Unadilla GNCC

September 16, 2007 - New Berlin, New York

This is the third year in which the GNCC series has traveled to upstate New York to race at the famed Unadilla track.  The previous two years have plagued with wet weather and having seen the pictures from those races, I was really hoping we'd see dry conditions this year.  The forecast looked good in the days leading up to the weekend so I was confident that it would turn out just fine.  As we were making our way closer and closer to the area on Friday evening, however, the sky was starting to look much more ominous than anticipated!  There were showers Friday night but things cleared up early Saturday....for a little while!  It seemed like the weather at the track could change at any minute.  After intermittent showers most of Saturday it finally all moved out by Sunday leaving us with really good conditions especially after the morning classes raced.

I got a great start and actually thought I nabbed the holeshot after rounding the first turn but they awarded it to Justin Williamson.  I watched some video of the start after the race and it was so close between us that it probably could have gone either way.  I really wanted that $100 holeshot award though!  After some expected bumping and shuffling in the first few corners I found myself in fourth or fifth position with a slew of KTM riders in front of me!  The course was littered with rocks and roots so I knew line choice was going to play an important role in this race.  Williamson took off early on and opened up about a 25 second gap over me in second place.  I tried my best to stick with him but had my own problems to worry about!  The course was tricky because of the slick rocks and roots as well as a lot of lapped traffic we seemed to have caught much earlier than normal.  After a few mistakes I had several fast, hungry riders on my rear fender.  Kailub Russell was making his XC2 class debut on a KTM 125 and was really on the move.  Rodney Smith and Scotty Watkins were also both riding great and showing a lot of speed.  Eventually Rodney had to drop back due to an injury he's been dealing with and it was down to Kailub, Scotty and myself.  For a while it seemed like we just kept going back and forth trading positions.  It was tough to complete an entire lap without making a mistake or two and believe me, we were all making some mistakes!  This allowed Justin Williamson to open up a fairly large gap on all of us and disappear.

A little over halfway through the race Kailub started to drop back a little bit.  I'm not sure exactly what the reason was but I do know his bike had been sputtering a little bit early on when we were riding together.  That left just Scotty and myself to battle over the second place position.  He was riding fast and as we kept clicking off laps it seemed we were never very far from each other.  With two laps to go I knew that it was going to come down to who made the least mistakes.  Fortunately I was able to finally put together some good lines and make it through some sections pretty cleanly and hold onto second at the finish.  Scotty stayed strong and finished on the podium in third.  It felt good to put two Monster Energy / FAR / Kawasaki's on the podium and I hope we can do it again as the season winds down.  Congratulations also to Justin Williamson for taking home his second win of the season.  He was really riding great out there.

Photos by Jason Hooper