Greetings! Welcome to this Valentine’s Day edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column. Which as always, is brought to you by the awesome crew at Yamaha Motor Canada. The Blu Cru has been busy preparing for the 2026 season and slowly but surely their riders have been heading south to start riding. I spoke to Jess Pettis last week, and he will travel to the WW Ranch MX track near Jacksonville, Florida right after the upcoming Toronto Motorcycle Show. Jess is now a seasoned veteran, so he knows exactly what he needs to do in order to be fully prepared for the opening round of the 2026 Triple Crown Series. Obviously, by now, we’re all pretty much over winter and heading south sounds like an excellent idea. However, even for our fastest pro riders, it is possible to head south too early, and risk spending too much time training and riding without the intensity of competition. Also, on the team side of things, as soon as one of their riders throws a leg over a bike, they instantly begin to burn through parts. Take a top rider like Jess Pettis; last year he spent the majority of his time down south training at the famous GPF facility in Cairo, Georgia. The track there is mostly clay, and depending on how it’s prepped, it can be loamy and rutted, or a little dryer and hard packed. GPF is great for training for most of the tracks on the Triple Crown Series calendar, and it’s not too hard on bikes. As I mentioned, this year Jess is starting his training in much sandier conditions at WW Ranch track, so the wear and tear on his bikes will be much greater. As I said, these are all things to consider when planning a trip down south to ride. After touching on this subject, I’m guessing that my week in the sand at Croom in 1989 was probably pretty hard on my YZ250.
This past weekend, the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Series rolled into everyone’s favourite round in Glendale, AZ. I say ‘favourite’ because who doesn’t like the beautiful desert climate of Arizona, and who doesn’t like the larger-than-normal track inside State Farm Stadium each year? Once again, this year did not disappoint as the racing was good to watch on Saturday night. It wasn’t the back and forth battling that we’ve seen in recent weeks, as the Glendale track was too fast for that type of racing; however, I found it interesting to watch in a sense that it forced the riders to be very precise. At the speeds they were racing at, especially at the front of the pack, you simply could not afford to place a wheel wrong. This is where a rider like Ken Roczen is so good. He’s able to ride that fine between going at maximum speed, and not making those little mistakes that cost you small amounts of time. On a track like the one we saw in Glendale, in order to be fast and consistent, it comes down to a few things that you have to do well. First, you have to put yourself in a good position off the start, which frees you up to take the lines you want in the opening laps (Roczen did this in the main event on Saturday night). The next thing a rider needs to do (and this goes back to picking good lines) is find the lines that allow you to set up good angles everywhere on the track, especially in the turns. Setting up shallow entrance angles into turns keeps your lean angle low; this keeps more tire tread in contact with the track, and obviously more connectivity between your bike and the track surface. Then, when all of that is accomplished, you exit each corner with good balance and solid throttle control. The final step to finding success on a track like Glendale is execute this, lap after lap, and try not to make any bike mistakes. I doubt the track in Glendale made the riders physically tired as much as it made them mentally tired after twenty minutes, as it takes a lot of concentration to be super precise for that amount of time. As I mentioned, Roczen is always very good in these conditions, as is Jett Lawrence, who by the way, looks to be healing nicely from his ankle injury. Hunter Lawrence was also very good on Saturday evening, but he lacks a little bit of the throttle control that Kenny has, and it cost him an inch here and there in the main event.
Heading into Round 6, it looks as though the riders will have the exact opposite of conditions that they had in Glendale, as the forecast for Seattle looks dreadful. Hmmm, who would have thought that mid-February in Seattle could produce temperatures of just above the freezing mark, with rain, and possibly light snow. Not to mention that because of the Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl last night, they have their parade on Wednesday that ends inside the Stadium. So, the earliest that the track crew can begin building will be late on Wednesday evening. This is when the rain is supposed to start in the Seattle area. Honestly, they haven’t cancelled too many SX events in the past, but I can see them pulling the plug on this one either later today or tomorrow at the latest. Right now, there are just too many obstacles to overcome and too many signs pointing to the race being a complete quagmire in Seattle. Ideally, if they could’ve built the track today and tomorrow, then covered it up and waited until Saturday afternoon, there would be at least a small chance that conditions might be okay. But that cannot happen, so who knows what is going to happen. No one wants to watch or compete in a race when it’s raining, and temperatures aren’t many degrees above freezing. As I said, I imagine there are a lot of conference calls as we speak between race teams and the series as they try to navigate the best course of action.
Looking back to how our Canadian riders did in Glendale, and overall, I think we had mixed results. Cole Thompson jumped back on a 250 for Round 5, and he looked great on his trusty YZ250F. He loves this bike, so it was no surprise to see him qualify well and then go straight to the main event from his heat race. I spoke to Cole last week, and he mentioned that they’ve been struggling a little with getting his 450 set up the way he likes it. This has made it difficult for him to find comfort on the bigger bike, so I’m sure that is why he decided, at the last minute, to drop back down to the 250SX West class. At this stage in Cole’s career, he has to stay with what he’s confident and comfortable on. Obviously, he has a lot of time on a 250F, so unless he’s in a position where he’s able to devote a complete off-season to testing and setting up a 450, then he’s better off just racing a 250F when able. Cole looked great in Glendale, and it was great to see him again with that classic Cole Thompson SX flow. Preston Masciangelo also had a solid night in Glendale as he qualified for the 250SX West main event and rode well to finish 18th. Preston has been riding solid in the opening rounds, and he’d probably be the first to tell you that the only difference this past weekend was his starts. When it mattered the most, he was able to get off the gate well and begin the race from near the front. Once outside the top ten in the 250SX West class, there isn’t a big speed variation between the riders. So, starts are everything! Blake Davies also continued with his solid riding so far in 2026. Blake once again came very close to qualifying for the 250SX West main event. His speed was certainly good enough, but he just didn’t get a great start in the LCQ. Anyway, I know he’s feeling great about his riding, and I can’t wait to see him race a 450 this summer in the Triple Crown Series. Finally, Tyler Gibbs was back in Glendale after taking a weekend off to heal his injured elbow. Tyler told me late last week that he wasn’t 100% by any means, but he wanted to line up and try racing as his SX adventure is soon coming to an end. Unfortunately, Tyler got tagged from behind on the opening lap of the LCQ and went down hard. The race had to be red-flagged as Tyler and another rider had to be attended to by the medical crew. In the end, Tyler was okay but pretty sore the following day. Tyler is in a challenging position right now, as I don’t know (and I’m sure he doesn’t know) what is next as far as racing goes. Obviously, he needs to get healthy; that is the main thing for any rider. However, after that, what can he do better or more efficiently to be able to recreate his mid-week speed on the weekends? Racing the Monster Energy Supercross Series is challenging without a doubt, as it’s the biggest stage in the world. It’s not uncommon for a rider at Tyler’s level to perform and feel great during the week at the practice track, but underperform once you have to race a SX track under the lights on Saturday night. Anyway, I, like a lot of people in Canada, want to see Gibby at his best when the gate drops on either Saturday night at SX, or Sunday at a Canadian National, not on Wednesday at the practice track. So hopefully, he can figure things out moving forward.
Well, that is it for this week. I was planning on talking about how difficult it is to be a young pro rider in the sport today, but I’ll save that subject until next week. Finally, the opening rounds of the 2026 Rimbey AX kick off this weekend in Rimbey Alberta. The racing should be exciting as Dylan Rempel, Liam Dodds, Blake Davies, Quinn Amyotte, Noah Porter, and Zach Ufimzeff are all set to battle inside the Rimbey Agrim Centre. For my Motovan Canada Rider of the Week, I’m going to give it to AVL Husqvarna rider Blake Davies. He has had a great start to 2026, and sometimes, because he rides with so much maturity, we forget that he’s only 17 years old. Not to mention that he also looks like he could play in the NBA with his height. Anyway, Blake is a fast rider as well as a great kid off the bike, and I wish him the best of luck this summer. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
