Good day and welcome to another edition of the Yamaha Canada Monday Gate Drop. Once again Yamaha owned the 250SX West class this past weekend in San Diego as Dylan Ferrandis took the overall win and extended his points lead. It was a great night of racing inside Petco Park, and now the Blu Cru moves east for Round 7 in Tampa.
It’s hard to believe that we are now through six rounds of the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross Series. As the lights went out at Petco Park in San Diego, the riders and teams packed up and headed east to sunny Tampa, Fla. for Round 7. Just the same as the opening round in Anaheim, the first eastern race is always an exciting one, and if you listened to the riders talk on the podium this past weekend, most seem ready to tackle the tracks on the other side of the USA. This coming weekend in Tampa not only marks the opening round of the 250SX East Series, but the 450SX series also welcomes back Broc Tickle. As you know, Tickle has been out for over a year due to suspension, and now that his FIM imposed sentence is over, he will be back on the track. Up until a few weeks ago Tickle had his own deal all set-up as he was preparing to return to racing on a FXR Racing Husqvarna. However, with the JGR Suzuki Team lacking a 450 rider they reached out to Tickle, and for the past few weeks he’s been testing with the team. I’m sure it will take him a few races to get back up to speed as even James Stewart struggled with the intensity and speed when he returned from suspension. It’s going to be great to see Tickle back, and hopefully we don’t see anymore suspensions.
Even though the track was short and tight, I thought the racing in San Diego was entertaining. I was a little surprised that both Austin Forkner and Adam Cianciarulo gave up the lead late in their races. If you look back to all of the former champions in this series, almost none allowed themselves to be passed in the last five laps of a main event. However, both Kawasaki riders are young and will hopefully learn from this moving forward. As the 450SX series moves east it appears that Cooper Webb has caught fire and has reminded the field why he’s the defending SX Champion. After starting the series off with an illness, Webb is now healthy and his off-season preparation is really showing through now. If we go back to last year, Webb was even better on the soft and rutted tracks of the east. If I’m Eli Tomac or Ken Roczen then Webb’s 2019 stats are extremely worrisome. In San Diego, both Tomac and Roczen got off to mediocre starts and were really unable to put forth much of a charge. In the end, Tomac finished 4th and Roczen 6th in the 450SX main event. Both admitted after the race that the track was hard to pass and they didn’t feel comfortable pushing beyond their limits. With the meat of the series coming up in the next month we shall find out which rider has the speed and ability to not only push theirs limits, but even go beyond them as they battle each other.
Tyler Gibbs (pictured here at the 2019 Hamilton SX) rode great in San Diego and almost made it to the main event. Photo by James Lissimore
It was also great to see young Tyler Gibbs not only racing the 250SX West class in San Diego but also coming very close to making the main event. Gibbs grew up racing in the Future West AX Series so this kid knows his way around a tight indoor track. He has great timing and he’s a talented and technically sound rider. To jump right into the Monster Energy Supercross Series and finish so well in the LCQ is remarkable. During the Canadian indoor series last year, I enjoyed watching Tyler ride. Not only is he good on the track, but off the track he’s very good to deal with. He’s well spoken, humble and very polite. Sometimes it seems like he’s not quite as confident as he should be, but hopefully with results like we saw on Saturday night in San Diego that will all change. Watch out for this kid in 2020 as I think he’s going to be very good in the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series.
Speaking of the 2020 Triple Crown Series, last week it was announced that Round 2 of the MXTour Series has now moved from Prince George to the Whispering Pines track just outside of Kamloops. This announcement came as somewhat of a surprise as we thought the 2020 schedule was set in stone. However, things happen and at least Round 2 is going to a former National track. I also heard that the 450MX motos are going back to 30 minutes plus 2 laps. The idea to shorten them to 25 minutes plus 2 wasn’t well received with the top 450 riders. When that announcement was made a few weeks ago, it has since been changed back. So, all is good and we now can look forward to the opening round of the Triple Crown Series in just over two months. Here is a story I wrote last week on saying good-bye to the National in Prince George and one of the riders’ favourite tracks: https://www.mxpmag.com/yamaha-motor-canada-presents-style-check-from-prince-george-to-kamloops/
In other Canadian news, Cycle North Kawasaki rider Colin Jurin was the big winner in the 2019/2020 Future West Arenacross Series as he took home the 250 and Open Pro class championships. The final two rounds of the series wrapped up this past weekend in Chilliwack and by all accounts the racing was as entertaining as always. It’s great to see this series still rolling as it’s been around for a long time. Each Province in Canada would love to have a winter indoor series like theirs each year. The riders in BC are very lucky, and we cannot wait to see what’s in store next year. Congratulations to Colin Jurin and all of the other champions this year!
Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week, and Happy Valentine’s Day to all of the couples out there. Thankfully, February is moving along quite quickly and then it will be March, and with any luck some milder weather. Finally, good luck to all of our Canadian riders who will be lining up this Sunday at the SX Futures race in Tampa.