The Unadilla racetrack is always one of the more unique circuits that Lucas Oil Pro Motocross races on each year. We’ve seen some torrential downpours lead to complete mudders or we’ve seen weekends like this year, where the usually loamy surface at Unadilla ended up being rather hard and rocky. We always see handguards come out for this race due to the rocks in the soil, but this weekend seemed particularly dry.
Racers noticed this as well and each of the podium finishers in the 250 class had some opinions to share about it at the end of the day. During the press conference, winner Jo Shimoda, second place Justin Cooper, and third place Hunter Lawrence explained how challenging the track was at the ninth round of the series.
Going from different tracks each week, how do your bike setups change and particularly with Unadilla did you have to change the bike because this track didn’t setup normally as Unadilla has in the past?
Jo Shimoda: I do change small things. For example, at Washougal, I really struggled setting up the bike coming into the corner, so I didn’t really have comfort. We worked on it during the break which made it a little better and I think today it kind of showed.
Justin Cooper: I think the prep was just a little bit different [today]. It seemed like it was more powdery and it didn’t rut up as quick as it normally does. So, it had a faster pace today and you just had to use more intensity out there because it was pretty wide open for Unadilla.
Hunter Lawrence: Same as what the boys said. It was different. I don’t remember last year if they went and ripped a bunch of the track before the motos so that was a bit different. But yeah, it was pretty hard packed and slippery. It was different bumps, not the traditional into the ruts bumps, there were some gnarly square edged acceleration bumps before the braking bumps developed. It was definitely different. A bit of a curveball to what everyone was expecting for Unadilla, I think.
Is there a section on the track that makes Unadilla unique? And if you could change any part of the track, which section would that be?
Shimoda: The U-turn where you go down, it literally screws you.
Lawrence: I mean every section that has a name, Screw-U, the Skyshot, I think they’re all pretty significant to Unadilla otherwise they wouldn’t have names. If I could change one section, specifically today, that one right hander before the tabletop where Jett [Lawrence] crashed in the first moto, that one was pretty sucky. It was just potholes and wasn’t real fun. Other than that, everything else was pretty cool.
Cooper: Yeah, the Skyshot is iconic and obviously the downhill-uphill. It’s really hard when you have to follow someone through that. I got stuck behind a few lappers and it’s kind of just that one line. So you really have to pay attention that you don’t throw it away down there trying to be impatient and trying to go around the lapper. You’ve got to just follow them through there and make sure you get out of there safe because if you crash on that uphill, you’re going to lose a lot of time. You’re going to have to go back down and get a run back up for it. I think that’s what makes Unadilla Unadilla.
