Greetings! Welcome to another edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column, which as always is brought to you by the awesome people at Yamaha Motor Canada. Even with the motocross season winding down in Canada, our Blu Cru riders just keep on winning as Valley Motosports Yamaha rider Tyler Medaglia took his second FMSQ XC Championship this past weekend. Tyler has been battling through some injuries lately, but that hasn’t stopped him from finding success. After his big win this past weekend, Tyler will now focus on the Corduroy Enduro this weekend, and the ISDE coming up next month.
This past weekend, another Yamaha rider did some winning, and his name was Haiden Deegan. After going winless all summer in the the 450MX class, Deegs was finally able to get the job done in muddy Columbus. The weather, and the track at the opening round of the 2026 SMX Playoffs were a mess; heavy rain moved into the area in the early morning hours, and then didn’t stop until after lunch. At one point, the starting line was flooded and if the race had been cancelled at that point, I don’t think too many people would have been surprised. However, with a sold out crowd waiting patiently for racing to begin, the track crew went to work and within hours the track was transformed from a complete swamp to something that ended up being raceable. It was still muddy and gross for the remainder of the day, but at least they were able to get the opening round of the SMX Playoffs completed. The track crew honestly deserved a ton of credit for the work they were able to do on the track once the rain let up. It was pretty remarkable, and as I mentioned above, Haiden Deegan was able to take full advantage of the conditions to take his first 450 win of his career.
To Deegan’s credit, he was able to take advantage of not only the adverse track conditions, but also the fact that his main competition had some cracks in their armour. Hunter Lawrence, who won the 450MX championships just two weeks ago, was nursing a wrist injury he suffered while ironically crashing with Deegs on the opening lap of the first moto at Ironman. At the time, that was Hunter’s ‘good’ wrist as he was already dealing with his other wrist being sore since his Detroit SX crash months ago. Now, I’m not sure of the level of discomfort Hunter was in, however, in an interview after the race on Saturday he did mention that there was talk of pulling out of the SMX Playoffs all together to allow his wrist to heal. So, Hunter wasn’t 100% and after crashing multiple times in the two main events, I’m sure he was over it by the end of the day. Of course, we all heard the news in the days after Ironman when his Brother Jett announced that he was done for the year and that he was going in to have yet another surgery on his ankle. Jett posted several post-surgery photos and in one of them, he showed us just how much hardware he had holding his ankle together all summer. It was pretty shocking to see how many screws and plates it took to repair the injury he suffered back in December. On another note, isn’t it amazing how tough the athletes in this sport are? Whether you’re a 50cc rider, a Vet rider, or a pro rider, the ability and desire our athletes have to hit the ground and then keep going is truly amazing. Anyway, Deegan’s other main competition, the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Champion Ken Roczen, came into Columbus having not ridden a lot since May and was admittedly a little rusty. I even thought Jorge Prado would’ve been better in the wet conditions, but he also appeared to struggle in both motos. So, not to take anything away from Deegs, as he did ride great on Saturday in the mud, but hopefully this coming weekend in California we’ll see more of a level playing field.
Even if the Columbus round was dry, I’m not sure the racing would’ve been all that great. After watching practice on Friday, the track was really just a tamed down SX track with a long outdoor type sand whoop section. Since the inception of the SMX Playoffs, the opening round has been in North Carolina at the ZMax Speedway on a track that was a true hybrid (SX/MX) type track. It was a perfect venue for what the SMX Series is trying to do with these three playoff rounds. As I mentioned, the track was good combination of SX and MX, there was camping right next to the track, and let’s be honest, this series should have at least one race in a racing city like Charlotte, NC. At some point you’d think that the Monster Energy Supercross Series should visit Bank of America Stadium in downtown Charlotte, especially with no Atlanta round anymore. Anyway, I know there is a strong desire with the SMX Playoffs to use different venues and travel to new markets each year, but regardless of where the series goes in the future, the track cannot be like the one we witnessed this past weekend in Columbus. Thankfully, it was sold out so obviously the fans were embracing the opening round. Don’t get me wrong, Columbus is a nice city as it’s the home of Ohio State University, it was just the venue and the limited space for the track that was troubling. Anyway, onto to California for Round 2.
Our lone SMX Next rider Dylan Rempel had a challenging day in Columbus. Riding a Quad Lock Honda (well, it was his GDR bike with Quad Lock graphics) qualified well on a dry Friday track, but ended up going down in the mud during Saturday’s race and bending his shift lever. It was unfortunate as Dylan was riding well and was certainly a podium threat. Dylan will fly out to the second round this coming weekend in California so good luck to him. It was also good to see two others who raced in Canada this summer do well in the SMX Next races. Kade Johnson ended up winning the main event, while Vincent Wey, who was racing for the first time since his injury in late June, finished up in third overall.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great final week of official summer. I also spoke to Team Canada’s MXON Manager Kourtney Lloyd this morning, and she said that everything is falling into place nicely for our team’s adventure in France. Obviously, there has been a few last minute changes to team apparel, team banners, flight itineraries etc. with the addition of Tanner Ward to the team. However, it’s all coming together and everyone is excited to head to France in two weeks time. The team will be all staying together in France and will get to practice at a local track on the Thursday prior to the event. Thank you for reading this week, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
