Greetings! Welcome to this Family Day edition of the Monday Gate Drop Column, which as always is brought to you by the awesome folks at Yamaha Motor Canada. If you live in Ontario and want to attend a Motorcycle Show, this coming weekend there is one at Enercare Centre in Toronto. All of the OEM’s will be there, including Yamaha, so it will provide an excellent opportunity to check out their exciting 2026 models. The show gets under way on Friday, and runs right through the weekend. Here is a link for tickets and more information on the show. I personally love this show for multiple reasons, one being that it always seems to signify that Spring is right around the corner.
Speaking of Spring, the 2026 Monster Energy Supercross Series made it’s way to the Emerald City this past weekend for Round 6. Initially, the weather forecast was atrocious with rain and even some light snow possible for Saturday. Also, to make the track build and set up even more challenging, the Seattle Seahawks held their Superbowl celebration parade and party on Wednesday, which finished up with a rally inside Lumen Field. This meant that the Dirt Werx crew couldn’t even begin to build the track until Wednesday evening. This gave them minimal time to get everything built and covered before the rain arrived on Friday morning. However, in what was one of the best jobs of the season thus far, the crew managed to do it, and then thankfully the Saturday forecast was changed to just cool temperatures and no rain. The Seattle track was still soft and rutted for the night show, but it turned out 100% better than I’m sure everyone thought, and it provided some of the best racing we’ve witnessed so far in 2026.
Heading into Round 6, most people assumed that this would be a Cooper Webb type track and since he’s won two-in-a-row there, this was his race to lose. Also, to Webb’s credit, he has been riding well in recent weeks, including winning the overall two weeks ago in Houston, so there were a plethora of reasons to assume Webb was going to win in Seattle again. However, one rider who was on his own mission was Eli Tomac, who continues to impress everyone on his new KTM. If we go back to last year, Tomac was having a solid series before getting injured in Tampa. In fact, I believe that if Tomac remained healthy for the entire 2025, he would’ve been the Champion. Anyway, Tomac came into Seattle with a chip on his shoulder having given away valuable points in the last two races. I thought it was very telling how Tomac rode in the 450SX main event about how he’s feeling both on the bike, as well as how he’s approaching this 2026 SX Championship. Simply put, he’s going for it and he’s not holding anything back. However, he’s doing it with the methodical precision that we’ve come to expect from Jett Lawrence in the past several years and not really what we expect from Eli Tomac. During the main event on Saturday evening, Tomac did a great job of walking the fine line between taking chances, while still remaining smart and in control. Examples of this would be early in the main event when Tomac was one of the only riders to make the daring leap of tripling onto that tabletop in the section after the whoops. He used this brave line to pass Webb and take command of the lead. From there, Tomac managed the race on an extremely challenging track, even using some old school rut riding techniques in some of the rhythm sections. Quick story here before I move on to another subject.
Back in 1993, I was racing my first-ever USA Supercross event at the Pontiac Silverdome. In those days, the Pontiac SX was a two-day event and I was racing in the 125 class. It’s funny how some things remain in your memory bank, while others completely vanish. But, I recall walking the Pontiac track on the first day of racing, and understandably I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Although I had raced the Montreal SX and the Toronto SX on multiple occasions, as well as a lot of AX, this was my first time on the big stage of SX. Anyway, while I walking the extremely soft Pontiac track it was evident it was going to get very rutted. The Pontiac track also had a unique feature to it, each year there was a section that went up into the stands and then back down to the floor. I know, it sounds very cool, but it was tight and not really enjoyable to navigate lap after lap. As you made your way back on the stadium floor there was a section of seven medium sized jumps that, under normal conditions the top riders could double and triple through. However, for us mortals, doubling through was the only option. As I mentioned above, even when you walked on the track you could tell that it was going to get very rutted. As I walked through this section, I saw my old buddy Mike Treadwell who was also racing in the 125 class, and was well aware of this being my first SX race. As we stood and chatted about how this section was going to shape up he offered some of his advice on how to get through it clean and consistent. He told me that obviously the deepest ruts were going to form on the first jump as that was going to be the take-off point for most of the riders. From there, the deep ruts would be on the face of the third jump and the fifth jump. Treadwell told me (and not only did I use this technique that night, but for years to come) to find a way to roll the first jump and then that would set you up for having jump faces with minimal ruts. It turned out to be great advice and obviously I’ve never forgotten it. Going back to Seattle on Saturday night, Tomac was doing the same thing in one of the rhythm sections. Instead of using the traditional bowl-turn and doubling into the section through the deep ruts, he was going inside, rolling over the first jump and from there he had jump faces with virtually no ruts. I’m not saying that this was why Tomac won the 450SX main event, but it certainly helped him ride smoothly and limited his mistakes. Perhaps years ago Tomac did a track walk with Iron Mike Treadwell?
It was great to see some entertaining racing in both classes on Saturday evening and it was good to see our Canadian duo of Preston Masciangelo and Tyler Gibbs ride so well in the 250SX West class. Preston got off to a solid start in his heat race and was able to get a direct transfer to the main event. In the main event, he rode solid to finish up in 19th, which was a good finish considering the conditions. Tyler Gibbs had his best ride of 2026 as he charged from behind to finish 6th in the LCQ. Even though that was still two spots shy of qualifying for the main event, I think Tyler should be proud of that ride as it showed a little more of what he’s capable off. Now, the 250SX West class gets a month off before the 250SX East/West Shootout in Birmingham next month. With a massive points lead in the 250SX West Series, will Haiden Deegan line up in the 450SX class in the coming weeks? My guess is no, with the exception of possibly Daytona in two weeks. The Deegan’s have been pretty consistent with sticking to the plan and that plan doesn’t have him racing a 450 until the opening round of the Pro Motocross Championships in May.
In other news, the gate dropped on the first official Canadian race this past weekend as the opening rounds of the Rimbey AX took place. This four-round event has grown in popularity since its inception several years ago and from what I hear, the entire town of Rimbey, Alberta embraces this race. The pro rider line-up for the opening rounds was also solid, top Canadian AX riders like Blake Davies, Quinn Amyotte, and Dylan Rempel were in attendance. In the end, it was AVL Husqvarna rider Blake Davies who dominated the weekend and will take the red plate into the final two rounds. It was also great to see Zach Umfizeff back on the bike after battling through health issues and an injury. Zach is a hard working, nice guy, who certainly deserves at least a few more solid seasons of pro racing and With that, the 2026 Canadian race season is now underway!
Well, that is it for me this week. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, today is Family Day so it’s time to do some family things. The weather is also nice here in Ontario today, so getting outside is a must. My pick for the Motovan Canada Rider of the Week is Zach Umfizeff, who like I said, has been battling a lot of health issues, as well as coming back from a broken collarbone that he suffered last summer. Zach and my son were part of the Guaranteed Comfort Honda Team last year, so we were able to spend a lot of time with Zach and his Dad. They’re both awesome human beings and I wish them nothing but the best in 2026. Thank you for reading, and Happy Family Day! If you have any questions or comments, please email me at editor@mxpmag.com.
