%. See you in Calgary!!
