After breaking his collarbone at the Nashville Supercross, Justin Barcia finally made his return to racing this past weekend in front of his hometown crowd at Unadilla. He made it all the way to the first corner of the first moto before he crashed again, breaking off his clutch lever in the process. He did a few laps but ultimately pulled off the track that first moto. It might not have been the return he was looking for, but Barcia seemed glad to be back at the track and knows he has to start somewhere when coming back from injury.
Meanwhile the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo of Max Vohland and Tom Vialle finished fifth and sixth overall on the day, respectively, with varying degrees of contentment. Our Tom Journet caught up with all three riders after the race to get their take on the day.
Justin Barcia | 40-14 for 19th overall
Racer X: Okay Justin Barcia how does it feel to be back?
Justin Barcia: Feels amazing to be back. New York for me is amazing. Fans are sick. I wish I had more time to sit in the autograph line and go through everyone, but I tried to get everyone in as good as I could. I could hear them even, I don't know, 14th, 15th, whatever place I got second moto, I could still hear the fans. It was cool to be back here, be around the crew and see the things we have to work on things. I have to work on stuff like that. So, all in all great to be back if we weren't back today and, you know, we'd have to learn, learn the stuff next weekend. So, it sucked the first moto to not be able to finish the moto and feel how the bike was and stuff because second moto kind of went into a little bit blind and struggled quite a bit. Definitely, obviously, no matter what, I wouldn't have been where I want to be today, but I was really not. Yeah, it was a tough day at work for sure, first day back, but I'm in one piece which is good. Definitely a little beat up, sore. But yeah, it's just move on from that and take some positives and go next weekend.
So, obviously we're at the end of the outdoor season, for you are you just doing the outdoors right now just to get some gate drops to prep for SMX? Is that kind of where your mind is at?
Yeah, I feel like we haven't done motocross on the new chassis. So, it's like we need to figure that out, going into motocross next year. So, to get some gate drops, awesome. Prep for SuperMotocross, get stronger, you know I lost a lot of strength. I lost a lot of everything, and getting back on the track, that's how you build it back up in my opinion. So it's just good to be back and like I said, we don't really have expectations. Yes, today was definitely not… it didn't really go well at all. Like the first turn pile up and then second moto third turn pile up. So overall tough, tough day. But it's just good to be back riding my bike, learning the bike and getting back with the team and seeing the fans.
Max Vohland | 4-6 for 5th overall
Racer X: So, Max tell us about your day, I saw that you were in the mix today both motos.
Max Vohland: Yeah, started off the day in qualifying I was really fast. I've always had good results here and the rutty technical kind of track fits my style. So, yeah, I got a good start in the first moto was top five and moved up in the second and I was riding good. I found a good flow going and I was trying to catch Levi [Kitchen] for the lead and then made a few mistakes and Hunter [Lawrence] and [Haiden] Deegan were going really good. And then when they passed me, it kind of broke my flow a little bit and then just a few laps later, Jo [Shimoda] ended up getting me but I at least stuck on to him and stayed right on him for fourth. And then the second moto I was riding really good, got a good start before they restarted. Then on the restart, Hunter came a little wide and hit my front wheel which was a close call, almost fell and then kind of put me back and then I had to fight my way up to six and I ran out of tear offs and I was tired of eating roost, so I just stayed there.
So obviously, with only two more rounds to go, we are kind of like in the last quarter, right now, how would you grade your season so far?
Yeah, I feel like the results are hard to look at because it, I feel they don’t show how much I've actually improved. I feel my fitness and my riding and my speed for sure has all improved. I've gained in every aspect of my game this year and the class is tough right now. There's a lot of fast guys and there's about 17 factory bikes out there, so it's not easy. And yeah, I feel like the results could have been better, but the riding is definitely where I want it to be.
Tom Vialle | 8-7 for 6th overall
Racer X: Okay Tom Vialle, walk us through your day. How was your first experience with Unadilla?
Tom Vialle: To be honest the track was super-fast the whole day. Many ruts actually, really long ruts. I think it was tough for a lot of riders not only myself, but I struggled a little bit. I couldn't really find the flow and find the rhythm on the track. So, I wasn't riding like myself. I’d say second moto was a little bit better but still not where I want to be and how I want to ride. The truck was tough. Like I said, a little bit bumpy. Not too bad, but especially those ruts were gnarly, like big ruts and the speed was pretty fast. Like they took out some, I mean, never ride it before, of course, but I've seen on video and they took out some corner and was, I think faster than the previous year.
So, yeah, it was pretty tough, I think. I can't wait for next weekend, try to regroup a little bit this week. And of course, I think I finished six overall this weekend. So, I'll try to be better than that next weekend.
