Greetings! Welcome to the final Monday Gate Drop Column of February. Yes, this weekend we welcome in March, and hopefully some spring like weather in Canada. It has been an old fashioned winter in most parts of Canada, so I’m sure everyone, even die-hard snow lovers are ready for a nice stretch of mild temperatures.
This week I want to talk about three things. First up is the 2025 Triple Crown Series schedule which was finally released on Friday. This new schedule features eight rounds again, and like last year, it will begin in Calgary and end at Walton Raceway. In between, the series will travel up to Cold Lake, Alberta for round two before heading East for the final six rounds. The Eastern races are the same as in years past, but with one exception. On June 29th, the Triple Crown Series heads back to an old favourite as round three will take place in Ste Julie, Quebec. This natural terrain hard packed track is located approximately 30 minutes from downtown Montreal, so the location is ideal for spectators and teams travelling from the West. The Ste. Julie track also has a lot of history to it, and it actually was the opening round of the National Series as far back as 1997. In the past, riders have seemed to enjoy racing there so it will be nice to head back there for another Pro National this summer. As I mentioned, the Eastern rounds will kick-off in Quebec, and then head back to Ontario for the Gopher Dunes and Sand Del Lee rounds. From there, it’s out East to beautiful Riverglade Raceway in Moncton, then to the ECAN and Round 7 in Deschambault, then we finish up once again at Walton TransCan. Obviously, it would have been good to have this schedule released a little earlier, but it is what it is, and let’s just be thankful that there is still an eight series that takes the riders out West to Alberta, and as far East as New Brunswick.
Unfortunately, the 2025 Triple Crown Series will not be heading back to BC as it was discussed a year ago. We will ask Newf about this later in the week in his Atlas Brace 3 Q’s feature, but from my understanding, while there are some great tracks in BC, what is lacking is a facility large enough to accommodate a Pro National. Whispering Pine Raceway has the best of everything, but sadly that track is no longer. Perhaps the track in Revelstoke could be a possibility at some point in the future. I’m sure Newf will answer all of our questions on Friday. Also, it was disappointing not to see the series return to Manitoba this summer as that Province has some of the best tracks in Canada. However, for 2025 it just didn’t work and that is the reality of the financial landscape currently. It’s also great to see that the Pre-Mix and WMX remained unchanged for 2025. With multi-time WMX Champion Eve Brodeur announcing her retirement late last year, it’s going to be interesting to see which riders step up and replace Eve at the top of WMX racing in Canada. All things considered, I think the schedule looks good, and hopefully next year the series will be able to expand to nine or even ten rounds. Perhaps then we can head back to BC and Manitoba, and that will give us four solid races in the West. As you can see all of the fun begins on June 1/25 at Wild Rose MX Park.
Down in Texas Round 7 of the Monster Energy Supercross Series took place at the massive AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The 250SX West Series was back on stage this past weekend in Arlington so we had two Canadian riders lining up. Preston Masciangelo, who used the last few weeks to travel home to Ontario to recharge, was looking to qualify for the night show, which was made a little more challenging this weekend with Round 7 being a Triple Crown event. Unfortunately, Preston came up just short of qualifying with a solid 9th place finish in the 250SX West LCQ. It’s been a decent rookie SX season so far for Preston. His speed has been good, and other than a mishap in San Diego he’s been able to keep it on two-wheels and do what every young rider is supposed to do in their rookie year; learn, learn, and learn some more! In a class that is made up of riders of all ages, Preston is one of the youngest riders on the starting line. If he can continue to stay healthy and get as many gate drops in as he can this year, then 2026 should be his time to shine and follow in the large footsteps of Cole Thompson in USA Supercross.
Speaking of Cole Thompson and his results in Arlington. Although he was unhappy with his 13th OA in the main events, Cole’s speed was the best it’s been all series as he qualified 6th OA in the afternoon. His fastest lap time of 50.321 was just a hair better than eventual 250SX West class podium finishes Michael Mosiman and Coty Shock. That is remarkable if you ask me, and it once again cements the fact that unless you’re one of the elite riders in the class, starts means everything in SX. The 250SX West class will now have a weekend off before joining their East counterparts in the first 250SX E/W Showdown race in Indianapolis on March 8th.
The third and final thing I want to talk about today is Chase Sexton, and why he keeps making these unforced errors at key moments in main events. If you could somehow erase Chase’s big mistakes this season, he would more than likely have at least a 20 point lead in the 450SX class. However, after a big one last weekend in Detroit, and then his final lap crash on Saturday evening in Arlington, he’s now six points down to Cooper Webb, who appears to be getting stronger and more confident each weekend. As the series heads to the toughest track of the season in Daytona, I don’t like Chase’s chances of going error free in the main event. So, unless Roczen finds some more speed, or Justin Cooper can hold steady for 20 minutes in the Florida sand, I like Webb’s chances of winning his third race in a row this weekend. However, putting all of that aside, let’s talk about why Chase Sexton, who is the fastest and most talented rider currently on the track in the 450SX class, is making these mistakes. My guess at the cause is a simple one, and I don’t think it takes a Sports Psychologist to figure it out, at times in the most stressful moments of a race, Sexton gets ahead of himself mentally. Meaning, either consciously or sub-consciously, he stops focusing solely on the present and begins to think too far ahead. This is just one of the area’s that makes motocross, and especially supercross so challenging mentally. At times during a race a rider has to simultaneously think about what is happening right now, while also trying to plan what they might want to do three or four laps down the road. You have to do this in all sports, but most others, and I almost dare to say all other sports, give its athletes time and space to think about what they want to have happen in the future, and what they need to do to make that happen. For Sexton, and a lot of ultra talented athletes, he appears to let his mind drift slightly into the future at certain moments, and it ends up catching him. Now, we’ve all witnessed Sexton training both on and off of the bike, and right now no one trains harder than he does. And, we’ve seen him doing Yoga and what looks like some form of mediation, both at the races as well as at home. However, I’m curious if he’s working with any Sports Physiologists to see if they can get him to remain a little more in the moment at key times in the main event. Perhaps he could receive some consistent pit board signs reminding him to just take it “One lap at a time.” On average these days a 450SX main is about 25 laps, so maybe starting on lap ten, Sexton could get this reminder and that will keep him as the saying goes, “Where his feet are.” I mean, something needs to change for him as he can’t keep throwing races and points away. On Saturday evening he had the final main event in the bag before pushing the front end and then stalling his KTM in a turn. His lead vanished after that mistake, and then on the final lap, with the overall win in the bag, he put himself in a bad spot with a lapped rider, and Webb cutting down hard in a 180 degree bowl turn. This caused him to clip Webb’s rear wheel and go down, losing the OA win as well as the 450SX points lead. More importantly, it will have everyone, including Chase asking himself I’m sure, “Why does this keep happening?”. If you look at the very best athletes from all sports, one of their best attributes is being able to almost always remain in the moment and compartmentalize during their performances. Let’s hope Chase is able to get everything sorted out before he falls even further behind in the points standings.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone enjoys their final few days of February. Soon, it will be March and on the 9th we will be turning the clocks ahead. It seems early this year, but at this point I feel like we’ll take what we can get. Finally, my pick for Rider of the Week is Star Racing Yamaha rider Justin Cooper, who probably could have and should have won at least one of the three 450SX main events in Arlington. After a slow start to his sophomore season, Cooper has been getting better and better each weekend. He’s also always been a good sand rider, so hopefully he can lead some more laps this weekend in Daytona? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
