Greetings! Welcome to the final Monday Gate Drop Column of April, and is it just me or has the past month just flown by? On Thursday, we will welcome in May (my favourite month of the year) and with it, hopefully some consistently nice weather. Hopefully the phrase, “April showers bring May flowers” rings true in 2025. This coming weekend is the second round of both the AMO OPC Series, as well as the Future West MX Championships, so good luck to everyone who is lining up.
The City of Pittsburgh is known for many things, including my favourite hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. If you’re an NFL fan living there, than the Steelers are your team, likewise if you love baseball then you’re no doubt a Pirates fans. However, it has been over forth years since the sport of supercross has made its way to the three rivers area, so it was great to see it back this past weekend. Round 15 in Pittsburgh also marked the end of a four-race east coast swing that included events in Foxborough, Philadelphia, East Rutherford. Apparently, with the World Cup of Soccer coming to the USA in 2026, some of these venues won’t be available, so that is why the Monster Energy Supercross Series took full advantage of them this year.
Well, fans in Pittsburgh definitely got their money’s worth on Saturday evening as both the 250SX East and 450SX main events were entertaining. In the 250SX East class, Tom Vialle was finally able to put it all together and take his first win of 2025. The defending champion has had an up and down series thus far, so it was good to see him not only take the win, but also secure the points lead heading into the final round in SLC. With only one point separating Vialle and Seth Hammaker, the final main event will basically be a winner take all race for these two. Also, throw in RJ Hampshire who is just three points back of Vialle, and it makes this final race in two weeks a must watch. The 250SX West Series resumes this weekend in Denver, where Haiden Deegan has a comfortable 17 point lead over his teammate Cole Davies.
In the 450SX class, Cooper Webb bounced back nicely from his beat down last weekend in NJ, and took the win over Chase Sexton in the main event. It was a great mistake-free ride by Webb, and one that was aided by a Pittsburgh track that was perfectly set-up for him and his skill set. After struggling bad in the whoop section last weekend, the track builders went in a completely opposite direction for Round 15, with whoops that were further spaced apart then we’ve seen in sometime. If you’re a conspiracy person then you might lean towards the fact that the Pittsburgh whoops were deliberately built as they were in order to keep Sexton from winning again by a large margin. I’m not quite there in that type of thinking, however, given the soft dirt in Pittsburgh, and the boring runaway win by Sexton last weekend, I’m sure both of these things were taken into account when building the track for Round 15. Regardless, Sexton had his opportunity to catch and pass Webb in the 450SX main event on Saturday but, was unable to do so. This win now gives Webb the points cushion he needed heading into the final two rounds. Now, even if Sexton wins both races, Webb only has to finish inside the top three in order to clinch the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross title. Heading into Anaheim 1, with names like Tomac, Lawrence, and Sexton on the starting gate, I did not have Cooper Webb on my bingo card as a rider who could win this 2025 450SX Championship. But as they say, you have to be in it to win it, and Webb has certainly earned his success this season.
Moving from one Yamaha rider to multiple others, last week the Canadian MX media were invited down to the Toronto area HQ of Yamaha Motor Canada for the first ever Blu Cru day. While there, we were treated to a meet and greet with the MX101 FXR Yamaha Team of Jess Pettis, Sebastien Racine, and Preston Kilroy. Also, a few of the Blu Cru Amateur riders were in attendance, so it was great to see a few of our younger riders there representing their sponsors. During the presentation Yamaha Motor Canada Product Line and Blu Cru Manager Justin Balkos announced that not only will they be continuing with their popular Yamaha Factory Rider Award in 2025, but they will also be sending nine young Canadian Blu Cru riders to the Super Finale event at the 2025 MXON at Ironman Raceway in October. Last year in the UK, they sent only three, so with the MXON being in North America later this year, Canada is locked in to sending more. With the signing of Jess Pettis for 2025, as well as all of the new announcements, this will no doubt be an exciting year for the Blu Cru as they look to find success both on the track as well as off of the track. After the presentation it was time for lunch, and time to relax and talk to several of the riders. After hanging out for a few days with Jess Pettis at GPF back in early March, it’s been a while since we spoke about how he likes his new MX101 Yamaha YZ450. On Thursday, Jess was telling me about all of the items he and his new team have tried in the past two months as they search for that perfect package. Jess even tried the hydraulic clutch upgrade that consumers can purchase through Yamaha’s GYTR program but, after trying it he has decided to stay with the cable clutch. Like Eli Tomac, Jess likes the feel of the cable clutch, especially off the gate during a start. Even as recent as last week, Jess tried a new bar bend that now has him feeling really comfortable. Now, it’s time to continue riding and training throughout the next month as Jess and his teammates wait for the opening round of the 2025 Triple Crown Series. Finally, we also learned on Thursday that the Blu Cru has launched a new web site so Yamaha riders can track their progress throughout the year, as well as receiving updates all season long. You can access this new web site through the Yamaha Motor Canada web site Blu Cru – Yamaha Motor Canada . As you can tell, there are a lot of exciting things happening with Yamaha and its Canadian Blu Cru program for 2025 and beyond. Thank you to everyone at Yamaha Motor Canada for having us out last week. I actually signed my first pro contract at the same building back in 1989, when Mark Stallybrass was the Marketing Manager at Yamaha, so I have a lot history there. Obviously, I’ve been back multiple times since then, but it’s always fun to go back and hang out with everyone.
Well, that is it for me this week. On Saturday morning, we are off to Auburn Hills Raceway for Round 2 of the True North AMO OPC Series. Hopefully, Mother Nature is a fan of Ontario MX this weekend and we get blessed with some decent weather. In closing, I’m not going to do a Rider of the Week this week as instead I’m going to pay tribute to Australian Pro rider Joel Evans, who tragically lost his life this past weekend while competing at a National race in Australia, Joel was a fixture in Australian MX and SX, battling for championships every year. My thoughts, and I’m sure everyone’s thoughts are with Joel and his family right now as they deal with this unbearable loss. RIP Joel Evans!
