GEICO Powersports Honda Race Report - Unadilla

NEW BERLIN, New York – A staple on the AMA Motocross circuit, Unadilla is both known for its history and its slick, rocky racing surface. The GEICO Powersports Honda team went into Unadilla down one rider, as Aussie Dan Reardon missed the event with the shoulder injury he suffered in practice at the previous round. His return is considered week-to-week.

In the first Lites moto, Josh Grant started at the tail end of the top five, and over the next few laps, worked his way past Martin Davalos and into third. After battling it out with a couple of other riders for the rest of the race, he fought them off to finish a strong third in the moto.

"The first moto was kind of good for me," Grant said. "I just got a decent start but I struggled a little bit this weekend with setup – like tires and things to make me feel comfortable. But I went out and put my head down. By the time I got to third, Dungey and Villopoto were long gone. I just stayed where I was at and rode consistent."

Unfortunately for Grant, and a lot of other riders, the second moto was red-flagged for lightning at just short of 10 minutes into the moto as a storm rolled in, which meant the entire race would have to start over.

On the restart, Grant found himself well back around midpack and had a hard time going forward, as the track had become one-lined and he lost his goggles early on in the muddy conditions.

"After they red-flagged it, I went back to the truck and we changed the tire thinking that if it rained or if it was muddy that it would clear out the mud a little better, but it didn't help that much," Grant said. "Also, it didn't help losing my goggles on the second lap, either. With how gnarly and rocky Unadilla is, you can't get behind someone and get roosted. You ruin your eyes. I couldn't really move forward or backward because it was one-lined and I'd get roosted and couldn't see. I'd just follow the guy in front of me from a distance, basically."

Still, Grant's 3-12 score was good for fifth overall on the day and he moved up to 15th in the points standings with four rounds left to run after missing most of the first half of the championship with a concussion.

Trey Canard had never been to Unadilla before, but he didn't think it was as bad as what he had heard.

"I heard quite a few negative things about Unadilla, like that it's rocky and things like that, but I thought the place was sweet," Canard said. "It had a really cool layout and the dirt wasn't actually too bad."

Canard started near the tail end of the top 20 in the first moto and fought throughout the moto, eventually landing in a very worthy fifth place by the finish.

"Obviously, my result wasn't what I wanted it to be, but that's stuff that we're going to have to work on," Canard said self-deprecatingly.

In the second moto, Canard was also a victim of having a worse start the second time out.

"I was a little bummed that they did that, but there have been people struck by lightning, so I think it was cool that they took that into consideration and stopped it," Canard said. "Things went kind of wrong when I got the 12th gate pick [in qualifying]. That was all my fault. I was in second until the last lap and about a minute and a half left, and I fell back to 12th, but that's the past and it's good experience for next year."

In the second moto, Canard started even more poorly than the first moto, and with the track in the condition it was in with the mud and rain, he was unable to move up very far, eventually finishing just behind teammate Grant in 13th.

"I didn't feel I rode too good in the second moto, and I had to ditch my goggles a couple of time, and that's not too good," Canard said. "But I'm sure everyone had the same problems. It's not really an excuse, it's just that I didn't ride the way I wanted to ride. I'm not too happy about that, but there are more weekends, and I'll take Unadilla as an experience and move on."

Canard's 5-13 was good enough for eighth on the day.

Jake Weimer had a tough day at Unadilla. In the first moto, he started near the tail end of the top 15 and then fought his way up to ninth, and things could've been even better than that if not for a few key mistakes.

"The first moto, I didn't get a terrific start, but I felt I rode okay," Weimer said. "I made a few mistakes that cost me a few spots, but overall, I wasn't too bummed and I felt like I rode hard the whole way and I felt like I knew what I could do going into the second moto to better my position."

However, in moto two, Weimer fell victim to the conditions and rounded the first lap in 34th place due in part to a goggle malfunction, then had to stop for goggles, falling even further back. He eventually got up to 25th in the moto, but that wasn't far enough to get any points for the effort.

"The second moto, though, I just made a huge error on the start and ended up with a pretty horrible start, but then I had a tough time going anywhere and struggled with lines," Weimer said. "Then, we got the red flag because of the lightning or whatever, and we did a restart, and I was pretty pumped to get another shot. Then, in the second turn, I came up with a goggle problem, and that was pretty much the end of my moto, really. There was standing water on the track, and I was getting splashed and couldn't see anything, so I had no choice but to pull in and get goggles, and then I felt like I was riding decent for a few laps and then got stuck behind some guys. I got frustrated and then ended up pulling a stupid move and went down pretty hard, actually. I bent my bike all up and it was pretty much a total loss all around."

Weimer still sits fourth in the points standings with four rounds left to run.

The GEICO Powersports Honda team is now headed for Washougal MX Park, all the way across the continent in Washington state this weekend for round nine of the 12-round AMA National Motocross Championship.

Team Sponsors: GEICO Powersports, Honda, Planet Fitness, No Fear Energy, AMSOIL, Factory Connection, Torco Racing Fuels, No Fear, Shoei, Gaerne, Spy, DVS, Cycra, Dunlop, EK, Ferodo, Hinson, Ogio, One Industries, Pro Circuit, Renthal, Showa, TAG, Twin Air, and Works Connection.

Unadilla Lites Overall:

1. Ryan Villopoto 1-1 Kaw

2. Ryan Dungey 2-2 Suz

3. Brett Metcalfe 6-4 Kaw

4. Nico Izzi 8-5 Suz

5. Josh Grant 3-12 GEICO Powersports Honda

6. Matt Goerke 7-9 KTM

7. Jake Moss 10-8 Yam

8. Trey Canard 5-13 GEICO Powersports Honda

9. Ryan Sipes 13-6 KTM

10. Martin Davalos 39-3 KTM

16. Jake Weimer 9-25 GEICO Powersports Honda

AMA Lites National MX Championship (After 8 of 12 rounds):

1. Ryan Villopoto (391/7 wins)

2. Ryan Dungey (282)

3. Brett Metcalfe (231)

4. Jake Weimer (199)

5. Nico Izzi (183)

6. Trey Canard (173)

7. Ryan Sipes (153)

8. Austin Stroupe (152/1 win)

9. Kyle Cunningham (127)

10. Matt lemoine (124)

14. Dan Reardon (116)

15. Josh Grant (115)