The Super B Unadilla GP Weekend

Rounds 2 and 3 of the Fox Racing J Day Off Road GP Series

VFORCE RACE REPORT

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MOTO TASSINARI

MOTO TASSINARI IS THE PREMIER MANUFACTURER OF PERFORMANCE ENHANCING REED VALVES

CANNING HAS HIS WAY AT UNADILLA

Chris Canning was dominant at Round 2 as the FOX Racing J Day Off Road Championship returned to the world-famous race circuit at Unadilla, NY. Canning swept both motos in Pro 125 and swept both motos in the PRO class. The Unadilla Experience was highlighted by great weather, a perfectly prepared track by track owner Greg Robinson and his crew, perfectly prepared woods and Xtreme section by the J Day crew, some of the nation’s best PRO racers including former National MX Champion Zach Osborne. Rolling hills and natural terrain along with green grass and dark loamy soil greeted the J Day faithful. Robinson said this is only the fourth time ever that amateur racers were presented with this condition as it is usually only PRO riders from around the world at a World Grand Prix or US National that are afforded the surreal opportunity to ride Unadilla in its pristine state. About 700 riders made the trek to upstate New York to compete at this world class facility for two days of racing at the crown jewel of the FOX Racing J Day Off Road racing series.

The Kenda PeeWee Challenge kicked off the program with great racing and fun times for the youngest riders and when it came time for the podium celebration Greenfield Massachusetts’ newest fast guy Tucker Aldrich stood atop the class after some great battles with his buddy Trentin Hurley who both ride the Senior division with Bantam division winner Sawyer Langenback keeping the family tradition alive and well and standing on the third step of the overall podium. The podium celebration goes off around 10:30 am and is definitely a highlight of our program and as much fun to attend as it is to be involved in. Dylan Carlson was the Squirt division winner, Nicholas Bello took top honors in the Trail Rider division and ZoeBelle White was victorious in the Girls division after her notable holeshot.

Van Gosselin took both motos in the Super Mini class but not without some great battles with second place finisher Ryan Amancio. Third Place went to a new face on the podium Oliver Cortis on his POR Husqvarna. Mini A winner Colton McQuarrie was lightning fast on his Yamaha and the 10 year old third generation racer from New Hampshire shows great potential for a successful career in off road racing or whatever he decides to conquer. Mini B honors went to Grant Meacham who continues to impress in his full time move to the bigger bike and Kason Boriboun raced his Suzuki to victory in the Mini C class. Addison Harris was the Girls class winner in the second of four classes to dedicated to the advancement of female participation in off road racing by J Day Off Road.

The overall C class winner was also the C Open winner Michael Rockefeller with C250 winner Nathan Cady finishing 2nd overall in the C class and C 200 winner Aydin Dumeer making the jump to the big bike successful by rounding out the C class podium.

Ohio resident Korie Steede joined J Day for Round 2 and ruled the Womens PRO class and then gave the boys fits by finishing second overall in the 250 A class against some of the norteast’s fastest up and coming men. She was a delight to watch on her Trail Jesters KTM and showed why she is enjoying success at the National level on the GNCC circuit. In the Womens PRO class the Pennsylvania rider Jocelyn Barnes raced to second overall with the defending J DAY Champ Savannah Kipp filling the third step of the podium.

Womens Amateur class win went to the Girls class winner Addison Harris while in that same moto Jamie Prior won the Super Senior class over Nate Martel which ended Martel’s win streak at just under 100 years in that class. The C Vet winner was Ross Douglas, the C Senior win went to Gilbert Marquez with a double moto win and the Masters class was won by Mike Billy edging out Mike Dowling.

Pro 125 winner Chris Canning was the dominant PRO rider at Round 2 and handled both motos with relative ease but not without some great competition by former champ Kyle Hangos who finished second, former NETRA Hare Scramble Champion Nick Kordana was third, Aaron Zielfelder on the Bulit Racing/ Factory Connection entry in fourth and Justin Cokinos who all spent time at the front of the class. However it was Canning on his MotorBikes Plus KTM with the double moto win.

The Junior A class was well represented in the PRO 125 class as overall winner Van Gosselin finished 8th overall PRO with 2nd place Junior Corbin Owens in 9th. Jacob Pacheco piloted the 727 to third in Junior A.

Erik Engstrom on a Husqvarna claimed the B 200 win, Travis Murphy aboard a KTM got the B 250 win and Joe Forde rode a KTM to victory in the B Open class.

Daniel Forgione cruised to the win in A Vet, Brig Currie outpaced Grant Carter on his Bulit Racing/ FOX / MotorBikes Plus entry for the A Senior win, Julio Lubiana scored the B Vet win proving his move to the B class easy, Steven Montgomery came home with the B Senior win with a double moto win and Ryan Amancio turned the same double moto performance into a Junior B win over Pat Gougeon and Jordan Franklin.

Coming to the line everyone in the PRO class had one guy on their mind as the former National MX and Supercross champ Zach Osborne would be lining up with them and be a heavy favorite for the win due to his international experience representing the USA not only in the World Grand Prix and the MotoCross des Nations but his stint with the US team in the ISDE. The Virginia native has some serious skills on a motorcycle no matter the discipline and has turned many laps on the Unadilla Pro track in his 16 year professional career.

 The one rider who can be more than proud of himself is the 19 time NESC MX champion and top 100 National MX Pro Chris Canning on the MotorBikes Plus Gas Gas from Connecticut who has a new found love for off road competition and came to Unadilla just off the injured list that forced him from Round 1. The reason for this honor and pride is the fact that he beat Osborne on the Factory Husqvarna production model with Factory Connection Suspension improvements in moto 1 by 7 seconds in a close battle and then after besting the Pro 125 class in both races, in the final moto of the day and his fourth on the day he bested the international race star Osborne by 44 seconds in convicing fashion. Osborne would enjoy his second J Day appearance with 2-2 scores for second overall and prove to be a great podium interview as he is a sincere, kind and professional gentleman with great insight and appreciation for all involved in our great sport.

Simon Johnson would put his Trail Jesters KTM on the third step of the podium with 4-3 moto scores, Bubz Tasha rode the Tely Energy KTM to 3-6 scores for 4th overall. Gavin Simon showed serious improvement over last season in his Husqvarna J Day debut to go 7-4 for fifth overall.

The Austrian marque would rule the first nine positions in the PRO class on the day and continue their dominance in J Day competition that has been the norm for the existence of the series. Due in large part to the early efforts of our friend Brooks Hamilton who was the KTM Rep at the start of the series and continued for many years to keep the marque on top. Though he is no longer with the firm he continues to help produce great off road racers from the western Massachusetts area and enjoys a good trail ride with some very fast friends.

The long storied past adds to the mystique of Unadilla and those who finish a race at a very fast and flowing course should be proud. And those who win here should consider themselves at the top of their game.

This race Round 2 was the first half of a doubleheader and the VFORCE Race Report brought to you by Moto Tassinari for Round 3 is right around the corner so be sure to check back soon for the next edition. Already after 2 rounds some very exciting racing and it will prove to be another season for the record books.

Until then this is JJ saying “See You at the Next Fox Racing J Day Off Road Championship“.

EVENT PHOTOS

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MOTO TASSINARI

MOTO TASSINARI IS THE PREMIER MANUFACTURER OF PERFORMANCE ENHANCING REED VALVES

CANNING SWEEPS UNADILLA

Welcome to the Round 3 VFORCE Race Report of the 2022 season where the news from track is that Gas Gas pilot Chris Canning swept Round 2 and 3 of the FOX Racing J Day Off Road Championship at Unadilla and catapulted himself into second place in the PRO Championship, only 6 points back from new points leader Simon Johnson on his Trail Jesters KTM.

All the traditions of Unadilla were in play at round 3 on Sunday May 15 as there was a perfectly prepared track, a star studded PRO field, great racing in all classes and of course some inclement weather. Track owner Greg Robinson and his crew worked on the track until late Saturday night and were at it at the crack of dawn to make the track perfect for the J Day faithful. The J Day crew had a whole new woods section that featured the “KENDA SENDA “and natural rolling grass track ready for the approximately 700 riders in attendance. The day started out sunny and warm but would see a weather delay at mid day due to a lightning threat that got within 2 miles of the race facility that has seen plenty of destruction from Mother Nature over the more than 50 years of operation. In an effort to keep all track personnel, racers and spectators safe the races were suspended for about 40 minutes in the afternoon but when the show was back on the terrific J DAY crew worked hard to get back on schedule. Greg Robinson was instrumental in determining weather conditions and lightning and worked with the J Day officials to make the call to protect the safety of all. Always better to be safe than sorry.

At 8 am the Kenda PeeWee Challenge left the gate and at the end of 40 minutes the result was the same as round 2. Tucker Aldrich beat all challengers with Trentin Hurley taking second and Sawyer Langenback scoring the Bantam division win and third step on the podium. The podium celebration was so much fun and you really should join us at 10:30 am every race day for this great time. The young riders give interesting and humorous interviews and the crowd loves it and really gets into it.

Dylan Carlson was a double winner on the weekend of the Squirt division, Coleston Swift beat Nicholas Bello in the Trailrider division and Audrina Anello topped ZoeBelle White in the Girls division. In true J Day fashion the Anello family loaned a bike to a rider who was successful on the day and shows what a great community we have in our series.

The Super Mini class saw Ryan Amancio taking the first moto but losing the overall to Van Gosselin who won the 2nd moto and in a repeat of Round 2 Oliver Cortis joined them on the podium. Mini A class winner Colton McQuarrie on his Freedom Cycle Yamaha battled with the Super Mini guys all day and finished 5th overall. Grant Meacham continued to shine and got his second overall win of the weekend in Mini B as did Mini C class winner Kason Boriboun on his Suzuki and Addie Harris cruised to the Girls class win on her KTM.

Nathan Cady scored the C class Overall and the C 250 win, while Matheus Magalhaes raced his Kawasaki to second overall C and the Open C win and Hunter Klein beat the C 200 class and finished third overall C.

Shelby Turner from Alberta, Canada joined J Day again making it an international affair and claimed the hotly contested Womens PRO class win over Pennsylvanias Jocelyn Barnes and defending champ Savannah Kipp.

Womens Amateur class was won by Sadie Dodge on her KTM , Nate Martel got back to his winning ways and started a new win streak in the Super Senior class after his one race slump, Jonathan Silva collected the C Vet win , C Senior class went to Fabio Andrade and Michael Dowling took a double moto win to the top of the Masters class.

PRO 125 action saw great racing as usual and Justin Cokinos take his second overall win of the year. His battles with runner up Aaron Zielfelder on the Bulit Racing/Factory Connection/FOX Racing KTM were a crowd pleaser all day but probably the best effort was put forth by Anthony Federico in the second moto as a return to form seems to be in the cards for the likeable Connecticut rider as he dominated the moto with the win and came through 3rd overall. Chase Gosselin was 4th overall and Nick Kordana in 5th made it a KTM sweep of the top 5.

Jacob Pacheco flew his 727 KTM to victory in the Junior A class and 6th overall against the PRO 125 riders. Erik Engstrom ruled the B 200 class for his second win on the weekend, Ian Kearon was the B 250 class winner and Max Lempke got the first win of his Amateur career in B Open.

Daniel Forgione steamrolled the A Vet class again with double moto wins as did Grant Carter on his Billet Racing/MotorBikes Plus KTM. Carter had to work from a bad start in moto 1 but with a much better jump off the gate in moto 2 he was up there battling with riders 10 or more years younger than him who were competing for the win in the A Vet class. Julio Lubiana got his second win of his B Vet career; Steven Montgomery did the double/double on the weekend in the B Senior class and Ryan Amancio followed suit in the Junior B class as all 3 racers won all the motos in their classes on the weekend.

 In the first moto of this combined class we had an incident in mid moto where a rider crashed hard off the exit to the Gravity Cavity section and needed medical attention. Track personnel were waving Yellow flags and Red Cross flags to warn riders of the dangerous situation. The Rule states there will be NO JUMPING on a Yellow flag and/or a Red Cross flag and riders must slow to a careful and cautious speed until they are completely past the downed rider and the flags. Several riders decided to ignore these flags. Please, when you see a Yellow Flag and/or a Red Cross Flag please have some respect for your fellow riders and the officials by slowing way down and refrain from jumping.

The last moto of every half of our program has some great racing most notably because of the PRO class but there are 3 A classes that are the feeding grounds for that PRO class that are overshadowed by the big show but have some of the most hard fought battles of the race day. My congratulations go to Kyle Gaetani who has won all 3 rounds in 2022 in the A 200 class, Ty Ely who won on Saturday and Jacob Cady who won on Sunday in the A 250 class and Michael Stryker the winner both days in A Open. They all had hard fought battles with stiff competition and the hardest part of all is when they are battling for position in their respective classes late in a race they are expected to pull to the side as the PRO riders are battling for race wins and the A riders are being put a lap down in their race by the PRO racers. It is a frustrating scenario and makes for very exciting racing at times for the spectators.

In the PRO Vet class Bobby Santheson put his Pilgrim Power Sports/MotoPhoto29 Kawasaki in the winner’s circle on Saturday and Justin Tucker took top honors in the class on Sunday.

The PRO class is always filled with exciting racing and the win that eluded Zach Osborne on Saturday was realized by the former MX champ on the first moto Sunday. Chris Canning gained on Zach virtually every lap but ran out of time as he rubbed knobs with Zach at the checkered flag and missed first place to Zach by a scant one second. Thorn Devlin travelled from PA and raced his Husqvarna all the way up to third by moto’s end after a tough start and showed some serious speed. Fourth in moto 1 went to Simon Johnson who just lost the position to Devlin at the end of the last lap and 5th in moto 1 went to New Jerseys’ Luke Renzland as he tries to claw his way back into title contention after a no points score at round 1.

Moto 2 saw Trail Jesters KTM rider Simon Johnson rip a beautiful holeshot and win the $100 prize. Chris Canning would make a strong move early for the lead and never look back on his way to another dominating performance and the overall win and better still a sweep of both overall wins on the weekend at Unadilla which allowed him to secure 2nd in the early season points chase. Bad luck would strike early in this race for Zach Osborne and he would pull out of racing for the day and hopefully we will see him for his scheduled appearance in 2 weeks time at round 4 at MX 207 in Lyman Maine. Osborne would finish 12th overall on the day.

Thorn Devlin would get a decent start on his FC 250 and race through the pack trying to catch Canning at the end but would have to settle for 2nd in moto and overall. Third in moto 2 would bring Luke Renzland a much deserved podium finish on the day and some much needed points to move him to 5th. Simon Johnson would slide back to 4th by moto’s end but the Trail Jesters rider would leave Unadilla with the Championship Points lead. A very strong effort by Cody Williams on his Billet Racing/FOX/Factory Connection KTM  netted him 5th overall on the day and would secure him 3rd in the Championship points early in this 2022 season.

Again the top nine overall in the PRO class were mounted on the 3 Austrian made motorcycles of Gas Gas , Husqvarna and KTM.

Great racing and a world class race facility all made for a wonderful weekend of the Unadilla Experience kind. As we look forward to a great 2022 FOX Racing J Day Off Road season we hope to see you at Round 4 on Sunday May 29th at MX 207 in Lyman, Maine.

Until next time this is JJ saying “See you at the Next J Day “ 

INFO

Date of Event(s):

Saturday May 14th 2022 (Round 2)
Sunday May 15th 2022 (Round 3)

Online Pre Entry Opens for Series Members:
Sunday May 8th at 8 PM
 
Online Pre Entry Opens for Day Members:
Tuesday May 10th at 8 PM
 

Online Pre Entry Closes: Thursday May 12th at 8 PM

Title Sponsor: B Lithium Batteries 

Location:
Unadilla MX
5986 NY-8
New Berlin, NY 13411

Official HashTag: #UnadillaGP

Gates Open:
Friday 4 PM -11 PM
Saturday 6 AM – 11 PM
Sunday 6 AM

2019 Overall Winner: Ben Kelley

MEDIA

HOTELS

Hampton Inn
172 – 180 N Genesee Street
Utica, NY 13502

Holiday Inn
1777 Burrstone Road
New Hartford, NY 13413

LOCAL RESTAURANTS

New York Pizzeria
7 S Main St
New Berlin, NY 13411

Deerpath Restaurant
NY-8
New Berlin, NY 13411
 

Patty’s Pub
9650 Hwy 20
Bridgewater, NY 13313

RACE DAY SCHEDULE

Waves are separated by 1 min intervals. Pee Wees Separated by 30 Seconds.
8:00am(Pee Wee Sr) (Pee Wee Trail Rider) (Pee wee Bantam, Pee Wee Electric) (Pee Wee Squirt, Pee Wee Girls)
9:00am(Super Mini, Mini A) (Mini B) (Mini C) (Girls)
9:40am(C 250) (C Open) (C 200)
10:20am(Women Pro, Women Amateur) (Super Senior)(C Vet) (C Senior, Masters)
11:00am(Pro/A 125, Junior A) (B250) (B Open) (B 200)
11:40am(A Vet, A Senior) (Junior B) (B Vet) (B Senior)
12:20pm(Pro) (A250, Pro Vet) (A 200, A Open)
1:00 PM(Super Mini, Mini A) (Mini B) (Mini C) (Girls)
1:40 PM(C 250) (C Open) (C 200)
2:20 PM(Women Pro, Women Amateur) (Super Senior)(C Vet) (C Senior, Masters)
3:00 PM(Pro/A 125, Junior A) (B250) (B Open) (B 200)
3:40 PM(A Senior, A Vet) (Junior B) (B Vet) (B Senior)
4:20 PM(Pro) (A250, Pro Vet) (A 200, A Open)

*Waves are separated by 1 minute intervals and can be delayed due to crashes or significant incidents