Greetings! Welcome to another edition of the Monday Gate Drop, which is once again presented by the awesome people at Yamaha Motor Canada. The Blu Cru had a solid day at the opening round of the 2025 SMX Playoffs this past weekend as Haiden Deegan took the win in the 250 class, and Eli Tomac finished third in the 450 class. Unfortunately, the second motos had to be cancelled because of severe weather in the area, so now everyone will move onto Round 2 next weekend in St Louis.
As I mentioned above, moments after the first set of motos were completed at zMAX Dragway, Mother Nature took centre stage and caused havoc on the rest of the event. Not only did heavy rain move through the area, but there was also a lot of lightening nearby, and that pretty much dictated the race schedule for the rest of the day. With the track under water, darkness fast approaching, and the stubborn storms not moving away fast enough, the officials really had no choice but to cancel the second motos and send everyone home. It was too bad, and I’m sure if you were a paying fan in attendance, you wanted the racing to resume either in the evening, or possibly on Sunday. The lighting at zMAX Dragway isn’t set up for night racing when it comes to SMX racing, so racing at night wasn’t an option. I suppose racing on Sunday would’ve worked in theory, but most of the riders and teams have flights booked for Sunday morning, so that wasn’t happening. In the end, I think it was the correct call as it just didn’t make any sense to continue. The track was already extremely challenging to ride, and over the course of the day, it took out a few top riders. So, call it a day and move onto to the next race in St Louis.
Haiden Deegan dominated the 250 race, coming from behind to take the win. Other than Jo Shimoda, there aren’t any 250 riders who can challenge Deegan in these SMX races, and he knows it. Unfortunately, Shimoda crashed while trying to pass Hammaker for the lead early in the race, and that pretty much handed the win to Deegan. Cole Thompson was racing on Saturday, as he got a late call from the AEO Powersports KTM Team to race all three SMX Playoff rounds. Cole looked solid but ended up coming up just short of qualifying for the night program. Cole should be better next weekend as he gets more comfortable with his KTM this week, and I expect him to qualify in St Louis. In the 450 class, it was once again Jett Lawrence who took the win over Chase Sexton and Eli Tomac. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how good Jett Lawrence is at racing his dirt bike. Obviously, his technique stands out as Kangaroo’s around the track. But his racecraft is equally as good, and this combination helped him continue his SMX Playoff winning streak on Saturday. One of Jett’s strongest attributes was highlighted during the broadcast on Saturday by track side reporter Jason Thomas. JT mentioned how comfortable Jett is, whether he’s leading by a few feet, or by a few seconds. Unlike traditional thinking, where riders want to push and extend their lead by as much as possible. Jett is quite happy to sit one or two seconds ahead of whomever is behind him and then wait to see how the race plays out. If someone (on Saturday it was Tomac and then Sexton) wants to come and get him, then Jett picks up his pace for a few laps and pulls a gap, if not, he’s happy to win by a couple of seconds. It’s really quite remarkable and brilliant if you ask me. Sexton appears to be the rider with the best chance of running Jett down in the coming weeks. However, with it all but confirmed that Sexton is switching to Kawasaki in 2026, I’m not sure he wants to push his limits in these SMX Playoff rounds. I also assume that Tomac is in the same boat as him going to KTM next year is apparently a done deal. This appears to playing right into Jett Lawrence’s hands as these SMX Playoff rounds take place.
Moving on from the SMX Playoffs to Gopher Dunes this past weekend, Frank Schuster’s annual big Vet event took place. It all kicked off on Friday evening with the steak dinner and welcome reception at Frank’s shop and motorcycle museum, which sits at the west end of the Gopher Dunes property. Even though it was my wife’s birthday on Friday I was still able to talk her into making the two-hour trek from our home down to Gopher Dunes for a nice steak dinner. As you can imagine, with a group of old motocross riders and industry people sitting in a room while eating steak and enjoying a few beverages, there was a whole lotta bench racing going on. Brett Lee was the M/C for the evening, and at one point he had me on stage to talk about some old Gopher Dunes memories. The Schuster Family (and their Gopher Dunes track) has meant a lot to my family and I over the years. Other than racing there a lot in the late 1980s and all through the 90s, and enjoying some good results, Gopher Dunes has produced several memories that really stick out in my mind. In October of 1990, I won the final pro moto of the year over my biggest Ontario rivals at the time Jeff Surwall and Brad King. Normally, a year-end moto win would’ve been something to remember, but it was my first win after coming back from a broken femur I suffered just four months prior. To me, and to my competition I suppose, going 2-1 that fall day at Gopher Dunes solidified that I was back and still knew how to race. Another very memorable moment came 22 years after that (almost to the day) in 2012 when my son Ayrton lined up for his first ever race at Gopher Dunes. He was riding a PW-50, and all summer we told him that before the race season was over, he’d be allowed to do at least one race. I’m not sure why we picked the final race of the year at Gopher Dunes? Perhaps, we were just putting off what we suspected might be another decade or two at the races. I don’t know, but that moment was so special, and as parents we’ll never forget not only his first race, but also where it happened. We had a great time on Friday night and thank you to the Schuster Family and the entire Gopher Dunes staff for their hospitality. They sure know how to make you feel special; they sang “Happy Birthday” to my wife.
Well, that is it for me this week. As we move towards the middle of September, I hope everyone has a great week, and a safe week riding. For this week, my Rider of the Week is Blake Davies, who out of nowhere decided to race the Red Bull Outliers this past weekend. Blake not only finished the toughest two-wheel race in Canada, but he finished up with an incredible 8th overall in the Pro Class. Blake is headed to the AVL Husqvarna Team and the 450 class in 2026, so this result represented a great return to the Husqvarna brand for Blake and his family. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
