Wind' of change
By TMX Archives on 18th Jul 07
UNADILLA, the legendary venue for round six of the AMA Motocross Series and the halfway point of the championship, was supposed to be the track where James Stewart ascended to the throne of American motocross - things didn't go to plan.
With arch rival and championship leader Ricky Carmichael off the tourto focus on his car racing activities, it was expected that Stewartwould whitewash the Motocross class at the New York venue, but a heavycrash in practice sent the Kawasaki rider to hospital with unspecifiedinjuries and left the door open for a barnstorming battle for supremacybetween the classes remaining big names that eventually saw KevinWindham claim his first overall victory in a number of years.
He posted a 1-3 scorecard ahead to finish of second moto winner TimFerry and fellow Honda rider Andrew Short, following one of the closestfought races in recent years.
The Lites class threw up it's own surprise results at Unadilla tooand the championship was thrown wide open again as series leader RyanVillopoto dropped out of moto one with a broken radiator, allowingoverall winner and Pro Circuit Kawasaki team-mate Ben Townley to drawlevel in the standings.
With Stewart's practice crash wiping him out of the running, thedoor was left open for a new winner in the Motocross class and it wasRed Bull KTM's Mike Alessi who looked like the early challenger.
He lead from the front and held off the challenge of Windham aroundthe demanding, slick Unadilla circuit most of the first moto as thepair gapped the rest of the field by ten-seconds.
Windham was repeatedly thwarted in his attempts to make the pass byAlessi, but eventually the young rider made a small error late in themoto and this was all the invitation Windham needed to slip by for thewin by just 1.9 seconds.
Tim Ferry had worked his way up to third by mid-moto but a last lapfall left the door open for Grant Langston to snatch the final podiumplace and Ivan Tedesco to sneak through for fourth as Andrew Shortchased Ferry home in sixth.
TOYOTA AMA MOTOCROSS SERIES
Rd 6 - Unadilla Valley Sports Centre, New Berlin, NY
Motocross: 1 Kevin Windham (Hon) 45, 2 Tim Ferry (Kaw) 41, 3Andrew Short (Hon) 37, 4 Mike Alessi (KTM) 37, 5 Ivan Tedesco (Suz) 34,6 Davi Millsaps (Hon) 32, 7 Grant Langston (Yam) 31, 8 David Vuillemin(Hon) 25, 9 Gavin Gracyk (Hon) 25, 10 Josh Summey (Hon) 22, 11 JohnDowd (Suz) 18, 12 Jason Thomas (Hon) 16, 13 Ryan Clark (Hon) 14, 14Michael Byrne (Suz) 13, 15 Antoni Balbi (Hon) 11.
Series Standings after 6 (of 12) rounds: 1 Ricky Carmichael(Suz) 241, 2 James Stewart (Kaw) 225, 3 Ferry 204, 4 Short 197, 5Langston 190, 6 Alessi 184, 7 Windham 177, 8 Vuillemin 135, 9 Millsaps134, 10 Byrne 113.
MX Lites: 1 Ben Townley (Kaw) 45, 2 Ryan Dungey (Suz) 44, 3Jason Lawrence (Yam) 36, 4 Josh Grant (Hon) 31, 5 Andrew McFarlane(Suz) 26, 6 Broc Hepler (Yam) 26, 7 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw) 25, 8 BobbyKiniry (Kaw) 22, 9 Matt Goerke (Yam) 21, 10 Jake Weimer (Hon) 21, 11Steve Boniface (Kaw) 19, 12 Kyle Chisholm (Kaw) 16, 13 Josh Hill (Yam)16, 14 Branden Jesseman (Yam) 14, 15 Chris Gosselaar (Kaw) 13.
Series Standings after 6 (of 12) rounds: 1 Townley 263, 2Villopoto 263, 3 Grant 215, 4 Lawrence 212, 5 Dungey 194, 6 Weimer 131,7 Hill 121, 8 Thomas Hahn (Hon) 104, 9 McFarlane 103, 10 Broc Tickle(Yam) 96.
NEXT ROUND: July 22 - Thunder Valley Motocross Park, Lakewood, CO.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, July 20, 2007.