By Billy Rainford
Well, we did it. Another season has come and gone. If this were a TV show, Jimmy Kimmel would be stringing together all the newscasters who start their end-of-month broadcast with, “Can you believe the series is finished already?” Anyway, it’s true, the 2025 Canadian Triple Crown Series Motocross Nationals are done…that’s it.
After what felt like a long week at the time (in hindsight it feels like the blink of an eye) at the TransCan at Walton Raceway, we headed into the final day of racing with just one championship to sort out. Let me tell you right now, it did not go the way anyone was expecting! Yes, Phil Nicoletti took the title this year, but it was how the actual motos went down that threw us all for a huge loop.
The 250 title had already been clinched by #80 Preston Kilroy, so it took a back seat as far as anticipation went. Although, with #6 Ryder McNabb making his return, we had that to look forward to. More on that in a minute.
Phil Nicoletti came in with a 6 point lead because #84 Tanner Ward got his 2 points back from an appeal of his docking at Motocross Deschambault when he went over the berm and made a pass on #107 Lars Van Berkel. The track definitely needs to be lined better so this doesn’t happen again in the future, and I’m sure they’ll have that taken care of when we return in 2026. Anyway, it meant there was a slightly better chance for Tanner to challenge for this title with just 2 motos to go.
In the first moto, Phil grabbed the start with #1 Jess Pettis and #9 Dylan Wright together over the ski jump past the mechanics area. Tanner was right behind them and was in 3rd place ahead of Phil at the 10:00 mark. So if it finished like this, Tanner would gain 2 points on Phil and be 6 behind heading into moto 2.
However, #71 Preston Masciangelo was closing in on Phil in 5th place. Preston was freshly back from racing the AMA Pro Motocross Championship at Ironman MX the previous day, so I’m not sure how much he had in the tank, but it looked like he was going to insert himself into this decision!
Wright got out to the lead with Pettis in second. Neither of these two were in any position to win the title, so they were racing for pride only. I half wondered if Jess would slow down and let his buddy Tanner get past for a couple more points, but he said he was just out there to try and win the race and let whatever else happened happen.
In the end, Preston wasn’t able to get Phil so Tanner’s 3rd place only earned him 2 points closer to Phil with only moto 2 remaining. He was now down 6 points.
Now this is where things got very interesting!
So, what could Tanner do to try and win this thing? A lot of “weird” things would have to happen. Well, guess what? A lot of weird things did happen!
Holeshot to Jess Pettis with Tanner in tow and Phil behind him. Not bad but still not enough for the point lead to change hands. Just wait.
Dylan Wright made a pass on Phil so that meant Tanner was sitting 1 point out. Hold on.
Dylan fell on lap 2 and dropped back. Phil regained 2 points.
It was Pettis, Ward, Nicoletti at the half.
In my head I was yelling, “Slow down and let Tanner bye!” (Google it, Bowker!) but I also knew that wasn’t going to happen. But wait, Tanner was closing in on Jess and Jess thought it was Dylan!
So now Dylan was clawing his way forard again and behind Phil in 4th. Phil let him go by and kept the title hopes alive and solid.
#14 Quinn Amyotte was also in a position to make a difference and was up in 4th right behind Phil. All the pieces were in place to make this one come right down to the wire, but then the craziness started…
Around the 6th lap or so, Quinn had another shot bolt problem and his bike lost its rear suspension. He didn’t care and was just trying to butter all his landings and was doin OK. But then it affected his electrical and he was forced out of the race on lap 9. He was out of the picture. Now what?
Well, just before the halfway mark, Tanner took that scary crash entering the roller section and that was all she wrote. The title was going to Phil, unless something else happened.
Then, I get a call from the sidelines, “Phil’s bike or shock is smoking, he’s not going to finish!” Whaaat???!!! Nah, it wasn’t. He was fine.
Dylan was right behind Jess at the half and started getting close, so Jess said he let him by. Neither were in the points chase, this was just for some MXON bragging rights etc..
They were over 20 seconds ahead of Phil in 3rd but then Dylan pulled in for gas because he ran out at around the 25:00 mark for a DNF in moto 1. You heard me.
He managed to get out ahead of Phil in 2nd and went after Jess again. But now #233 Josh Boaz, #268 Gage Stine, and #31 Gavin Brough were closing in on him. No wait, Stine finished behind him. You could tell he knew the math and Phil said in our interview that Steve Simms was telling him the story on the pit board each lap, so he let them by and crossed the line in 4th place behind Pettis, Boaz and Brough.
Man, it really was a crazy race that could have turned out many different ways.
I had a really good interview with Phil at the end of the day and he is extrememly pumped and very appreciative to take this title. He has a policy taken out on himself so that should give him a nice little paycheck for his troubles.
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OK, I know it’s getting dangerously close to being too late for coffee, but let’s keep going.
In the FXR Premix class, #50 Crayden Dillon only had to win the first moto to clinch the title. He did that and headed back to the pits to focus on the 450 class on his KTM 350 and didn’t line up for Premix moto 2.
In the WMX East final motos, #1E Jamie Astudillo came in not having lost a single moto all summer! Her streak was on the line. SHe didn’t race all week like the other WMX rider had, so she was well rested from Loretta Lynn’s but not as in tune with this year’s Walton track.
It was #3 Kaylie Kayer who was the one to break her undefeated streak and finished an impressive 1-1. Jamie obviously knew the math, so maybe you can’t rule out the fact that she wasn’t pushing it to her edge like she normally would.
#4 Katrine Ferguson had a tough time in moto 2 because the ried down after the Unnatural Step-Down was her sister Ani Ferguson.
The race ended up going checkered flag/red flag so they go ten to Ani. She ended up taking a helicopter tide to London to get sorted out. It was at least one compound fracture on her left arm. Everyone was pretty shaken up at the podium and we hope Ani is feeling better today.
There are lots of things I need to get up on the site, so I hope that was enough to get you through another cup this afternoon. It’s crazy humid here today. Much worse than it was at the track yesterday. Ugh.
Here’s what we have so far up on Youtube:
Have a great week, everyone, and watch for more content to be rolled out this afternoon.
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