Greetings! Welcome to this early October edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column, which once again is brought to you by the awesome people at Yamaha Motor Canada. After a very impressive showing this past weekend at the Blu Cru Super Finale event at the MXON, which saw Chandler Powell win the 65cc class, and Jonathan Bergeron race to a solid second in the 125cc, Yamaha Motor Canada and the crew from MX101 have to be extremely happy with how their amateur program is going. From coast to coast in Canada, Blu Cru riders are finding success, and the program is doing exactly what it’s designed to do. Congratulations to our Canadian Blu Cru riders who represented Yamaha, as well as this Country with grace and style this past weekend at Ironman Raceway.
As I mentioned above, it was great to watch our young Blu Cru riders race this past weekend at the Blu Cru Super Finale event. Yamaha Global has done a great job with this event, and it appears to be gaining traction and getting more and more popular each year. I was fortunate enough to be able to watch Chandler Powell and Jonathan Bergeron ride last weekend at Sand Del Lee as they were putting in some final preparation for the Super Finale race. Both riders looked great, as they did all season long, so it was no surprise to see them find success at Ironman Raceway. On the pro side of things, it also came as no surprise to see Team Australia take home the Chamberlain Trophy for the second year in a row. When you have the two top 450 riders on the planet, as well as a National Champion as your MX2 rider, as a team you’re sitting in a pretty good spot. Also, to have the experience of winning last year, I’m sure helped with keeping the team calm throughout the weekend. Especially, after moto one when they were a few points out of the lead. I also believe the track preparation played into the Lawrence Brothers favour as the slick and technical conditions were conducive to their superior throttle control and line selection. Simply put, the rest of the riders and teams were no match for Team Australia this past weekend, and they deserved to win again.
Can the Aussie’s do it again in 2026 when this event once again returns to Ernee, France (wasn’t the MXON just there in 2023..do they not have any other tracks in Europe?). A three-peat is going to be tough as the home team will be out for vengeance next year, as will several other top teams, but Jett rode well there three years ago, and if he and Hunter can avoid any injuries in 2026, you have to assume that both will be even better a year from now. After all, in the big picture, it’s hard to predict when the Lawrence Brothers are going to reach their peak as far as their speed and technique. With Hunter being a little older, but slightly less talented, perhaps his peak will come and go before his younger Bro. I hope both are around for a long time as they’re so much fun to watch both on the track as well as off of the track. I mean, just look at some of Jett’s lines from this past weekend, as well as the way he patiently attacked the track. From a riding, and racing point of view, it just doesn’t get any better than that. This is the way that a modern-day dirt bike is supposed to be ridden, smooth, precise, the use of the throttle and weight transfer in perfect unison so the bike is going and doing what you want it to do. Throw in fitness, confidence, and superior racecraft, and that is Jett Lawrence (and Hunter also to a certain extent). He is definitely a generational rider, and he is changing how riding is taught to the younger riders. Think about that for a moment. When James Stewart came in and starting scrubbing and throwing his bike sideways off every jump, the sport as a whole, instantly took notice and everywhere you looked, young riders were trying to ride the same way. This evolution in our sport made riders faster without a doubt, but did it make the sport safer at the same time? I would argue no, it didn’t. Not only were riders travelling faster on the track, but they were also now not jumping straight or landing properly, and lets face it, a lot of riders were trying to implement JS7’s technique who had no business even trying to do anything but jump dead straight any time their wheels left the ground. Now, fast forward to Jett and the way he rides, and the techniques he uses to get around the track both smoothly and efficiently. To me, if you’re using these two adjectives to describe someone’s riding, then you know it’s also a safer way to ride. If this trend continues, which I cannot see why it wouldn’t because it works, then in next few years our young riders are going to be trying to ride smoother, more efficiently, and at the end of the day, generally speaking, they’re going to be riding safer. Overall, this hopefully will make our sport safer. Anyway, I don’t mean to sit here and glaze the Lawrence Brothers, but it really is fun to watch them ride their dirt bikes, and this past weekend their superior riding skills were on full display.
Okay, now for the autopsy of Team Canada’s performance this weekend in Indiana. I know autopsy might be a strong word, considering we’re talking about something fun like racing dirt bikes however, whenever an effort of this magnitude is put into getting our team to the MXON, and we fail to qualify for the ‘A-Final’, it really does feel like there has been some sort of death in our motocross family. After all, our riders are too talented, and too much work is put into getting them to this event, to have them come up short on the world stage. I know, one of the buzz phrases you hear around the paddock these days is “I just want to have fun riding my dirt bike”, and while that is applicable in certain instances, at the end of the day, this is a results-oriented business. I mean, I threw away the Plus 50 title this past summer at the Walton TransCan, and I’m still pissed off about it, and racing that class with Marc Dionne and Bill Van Vugt is about as fun as racing gets. My point is, it is not wrong for us as fans and media to be both impressed and thankful with Team Canada’s effort and compete level (and that includes the work behind the scenes to even get the team there..thank you Kourtney!), this past weekend, but also be completely gutted that we didn’t qualify to race on Sunday afternoon. So, that is why I used the word autopsy, because it really just opens up the question as to why we didn’t qualify for the A-Final?
First off, as much as we are all disappointed with the overall result, I can assure you that no one was more pissed off yesterday then our three riders. They were the ones who assumed all of the risk, and no doubt gave it everything they had all weekend long. Like everyone yesterday, I was proud as hell to watch Jess Pettis leading the pack around the B-Final. I mean, I wish the broadcast would’ve showed Jess more instead of Harry Kullas riding around in second, but knowing Jess was out front doing everything he could was certainly a highlight of the weekend. Also, how cool was it to watch young Sebastien Racine come of age this weekend in the MX2 class? To me, this was Racine’s coming out party on the world stage as he rode incredible on Saturday and Sunday. In both his qualifier, and again in the B-Main, he charged from behind like his life depended on it. I think Sebastien is ready for the next step in his career, and I believe it’s time for him to move to the 450 class in 2026. Even, Tanner Ward (who appeared to struggle all weekend with finding comfort on the slick Ironman track), put on a solid charge in the final laps of the B-Main yesterday, securing a 13th place finish. However, with the two riders from Estonia finishing inside the top five, our fate was sealed. Our riders gave it everything they had, and at the end of the day, that is all we can ask of them. We just came up a little short, and when this race is on home (North American soil), it just stings a little more.
So, if the effort box was checked as far as the riders go, and the organization box was checked as far as getting the team to the event with everything they needed to find success, then were there any boxes left unchecked? The only issue I can see, and in reality it’s the most difficult issue to address, is how can our three chosen riders race more between the final round of the Triple Crown Series, which this year took place on August 10th, and the MXON, which now appears to always take place on the opening week in October. Almost every rider who lined up this past weekend has been racing (some at a high level) all through September. It makes a big difference, especially for the older and more experienced riders, who need the consistent intensity of racing to remain sharp. I know Pettis raced a couple of races in Quebec in September once his body healed up from being injured in the summer, I’m not sure about Racine, but I know Tanner, who was pretty beat up after his hard crash at Walton and needed time to heal, hadn’t raced since Walton. Also, our three riders did get together for a few days of practice and team building a few weeks ago in Quebec, which is always a great idea. But, it wasn’t lining up behind a gate and going through the mental and physical exercises that only racing can give a rider. I’m not saying for a moment that this is anyone’s fault, and I’m sure the riders themselves were sitting there 24 hours ago thinking “I think we need to find a way to race more leading up to this event), this is just the reality of the situation. As a former pro rider, as I got into my mid-20s I realized quickly that if I went even two weeks without racing, it would affect me. To me, that is only area where I believe we can improve our chances and help make it more of an even playing field heading into 2026, where making the A-Final will be even more challenging. I mean, the SMX Playoffs and MXGP Series only ended two weeks ago. A large group of riders this weekend were still razor sharp with their racecraft. When you consider that, I think our Team did pretty darn good. Imagine if a hockey team didn’t play a meaningful game for two months, and then drops the puck against a team who has been playing games continuously for that time period, it is going to take that one team time to get going and the first period probably isn’t going to be pretty. Of course, making this happen will be challenging as there just aren’t that many races in Canada during September. However, if next years team is once again based in the East, then I think they should do whatever they can to hit every AMO/Challenge Quebec event there is, just to get some gate drops in. If a rider is from out west, then they should hit every FW MX race on the schedule. Perhaps even travel south of the border to hit some local USA races, even small ones can be extra competitive as pro riders battle for some extra cash.
Other than that, let’s all send a big thank you to our riders for their effort, our Team Canada personal who worked their butts off this weekend to make sure everyone and everything was taken care of, and last but certainly not least, our Team Manager Kourtney Lloyd, who has made this event her passion project for the past nine years. If you attended any one of the Triple Crown Series rounds this summer, you would’ve witnessed Kourtney at her Team Canada tent selling raffle tickets, merch, and doing pretty much everything she could do to raise money for this team to go to Ironman Raceway. Until she decides she’s had enough, then to me she is Team Canada’s Manager for life, as I don’t think anyone could do a better job. So, let’s sit back, take a deep breath, be grateful that Canada had such a strong presence this past weekend and let’s look forward to 2026. Go Canada Go!!
Well, I don’t really have anything else to say today, other than thank you for reading this, and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone this coming weekend. I hope everyone has a safe week, and a great weekend celebrating Thanksgiving with friends and family. Finally, my pick for Rider of the Week is young Chandler Powell who dominated the 65cc race this past weekend at the Blu Cru Super Finale event. Well done Chandler, and also congratulations to all of our riders who competed this past weekend at Ironman Raceway!
