Greetings! Welcome to this Thanksgiving Monday edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column, which is once again brought to you by the awesome people at Yamaha Motor Canada. With the 2026 season winding down, the Blu Cru can certainly look back at the past year with pride and excitement for what’s to come. With the MX101 Yamaha Racing Team coming off a strong summer in the Triple Crown Series with riders Preston Kilroy, and Ryder Malinoski, they are no doubt looking forward to 2027. The entire Blu Cru amateur team from right across Canada enjoyed some massive success both regionally, as well as events like the WCAN, ECAN, and the Walton TransCan. So, on this Thanksgiving weekend, we at MXP would like to say both congratulations and thank you to everyone at Yamaha and its Blu Cru partners.
After a strong season that saw continued growth, our regional MX race season wrapped up yesterday in both Ontario and BC with the final AMO Racing and Future West events of 2026. Gopher Dunes was the host of the AMO Racing final round, while the Future West race took place in beautiful Revelstoke, BC. The amount of entries was solid at both events, and by all accounts the racing was exciting right down to the final checkered flag of the season. If you’re from Ontario, it’s now time to rest, relax, and begin planning for 2027. If you’re a resident of our West Coast, you now have a few weeks to do the same, however, AX season is just around the corner as the opening weekend of the West Coast AX Championships is November 27-28 in Chilliwack, BC. I attended the opening weekend of this series last year and had an absolute blast racing and hanging out with our BC moto family. Obviously, the drive from Ontario to BC is a long one, but if you’re able to get a few families together to carpool and help with the costs, these two weekends of AX racing in Chilliwack are definitely worth the drive to BC. The track is always amazing, the indoor pits are heated, the people are very nice, the racing is intense but fun, and just the overall vibe is solid. I’m considering heading out there again this year to take in at least the opening weekend, so hopefully I can share the experience with a few of my fellow Ontario riders. If anyone would like more information at this iconic AX series in Chilliwack, please visit www.futurewestmoto.ca
In other 2027 news, there have been several announcements in recent weeks with respect to the 2027 Triple Crown Series. First, it was the schedule that was released at the end of September, then there was the announcement on the new rules for 2027, and then this past week the riders national numbers were released. To have all of this series information out by mid-October is incredible, and not only does it allow riders, teams, tracks, and series sponsors to begin planning for next year, but it also keeps the Triple Crown Series in the news cycle. In the past, with little to no racing during this time of the year, there was really nothing to talk about. Now, as we head into the rest of October and into the dreaded month of November, we have a lot to talk about when it comes to the 2027 Triple Crown Series. By the way, the 2027 schedule looks great and thankfully the Eastern rounds are much more streamlined then they were this past summer. Speaking of the Triple Crown Series, I spoke to one of its superstars last week. Jess Pettis as you know has been out since mid-June with an ACL tear in his knee that needed surgery to repair. Since then, he’s been doing everything he can to rehab his knee and get it ready to race again in 2027. You can read the entire interview tomorrow on mxpmag.com, I can tell you that Jess talks about what he’s been up to, when he could return to riding, and he also hints at what bike he’ll be racing in 2027. As he always is, Jess is a great interview and I appreciate him taking the time to chat. If we look ahead to the 450 class in 2027, how good is the racing going to be with Jess, Dylan Wright, Preston Kilroy, Quinn Amyotte, Sebastien Racine, and hopefully Harri Kullas. I will add Tanner Ward to that list, although there is talk that he could be moving to the 250 class for 2027, so we’ll watch more news on that as we inch towards November.
We will also keep our eyes on the International Six Days this week as our strong Canadian team is over in Portugal competing in the 100th running of this iconic event. I spoke briefly with Tyler Medaglia last week on an unrelated matter, but he did sound very excited for this years ISDE. Also, in International racing news, our own Daniel Elmore is getting ready to race in the Indian Supercross League when Season 2 kicks off in the new year. Daniel is no stranger to International travel as in the past several years he’s been competing in events in Costa Rica. Finally, Preston Masciangelo had some struggles at the opening round of the Australian Supercross Series last week, but he’s looking to come back strong at Round 2 in New Zealand at the end of this month.
Well, as I mentioned at the beginning, today is Thanksgiving Monday so I’m off to make dinner and then eat some turkey with my family. I hope everyone is having a great long weekend, and thank you for taking a few moments to read this column. If you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com. Finally, the Motovan Canada Rider of the Week is young Ontario 65cc rider Isaiah Doner. This likeable kid from Orangeville, Ontario has been steadily progressing during the past several seasons, and in 2026 he not only won his first race in the 65cc 7-9 class, but he also ended the year on a strong note by finishing second overall in the AMO Racing OPC event yesterday at Gopher Dunes, and second overall in 65cc 7-9 Series.
