Greetings! Welcome to this mid-September edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column. As usual, this column is presented by the awesome people at Yamaha Motor Canada. This past weekend, at the beautiful MX Deschambault track, Yamaha held their first of three Blu Cru rider appreciation ride days. By all accounts, it was a great day with over 250 riders. The 2026 YZ models were present, the track was in amazing shape, and there was a lot of food and laughter. The next Blu Cru ride day will be this weekend at the Popkum Motor Park in BC, and then at the Sand Del Lee track on September 27th.
The first thing I want to talk about this week is Round 2 of the SMX Playoffs that took place at the America’s Dome in St Louis. After a shortened opening round last weekend in Charlotte (due to rain and lightning), everyone was excited to have Round 2 take place indoors, on a very unique track. Overall, I thought the track raced well all evening, even with its hybrid design. Leading up to the race, there was some extra hype with the track leaving the main floor of the stadium and heading under the stands. I’m not sure why, but I was under the assumption that there would be more to that section, and not just two short straights with a 180 degree corner. In the end though, it was different, and I did like the left hand corner and technical little triple jump when the riders came back into the stadium. Those type of triples (when the first and third jumps are smaller than the middle jump) can be tricky, especially when there is a sweeping corner before, and the riders aren’t quite straight when they take off. Also, there was talk all day from the riders and broadcast team that track was difficult to pass on. I could see that as almost all of the riders were doing the same jump combinations on the track. Of course, after watching Jett Lawrence go from almost dead last to fourth in the opening 450 main event, it threw that hypothesis out the window. The racing was entertaining, and at this point of the season that is really all that matters from a fans perspective. Also, it was good to see Cole Thompson qualify for the 250 main event from the Wild Card race. Cole admitted on Social Media that the pace in the main event was extremely fast, and that it was tough to adjust. However, Cole has to be happy with the progress he’s made in a short time on the AEO Motorsports KTM. Remember, last weekend he didn’t even qualify for the main event. Hopefully, this trend continues, and Cole will be able to crack the top 15 this weekend in Las Vegas. Finally, I want to say congratulations to Ryder Malinoski on winning the second SMX Next race on Saturday evening. Ryder grabbed the holeshot and never looked back. No doubt, the experience Ryder got this summer racing the Eastern rounds of the 250 Triple Crown Series was one of the contributing factors to his big win in St Louis.
So, once again it was a Lawrence Brother standing on the top step of the 450 podium in St Louis. But, this weekend it was newly anointed “King of Round 2” Hunter Lawrence who grabbed the win. Since the inception of these SMX Playoffs rounds in 2023, Hunter has now won all three second rounds in this short series. Hunter rode well on Saturday evening, and was helped along by his younger bro who as I mentioned above, got off to a horrible start in the opening main event. Hunter on the other hand, took the early lead and was never challenged. Jett charged back up to fourth, and was all over the rear tire of Tomac for third on the final lap, but he came up just short of a podium finish in moto one. Jett would come back and put on a riding clinic in moto two, but his 4-1 moto score was bested by his older brother’s 1-3 moto score. The 450 class was fun to watch and now, like last year, the Lawrence Brother’s will duke it out this weekend in Las Vegas to see who wins the SMX Championship, and the million dollars that goes with it. Tomac also has a chance to win the big prize, as he’s only 16 points back.
In the 250 class, things got a little more intense on the opening lap of the second main event when Levi Kitchen came out of nowhere and tried to make an aggressive pass on Haiden Deegan for what would’ve been third place I believe. I mean, it wasn’t even for the lead, which made it that much more unbelievable. Unfortunately, both riders ended up going down, which wasn’t surprising given the steep angle that Kitchen came into Deegs at. It was certainly an all or nothing move, which makes me think (and there has been Social Media chatter) that this was simply payback for something Deegan either did, or said to Kitchen. Was the move dirty? Could this potentially cost Deegan the 250 SMX Championship? The answer to both questions is yes, but there is an age old saying that states that when you live by the sword, you sometimes die by the sword. Other than perhaps Haiden himself, his family, and a few members of the Star Racing Yamaha Team, there cannot be too many people in the paddock that were surprised at Kitchen’s payback move on Saturday night. In fact, there were most likely a handful that even shook Kitchen’s hand afterwards. We all love Deegan’s hard charging, never give up riding style, and on October 5th it’s going to be entertaining to watch him race his first MXON at Ironman Raceway. But, you cannot continuously disrespect your competitors the way he does, with the things he says during his podium speeches and interviews, and also little things he does on the track (and that is just the things we see), and not at some point face some repercussions over it. I mean, the fans weren’t happy with Deegan when he cleaned out his teammate Cole Davies to win the 250SX West Championship earlier this year. After that main event, you would of thought some humility would show though on the podium with 45K fans booing you. Sadly, all that situation did was make Haiden go all weird, stutter some words out, and then tell everyone to go and ‘Suck it’ if they don’t like it. For whatever reason, he got a pass on that comment, as well as for his aggressive pass on his young teammate. Even the AMA didn’t see too much wrong with it and gave him a written warning (ironically that is what Kitchen received on Saturday night). Well, it appeared like Levi Kitchen took matters into his own hands and decided enough was enough. Thankfully for Deegan, someone with a microphone and a camera wasn’t able to find him in the moments after the race, as who knows what idiotic gibberish would’ve come out of his mouth. At that point, he had a right to be mad as someone just completely cleaned you out. But, as this new week begins, and Haiden looks back on that pass, perhaps he’ll realize that at the end of the day he did have it coming. Also, with Deegan getting ready to move up to the 450 class in 2026, this might just be the best thing that could happen to him, as respecting your competition is part of the foundation of success at the highest level in any sport.
So, it all comes down to the final round of the SMX Playoffs this weekend in Las Vegas. Also happening this weekend is the iconic Corduroy Enduro, which takes place in beautiful Gooderham, ON. This long-standing event is massive, and it all begins on Thursday with demo rides and a ton of vendors to see. The HQ for this event is the Community Centre right in the middle of town, so it’s amazing to see the entire community buy into this event. I went up on Friday last year to check things out for the first time, and I think I’m going to do the same later this week. I was very impressed with what I saw, and my favourite part of the day was hiking through the Greens Mountain section of the course. This is one of the famous sections of the Corduroy Enduro, and it really has to be seen to be believed. For more information please visit: The Corduroy Enduro® – The Corduroy Enduro® …Canada’s Toughest Race!!
Finally, this week. The Canadian moto silly season was in full effect last week when Wyatt Kerr announced that he was leaving the Priority MX Thor GASGAS Team to head in another direction. I reached out to both parties, and while Priority MX Team Manager Justin Roney said that Wyatt’s departure came as a big surprise, as there was an offer made to him for 2026. However, he wished Wyatt the best and said they obviously loved having him on the team. I then spoke to Wyatt, and he told me simply that after several tough seasons he just wanted a change in scenery. He loved his time with the Priority MX Team, but he just wanted to go in a different direction. Wyatt is a stand-up guy, so you have to respect him for basically leaving an offer on the table and going in a different direction. By all accounts, this new direction will lead Wyatt to the Guaranteed Comfort Honda Team next season and a chance to work with long-time family friend, team owner Chris Egan. At 22 years old, Wyatt has a lot of years left in him; he just needs to find that fine line between riding and training on the edge, while remaining healthy. That is not an easy thing to do in this sport today, just ask Dylan Wright or Jess Pettis. However, if you want to be successful have prolonged sustainability in this sport, you have to find a way. Hopefully, Wyatt can find the solution as a member of the Red Riders. Finally, JR also said that the team won’t be making a decision of who will replace Wyatt until after the MXON in early October.
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful September weather. I love this time of the year as the days are mild, but the nights are cool. My pick for Rider of the Week is Cole Thompson. With only ten days on his new KTM, Cole was able to go from not qualifying for the 250 SMX main events in Charlotte, to qualifying and finishing 20th in St Louis. Hopefully, we see an even better result this weekend in Vegas as Cole will race his final SMX event before moving over the Bud Kawasaki Team for the WSX Championships. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
