Cycle News

MOTOCROSS LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 10 / AUGUST 13, 2016 UNADILLA, NEW YORK / UNADILLA MX P78 Friday night, prior to the Unadilla Na- tional, the BTOSports.com KTM team was at dinner at a nearby res- taurant when their phones began ringing. Their hauler had caught fire in the pits. But with the help of the Red Bull KTM, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna and Troy Lee Designs/ Red Bull KTM teams, they were able to rebuild the race bikes belonging to Justin Brayton, Benny Bloss and An- drew Short. "At the end of the day, no one was harmed in the fire, but the trailer was totaled. It was a big loss," said team manager Forrest Butler. "Everything can always be worse. So we're trying to have that type of attitude. The entire community, all the KTM teams, Husky team, TLD team, Factory Red Bull KTM team, everybody came together last night. We had enough parts to salvage all the bikes, so our guys are racing to- day, so we're trying to focus on that. On the other hand, yes, we do have a completely smoked and totaled trailer. It seems to be from the fire de- partment that there was an electrical malfunction in one of the air condi- tioners, long after we had locked up and it was shut down." Just prior to Unadilla, defending MX2 champ Jeremy Martin announced that he's going to sit out the rest of the series due to injury. At the last race at Washougal, Martin was in- volved in a multi-rider collision in the second moto, which resulted in him suffering a broken rib. Andrew Short fell victim to his fresh- ly rebuilt BTOSports.com KTM mo- torcycle when the hydraulic clutch malfunctioned in the first moto. "Yeah, my front clutch line, it came off," Short explained after pulling off. "The boys had long nights, you know, throwing together a bike after that fire. They're going to put a new line on, bleed it and I'm going to go do a few more laps just so I'm good for the next moto. Plus this is my last time here so I might as well get some riding in, right?" He finished 13th in moto two. Despite being on a hurriedly rebuilt motorcycle, BTOSports.com KTM rookie Benny Bloss put in the best ride of his short career with fourth in moto two and fourth overall at Un- adilla. "It's crazy to be where I was at the beginning of the season and to come up here now," Bloss said af- ter the race. "Especially, we had the truck catch on fire last night. To show off everybody up here is really a great feeling." An awkward high-side in the second 250MX moto at Unadilla caused Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM's Jessy Nelson to be struck by his own mo- torcycle in the left-hand sweeper be- fore the Sky Shot. Another Yamaha rider stopped to pick the motorcycle off of Nelson, but he still didn't get up. The race was red-flagged for Nelson, and he was taken immediately to the hospital. On his Instagram account, he announced that he had dimin- ished feeling below his waist, and the doctors hoped that once the swelling went down around his spine, his feel- ing would return. In another follow- up Instagram post [Sunday, August 14] he said: "In the second Moto at Unadilla, I had a crash in a tricky turn, ultimately ending with a red flag for the race. I went down pretty hard of a direct result of the bike hitting me from behind. I am currently at a hos- pital in Cooperstown, NY where we are waiting for some swelling to go down in my back before doing sur- gery. At this time I have limited feel- ing from my waist down. The hope is that after the swelling goes down, I will get some more feeling back. Thank you all for your support, kind thoughts and prayers. I will keep you posted in the next few days!" It was another race without Yoshimu- ra Suzuki's James Stewart. Accord- ing to the team, Stewart re-injured his shoulder while practicing earlier in the week and chose to sit out Un- adilla. He is, however, expected to return at Budds Creek. GEICO Honda's Justin Bogle says he's going to sit out the rest of the championship. He's been sidelined since suffering a neck injury at the Southwick National. He was hoping to have returned to action by now but the injury is healing slower than ex- pected. A few riders made their pro debut at Unadilla after finishing up their ama- teur careers the weekend before at Loretta Lynn's. Unfortunately, Chase Sexton, the AMA Horizon Award winner did not race as expected. The new GEICO Honda Team rider suffered a knee injury while practic- ing earlier in the week (though he did not crash) and has put his pro de- but on hold, for how long is not yet known. Loretta's 250cc All-Star A/B (14+) winner Jerry Robin finished 21st overall in the 450MX class, and Bradley Taft finished 18th overall in the 250MX class. Briefly...

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