Each round of Virtual Grandstand coverage during the 2003 MX National season is sponsored exclusively by Yamaha.

Binghamton, New York is billed as America's Carousel Capitol, and with this weekend's MX circus coming to town, the motocross merry-go-round is in full swing.

Other silly-seaon rumors have top privateer Nick Wey getting a factory 250 ride with SoBe Suzuki; Ezra Lusk looking at riding for Mach One Yamaha in 2004; Ryan Hughes has re-signed with KTM for 2004 with a Supermoto career to kick in for a couple years after that; Mike Brown going to Yamaha of Troy to ride the 250 Supercross series (on a YZ250) and the outdoor 125 MX Nationals (on a YZ250F); Kelly Smith, who was all but booked to ride a Kawasaki 4-stroke in '04 is said to be staying on Yamahas after all; Craig Anderson's name has been on-again & off-again about whether he is supposed to have another year left on his Yamaha of Troy contract, the latest is that he'll be looking for work. His name has been coming up as a possible contender to ride the new KX250F; Stephane Roncada will be Pro Circuit Kawasaki next year.

Weather - what weather?...conditions this weekend look perfect (not as hot or humid as last weekend). Forecast temps for Sunday have temps in the high 70s with a light breeze.

The track's in excellent shape, and promoter Tom Hurd's crew have put a lot of nice details into what they bill as "America's Greatest Spectator Course". Little things add up to a lot here - there's a large scoreboard alongside the starting chute showing the top 10 riders (by current points) in each class, to be updated after each moto with rider scores & overall results...they've planted fresh flowers along the starting straight...some 90% of the track can be viewed from any number of locations around the course.

250 Point Standings (after Millville): 1. Carmichael (432/7 wins); 2. Windham (369/2 wins); 3. Reed (330); 4. Ferry (300); 5. LaRocco (267); 6. Vuillemin (217); 7. Lusk (210); 8. Dowd (190); 9. Fonseca (189); 10. Ward (169).

Speaking of drama, there's been plenty in the 125 class. As alluded to earlier, Red Bull/KTM is beginning to feel they may actually have their first AMA National MX title within their grasp. Grant Langston finished 5th overall at Millville, diminishing a bit of his points advantage over teammate Ryan Hughes. Langston knows his way around Broome-Tioga, having won the 125 race here in 2001. Hughes is pretty much back up to full speed after getting through a number of the earlier rounds with a broken leg, now managing himself to keep from overtraining while coming back. Langston is leading the series without having one a race, while Hughes has one once (at Sacramento). Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Mike Brown (recovering from the separated shoulder he suffered after being accidentally plowed by Hughes at Washougal in a brutal collision) was unable to finish either moto at Millville. Brown won two overalls this year, and is still 3rd in points going into this weekend, but will not be racing any of the remaining rounds, and is effectively done for the season. Which leaves Team Kawasaki's James "Bubba" Stewart.

125 Point Standings (after Millville): 1. Langston (314); 2. Hughes (298/1 win); 3. Brown (271/2 wins); 4. Stewart (250/5 wins); 5. Sellards (223); 6. Byrne (205); 7. Tedesco (186); 8. Anderson (174/1 win); 9. Sorby (160); 10. Metcalfe (149).

The Rock: How cool is it that Mike LaRocco won two races at Broome-Tioga - the 125 class in 1991 and then the 250 class in 1993? - that was over a decade ago, and the guy's still here, holding down a solid 5th in the current 250 points.

And another pillar of the community has to be Cernic's KTM rider John Dowd, who won the Broome-Tioga 250 National in 1994 and '97, and then won the 125 National in 1998. He's also here, 8th in the 250 point standings going into this weekend, and putting guys half his age to shame. Dowd's entertaining the possiblity of riding Suzukis in the upcoming National Arenacross Series. Unfortunately, the "Junkyard Dog" decided to sit out today's racing in order to let a lingering groin injury heal up.

Winning Practice: It's no surprise that James Stewart posted the fastest 125cc practice lap times. Chad Reed raised more than a few eyebrows as he posted the fastest 250cc practice time - apparently feeling even more comfortable after switching to the four-stroke YZ450F & finishing 3rd overall last weekend at Millville.

Results of 125 Heat Race #1: 1. Michael Brandes (Yam); 2. Andrew Short (Suz); 3. Josh Woods (KTM); 4. Ryan Mills (Hon); 5. Broc Hepler (Suz); 6. Robbie Reynard (Kaw); 7. Josh Summey (Yam); 8. Teddy Maier (Kaw); 9. Steve Boniface (Suz); 10. Richie Owens (Kaw).

Results of 125 Heat Race #2: 1. Chris Gosselaar (Hon); 2. Kelly Smith (Yam); 3. Brian Gray (Suz); 4. Josh Hansen (Yam); 5. Joaquim Rodrigues (KTM); 6. Troy Adams (Yam); 7. Randy Valade (Yam).

Results of 250 Heat Race #1: 1. Nick Wey (Yam); 2. Heath Voss (Yam); 3. Nate Ramsey (Hon); 4. Clark Stiles (Hon); 5. Keith S. Johnson (KTM); 6. Bruce Stratton (Hon); 7. Matt Karlsen (Suz); 8. Barry Carsten (Suz); 9. Jeffrey Bowman (Yam); 10. Ryan Clark (Yam); 11. Isha Wood (Yam); 12. Charles Ellis (Suz); 13. Mark Wundrack (Yam).

Results of 250 Heat Race #2: 1. Kyle Lewis (Hon); 2. Keith R. Johnson (Hon); 3. Jason Thomas (Hon); 4. Paul Carpenter (Hon); 5. Stephane Roncada (Suz); 6. Dustin Nelson (Yam); 7. Ty Wallace (Hon); 8. Chris Hunter (Hon); 9. James Povolny (Hon); 10. William Browning (Suz); 11. Casey Clark (Yam); 12. Andrew Pingotti (Yam); 13. Brian Mason (Yam).

Results of 125 LCQ: 1. Robbie Kiniry (Suz); 2.l Jeff Gibson (KTM); 3. Matthieu Lalloz (Suz); 4. Brad Modjewski (Suz); 5. Tim Weigand (Hon).

Results of 250 LCQ: 1. Joe Oehlhof (Hon); 2. Austin Squires (Yam); 3. Jeremy Cook (Yam); 4. Jimmy Wilson (Yam) 5. Dennis Stapleton (Hon).

Since we're all paying attention to points, here's a quick look at how many points are paid per-position, per-moto: 1st-25pts, 2nd-22pts, 3rd-20pts, 4th-18pts, 5th-16pts, 7th-14pts, 8th-13pts, 9th-12pts, 10th-11pts, 11th-10pts, 12th-9pts, 13th-8pts, 14th-7pts, 15th-6pts, 16th-5pts, 17th-4pts, 18th-3pts, 19th-2pts, 20th-1pt.

Live lap-by-lap coverage from Binghamton starts on Sunday 8/23 at 1:00pm (EST).

Lap 4 - Langston is only up to 16th so far; meanwhile, Stewart already is over 13 seconds ahead of Sellards...Hughes has managed to close the gap, and may be in position soon to pressure Sellards for 2nd...

Lap 5 - Stewart, Sellards, Hughes, Kelly Smith, Woods, Brandes, Short, Byrne, Gosselaar, Boniface, Laughridge, Gray, Tedesco, Maier, and Langston...Stewart leads by over 20 seconds now...Hughes continues to pull closer to Sellards...

Lap 6 - Ryan Mills is out, pushing his bike back to the pits...Langston is up to 15th now, but up front, Hughes is still trying to pull within striking distance of Sellards...

Lap 7 - 21 second lead for Stewart; then it's Sellards, Hughes, Kelly Smith, Woods, Short, Byrne, Brandes, Gosselaaar, Boniface, Gray, Laughridge, and now Langston up to 13th...

Lap 8 - Hughes is now working over Sellards, pushing him hard & trying to force a mistake by the 2nd place rider...Sellards knows he's there - Hughes goes around the outside, doesn't make it stick, but they're side by side as they trade lines around the track...

Lap 9 - Tedesco is out of the moto, pulled off...Hughes still chasing Sellards...further back, ex-KTM rider (now Suzuki rider) Boniface is trying to hold off Langston, no longer his job to just let the points leader past...Langston is unfazed and makes the pass into 11th anyway...Stewart is going just un-be-lievably-fast, now with over 30 seconds ahead of Sellards...

Lap 10 - Hughes makes the pass on Sellards to move into 2nd...

Lap 11 - Stewart leads by 33 seconds, after that the order is now Hughes, Sellards, Kelly Smith just holding off Josh Woods - Woods moves into 4th...then it's Short, Byrne, Gosselaar, Brandes, Langston, Gray, Boniface, Lalloz, Hepler, Laughridge...

Lap 12 - Hughes is using the whole track and then some, trying to put some distance on Sellards, no way there's enough for him to relax yet...Stewart leads by 35 seconds...Langston's running in 10th, his pace is about 2 seconds a lap faster than Brandes who's ahead of him in 9th, should be able to catch him in another lap or two...

Lap 13 - Stewart leads by 38 seconds; Hughes finally gets just a bit of cushion over Sellards, roughly 4 seconds...after that, it's about 13 seconds back to Short, followed by Byrne, Gosselaar, Brandes, Langston, Gray, Lalloz, Boniface, Laughridge, and Anderson...

Lap 14 - 41 second lead for Stewart...still no shakeup with the lead positions...

Lap 15 - Stewart is shown the 2-laps remaining sign, he's been into lappers for awhile, now Hughes is encountering the backmarkers as well, but has increased his gap over Sellards to 7+ seconds...Woods still 4th, and he & Kelly Smith are engaged in the only close race among the front riders...

Lap 16 - White flag for Stewart, this one's pretty well tied up for his 11th consecutive moto win, he comes across 46+ seconds ahead of Hughes...Stewart's throwing huge whips over all the big jumps around the track...the finish order is Stewart, Hughes, Sellards, Woods, Kelly Smith, Byrne, Short, Gosselaar, Brandes, Langston, Gray, Lalloz, Laughridge, Anderson, Hepler. Stewart's margin of victory this moto?...54.845 seconds.

125 Moto 1 Results (Official): 1. James Stewart (Kaw); 2. Ryan Hughes (KTM); 3. Brock Sellards (Yam); 4. Josh Woods (KTM); 5. Kelly Smith (Yam); 6. Michael Byrne (Hon); 7. Andrew Short (Suz); 8. Chris Gosselaar (Hon); 9. Michael Brandes (Yam); 10. Grant Langston (KTM); 11. Brian Gray (Suz); 12. Matthieu Lalloz (Suz); 13. Evan Laughridge (Suz); 14. Craig Anderson (Yam); 15. Broc Hepler (Suz); 16. Troy Adams (Yam); 17. Steve Boniface (Suz); 18. Josh Hansen (Yam); 19. Jeff Gibson (KTM); 20. Tim Weigand (Hon); 21. Robbie Reynard (Kaw); 22. Robert Kiniry (Suz); 23. Teddy Maier (Kaw); 24. Cole Siebler (Suz); 25. Josh Summey (Yam); 26. Michael Blose (Yam); 27. Richie Owens (Kaw); 28. Duraudo Toda (Hon); 29. David Pingree (Suz); 30. Randy Valade (Yam); 31. Levi Reid (Suz); 32. Brad Modjewski (Suz); 33. Steve Mertens (Yam); 34. Gerrit Ordelman (Yam); 35. Dylan Lord (Suz); 36. David Ginolfi (Yam).

Points Check: 1. Langston (314 + 11 = 325); 2. Hughes (298 + 22 = 320); 3. Stewart (250 + 25 = 275); 4. Brown (271); 5. Sellards (223 + 20 = 243).