Greetings! Welcome to this Daylight Savings edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column, which as always is presented by the awesome people at Yamaha Motor Canada. As we speak, the Blu Cru’s top Canadian rider Jess Pettis is down South training for the 2026 Triple Crown Series. Jess is spending the first month of his training at the WW Ranch Motocross Park, which is located just outside Jacksonville, Florida. I spoke to Jess last week and he mentioned that his riding is going well so far, and that he really likes the new 2026 YZ450F. Jess will spend another week at WW before heading over to the GPF Training Facility to continue his training. Also, Jess and his teammate Preston Kilroy are planning on riding and testing at the Star Racing Yamaha track in the coming weeks, which will be very cool. Finally, look for an official announcement soon regarding the new Yamaha Blu Cru Showdown that will be taking place at the Walton TransCan in August. This will be a very cool event and if you’re a Yamaha rider, you will certainly want to find out about all of the details on how you can hopefully be a part of it.
Spring is definitely in the air and there is no surer sign of that in Southern Ontario, than opening day at Gopher Dunes. This past weekend Gopher Dunes opened the gate to their famous track for the first time in 2026. With mild temperatures forecasted for at least a few days this week, the Gopher Dunes track is ready to host all of the eager Ontario riders who have been stuck in the cold for the past four months. Opening day, or even opening week at Gopher Dunes is always an exciting time as you not only get to shake the rust off while you attempt to put laps in on one of the roughest tracks on the planet, but you also get to see members of our motocross family that you haven’t seen in years. I love that part of going to Gopher Dunes early in the riding season as the kids are always taller and looking older, and of course I always get a hug from Derek Schuster in the Pro Shop, and then my wife always gets a hug from Frank Schuster in the paddock, as he always takes the time to stop and say “hi” while ripping around on the quad with his dogs. Riding at Gopher Dunes in the Spring is almost like a right of passage for most Ontario riders and I cannot wait to do it again in a few weeks.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, my first trip to Gopher Dunes is going to have to wait until early April my son and I are currently staying at GPF in Cairo, Georgia for a month so he can ride and train. I am staying off site while Ayrton and Ryan Mott have rented a cabin at the track. Sebastien Racine is also here riding with them, he’s staying in his trailer right beside their cabin. We’ve only been here a week, but so far everything has been going great and we cannot wait for week two. Ayrton, Ryan, and Sebastien are not part of the training classes that are run at GPF by former 125SX Champion Shae Bentley, however, this past week Shae was gracious enough to allow them to jump in on some of the motos with the training classes they organized. Other than that, the training groups are usually done by 1pm and the track is pretty much free after that. There is also an SMX type track, which is great for amateur riders and pro riders who don’t ride a lot of SX and this weekend they were building a full USA spec SX track. This track is obviously for pro riders only, but hopefully we get to see some fast SX riders show up this week to try it out. Like I said, the opening week went great and I can’t wait to see what week-two holds for the boys.
In other Canadian MX news, Tanner Ward is flying over to England tonight as he prepares to compete in the opening round of the British Championships for the SC Sporthomes Husqvarna Team. This is a great opportunity for Tanner to fly over to Great Britain and compete in this legendary series. Also, it’s great that his Priority Thor GASGAS Racing Team is allowing Tanner to do this race, as it would be easy for them to say “no” and have Tanner just continue his normal training down South. I spoke to Tanner via test message on Saturday and he’s obviously excited to head across the Atlantic Ocean and race. Opportunities like this don’t happen very often, so it’ important to make the most of them when they do come your way. Also, I really like what Tanner has done during the off-season as he’s already competed in multiple races in Florida during the first part of 2026. Here we are in the early part of March and Tanner is race ready when it comes to his fitness and bike testing. Now he’s going overseas to race again against some very good riders. I believe he’s done his training so far in 2026, in a way in which he won’t get burnt out before the gate drops in Calgary in June. Racing keeps you sharp and motivated to keep racing and it also allows you to easily track your progress. Nothing tells you where you’re at with your riding and training like lining up behind a starting gate. Good luck to Tanner, and we cannot wait to see how he does this weekend.
This past week the KTM Canada Factory Racing Team announced their 2026 Triple Crown Series team. Crayden Dillon will pilot their 250F in the 250 Pro/Am Class, while Harri Kulas will be racing in the 450 Class. Both riders are very fast and have a ton of potential to finish on the podium in the Triple Crown Series. Crayden has always been a great rider/racer whether it be on a dirt bike or a sled. In recent years, he’s been focusing on climbing the ladder in Snowcross racing in the USA and he’s done a great job. In early April, he will be leaving the snow behind and focusing all of his efforts into getting ready for the Triple Crown Series, which as you know begins in early June. It’s going to be interesting to see how Crayden does this summer with this newfound pressure of being on a factory team. He’s been doing it for several years in Snowcross, so it won’t feel new to him. In recent years he’s raced motocross in the summer for two reasons; for fun (this kid just loves to ride), and to stay in shape for Snowcross. Now, with being on a factory team, especially KTM, it’s all business and you’re there for one reason and one reason only; to win races. Blair Morgan always used to say while winning in both sports, that he felt that racing a sled in the winter helped him when it came time to race his dirt bike. Since Blair did do a lot of winning in the snow and the dirt, whose to say that Crayden won’t be able to pick up where Blair left off two decades ago. As for Harri Kullas, he will be fast and he will be in shape when the gate drops in Calgary, you can bet on that. I’m not sure if he’ll be faster than Dylan Wright and Jess Pettis, but he won’t be far off. From what I’ve heard, he’s highly motivated for this summer and he’s doing everything he can to be ready.
Finally, yesterday the GDR Honda Team announced that they have signed Hannah Cole to be their WMX rider for the 2026 Triple Crown Series. The GDR Honda Team is the latest team to announce that they will be adding a WMX rider to their team. This is exciting news for Hannah, the GDR Honda Team, and the Triple Crown Series, as the WMX Class is shaping up to once again be very competitive this summer. There hasn’t been an official announcement yet regarding what format the WMX Class will be using at each round? There was a push to have both WMX motos run in the afternoon in between the Pro class motos, but I heard that isn’t happening anymore. Then I heard that the second WMX moto will run after the opening 450 moto in the afternoon, but that was a few weeks ago and I haven’t heard anything since. Anyway, the WMX racing is going to be exciting this summer, regardless of what time or what day they race at each round.
Moving from Canadian moto news to some SX news from the USA. This past weekend, the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Series headed to the Circle City for Round 9 at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Indianapolis round is always a popular one as the riders, the teams, and the fans love going to this city. The only negative aspect about the Indy SX is that for whatever reason, the dirt is always soft and rutted from the moment the bikes hit the track. Even though the Detroit SX,which takes place five hours Northeast of Indy, has dry dirt, regardless of when it appears on the SX calendar. Anyway, once again the track this past weekend was a rutted mess and it caused all sorts of problems in the main events with short lap times and lappers. I’m not completely sure why the Series decided to make this round a Triple Crown format event as it just means more time on the track for the top riders. I mean, the track crew worked hard in between the main events to keep the track at least raceable, but in the end, there just wasn’t a lot they could do. The overall racing was entertaining and it was good to see Cole Davies and Hunter Lawrence take the overall wins in the 250SX East class and 450SX class, but the lapped riders were challenging for the top riders in all six main events. In the post-race press conference, Eli Tomac even went as far as to propose that when the track is like it was in Indy (short lap times and deep ruts) that there should only be 15 riders in the main events. Honestly, I can see where Eli is coming from with making this statement. After all, he did almost get taken out in the air by Vince Friese in one main event and then had Kevin Morenz hold him up in another main event, so much so that he lost the lead. So, of course Eli was still fired up 20 minutes after the racing ended. This discussion has been had many times over the years when incidents like this happened, but I don’t think they should go to less riders in the main event. Most of the riders on Saturday night did a great job of moving over the best they could when the leaders came around. I say most because every week there are always one or two that either don’t want to move over, or are just so oblivious to their surroundings that they don’t know they’re being lapped; it’s usually the same guys each week and the top riders know who those guys are. Instead of punishing the rest of the privateers by cutting the main events down to 15 riders as Eli suggested, I suggest just severely punishing the riders who blatantly hold up the lead riders when they’re getting lapped. On Saturday night Vince Friese and Kevin Morenz were clearly guilty of doing exactly this, so the AMA should punish them. Finally, I know Social Media and the message boards were all over Cole Thompson for causing Hunter Lawrence to go down, but if you watch the replay, I almost put that incident on Hunter for being a little impatient and not giving Cole enough room. Anyway, thankfully Cole is okay as he did end up taking a nasty crash after colliding with Hunter. Now, the series takes its first weekend off before resuming in Alabama for Round 10. The Birmingham round will also be the first 250SX East/West Shootout of 2026, so that should be exciting to watch. We are actually driving from GPF to Birmingham to watch the race live, so look for some cool race reports from there.
Well, that is it for me this week, as it’s time to get back to training. I hope everyone has a great week and I’m sure you’ll be enjoying the extra hour of sunlight in the evenings. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
