Greetings! Welcome to the first day of the month that brings us the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, it’s December 1st, and it’s time for another edition of the Monday Gate Drop, once again presented by Yamaha Motor Canada.
We will begin this week out in beautiful British Columbia, and the 2025 West Coast AX Championships. As I mentioned last week, this was the first time Ryan Lockhart and Kyle Beaton ran the series and by accounts, based on my in-person experience last week, it was a massive success from start to finish. The riders were happy, families had fun, the series sponsors were happy, and even the fans were impressed with what they saw, and I definitely feel that with what Newf and Kyle learned this year, 2026 could be even better. With so much to be excited about off of the track, one of the best stories to come out of this year’s series (on the track) was the riding of local BC pro rider Julien Benek. Over the years, Benek has always been very fast, both indoors, as well as outdoors, but untimely injuries have unfortunately impeded his progress. It’s been a rough road for Julien, and after his latest head injury that he endured earlier this season, many thought we’d seen the last of him on the race track. However, after taking the entire summer off to heal, and reset, Julien did his best to prepare for the racing in Chilliwack in hopes that it would provide him with another solid starting point for the next stage of his racing career. Well, few can argue with Julien’s success during the past two weekends as he was by far the fastest rider in the pro class. Riding a used Kawasaki KX450F, and racing against riders that came in much more prepared (on paper) than he did, Julien dominated the West Coast AX Championships, winning 3 of the 4 main events on route to the pro class title. Other riders, including Bryton Carroll, Blake Davies, and Quinn Amyotte were fast, but they could not match Julien’s speed and starting prowess. Last years pro class champion Tyler Gibbs was also fast at times, winning one main event on the opening weekend, but overall, he was no match for his fellow BC rider Benek. So, what is next for Julien after winning the 2025 West Coast AX Championship, and making some decent money along the way? Well, now it’s back to pouring concrete, and trying to get something set up for 2026 I would suspect. I did hear that Julien may get another opportunity to show off his indoor skills next month in Toronto, but we’ll wait and see how that plays out here in the next few weeks. With Amyotte and Rempel set to race the AMA Arenacross Series round in Toronto on January 9th and 10th, it would be very cool to have the West Coast AX Champion also racing. In closing, thank you to everyone involved in making the 2025 West Coast AX Series not only happen, but also be a great success. Now, it’s the official off-season in Canada as our racing has now come to an end for this year. It’s time to relax, reset, restock our bank accounts, enjoy the holiday season, and look forward to another race season in 2026.
Down in Australia, the third round of the 2025 WSX Championships took place on the Gold Coast, a beautiful spot known more for vacationing than SX. However, this year fans Down Under got treated to an all-star line up which included Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen, Cooper Webb, Christian Craig, our own Cole Thompson, and also the new bad boy of our sport, Haiden Deegan. With it only being a few weeks until the first day of summer in Australia, the temperatures were hot this past weekend, and that played havoc with trying to keep any sort of moisture in the track. The track crew did their best, but by the time the gate dropped in the main events, the track surface was dry, baked, and extremely slippery. Also, I thought the track looked very technical, especially given the dry conditions. The whoops were big and fairly spaced apart, this section gave even the best riders fits all night long. Also, the rhythm sections were big, and hard to time properly from lap-to-lap. With limited traction, you could see the riders struggling to get a consistent feel off the take-offs, and this led to over-jumping the rhythm sections, as well as under-jumping throughout the evening. In the end, Webb, Roczen, and Craig were the three main event winners at Round 3, with Roczen claiming the overall win in the SX1 class. Both Tomac and Deegan were fast at times, but they appeared to be struggling all night long. Tomac, had real issues with traction, and just never looked comfortable. He was wise (I think) to remain calm, and try and just get through the evening in one piece.
As for Deegs, I’m still not sure what to make of his 450 riding, as it’s loud, busy, and really not much different than his 250 riding. This will not work long term, as it’s been proven time and time again that 450 machines don’t like to be ridden like that. After the race in Australia, Deegan announced that he will be returning to the 250SX class in 2026, and then racing a 450 in the Pro Motocross Championships. He didn’t specify as to whether he’d be racing the 250SX West or 250SX East Series, but regardless of which coast he races, I think this is a wise decision. I know, you cannot find fault with Deegan’s speed or determination on the race track, the kid gives it 100% every time he lines up. But, there still appears to be an immaturity to him off of the track, and at times that seems to correlate to his riding on the track; because of this, he’s slowly backing himself into a corner as far as his development. If he moved up and raced the 450SX class next month, he would’ve run the risk of crashing out of the series before it leaves the West Coast, in my opinion. However, since he’s remaining in the 250SX class, now he runs the risk of getting bored and complacent, and not progressing forward with his riding. I suppose he has the summer and then SMX Playoffs to get comfortable on a 450 before racing Anaheim 1 in 2027.
As for Cole Thompson, he came into Round 3 of the WSX Championships fresh off a victory at the prestigious AUSX Open SX in Melbourne, the week before in the SX2 class. This was one of the biggest wins of Cole’s career, and given his age, and the fact that he’s not quite 100% comfortable on the Kawasaki, I would think it was a little unexpected. But, I said this two weeks ago, Cole has found a way to travel, race, and find success while dealing with things like jet lag and not always being comfortable. We’ve all travelled through time zones and we know how we feel when we reach our destination, now imagine having to race a dirt bike against some of the best riders in the world when you’re feeling like that. In the past month, Cole has flown from South Carolina to Australia, then back to SC, then down to Argentina, back up to Vancouver, across the Pacific to Australia again, and now he’ll head to Sweden and South Africa before returning home for Christmas. It sounds even crazier when I write it out. But you know, since I love travelling and I love dirt bikes, I’m a little envious of CT right now as he really is living the dream!
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great opening week of December. For my Motovan Canada Rider of the Week, I’m going with Cole Thompson. His win last weekend at the AUSX Open SX went a little under the radar here in Canada, and that isn’t right. Finally, I want to wish all of our moto parents good luck with Elf on a Shelf season. Part of me misses this insane holiday ritual as I wish our son was young again, but part of me is glad my wife and I don’t have to deal with the stress of it all. So many times we almost fell asleep before one of us remembered that we didn’t move the Elf. That little guy pretty much ran our lives for the month of December and judging by the perma-smile on his face, he enjoyed it. So good luck parents and thank you to everyone for reading this column. If you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
