Yamaha Motor Canada Presents The Monday Gate Drop

Good day and welcome to the Christmas edition of the Yamaha Motor Canada Monday Gate Drop. Hopefully all of your shopping is complete as Christmas is just days away now. From everyone at Yamaha Motor Canada and all of us at MXP Magazine, we hope you have a great holiday season and a very prosperous 2020.

If you want more information about this awesome training facility just go to www.clubmx.com

For those of you who comment throughout the year about how long it is until Christmas Day, we have finally reached your favourite week. As I mentioned last week, my family and I drove down to South Carolina on Wednesday to spend a week with friends. Although the weather down here isn’t exactly warm, the temperature has been between 10c and 15c and the sun has been shinning. Thankfully we brought my son’s YZ85 with us so on Friday we made the 90 minute trek to one of the most famous motocross training facilities in North America, ClubMX in Ruby, SC. This multi-purpose training facility has really grown over the past few years with new tracks as well as new amenities. This past year they added an Amateur SX track and they made some real cool additions to a couple of their outdoor tracks. While we were there riding one of the newest outdoor practice tracks, top pros like Kyle Peters, Josh Osby and Joey Crown were training on one of the three SX tracks that ClubMX has. Not only do these riders use ClubMX as their main training ground, but so does Justin Brayton, Marshal Weltin, Shawn Maffenbeier and our 2019 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series Champion Phil Nicoletti. Nicoletti and Weltin actually drive 90 minutes from the Charlotte area a few times a week to train and practice. The only drawback to ClubMX is that during the months of January and February the weather in South Carolina can be hit and miss for riding dirt bikes. This is the time of year when the temperature cools down and more rain moves into the Carolinas. However, in talking to some of the riders that train there full-time, they say it might be cool and wet for a few days but then it gets nice for days at a time. I remember doing an interview with Shawn Maffenbeier earlier this year and he told me that he loved his time at ClubMX last winter and plans to head back there for his 2020 training. This facility really is amazing, and if you’re heading down and want to try it out, every weekend they usually have open practice for anyone who wants to attend.

One of the newest practice tracks at ClubMX has just about everything you could ever need, including great dirt and some fun ruts.

This past year has most certainly produced some very interesting stories in our sport and I’m sure that 2020 will be the same. At this time last year we were all getting excited to watch Jess Pettis make his 250SX West season debut at Angel Stadium. At the time Jess hadn’t had too many hours testing his new Red Bull Thor Racing KTM 250F as he didn’t begin riding the orange bikes until early December. But he adapted quickly and at A1 felt confident enough to go out and finish Top 5 in his heat race, and then backed that up with an amazing tenth in the main event. It was a solid night of racing for Pettis, and for the next month Canadians were all captivated with his results in the 250SX West class. Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing Pettis on the starting line at Anaheim 1 on January 4^th but I’m quite sure we’ll be thinking of him. Pettis fever definitely got our 2019 off to a roaring start and I can’t wait to see what stories will grab a hold of us in 2020.

Jess Pettis and his early season SX results made for some of the best stories from 2019. Photo by James Lissimore

A few weeks back the 2020 Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series schedule was released, and from talking to a number of people in the industry, everyone is pretty happy with it. Starting the AXTour in the east and the heading west to Calgary for the double header grand finale is a great idea. With the opening round of the MXTour beginning just a few weeks later (also in Calgary) the teams will be able to remain in the area if they choose and not do any costly travelling. Once the MXTour does kick off, the series stays in the west and goes from Calgary to Prince George, back to Drumheller and then onto Moto Valley Raceway in Regina. Four rounds made up of completely different track conditions that will most certainly test the riders. I think this will make for a very entertaining start to the 2020 series. Also, when you look at the MXTour series next year the biggest news for me is that the pro races will be on Sunday again. I will definitely give Jetwerx credit for trying Saturday nationals for two seasons as on paper Saturday pro nationals should work perfectly, but I think in the Canadian market Sunday nationals might be better all around. Not just for the pro racing but also for the amateur side of things. Having amateurs race on Saturday and being able to have the pro riders at the track as well is exciting for everyone. I miss the cool vibe that Saturdays used to have, and it’s going to be good to have them back in 2020. I also believe that Sunday pro nationals will help with spectator attendance as more people are able to drop what they’re doing and head to the track on the final day of the week. It all gets underway in just four short months as the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series kicks off in Sarnia.

This awesome series begins in four short months!

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week and a very good holiday season. Please travel safe and thank-you for reading. Stay tuned next week as I will talk about some more of the interesting stories from 2019 as we will be a few days away from not only a New Year but also the start of new decade.

Merry Christmas everyone!