By Billy Rainford

Just when I thought things were about to slow down a little it to allow us all to catch our breath, September hit like a freight train of double-booking and forced missed opportunities.

I like to ride MTB and dirt bikes (Quiet, Jamie Ruddock!) in the fall. It’s no longer 33C (which I actually don’t mind on a bicycle but hate on a dirt bike) and our Canadian Triple Crown Series is all done. But what’s going on this year?! This September seems more jam packed with events than any I can remember.

I just had a very generous offer to go to Estonia later this month. Yep, Estonia. Luc Myre sent me the invitation to cover a big race that will be the weekend before the MXON in France.

However, that same weekend is the Yamaha Ride Day at Sand Del Lee and the final round of the SMX Playoffs in Missouri. Also, I’m told Harri Kullas just dislocated his hip a couple days ago, so he wouldn’t be able to be on the track. I was minutes away from booking my flight when I decided it just didn’t make sense to go this year. Thank you so much for the amazing offer, Luc. Let’s look at this again in the future, please!

This coming Friday, the 2027 Yamaha 250F will be at Walton Raceway. I’m hoping to head up to that, but also have Round 1 of the Playoffs in Columbus, Ohio, the very next day. It’s also the same weekend as the 6-hour MTB relay race I’ve done the past few years in Woodstock. I’m way over-booked!

After that, the Playoffs head to Los Angeles, but that’s the same weekend as The Corduroy Enduro up in Gooderham, Ontario. No, I wouldn’t have gone all the way to LA for that race, so that one didn’t really conflict anyway.

Right after Sand Del Lee and Missouri, it’ll be time to head over to Ernée, France for MXON the very next Tuesday.

Not only that, but I was invited to a Boys’ Weekend at a friend’s cottage on Lake Erie but had to say no to that one.

I can’t remember having so many options in September as I do this year. It’s been a bit of a circus trying to manage my calendar in a month where I assumed I was going to be able to come up for a bit of air!

People always ask me what I do in the “off season.” It seems a little hard to believe, but we don’t really have an off season anymore. There always seems to be something to cover, somewhere. It’s a great “problem” to have but it makes for a long, albeit it lightning fast, year. In the blink of an eye, another year has passed.

But enough complaining about having too many options. Let me complain about something else for a second…

There’s a lot of driving in Motocross. Has anyone else noticed what’s going on with the headlights on a lot of Toyotas on the road? Can anyone explain to me the benefits of having shimmering headlights that distract and infuriate oncoming traffic? And don’t get me started on when I see them flickering behind me in my rear-view mirror!

And you know how on a long drive it sometimes happens that you just can’t get away from a certain vehicle on the highway? Even though you’re on cruise control, you speed up or slow down for a minute to make a gap, but that car just ends up right in front of you again or right on your rear bumper.

Now imagine it’s one of those damn Toyotas with the shimmering lights!

I don’t know if it’s an option when you buy them or what’s going on, but you’re going to start to notice them as soon as you’ve read this rant. They drive me crazy! You’ll see.

I just searched for the issue online and I can’t believe I can’t find anyone else talking about these things! I was going to show you an example or at least a link to the issue, but I found nothing. Is it just me?

Jeffrey Herlings Wins 6th World Title

From MXGP.com:

TITLE NUMBER SIX FOR HERLINGS AS FARRES WINS MX2 AT THE MXGP OF TÜRKIYE!

AFYONKARAHISAR (Türkiye), 6th September 2026 – The western Asian sunshine beat down on the Afyon Motor Sport Centre today, as the MXGP of Türkiye saw round 17 of the 2026 FIM World Motocross Championships take place in hot conditions, that baked the clay of the hardpack circuit into a fast but testing surface for the MXGP elite.

History was made at the end of the first MXGP race, as Jeffrey Herlings became only the fourth rider in Motocross history to clinch his sixth World Championship, his third in the premier class and his first for Honda HRC Petronas. He did so with a perfect 1-1 performance to complete his fifth perfect weekend in a row, extending his winning streak to 17 individual races in succession!

After clinching the Championship at the earliest opportunity, at the end of race one, he was then chased hard to the line in race two by his Honda HRC Petronas teammate Tom Vialle, who took second overall for his third straight podium finish, while the outgoing World Champion Romain Febvre claimed third overall for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, his ninth podium of the season.

In MX2, the Championship battle took a massive swing to the Triumph Racing Factory Team, as Guillem Farres got back to winning ways with his sixth GP win, and the team are now 1-2 in the Championship after a disastrous day for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s leading challenger Sacha Coenen.

Reigning Champion Simon Längenfelder took his first Sunday race win since April for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, helping him to second overall ahead of Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Liam Everts, who scored his third podium result in a row.

It was an emotional day for all concerned at the Afyon Motor Sports Center, and there is still a lot of great racing to come in the final two rounds of this year’s pulsating World Championship series!

Yet again, Jeffrey Herlings would let nobody gain a confidence boost from being faster than him in any session, and being one of just two riders to post seven laps in the session, his last lap put him three-tenths faster than his closest Championship rival, Romain Febvre.  Andrea Adamo, enjoying Afyon far more on a 450 than he ever did on a 250, posted the third fastest time for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, with Team Honda Motoblouz SR Motul rider Kevin Horgmo a fine fourth ahead of the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP team leader Tim Gajser.

Herlings knew that if he finished ahead of Febvre in the opening race, the Championship would be in his pocket, but as ever the merciless Dutchman was set on simply beating everybody on-track in order to be satisfied.

It’s been clear recently that a previous weakness for “The Bullet”, that being his starts, is a weakness no longer, and although Tom Vialle was slightly ahead at the entrance to the first corner, Herlings powered out of it to cross the Fox Holeshot line in the lead. Bad news for everybody else in the race!

Vialle was out-smarted on the exit to the second corner, as Gajser powered around the outside to put himself into second spot, while Adamo, in fifth behind Febvre, stumbled out of that corner and held up several riders, somehow holding onto the position!  Pauls Jonass emerged in sixth for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, ahead of the returning Alberto Forato on the Fantic Factory Racing MXGP machine, and Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team rider Calvin Vlaanderen.  Venrooy KTM Racing’s Jeremy Seewer was behind them, with Horgmo rounding out the top ten.

Horgmo would be passed on lap three by the third Honda HRC Petronas of Ruben Fernandez, but the Spaniard’s rough weekend, after a big Qualifying Race crash yesterday, would continue as he tipped over on lap 11, allowing Horgmo to finish in tenth. On lap two, Vlaanderen attempted to go around the outside of Forato in the split lane section, but left the door open for Seewer instead! The Swiss ace was unable to get past Forato, so that’s where they finished.

Up front, Herlings pressed on, setting what would be the Acerbis Fastest Lap of the whole day on lap nine.  Gajser was able to keep him in sight, but Febvre was hounding his countryman Vialle, who finally ran wide in a left-handed corner to allow the Kawasaki man into third!  Behind them, Adamo was able to score his equal-best race finish at this track with fifth ahead of Jonass. 

Herlings was able to control the race and win by over three and a half seconds from Gajser, as the team and the Dutchman’s supporters gathered near the start line to celebrate his long-awaited sixth World Championship title, and his first for Honda!

Relieved to have clinched the title at the first possible chance, Jeffrey shared a few moments with his family and friends before preparing for race two, as the team fitted a World Champion number plate and graphics to his machine to compliment his special golden crash helmet!

“It’s great, I’m really pleased. Even though I had such a points gap, I was really stressed the last couple of weeks, because I knew the only thing that could possibly ruin my championship was an injury, and I’ve been quite fragile in the past when I had crashes. I didn’t sleep much last night, I think I got three hours in. I was going through all kinds of scenarios, if this, if that, and just trying not to crash. Out of all of them, I never guessed I was going to take two holeshots and lead every single lap. It’s a sixth world championship, my 123rd GP win and my 11th of the year with Honda HRC Petronas. I just hate losing, and in the six championships I’ve won, every time I’ve won the race and the championship on the same day. The season isn’t over either, so I keep trying to get the record higher and higher, GP wins, race wins, whatsoever.” – Jeffrey Herlings

He did the kit justice again, with an almost identical Fox Holeshot to his first one, and after grabbing only one of these awards in the previous four years, this one puts him on eight for 2026, only one behind Vialle at the top of that table!

Vialle himself was not about to allow Gajser to rail around the outside again, and pulled a spectacular scrub over the first jump of the lap to fend off the Slovenian for second!  Jonass and Adamo disputed fourth and fifth while Febvre was on the edge of the top ten!  By the end of the first full lap, the Frenchman was up to fifth ahead of Adamo, with Fernandez, Seewer, Vlaanderen, and the TEM JP253 KTM of Jan Pancar all in the initial top ten.

Gajser saved what could have been a big crash, but ran off-track in doing so, and lost two positions to the Kawasaki teammates just before the end of lap two! Vlaanderen also slipped back two spots to leave Horgmo in the top ten again, and the Norwegian then followed Pancar past Seewer to get to ninth.

Meanwhile, Vialle gave chase to his gold-plated teammate, as Febvre got past Jonass at the end of Pit Lane straight!  Gajser went around the Latvian in the split lane section for fourth on lap four, but Febvre was able to hold him back for the rest of the race.  From there, third place to sixth held fast in the order of Febvre, Gajser, Jonass, and Adamo.  Gajser made a small mistake, tipping over in a corner with four laps to go, that cost him a shot at Febvre, and he was to finish fourth overall on the tie-break, while Jonass took fifth over Adamo, also due to the better second race. 

Pancar was impressive as he went after Fernandez, and the Spaniard made a mistake that allowed both the Slovenian and Horgmo past into seventh and eighth in the race, which is where they would finish overall.  Fernandez took ninth ahead of Vlaanderen and Seewer, giving the Ducati man his first top ten overall since his home GP two months ago, in ninth ahead of the Swiss Venrooy KTM rider.

Vialle was not letting Herlings have an easy Championship victory lap, pressing “The Bullet” to his maximum pace, and despite sliding outwards with two laps to go to lose a couple of seconds, he caught it back up! The pair finished over 28 seconds clear of Febvre by the flag, with the Frenchman just half a second shy of his teammate over the finish line!

There is no doubt that Herlings had dominated the weekend, but that late charge from Vialle will give the Frenchman some hope with his seventh podium and two rounds to go for another GP victory.  Herlings lifts his record of GP wins to 123, with 233 GP race wins also another record.  The biggest number, however, is that magic number six, that clearly puts him in the higher echelons of the greatest Champions in the sport, especially when you add three silver medals and several injury-destroyed seasons into the equation.

MXGP salutes the new World Champion, and we know that he will be up for a new challenge in defence of that crown in 2027!  In the man’s own language, Gefeliciteerd Wereldkampioen!

We knew this was coming, but here is the official Press Release from Team Canada MXON about Tanner Ward taking the place of Sebastien Racine for this year’s MXON in France:

TANNER WARD SELECTED TO REPRESENT TEAM CANADA IN MXGP CLASS FOR 2026 MOTOCROSS of NATIONS IN FRANCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TANNER WARD SELECTED TO REPRESENT TEAM CANADA IN MXGP CLASS FOR 2026 MOTOCROSS of NATIONS IN ERNÉE, FRANCE

Team Canada Management are proud to announce that Tanner Ward has been called upon to represent Team Canada in the premier MXGP class at the 2026 Motocross des Nations (MXON) in Ernée, France.

Ward steps into the lineup on short notice, bringing a proven track record of incredible strength, grit, and adaptability. Having previously represented Canada at MXON, Ward returns to the world stage with valuable international experience. Armed with that prior experience, he enters this year’s event with absolute confidence and a strong vision to perform at the highest level against the world’s best riders.

In a critical strategic move leading up to the main event, Ward will line up to race in England the weekend prior to MXON. This intensive European race appearance is a vital component of his preparation, giving him crucial seat time and allowing him to rigorously test setup configurations in authentic, high-stakes race conditions directly on European soil before heading to France.

“Team Canada Management are extremely proud to have Tanner on the roster,” said Team Canada Manager, Kourtney Lloyd. “Answering the call on such short notice demonstrates his elite mindset and unwavering commitment to representing our country. Securing competitive race time in England the weekend prior gives him a major operational advantage—ensuring he is razor-sharp and fully dialled in before gate drop in Ernée.”

This last-minute effort was made possible through extraordinary industry collaboration. Team Canada extends its sincere gratitude to Priority MX, Team Owners Peter & Wendy Knoop, and Team Manager Justin Roney for their immediate flexibility and support in putting this effort together under tight time constraints. Special thanks also go to SC Sporthomes Husqvarna for rapidly mobilizing to secure top-tier equipment for Tanner. 

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OK, folks, I didn’t have a lot to say for this MMC. It’s the final long weekend of the summer, so I hope you’re out somewhere enjoying it. The weather is perfect here in my area, so I’m about to go do just that, myself.