Welcome to this edition of Woz Up! Holy smokes. It’s been a hot one in the Northeast region lately. With triple digit temps and the triple amount of sweat generated the past few days, it sure has been a strong opening into the summer season.
But last weekend at 1 of my 2 home nationals at Budds Creek (Unadilla being the other), it was rather cool than usual in southern Maryland. On national weekend, Budds Creek is always known to be down right brutal as far as humidity sometimes maxxin’ out at 100% on race day. It was a cooler one this time around and coming to think of it, it’s been pretty much mild so far at every round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championships this year. Freestone was 10 degrees cooler than last year and the coolest national so far has been Thunder Valley thanks to a brief wind storm that cooled things down considerably. Other than the wind storm at Colorado, the weather has treated the nationals very well in 2012 so far.
Ryan Dungey has a 54 point lead in the 450 class outdoors and we’re not even half way through the series yet. (Karl Cin Photo)
The racing at Budds Creek was more on the expected side as Ryan Dungey, who didn’t a holeshot a moto (Brayton and Alessi were credited), made some quick passes in the opening lap or laps to grab a 1-1 sweep with over 30+ second leads in both motos. Mike Alessi is the next rider to really challenge Dungey but other than a couple of turns at High Point, Dungey has answered and gapped the young Californian considerably and it showed at Budds Creek. The Dungey camp has been all smiles and with a 54 point cushion in the standings not even half way through the series, they have every reason to be grinning ear to ear. But Ryan has stated its almost harder to stay focused when you know you can just show up and put a womp on the field each moto. He is ready for James Stewart’s return (which is expected to be Red Bud) and is looking forward to racing against someone rather than knowing you have everyone covered. With points not a worry as Stewart is already outside the top 10 in the standings, Dungey is just looking forward to battling with Stewart to make the racing more interesting not just for himself but for the fans.
Blake Baggett is on a roll – even with bad starts! (Karl Cin Photo)
In the 250 class, it’s a 4 way battle in the points between Blake Baggett, Justin Barcia, Eli Tomac, and Ken Roczen. These 4 have been pretty much ending up battling all together multiple times throughout the series and bringing big excitement to the always exciting 250 class. At Budds Creek, Baggett brought the Chubacabra card out again chasing down Ken Roczen in moto 2, enough for the overall win. Roczen, however, has his starts nailed but just can’t seem to seal the deal in the last few laps. Barcia has been consistently there providing a moto win for the GEICO Honda team in moto 1 and his teammate Eli Tomac continues to do really well as of late. Tomac played #4 at Budds Creek but his late race charge at High Point won’t be forgotten on how strong he is outdoors. With a 2 week break, the riders have a lot to think about. Can Roczen get this bad late moto streak behind him? Can Baggett get his starts down without out having to make late race charges? Can Barcia and Tomac shake it up even more and continue their championship train from SX?
Ken Roczen just needs to seal the deal to give him some more confidence on US soil outdoors. (Karl Cin Photo)
I wrote a bunch more about some of the top finishers that I saw at Budds Creek in my “Taking Notes” features on the 250 and 450 classes.
MXPTV photog Karl Cin had hometrack advantage at his home national at Budds Creek snapping a bunch of pics for MXPTV last weekend. Check out his galleries at the links below:
250 Class Photos - 450 Class Photos
The series takes a much needed 2 week rest before the series kicks back into gear at its most popular track, Red Bud in Buchanan, Michigan, on July 7th.
A solid crew of riders came out for Stephen Stella’s Loretta Lynn training camp this week at Blue Diamond. (Mitchell Farr Photo)
This week has been a relaxing one for me enjoying home for a bit after 5 straight national weekends on the road. But I was back at it at the track again yesterday as I got a call from former Maryland pro Stephen Stella to cover a day of his Loretta Lynn training camps at Blue Diamond in New Castle, DE. The temps were at or above 100 all day and it provided the perfect training weather for the insane heat at Loretta’s in August. Top mini rider Brandon Hartranft was there laying down the laps and doing the reps. Also, there were some fresh faces to Loretta’s including C class qualified rider Rocky Cagno and others were just looking to improve themselves on and off the track. Local photohound Mitchell Farr grabbed shots of the day and threw them on his SmugMug page. CLICK HERE to check out the pics.
Stephen Stella works with Loretta Lynn C class qualified rider Rocky Cagno at Blue Diamond. (Mitchell Farr Photo)
I filmed the entire LL training day from the morning workouts to the dinner session at the end of the day. Stay tuned for that video soon as I’m currently working on it and should have it up sometime early next week.
Wandering photog Billy Gallagher shot over a bunch of cool shots from a freeride sesh in Pennsylvania this past week with Seth Galloway, Ryan Clites, Dyaln Slusser, Mike Fowler, and others. It was the same location I shot last year’s State College Ride Session video but with much better track conditions and some late afternoon glare to add some pizazz to the shots. CLICK HERE to check them out!
MXPTV’s Billy Gallagher caught an insane freeride sesh in PA last weekend. Check out the pics!
I posted some info about the newly formed Ryan Patterson Motocross Foundation. The foundation is all about supporting the youth riders/racers in motocross providing them with schools with the area’s top pros, race gear, and whatever else they need to be safe and stay involved in motocross. CLICK HERE to read up more about RPM and how you can support this great cause to help remember Ryan Patterson. I have also placed a banner on the right side of MXPTV’s pages plugging out the foundation so it’s easily accessible to see what they are all about!
The RPM Foundation is in full force supporting young motocross riders and your support is needed!
The Tale Of The 2 Stroke video I did back in February is back in the news as the song featured in the video, “Music My Life” by Tim McMorris, is now available on iTunes. Tim sent me a message this week about the new announcement with a video he put together including a special shout out to you MXPTV viewers for getting the word out there about his song. CLICK HERE to go to iTunes to get the song directly and check out his other tracks, too. All definitely worth a listen to and check out!
The newly revamped and relocated Diamondback MX track in upstate New York ran its first open practice and race event last weekend. CLICK HERE to see an opening weekend report from RealMotocross and CLICK HERE to visit Diamondback’s website for more information on their new track and race schedule.
This weekend, I’ll make a stop up to Doublin Gap MX for the Loretta Lynn Northeast Youth Regional qualifier. I’ll be shooting pics and doing some helmet cams on random riders during the weekend. I’ll also have MXPTV “Video. Photo. Moto.” t-shirts available as well as talking about my rider videos I’ll be doing at Loretta Lynn’s in August with support from HookIt. Good luck to all racers this weekend!
Next week, I will be back on the road making a stop at the Joe Gibbs Racing shop in North Carolina to do some filming for an Alli Sports video I’m working on. After JGR, I’ll be heading to Florida for a week with the Barcia’s to do some hanging out and filming at Justin’s track or another location when I’m down there. Going to be a fun week next week!
As always, thanks for reading along and catch ya at the fences!
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