Cycle News Staff | August 13, 2016
Every year when Unadilla rolls around, the pits are full of talk about the rocks (which are always problematic no matter how many they remove from the dirt), and there’s a lot of talk about how it’s a “European-style track.” Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki’s Ken Roczen, from Germany, just made a case for the latter.
It started right away. During qualifying, Roczen set a time of 2:16.3 seconds. The closest racer to him was Autotrader.com/Monster Energy/JGR Yamaha’s Justin Barcia, with a 2:18.156 – nearly two full seconds off Roczen’s pace. Even more remarkably, third and fourth fastest in qualifying were Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac, at 2:19.435 (Musquin) and 2:19.975 (Tomac), meaning that Roczen’s qualifying time was more than 3.5 seconds quicker than Tomac’s.
In moto one, Tomac did what he had to do – at least initially – by grabbing the holeshot, only for Barcia to sneak by on the inside and take over the lead. In the first half-lap, while Tomac was searching for a way by Barcia, Roczen just rode up and passed them both in consecutive corners to take the lead. Tomac found his way by Barcia about a half-lap into the race, but Roczen had already set sail. There was nothing Tomac could do about it.
Behind them, Musquin worked his way by Barcia about a third of the way into the moto for third, and that’s how they’d finish, with Roczen taking a seemingly easy win 13 seconds in front of Tomac, who had another 15 seconds on Musquin. Then came Barcia, his teammate Weston Peick, Honda fill-in rider Fredrik Noren, BTOSports.com KTM’s Benny Bloss, JGR’s Phil Nicoletti, Yoshimura Suzuki fill-in rider Matt Bisceglia, and Bloss’s teammate Justin Brayton. Bloss and Brayton had put in strong rides on what were essentially borrowed motorcycles, as a fire in the team semi nearly burned it to the ground in the Unadilla pits the night before the race. The bikes were rebuilt with borrowed parts from the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team as well as the Red Bull KTM team. One race-day victim of the fire was Andrew Short, whose hydraulic clutch ran low on fluid, causing him to lose his clutch and forcing him out of the moto.
In moto two, Roczen managed to get the holeshot while Musquin, his teammate Dean Wilson, Brayton, Nicoletti and Bloss battled near the front of the field. Tomac started nearly midpack and sat ninth at the end of lap one.
On lap two, as the pack battled it out from third on back. Musquin made a costly error and went down on the steep uphill after “Screw U” (the track’s steep, 180-degree, off-camber left turn). Thanks in part to his electric start, Musquin got going again in eighth, just behind Bisceglia and Noren. He passed Bisceglia right away, then began moving forward again. Despite the fall, he still managed to stay in front of Tomac, which became key after the halfway point, when Musquin managed to fight his way by Bloss for second, with Tomac on his tail. Although Tomac got close to Musquin, he never made a pass, and Musquin eventually pulled back away to take second place in the moto, and overall.
Roczen took the win 52 seconds over Musquin, then came Tomac, the rookie Bloss, Wilson (who was 11th in moto one), Noren, Barcia, Nicoletti, Peick and Bisceglia. Short ended up 13th in moto two at his final Unadilla race.
Overall, Roczen won with a 1-1 over the 3-2 of Musquin, and the 2-3 of Tomac. Then came Bloss (7-4), Barcia (4-7), Noren (6-6), Peick (5-9), Wilson (11-5), Nicoletti (8-8) and Bisceglia (9-10).
Roczen now leads the series by 63 points heading into Budds Creek in one week’s time, which means that all he has to do to secure his second 450cc National Motocross Championship – and Suzuki’s first since ’09 (Chad Reed) – is to lose 13 points or less to Tomac in Maryland.
In other Unadilla news, GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle, who has been sidelined since suffering a neck injury at Southwick, announced that he’ll remain on the sidelines for the rest of the season, saying the injury is not healing as quickly as expected.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart did not race at Unadilla. According to the team, he re-injured his shoulder while practicing on Wednesday and chose to sit out the Unadilla race. He is expected to race next weekend at Budds Creek.
Jerry Robin, who won the 250 All-Star A/B (14+) class at Loretta Lynn’s last weekend, finished 21st overall.
By Steve Cox
Unadilla Valley Sports Center
New Berlin, New York
Results: August 13, 2016