Thomas: “[Hunter] went from managing this situation to now being forced to press”

As for Prado, this was the best he has looked arguably all season. Yes, Pala was good, but I couldn’t really tell if that was merely a track he rides a lot, the opening round nuances, or if he was going to be that guy all summer. Until Unadilla, it appeared that Pala was not the norm and more of a one-off. That same elite speed was back in New York and now the burden is to continue it. I still have the same questions, as Unadilla’s unique soil and 70-degree weather lean into Prado’s repertoire. Budds Creek will speak loudly to the narrative moving forward.

Zach Osborne made his return to racing for the first time since 2021. What’d you make of his day, and did he exceed your expectations in any way?
It was a mixed bag. The qualifying effort was on par for what I expected. I thought somewhere between 8-15 was fair. I figured starts would be a big factor, as asking him to come from 30^th to 10^th didn’t seem viable. In the end, crashes and bike gremlins defined the motos so we don’t really know how to grade this yet. He should be better at Budds Creek, as that track suits what he does well. If the Beta holds strong, I think he’s good for a top 15 moto.

There was a big melee on the start of the second 250 moto. How’d this get triggered?
With riders entering first corners closer than ever before due to grates and starting devices, contact at the apex is an all too common dynamic. Unadilla was no exception, as Landon Gordon and Caden Dudney tagged Julien Beaumer and Kitchen, sending them straight and onto the access roads. This was a narrowly avoided disaster for all involved but it had dire consequences to Kitchen and Beaumer’s ability to score max points. If there was ever a reason to consider rule changes for the starts, photo evidence of how bunched riders are would likely be the smoking gun.

Cole Davies managed moto one but was unstoppable in moto two. How punitive was that second moto victory to Kitchen’s title chances?
This is where perspective comes in. Davies was great after his huge practice crash. A 2-1 day when we weren’t even sure he would be able to race is the definition of damage mitigation. For Kitchen though, this was the best he has ridden in months. Kitchen retained the red plate and lives to fight another day. It’s very rare that championship contenders will see the same circumstances through the same lens and this one is no different.

Carson Mumford, Chance Hymas, and Ryder DiFrancesco have all been coming on extremely strong lately, and it continued at Unadilla. Was there anything specific about this track that aided them, or is this just a matter of being on the right side of a wave of momentum?
This just felt like more of the same. The best guys are differentiating themselves in this series and finding themselves near the podium each week. The one rider that will be back here is Beaumer, but he has to find a way to avoid early lap drama to do it. Starts are incredibly important in this class as there is a lot of speed parity.

Things weren’t great for Eli Tomac in his first two races back, but he was a bit better at Unadilla. In what areas did you notice improvement?
Baby steps is how I would likely define it. Was it a triumphant return to form? No, it was not. But, there were flashes here and there of improvement. The first moto start was great and he rode inside the top five for a while. He was shuffled back further than he would prefer but Rome (Italy or New York) wasn’t built in a day. If I was Team Tomac, I would just be trying to make incremental improvements over the next two rounds with the goal of being 100 percent at Columbus. The importance of getting good starts was wildly apparent, though, as he doesn’t have the sprint speed to move through the pack right now.

Haiden Deegan has been very good all season, but at Unadilla he was noticeably closer to the Hunter and Jett Lawrence early in the moto, and was able to hold their pace for a tad longer. What did you notice about his riding that could account for this improvement?
He’s getting closer on a raw speed front but the staying power is still not quite there. There are two ways to view this. First, he’s battling with the Lawrence’s and showing he can run their pace. Second, the Lawrence’s are managing the race and then when they pour on the pace at the midpoint, they gap Deegan to 30 seconds or more by the end. The perspective here will likely come down to which riders you like or don’t like in this equation. This is one of the most divisive fan bases the sport has ever seen and I see no reason for that to change over the next five to eight years.

After Washougal Jett Lawrence said the plan was to win the remaining motos. Well, he made good on that plan in the second moto and got a ton of help from Hunter along the way. What happened in that pivotal second moto?
What a wicked turn of events. Jett took charge of that second moto and was pushing the pace, flanked by a surging Jorge Prado. When Prado also passed Hunter and Deegs was lurking, I think Hunter may have let the situation creep into his typically unwavering stoicism. Anyone can make a mistake on that tricky track so I don’t want to overthink the situation too much, but it’s also hard to discount the change in urgency as points were slipping away. We don’t often see Hunter have big crashes so I tend to think he began to press a bit when he was uncomfortable. He didn’t seem to be gelling with the second moto setup and I mentioned him fighting the bike a bit before the crash. Whether that was indeed the case or not, the facts are, he made the biggest mistake of the series at a time when it was the only thing he couldn’t do. Taking a third or even fourth in that moto was not catastrophic but tossing his factory 450 down The Wall was exactly that. Now, he is down ten points to his brother and the tables have flipped almost identically. If he goes and wins four motos in a row, he is the champ. That’s a big ask but that’s the most direct path to winning this thing. Simply put, he went from managing this situation to now being forced to press. There is zero room for even a bobble now.

LaLa Turner dominated Unadilla with a 1-1 score. Charli Cannon kept her honest in the second moto but didn’t have enough to top the newly crowned Australian champ. What should we make of the weekend?
The second moto was brutal for the WMX field. The track was in rough shape and the contrast from the first moto on Friday to the second moto midday Saturday was shocking to say the least. I think some of the women were probably shell shocked by how difficult conditions were. That’s all to say I think Lachlan and Charli excel at different things. When the track is smooth and fast, that’s LaLa territory. She has the best sprint speed and can run away with things. As the track deteriorates and conditions turn dire, the edge swings back toward Charli a bit. The question is in whether that swing back is enough to change the outcome of the race. At Unadilla, it was not, but that’s the trend I have seen thus far. Both are great and the class of this field, but where they excel seems to ebb and flow with the conditions.