Vital Buzz: Unadilla 2008 2

First off, we have to give some props to Michael Byrne for his second overall in the MX1 class on Sunday. It was cool to see him score some good results after coming back from such a gnarly knee injury. Like always, you can click this photo (or any others in this article) for a larger version.

Click the photo above to check out what it looks like alongside Highway 8 as it splits the parking lots and pit area at Unadilla. Yep, you get that farming feel, as well as some highly-polished haulers. You can also tell that it had that, “Uh-oh, it’s going to rain,” feel. The AMA opted to shorten the morning’s practice sessions to just one abbreviated round.

Despite the possibility of rain, the east coast fans turned out in good numbers, which was cool to see.

By now you’ve no doubt heard that James Stewart (MX1), Ryan Villopoto (MX2), and Timmy Ferry (Open) will represent Team USA at the 2008 Motocross of Nations in England. But we bet you’ve never seen the entry form. The riders also had to sign anti-doping forms for the FIM.

Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Manager Mike Fisher was toting around the Chamberlain Cup on Sunday morning for the pre-race ceremonies, and he mentioned that he’d like to hang onto it a while longer. The task of keeping it will come down to a trio of green-mounted riders, though he did note, “For this race, we put away the green.” It’s all about the red, white and blue.

Sure, it might have been cloudy over the track, but we did spot a few rays of sunshine…

After Saturday’s practice, a few sections were added back into the track to help slow it a bit, like the second corner around the lower tree in this shot. On Saturday, the track went directly to the right after the upper tree, which made it a much faster section.

We spotted the truck driver for the L&M San Manuel team, Loren Lowry, sporting this hat on Sunday. Apparently when he’s not at home, setting up a new Line-X business, he’s a James Stewart fan.

Here’s a little reminder to anyone entering the normally-spotless JGR MX rig.

We like the shirt and think it's funny…but can we see some ID, please?

Oh, and watch out for this guy.

We spy, with our little eyes, something hydraulic…but on a blue bike. (You can try and guess which team canopy this was under.) We do like the craftsmanship, though. 

The finish line for this year’s version of the national was moved to the jump at the exit of Gravity Cavity. If you checked out our race report, or were listening to the webcast, you might have heard about the post-race collision between Josh Summey and Jeff Alessi. Josh had already finished the moto, and was rolling out on the flats after the jump, when Jeff Alessi and Jimmy Albertson were still racing to the finish behind him. The duo of Albertson and Alessi hit the finish line jump much farther and faster than anyone we’d seen all day, and unfortunately, Jeff dropped out of the sky onto the top of Summey. Below you’ll find a quick overview of what happened. We’d already run this one in the forum for the benefit of some guys who were arguing about whose fault it was, but for those of you who may have missed it, it’ll give you a good idea of what happened.

Here's Michael Byrne on the white flag lap. It gives you an idea of his line, and a general idea of how high and far people were jumping off that particular jump.

Here's Josh hitting the finish line jump as he takes the checkers. You get an idea of his line, and how far he jumped.

And finally, here's James Stewart as he took the checkers...

Here's where the two riders ended up after the crash. If I had to pick a point where they collided, I'd guess it'd be about where the two Fastrac logos are alongside the track at the point where Matt Boni's front wheel is. Add in some slow-mo audio of a spectator yelling, "Noooooooooo...." and that's about what it was like to watch it.

Rock guards (like this carbon pair on Ryan Dungey’s Suzuki), are pretty much standard equipment for rocky tracks like Unadilla.

After opening ceremonies, and before the start of the racing on Sunday, we spotted James Stewart stopping to take a good long look at the corner where he crashed hard last year during Sunday morning’s practice.

After the race? It was cool (and funny) watching him kick the track…like he was giving back a little of the pain that it had dealt to him over the last few years.

Can-Am brought out one of their 600cc sleds to hit the Sky Shot on Sunday morning. Yep, that thing can get some serious air, though we’re sure the landings in snow have to be a lot softer than what he was experiencing.

Unsettled weather makes for unsettled goggle guys. Yes, normally we consider Ryan Clark a rider and team manager first, but he also takes care of all the Dragon-equipped riders.

The fans at Unadilla are, um…unique.

Fly Racing had some new gear for their sponsored riders. We showed you a new Star Racing Yamaha jersey in the Saturday Pit Bits, and here’s what the Team Solitaire guys were wearing. Andrew Short also had some of the new stuff, but the jersey was mostly covered by his upper body protector.

Timmy Ferry looked like he was destined for another podium appearance on Sunday, since he’d scored a third in his first moto, and was in third spot behind James Stewart and Cody Cooper in the second moto. But when he went down in a rutted and muddy section and it took a couple minutes to refire his KX450F, which opened the door for Cody Cooper to grab the third podium spot.

We have to give some props to Team Tamer / Hooters / Moto XXX’s Antonio Balbi, whose 8-4 score on Sunday netted him a cool fifth overall finish.

Of course, we also have to single out Cody Cooper for scoring his first-ever podium finish here in the U.S. Getting starts like this, and good mud experience helps.

It looks like John Dowd will be hanging onto his number 16 for another year, all without the benefit of going to Southwick, where he’s always fast.

The bottom of Gravity Cavity? Yeah, we were there.

That’s it for this now. Be sure to stop back in for more during the week on Vital MX.