As the 2009 Motocross season winds down to the final rounds, Honda racers have battled their way into top spots in all three national championships. Honda Red Bull Racing’s Ivan Tedesco and Ashley Fiolek have each racked up wins this season, and teammate Davi Millsaps added his name to the race win category this past weekend at the Budds Creek national.
Honda Red Bull Racing’s Andrew Short finished third overall in the Motocross Championship last year and is on target to better that in 2009. Posting consistent results each week aboard his CRF450R, Short is second in 450 class points heading into the MotoX-338 national. Teammate Ivan Tedesco’s plethora of podiums—including his first-ever 450 overall win at Thunder Valley Motocross in Colorado—puts him hot on the heels of Short in third place. Millsaps recorded his first win at Budds Creek, winning Moto One and posting second overall. Millsaps had fittingly made his return to racing at the Honda National event at Spring Creek Motocross Park in Millville, MN, and finished a weekend best third in the second moto on his CRF450R. The 21-year-old again found his form at Unadilla, grabbing another third-place moto finish before going on to score his season best result at Budds Creek.
Fiolek has dominated the Women’s Motocross Championship. Heading into the home stretch, Fiolek has six consecutive overall wins and a 49-point series lead over fellow Honda rider Jessica Patterson. Patterson broke Fiolek’s streak at Washougal, posting the overall win to make the 2009 Women’s Motocross Championship a Honda rout thus far with two rounds remaining.
In the 250 competition, Geico Powersports Honda’s Brett Metcalfe has demonstrated that consistency is key to running up front in the series points. In 18 races, Metcalfe has posted top-five finishes 13 times. As the series goes into its final stages, Metcalfe is third overall in points. Rookie rider Justin Barcia has shown all season long that he has the pace to run with the seasoned vets, leading races, posting six top-three finishes and taking third overall at Millville. Barcia is sixth in points with 267. Blake Wharton’s confidence continues to grow in his first full pro Motocross season. The Texan has scored numerous podium finishes, including second overall at Washougal, and is eighth in the championship with 214 points. Trey Canard continues to recover after being injured at the High Point national earlier in the season.
One of the highlights of the season so far came at the Unadilla national, which was chosen as the retro motocross race of the 2009 season because the track has been in play largely unchanged since the beginning of motocross in America. The Honda Red Bull Racing team celebrated the occasion—and also Honda’s 50th anniversary of racing—by rolling out CRF450R machines fitted with Throttle Jockey retro graphics of various eras. Tedesco’s ride sported vintage Elsinore graphics—silver with green stripe—styled after Honda’s first production motocrosser, the 1973 CR250M Elsinore. Short ran 1986 Team USA graphics commemorating the Motocross des Nations team, and Millsaps’ CRF450R featured 1995 Team Honda replica graphics run by Jeremy McGrath the year he won both the Supercross and 250 Motocross national titles.
Stay tuned for an exciting run to the finish line in the 2009 Motocross season with the Honda Red Riders.