What Really Happened: Unadilla National

By: Motocross.com

Posted: 08/20/09

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Words and Photos: Jeff Kardas

40 years. That's a long history for any motocross track, and Unadilla's history in the sport of national and international-level racing is about as colorful as they come. From GP's to the Motocross des Nations, to Trans-AMA's and AMA Motocross Nationals, every big name in the history of the sport has raced on those green, rolling hills of upstate New York at some point. This year, the Ward family and AMA Pro Racing along with MX Sports pulled out all the stops to make this a memorable weekend of racing, nostalgia and fun for the fans. Thankfully the weather cooperated and the racing wasn't too bad either, so despite the ‘Dilla's remote and painfully isolated location, this 40th iteration of the most historically significant track on the National circuit will go down as a success.

So where to begin? There was a lot to talk about at Unadilla, that much is for sure, so we'll start in the most obvious spot – the track itself. As famous as the circuit is, it's just as INfamous for it's rocks as anything else. In the recent past as the soil was worn away, the deeper and larger rocks made their way to the surface. With the move to big 450cc tractor-like rear tires tearing into the surface, things go much worse in a hurry, and pretty soon there were softball-sized hunks of New York real estate being flung about with wreckless abandon. This, coupled with the topsoil being moved out of the way exposing a much slicker clay under-surface, and coming to Unadilla became more of a chore and face-altering experience than any other track in the series. That's been coming around a bit in the last few years, though, as the promoters have been working overtime to replace some of the missing topsoil in addition to spending zillions of hours sifting out the bigger rocks from the surface. It's worked for the most part, although this is still by far the rockiest racing surface all season and many riders still complained about the painful roosts, it's far better than it was. The rocks aren't gone, but there's far fewer BIG rocks now. Instead of a slick surface peppered with baby-heads, it's a somewhat less-slick surface covered with more of a gravel.

Another thing that's for certain about the new surface is that it still gets good and rough. There was essentially no track maintenance at all this year, which lead to big ol' breaking and acceleration bumps, lots of rut selection in corners, and a very tricky yet high-speed track. Many riders commented on how challenging it was, and there was nary a mention of injuries due to roost.

Hot and muggy weather with the ever-present chance of thunderstorms may have kept a few of the Unadilla Hill People away this year, but there was still a solid turnout. It doesn't hurt that there was plenty of amateur racing going on during the weekend either, as the sister track (U2, or Unadilla 2) was running just across the valley both Friday and Sunday. There's been a lot of talk this year about how the turnouts at the Saturday pro racing has been down, but it didn't appear to make much of a difference here at Unadilla. Whether or not it's happened elsewhere is pretty apparent by taking a quick gander at the amount of people on the hillsides, but we've only rarely been able to get ‘actual' numbers for any given weekend. It was pretty obvious that Millville was down, for instance, and somewhat clear that High Point suffered a bit too. Is it because of moving the racing to Saturday? Maybe. But then again, maybe people are figuring out that they can get their fill of racing in High-Def on the same afternoon while sitting comfortably on their couch? Or perhaps the economy doesn't allow the $40 or $50/head to get in to the events? The bottom line here is, it doesn't matter much, except of course to the race promoter themselves, who will obviously suffer from fewer ticket sales. Hopefully this won't manifest itself down the road by way of fewer improvements to the facilities, because we've been spoiled lately by lots of steps forward in relatively few years.

Back to Unadilla, and back to the 40th Anniversary festivities. Included this year was another take on the ‘Legends' 2-stroke race at intermission. This one had the best turnout yet, with a variety of big and not-so-big names lining up together on the starting line to rip out... two whole laps for their ‘race'. The biggest names here were John Dowd (on a KX250!), Jammin' Jimmy Weinert, Todd Dehoop, Pat Barton, Carlo Coen, Greg Schnell  and probably about 25 others, many of whom we hadn't heard of. Needless to say, Dowdy made short work of everyone despite The Jammer busting some old tricks out of the bag like riding around the gate on the start and cutting big sections out of the track (much to the delight of the crowd) so he could be up there riding with Dowd in the front. It was fun, and a good time for all. Nothing negative to say here, other than it's amazing how anemic a 250cc 2-stroke sounds after just watching a 450 moto...

OK so unless you've been living under a huge Unadilla rock for the past couple of weeks, you are already well aware that Kevin Windham threw everyone a curve ball and signed up to race the tiddler class last weekend. What a ballsy move that was – think about it. Kdub had absolutely nothing to gain and lots of face to lose in that move because if he DID do great and even smoke everyone, then he would've been called a cherry-picker. If he ended up getting smoked, then he ends up being called a washed-up old man that can't hang with the new kids on the block. The cool thing about it is that none of that mattered to Kevin – he just did it because it seemed like a fun thing to do. Remember when RC dropped back and raced the 125 class at Steel City after clinching his 250 title early? Well, Kevin's results this time were the exact opposite of Ricky's that day, as he pretty much got smoked. Credit where credit is due, though, because the old man was able to bust out the 3rd quickest lap time in qualifying and looked to be having a great time while doing so. Unfortunately, much of that speed was probably attributable to the fact that he was able to get that big body and little bike up to speed with an open track, keeping his momentum up for a whole lap. He wasn't able to do that in the race, though, since his first moto start wasn't so hot and he was stuck in a fast pack that weighed, ohhh, roughly 50 lbs less than him on average, and who aren't exactly slouches at riding either. Kdub's 2nd moto started off even worse than the first, as he showed up late to the gate and was forced to start on the far outside which pretty much spelled the end of that moto before it even began. Next weekend he'll be back on his 450 at Budd's Creek, but we must say – it was cool seeing Kevin on the 250, and it added a whole bunch of excitement to an otherwise somewhat typical race weekend.

Next up on the interesting scale was that MX Sports and the powers-that-be deemed this past weekend as "Retro Day", which isn't a new idea but is one that worked out pretty well a couple of years ago at Anaheim 2. This time there was quite a bit more hype and promise of it being a true blast from the past type of deal, but it wasn't to be. Honda was the only major manufacturer to make any big graphics changes (with that awesome and complete make-over designed by Throttle Jockey), and Fox Racing the only gear company that really took part. But boy did they have an impact! EVERYONE was loving the Fox gear on all of their ‘A' team riders, which included the entire Geico team, plus Ryan Dungey and Ivan Tedesco. They all wore the same gear (which is to say, Fox only designed one set), and they really looked like a sub-team out there. It was cool, and the gear looked excellent, and the riders seemed to really enjoy the extra attention. One question that echoed throughout the pits was ‘why was Fox the only gear manufacturer to bust out the retro design'? The two word response to that query should be pretty obvious by now: The Economy. It's no doubt quite expensive to do a whole design and production run of one-off gear for a single race, but that's exactly what Fox did since they have no intention of selling that most excellent gear after this weekend. Bummer.

Number 3 on the list was the return of several riders to action, plus the addition of some new blood to the mix. Typically Loretta's grads debut at Millville, but because this year the schedule was switched around a bit, Unadilla followed the week in Tennessee, and so several riders chose last weekend to make a run at it. Surely we missed a few, but the more notables were Suzuki support rider and new 450A champion Justin Weeks, KTM supported hotshoe Tommy Weeck and possibly over-hyped Christian Craig, who managed to land a spot on Josh Grant's JGR/Toyota Yamaha YZF450 for his debut. Their results were mixed, but all were pretty solid in one way or another. Weeks was fast and solid, getting sniffs at top 10 pace in the 250's but ended up with a 15-18. He did put in a helluva ride in moto 2 coming from 35th to 20th, and looked pretty impressive while doing so. We'll give him a B for his debut. Next up is Tommy Weeck, who was a little but under the radar as an amateur, but if anything was under-rated. He did well too, and was pitted next to the Muscle Milk KTM guys. Tommy ended up 18th overall, swapping moto scores with Weeks with a 18-15. The #603 KTM came from 28th to 18th in the first moto and looked strong all day, so both of these freshmen got a B for their first motos in the pros. Christian Craig is another story altogether. First, he made a few waves when he managed to land the gig with JGR for the weekend, as many pundits felt there were more deserving riders for that bike and that putting a complete rookie on it was a bit of a waste. Well, they were at least partially correct because his troubles started before the gate even dropped for moto 1 – when heading out for his parade lap, Christian practiced a start from in front of his gate (i.e. he was working the area beyond his gate with a ‘tool'), and that's a faux pas. AMA Pro official Dave Dye busted him for it, forcing him to start on the far outside for his very first moto as a pro. In all honesty though, shouldn't his mechanic Alex Ewing told him not to do that? After all, he was standing right there (as were we) when Craig pulled over the gate to tear off down the starting line. The bizarre vibe continued to follow Craig after the gate dropped for real, too, as he pulled off the track in the first moto and was immediately interviewed for the SPEED broadcast by Erin Bates. He essentially said the suspension felt like crap and that he didn't get enough testing in and that he didn't feel safe riding the bike. The 2nd moto went a bit better after a few suspension tweaks,  but he still ended up dropping out and was credited with a 31st on the day. On the upside, he did qualify a fairly respectable 12th, so there's at least a dim light at the end of the tunnel. Craig's grade for his debut: Incomplete. Next weekend we can expect to see a couple of other uber-fast amateurs make their debut – both Blake Baggett and Dean Wilson are said to be heading down, and you can bet they'll be right in the mix from the get-go.

Somewhat of a surprising bit of interest at Unadilla was the re-appearance of a whole slew of guys who we either hadn't seen in a while or we'd just plain forgotten about altogether. Here's a partial list: Austin Stroupe, Ryan Sipes, Tim Ferry, Chris and Drew Gosselaar, Martin Davalos and Phil Nicoletti. Of those, Stroupe and Ferry made the biggest impacts, although Davalos' holeshot and run up front for a few laps in that first 250 moto was a beauty too. Stroupe looked fast but rusty, never exhibiting the blazing speed that we've come to expect from him. He crashed a few times but was always able to blaze back through the pack, only to fall again. That's probably due to coming off the bench, and probably due to the track surface not really agreeing with his hold-it-on-and-pray riding style that we've come to adore. Looking truly ready to rumble was Timmy Ferry, who used Unadilla to mark his 2nd comeback of the season. He sure looks fit and fast, that's for sure, but the track came up and bit him at a couple of key moments this weekend so his results suffered. If graded by laptimes though, Timmy was right on pace with even Reedy at times, so he's got his speed back. What's interesting about the lap times is that after qualifying there was only a 3 second gap between the fastest (Matt Goerke) and 20th place (Shane Sewell). That's quite remarkable, considering it's normally more like 10 seconds, and what is says is that at least when the track was relatively smooth, there was nothing on the track that allowed the presumably faster riders from really making up time on the presumably slower guys.

A lot of attention was given to a great ride that was put in by privateer Kyle Regal, who was just recently added to the surprisingly successful Valli Motorsports Yamaha squad. Regal, a former top dog on the now (pretty much) defunct Suzuki amateur team, jammed to a superb 6th overall via 10-5 finishes. That's great for sure, and everyone noticed the great ride while mumbling "who is that 475 guy again?" to themselves all day. What's not been summarized yet that we've seen, though, is just how many top-5 and top-10 rides that have been put in by full-on privateers this season. We went through the results and came up with these:

Weston Peick: 9th overall at both Glen Helen and Freestone
Matt Goerke: 7th overall at Hangtown including a 5th in moto 1, and a 4th in moto 1 at Washougal.
Gavin Grayck: 8th in moto 2 at High Point
Jeff Alessi: 9th in moto 1 at High Point, not to mention leading a couple of laps at Unadilla.
Jimmy Albertson: 8th overall at Lakewood
Kyle Summers: 9th overall at Lakewood
Tyler Bowers: 8th overall at Red Bud
Jarred Browne: 5th in moto 2 at Washougal plus 9-9 at Unadilla.
Ben Lamay: 9th in moto 2 at Washougal
Robby Marshall: 10th in moto 2 at Unadilla.

That's 11 privateers with top-10 finishes at least once throughout the season so far, plus 3 riders with a top 5 (Goerke, Regal and Browne). Of these standouts, Albertson is so far the best in points at 12th, followed by Alessi, Browne and Goerke in 14,15 and 16, respectively.

It was Matt Goerke, though, that's managed to turn the right heads, and those heads belonged to Mike Guerra and Jimmy Perry with the factory Yamaha team. Goerke got the nod to ride Hill's bike for the rest of the season beginning at Unadilla and, despite setting the fastest lap, had a dismal day he'd rather forget. Crashes and more crashes kept him out of contention all day.

Speaking of fresh blood on the factory teams, next weekend Team TLD rider Jake Moss will get a shot on the factory KX450 for the last 3 rounds. Look for Jake to make an impact, as both he and teammate Ferry are solid bets for top-5's... oh wait, that depends on how fast Windham is on his 450. Oh and again with the "speaking of's...", we can't forget about the completely solid ride put in by GP rider Gareth Swanepoel, who was able to get a spot in the Monster Kawasaki semi at Unadilla. Swany looked great all day – smooth and steady – and his results backed that up. He ended up going 7-6 for 6th overall, which is a tad better than he typically gets on the GP scene. Gareth is a good man who's looking for a ride in the states for next season, and it seems he'd be a good addition, although if everyone's back healthy (i.e. Villopoto, Alessi, Grant, etc.) then he'll be more like a top 10-15 guy. Great ride, regardless.

We didn't touch on the racing action because, for a change, there was plenty of other stuff to talk about! Chances are though that if you read this far, you've already seen our race report photo essay and/or saw the coverage on SPEED, so there's not much else to say about that. We don't want to sign off without mentioning "AMA Team USA" for the Motocross of Nations, though. This is a solid group of guys we've got going over to Italy this October, folks. Of course we're missing arguably 2 of our top 3 guys (Villopoto and Alessi), but we still have one of them (Dungey), and the other 2 (Tedesco and Weimer) aren't exactly slouches! Weimer has been very very good all year, and consistent too, and the fact that the track looks to lean pretty heavily toward the supercrossy-type of stuff that Jake's such a standout on, well, he looks even better. And don't let IT's performance at Unadilla fool ya – he had a very rough week not to mention possible bike troubles – he'll do well at the des Nats. He's a veteran there, and has come through in a pinch before, so along with Dungey on a 450 (he'll be great on it), this team is going to make for some very exciting racing, and you can take that to the bank.

OK, that's it. Over and out for this week's What Really Happened. Tune in this Saturday for practice photos and racing action from Budd's Creek. It looks like Hurricane Bill is going to miss us, so we should be in for another beauty of a weekend!