Greetings! Welcome once again to the Monday Gate Drop Column, brought to you by the incredible folks at Yamaha Motor Canada. With spring officially here and March winding down, we are counting the days until the 2025 Canadian race season begins. In Southern Ontario, the gate drops on April 19/20 at Gopher Dunes as the opening OPC AMO race will take place. We’ve been to Gopher Dunes several times in the last ten days and I can tell you that the track and facility are looking good. The forecast for this week is a little hit and miss, so if you want to head out to Gopher Dunes to practice please check their website or Social Media pages for updates.
So, let’s start off with perhaps the biggest news of the past weekend. Sadly, it isn’t about Chase Sexton getting out of his slump and winning the Birmingham SX on Saturday evening. Or, Nate Thrasher winning his first 250SX race of the season after battling back from numerous injuries. No, the big news that came out of the weekend was Haiden Deegan officially entering the danger zone and getting arrested in Florida on Friday evening. According to police, Haiden was doing donuts in a parking lot in his Audi R8, when he was pulled over he was also in possession of a fake I.D. (I believe the ID had his name but had his age listed as 21). Haiden was taken into custody, and then later released on bail with a court date in the future. Now, let me first say that there aren’t too many 19 year olds out there who haven’t done, or at least tried to do what Haiden was caught doing on Friday night. Having a ‘teenage’ brain can make you feel invisible and sometimes that can lead you to attempting stupid and careless acts. I mean, 19 years old is pushing the teenage brain theory, as usually by that age you’re growing out of the real stupid stuff, But, I think we can give Haiden the benefit of the doubt, and say that he could’ve been doing worse things than drifting around an apparent empty parking lot on a Friday evening. Having a fake ID is a little strange for someone in his line of work, as there are only a couple of reasons why you’d want to pretend to be 21. In Florida, this offence is actually considered to be a felony, so thankfully the police let that go and didn’t charge him. In the big picture, every teenager has done stupid things, and in most cases we learn from our mistakes, move on, and hopefully not make the same one again!
That is the positive to this situation. The reality to me is what the hell is Haiden Deegan doing getting into trouble with the law? When you think about life and how you conduct yourself, staying out of trouble with law enforcement isn’t that challenging. Even a simple speeding ticket can be avoided by obeying the speed limit. Also, to counter my above point that he’s a teenager and we’ve all been there and done stupid things, Deegan is not you’re normal teenager as he’s in a position to influence kids and he should be setting positive examples. He has chosen this life, this life didn’t choose him, he has fans, sponsors, bosses, he has a lot of things that ‘normal’ teenagers don’t have. He should be held to a higher standard than most 19 year olds, and if he can’t accept that responsibility then there are bigger issues at hand. Finally, judging by his reaction to all of this, he’s showing zero remorse or accountability that what he did was wrong, so I think we can assume that this isn’t the last time we’ll see Dangerboy come in contact with the men and women in blue. Even during the Birmingham SX broadcast there was no mention of this incident. I mean, name another sport where one of its stars could get arrested the night before and not have it mentioned the following day on the broadcast. Yes, Deegan messed up, yes it’s embarrassing, yes I believe he should face some sort of discipline with the SMX series, but more importantly this is a learning situation for every teenage racer out there. Regardless of whether you’re Haiden Deegan or a mid-pack C rider, since you have the ability to race a dirt bike around a track, while jumping, dodging roost and other riders, you are special! You are the one or two percent that a lot of kids dream at night about becoming one day. So, respect yourself, respect your talent and ability, and act according in your everyday life. Several years ago an older friend of mine, who had gone through the twists and turns of raising two teenage boys, told me that one of the keys to successfully guiding your child through their teenage years is to keep them busy and broke. I thought about this Saturday when I heard the Deegan news as his incident on Friday night was indicative of a teenager who was rich and board!
Now, back to the Birmingham SX. Finally, Chase Sexton exercised his demons and rode off to a dominating win this past weekend. We have witnessed a plethora of mistakes from Sexton during the past month, and I think we could all agree that if he wants to win this 450SX title he needed to turn things around at Round 10. He did just that and now trails Cooper Webb by just eight points heading into Seattle this coming weekend. As of today, the Seattle forecast is calling for 13c and sun for Saturday, so that is great news for everyone. With all of the remaining races taking place in open air stadiums Mother Nature will certainly play a part in determining the conditions. If the forecast holds, at least Seattle won’t be a mudder as it has been in the past. The battle for wins in the 450SX is going to be interesting in the coming weeks as Sexton definitely has the speed advantage over the rest of the field, but Webb is a master when it comes to navigating soft and rutted tracks. The Seattle track may not be muddy this weekend, but its sure to be soft and challenging. In those conditions I think you have to give the advantage to Webb, despite the fact that so far he’s been inconsistent with his starts. Throw in riders like Aaron Plessinger, Jason Anderson, and Justin Cooper, not to mention the potential return of Eli Tomac to the series, and it could be difficult for Webb to come through the pack after a sub-par start. We shall see this weekend if Sexton can once again close up the points in the 450SX class. The good news is that this series appears far from over, and will most likely go down to the final round in SLC.
Last week, down at ClubMX in South Carolina, Phil Nicoletti took his first laps on his new WLTN Kawasaki KX450. After talking to several people involved with the WLTN Kawasaki Team, Phil was impressed with his new green steed, and he instantly looked comfortable on it. The team’s Race Director Steve Simms is currently down at ClubMX with Phil so this week they will be testing a few items on the bike. Steve will also serve as Phil’s mechanic this summer in the Triple Crown Series so these two will no doubt make for a good combination at the track. I mentioned this last week, but I feel like Phil is going to be pretty good this summer in the 450 class. Obviously, Jess Pettis and Dylan Wright are the title favourites heading into the series but, Phil showed a lot of speed and endurance last summer in the Pro Motocross Championships, finishing multiple times inside the top ten. Phil could be really good this summer, and if he can find some comfort early in the series he could put a lot of pressure on Pettis and Wright as they head into the Eastern rounds.
As I mentioned above, the Seattle SX takes place this weekend and that means we’re going to see some of our talented Canadian riders lining up in the 250SX West class. Names like Benek, Davies, Masciangelo, (maybe St-Cyr), and Tyler Gibbs will all be on the gate, Gibbs has been in California for several weeks now training for Seattle. I spoke to him late last week and he said he feels fast and confident heading into this weekend. As fans we’re always wanting our Canadian riders to roll the dice and take a chance racing in certain events in the USA. Well, Gibbs is a perfect example as he made a bunch of money racing in some Canadian AX events over the winter, and then reinvested in his own program to prepare for Seattle. It is not cheap to race in the Monster Energy SX Series, from registration, to travel, to extra passes for family, for one race it’s probably close to $1500. So, good on Gibbs and the rest of our Canadian contingents for stepping up and racing in some of these USA events.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone enjoys this final week of March. Time is certainly flying by and as I said in my opening paragraph, soon it will be race season here in Canada. Finally, this coming Sunday would’ve been my Dad’s 52nd birthday, so happy heavenly birthday to him. As a family we always made a point of celebrating his birthday in a special way. Two years ago we had what turned out to be his final birthday party in the house that he and my Mom built in 1974. It was a great day and one that we will never forget. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
