FeaturesMonday Gate Drop

The Monday Gate Drop Presented By Yamaha Motor Canada

Greetings! As we move briskly through January, the days are getting longer, and now with the Monster Energy Supercross Series underway, Spring feels closer then it has in months. I hope everyone had a great weekend, and I hope you all enjoy the racing from Angel Stadium on Saturday evening. My weekend was spent at a hockey tournament for my son, but thankfully we were still able to tune into the race from our hotel. So without further ado, let’s dig into what happened in Anaheim.

Fans from around the Globe were excited for the opening round of SX. Photo by James Lissimore

First off, as I mentioned last week, attending Anaheim 1 in person should be on everyone’s bucket list. As good as the television coverage is now, there is nothing quite like being there in person. As a media guy, I prefer going to the second Anaheim, as it’s less busy and easier to move around and cover the race. However, if I put my SX fan hat on, nothing beats the energy and excitement of the opening round at Angel Stadium. The weather looked absolutely perfect in Anaheim, and thankfully the smoke from the tragic LA fires didn’t drift South into Orange County. The stage was set up perfect for the opening round, and boy did we see some great racing.

Noah Viney and Cole Thompson were the two Canadian riders to make the main event at A1. Photo by James Lissimore

Let’s begin with our Canadian boys as they all rode very well on Saturday. Blake Davies, who was racing in his first ever SX, ended up coming just short of qualifying for the night show, but he didn’t seem fazed by it at all. The opening rounds of both 250SX Series are the toughest races of the year to qualify for, so look for Blake to make the show this weekend in San Diego. Another one of our talented Canadians racing in his first SX race was Ontario rider Preston Masciangelo, who qualified for the night show, but was unable to make the 250SX West main event. I’m sure Preston was bummed a little, but I feel that he should be happy with his result. In recent years, Preston has had the speed and fitness to finish well in every race he enters, but at times he’s made big mistakes that have caused injuries and setbacks. I love his resiliency though as he just keeps coming back, and getting stronger. At this point, I don’t even think Preston should worry about results, he just needs to remain healthy, build confidence, and soon his results will speak for themselves. Noah Viney rode well on Saturday, and was one of two Canadian’s to qualify for the main event (finished 18th). The other was Cole Thompson, who I feel had his best ever opening round of SX. After finishing with an impressive 4th in his 250SX West heat race, he backed it up with a solid 10th in the main event. Think about that for a minute. Fourth in a heat race, and tenth in one of the most competitive main events of the season. To me, that is very impressive and in talking to Cole yesterday, he was very happy with how Saturday night went. Unfortunately, our other Canadian St-Cyr had a big crash in practice and was unable to ride the rest of the day. I heard it was a possible broken collarbone, but we’ll have to wait and see. So, there you have it, a great night for our boys and now it’s onto Round 2 in San Diego.

Jo Shimoda got off to a great start in the 250SX West main event and never looked back. Photo by James Lissimore

I’ll stay with the 250SX West class for a moment to talk about both the unexpected winner, and the equally unexpected 5th place finisher. It was great to see Jo Shimoda grab the win on Saturday, and I hope it’s the first of many in 2025. Jo seems like a good guy, and his move to Florida during the off-season appears to be one of the best decisions he’s ever made. I don’t think they mentioned where in Florida he’s been riding, but I think we can all assume that he’s been at the Dog Pound with his HRC Honda teammates. This move certainly helped fill in some of the missing pieces to his program, and like I said, I hope this gives Jo the confidence to keep it going. The podium riders in the 250SX West season opener got a little fortunate as the pre-race favourite Haiden Deegan, crashed off the start and was forced to come from almost dead last. Haiden had a good pace going for the first half of the race, but during the second half, he seemed to lose some pace. He did end up finishing 5th with a last lap pass on his old buddy Coty Shock, but that is definitely not where Deegs and his camp thought he’d finish. In the big picture though, I think a few 5th place finishes early in this series isn’t a bad thing for Deegan and his enormous ego. I used to think that his persona was made up (like we see in the WWE) and it was more like he was playing a role. I mean, how else could you explain his endless comments and lack of respect for his fellow riders. However, as time has gone on and he’s done more winning, I think this is just how Deegan is. I thought about this while watching the segment Jason Thomas did on Eli Tomac during the broadcast on Saturday evening. Some of it was filmed at Tomac’s home with his parents, wife, and Eli of course. While listening to Eli speak about his incredible career with so much respect and humility was amazing. Here is one of our sports legends, at the beginning of what most feel is his final season, and all he’s talking about is family and the never ending pursuit of being a better rider and person. Then the broadcast goes back live, and Deegan’s personality seems like “night and day” different to that of Tomac, Roczen, and even Chase Sexton. I know Haiden is young and has a lot of maturing to do in the coming years but, I can’t help but feel that if he doesn’t change soon, he’s going to fall into the love him or hate him category, and not the respect category. In many ways he already has and maybe that is how he and his camp want his career to go. It appears like Christian Craig has taken Haiden under his wing, so hopefully he can do some mentoring and convince the kid that it’s not always him vs the world.

Eli Tomac’s last to 5th in the 450SX was an epic performance. Photo by James Lissimore

Speaking of Eli Tomac and Chase Sexton, were they ever fun to watch in Anaheim. During the 450SX main event I mentioned to my son that being there in person, watching Tomac slice and dice his way through the pack would’ve been awesome. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see enough of Tomac during the broadcast, but when they did show him, he was flying. His flow was great, his whoop speed was incredible, and his corner speed was as good as we’ve ever seen it. I just love how determined he looked as he charged from corner to corner. It was the complete opposite for defending champion Jett Lawrence, who made two costly errors in the opening two laps, and then really didn’t mount much of a charge after that. In a post-race interview Jett mentioned that he’s still dealing with some set up issues and that his new CRF450R doesn’t feel comfortable in the whoops. To me, that is shocking to hear as they’ve had three months to figure everything out. I don’t think it’s time to push the panic button on Jett though, he’s too talented and his team is too resourceful not to figure things out quickly. Now, back to Sexton and his incredible performance in Anaheim. Other than stalling his bike in a corner, Sexton rode a perfect main event, and didn’t even look at all tired on the podium. Obviously, he and his team (despite the financial turmoil surrounding KTM), did some great work in the off-season as Sexton looked extremely comfortable. Also, throw in how solid Ken Roczen looked on his way to second in the 450SX main event. Jason Anderson looked good, Cooper Webb was really good during the second half of the main event, and Jorge Prado was also fast early on, before getting a little loose in the final ten minutes. I think we can all agree after watching the main event in Anaheim that this is going to be an incredible few rounds of Monster Energy Supercross, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we see multiple main event winners throughout this 2025 West Coast Swing.

Congrats to Chase Sexton on winning the A1 450SX main event and being my Rider of the Week!

Well, that is it for me this week. Thankfully we only have five more days until the gate drops in San Diego. The weather looks cool this weekend in Southern California, but at least the forecast is calling for sunny skies. Now that racing has officially started for 2025, each week I’m going to close out my Monday Gate Drop by picking a Rider of the Week. So, for this week my pick is Chase Sexton. I know, this is not a surprise as he did win the season opener in Anaheim but, I thought he looked better than he ever has.  His comfort level at the pace he needs to ride when he’s out front, was very good. Thank you for reading and I hope everyone has a great week!

Chris Pomeroy

1989 Rookie-of-the-year and former nationally ranked pro racer who turned into a dirt oriented scribe

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