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| 450 Words: Unadilla MX | July 21, 2008 |
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| | By Jason Weigandt; Photos by Carl Stone |
| | Printer Friendly | |  | | | The AMA Motocross (450) class has become a strange mixture of both ends of the racing spectrum. The big class features the biggest names in the sport, backed by the biggest teams and the biggest budgets. But it’s also become the privateer playground. Building a competitive 250 four-stroke for the Lites class is difficult when funds are limited, while the big power of the 450 has become a great equalizer. So while James Stewart, Tim Ferry, Andrew Short and Michael Byrne represent their factory squads at the front, the back of the top ten is usually covered by top privateers. In the Lites class, you often have to go well outside of the top twenty to find privateer racers.
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Cody Cooper kept Stewart honest in the muddy second moto | | | Then this weekend at Unadilla, the other great equalizer—rain—came down to further mix up the mix. The second Motocross moto became a privateer showcase, first with Cody Cooper nearly running down James Stewart on his Suzuki City/OTSFF/Rockstar machine. Cooper is apparently a great mud rider, and his team decided to mount him a set of Pirelli mud tires, while Stewart was running on hard pack rubber. The rain, Cooper’s experience in it, and his traction advantage nearly derailed Stewart’s perfect season. The Kiwi kept Bubba within four seconds, and then nearly got to the lead when Stewart fell. He ultimately ended up second, but it was still an amazing run for the first-year AMA rider.
Then came Byrne and then a pack of privateers, led by Moto XXX Tamer Hooter’s Honda’s Antonio Balbi, and Butlerbrothersmx.com’s Matt Boni. In addition, Jack Carpenter (Atomic Racing Honda), Jacob Morrison (Coastline Motorsports Kawasaki) and Jimmy Albertson (North Racing Honda) landed top tens in the second moto.
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Michael Byrne finished an impressive second overall in New York | | | Up front, it would have been easy to look at Stewart’s name at the top of the results column and simply chalked it up as another easy win. But his reaction after taking the second moto, dropping his bike, pumping his fists, kicking the muddy Unadilla soil, proved otherwise. For the last three years, Unadilla has been a house of horrors for James, and he celebrated his victory not because it was hard fought over Cooper, but because he had simply survived himself.
For Stewart, who crashed out of the race in 2005 and crashed out before the race even began in 2006 and 2007, Unadilla had long been a great equalizer, too. No matter how fast or talented he is, he simply couldn’t get away from New York in one piece. Now he continues on undefeated, with a pack of factory guns and top privateers chasing after him.
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