250 Words: Unadilla

Week after week, the same five riders finish at the top of the Lites class results in AMA Toyota Motocross: Ryan Villopoto, Ben Townley, Ryan Dungey, Jason Lawrence and Josh Grant. For the most part those riders have held a monopoly on the top five, but at Unadilla, some others finally started breaking through.

• 

First, Broc Hepler returned to racing for the first time this season, and for the first time ever on a factory Yamaha. Hepler looked good as he grabbed a decent start in the first moto and quickly worked his way into the top five, pulling Lawrence and Grant, then passing his teammate Josh Hill to get into third. Townley and Dungey were gone and Hepler couldn’t make much ground on them, but he still played a big factor in the results. As Villopoto was charging through the pack, he caught Hepler and tried to make a pass, eventually crashing into the back of him and going down. Hepler held on to third at the finish, with Lawrence fourth, Hill fifth and Grant sixth.

That means Hill broke into the top five, too. He was looking for even more in moto two, when Villopoto took off in the lead with Dungey second. Hill jumped in behind Dungey and put major heat on him for about half the race. But then he started to fade, first falling off of Dungey’s wheel, then yielding to Townley, then crashing. He was unable to start his bike after that and found himself out of the points. Hepler, meanwhile crashed in the first turn and charged back to 15th.
 
With the two Yamahas out of contention, who ended up in the top five for moto two? Villopoto, Dungey, Townley, Lawrence and Grant, of course!