Greetings! Welcome to this cool and wet mid-November edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column. This week’s column is once again brought to you by the awesome folks at Yamaha Motor Canada. Star Racing Yamaha rider Cole Davies is currently dominating the SX2 class in the Australian SX Series aboard a 2027 YZ250F. This all-new YZ250F is completely redesigned from the ground up for 2027, and Cole appears to be very comfortable on the platform already. The early word is that Cole will be racing in the 250SX West class in the upcoming 2027 Monster Energy Supercross Series, so these races in Australia are as much about testing as they are about winning.
As I mentioned above, Round 3 of the Australian SX Championships took place just outside Melbourne in the city of Geelong. Last week’s SX1 class winner, Ken Roczen, was in attendance, as were Justin Barcia and Jo Shimoda, who was making his 450 Supercross debut. As expected, Roczen took the win in all three main events, but it certainly wasn’t easy. Quad Lock Honda rider Christian Craig kept Roczen honest in all three races, but commented afterward that he didn’t have any more speed to catch and pass Kenny. After watching all of the highlights from Saturday night in Australia, Roczen definitely appeared to be more comfortable this weekend than he was last weekend in Auckland. Jo Shimoda finished third overall at Round 3 after a quiet but solid night of riding. He looks good on the bigger 450, as his unique style appears to suit the more powerful machine. Barcia ended up ninth overall after going 3-DNF-5 in the three main events. Bam-Bam looked a little rusty on his new Suzuki, so I’m sure he was happy to make it through the night in one piece. Another honourable mention goes to Austin Politelli, who used his Caden Lee-tuned Honda to finish third in the final main event of the evening.
In the SX2 class, it was Cole Davies dominating once again, as I mentioned above, over Lux Turner and Cameron McAdoo. Both Turner and McAdoo looked more comfortable this weekend, but they were still no match for Davies, who is currently the best 250SX rider on the planet, in my humble opinion. If he is going to race the 250SX West class in 2027, I’d love to see him move up and race a few 450SX events in the East just to get his feet wet. Also competing in the SX2 class this past weekend was Ontario rider Preston Masciangelo, who went 12-10-13 for 13th overall. It was great to see Preston crack the top ten in the very competitive SX2 class, and after three rounds, he now sits 13th overall in the standings. This weekend, the series heads to Australia’s west coast and the beautiful city of Perth for Round 4.
*If you’re looking for a solid November workout, here is an excellent full body off-season workout with Todd Schumlick. For more info on Todd’s workouts please visit https://performxtraining.com/
Staying with overseas Supercross news, this past weekend in Stuttgart, Germany, Tyler Gibbs came up just short of qualifying for the main event in the SX2 class. We’ll try to catch up with Gibby this week to find out all of the details. I know from experience that racing these German Supercross events is incredibly challenging, as the riders are fast and super aggressive, and the dirt is unlike anything you see anywhere else. It can take a few events to feel comfortable, especially when you’re riding a bike you’ve never ridden before. However, if you want to keep getting invited back, as I’m sure Gibby would like to, you have to find a way to qualify for the main events. In Finland, at the Tampere SX, Guillaume St-Cyr finished inside the top ten in the SX1 class aboard his Stark. Tristan Lane was the big winner, taking the overall just ahead of Harri Kullas.
As we’ve mentioned on multiple occasions over the past several weeks, the opening round of the 2026 West Coast AX is fast approaching. The gate drops in just 2.5 weeks in Chilliwack, so everyone is preparing for it. Last week, it was announced that Brandon Ray will be coming to Chilliwack for the first time. Ray is fast, aggressive, and a very experienced indoor rider, so look for some fireworks inside the Heritage Park Arena. The Pro Class lineup is very deep for 2026, so the racing should be exciting to watch. Over in Alberta, it was announced late last week that the Iron Horse AX is a go for 2027. However, the dates have been moved from February to March next year. Hopefully, this will allow temperatures to warm up a little, as February is traditionally a very cold month in Rimbey, Alberta.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week as we roll into mid-November. On Wednesday, please take a moment to stop what you’re doing and pay tribute to the men and women of our armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice while helping to keep us safe and free. Both of my grandfathers were part of the war effort during World War II, with one serving overseas and the other building bomb timers at the Westclox factory in Peterborough, Ontario. Thank you for reading this week, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
