250 Podium Posted: 06/28/09 The year's one and only night race is history, and it produced some fairly interesting racing. The lighting was a bit better, but the dirt seemed darker and disced more deeply, which seemed to negate the effects of the increased lighting. Regardless, all of the riders raced the same track, and the podium results were somewhat of a surprise. Here, Jake Weimer stands atop the 250 podium, flanked by Pourcel and Tommy Searle. 1170 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	450 Podium Posted: 06/28/09 Completely dominating the evening's 450 motos was Honda Red Bull Racing's Ivan Tedesco. He started at the front both times out, then completely ran away from the field. Joining him on the stage were his teammate Andrew Short, and Canidae Kawasaki's Tommy Hahn, who made his first ever 450 podium appearance. 1295 Views 1 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	250 Moto 1 Start Posted: 06/28/09 For the first moto of the day (which was in complete sunshine), Monster Energy Pro Circuit teammates Jake Weimer (far inside) and Christophe Pourcel (in the middle), drag-race up the deeply disced start hill at Thunder Valley. Meanwhile, Justin Barcia, Ryan Dungey and Martin Davalos tangle, setting each of them quite a ways back before even reaching the first turn. Davalos actually went down in the first turn, resulting in a DNF in his first moto back in the series. 1231 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	450 Moto 2 Start Posted: 06/28/09 Looking up the hill from the far outside spot, it's plain to see that the 2nd 450 moto was run in nearly complete darkness. The lighting system that was brought in reportedly cost the promoters $160,000, and did a fairly good job of lighting up the facility, although as with any night race, there were a lot of shadows in the deeper ruts and holes. It did seem to put some of the riders into 'play-it-safe' mode, while others went for broke. While it didn't really seem to cause any serious accidents, it definitely added another layer of flavor, it's just too bad that only one moto was really run at "night". 1416 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes
450 Moto 1 first lap Posted: 06/28/09 It was TLD/Lucas Oils' Chris Blose who was trying to chase down leader Ivan Tedesco in the early stages of Moto 1. Obviously, it was not to be as Tedesco completely checked-out and went on to win both motos with ease. Blose went back to 8th but his teammate Jake Moss battled with the top guys for a 4th. 1158 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Reed and Short Posted: 06/28/09 Chad Reed, who went 1-1 at the previous round at High Point, seemed to be struggling all day at Thunder Valley. In moto one, he went backwards after getting passed by Andrew Short and Jake Moss (!), before finally getting back past Moss and ending up 3rd. In the 2nd moto, he was struggling with riders like Kyle Summers and Ricky Dietrich, ultimately ending up 7th which resulted in 4th overall for the night. An off-race for Reedy? Yea, that's safe to say. He's still leading points. 1634 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Tommy Hahn Posted: 06/28/09 Canidae Kawasaki's Tommy Hahn, shown here moving past Chris Blose in moto 1, put in the best ride of his 450 career. He ran Josh Grant/Michael Byrne pace in moto one to end up a solid 7th, but it was the 2nd moto that really turned some heads. The most prominent head that he turned was that of Andrew Short, the hometown boy who many had pegged to win the overall. Hahn battled closely with Short for the entire 2nd moto for 2nd place and even passed him, making it stick for a couple of laps before running off the track and allowing Short to get back by. His 7-3 ended up netting him 3rd overall, and his first 450 podium. 1349 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Jake Weimer Posted: 06/28/09 Monster Energy Pro Circuit's Weimer was on fire at Thunder Valley. He shadowed and pushed teammate Chris Pourcel for the entire first moto, then won the 2nd moto after crashing while in the lead, getting up 3rd, and chasing down both Martin Davalos and Justin Barcia to snare the win. This was Jake's first national moto win and first overall of his career. 1123 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes
Tommy Searle Posted: 06/28/09 Searle was impressive all day/night too, always pushing the pace of riders that he maybe normally wasn't able to run with. He went from 7th to 5th in moto one, dispatching Brett Metcalfe in the process while also holding off Ryan Dungey for several laps. 1145 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Justin Barcia Posted: 06/28/09 Although not quite up to the brilliance he displayed during the first couple of rounds, Justin Barcia still put in a solid ride at Thunder Valley. The rookie went from 23rd to 12th in the first four laps of moto one after getting tangled up on the start straight with Ryan Dungey. He then hit a roadblock in the form of Darryn Durham for several laps, while Dungey blew past them both. Eventually ending up 9th in the moto, the second go-round was much better. Barcia led for 6 laps after Weimer handed the lead to him, and eventually ended up 2nd. 1097 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Christophe Pourcel Posted: 06/28/09 Basking in the late afternoon glow that the slightly-higher-than-a-mile city of Lakewood enjoyed this fine day, Frenchman Christophe Pourcel speeds off to yet another moto one win. That's 5 wins in 5 first motos for the talented points leader and, while he did maintain that streak, he also kept up another common theme - a poor 2nd moto. More on that in the next photo... 1033 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Pourcel, part deux Posted: 06/28/09 Shown here leading teammate Weimer in moto one, Pourcel suffered from a faulty gate in moto two. What apparently happened was the gate fell and didn't completely hit the ground, instead grounding on metal and forcing it to spring back up and temporarily lodge beneath the cases on Pourcel's KX250F. The effect was a last place start and a charge to the front that put to rest the notion that this guy can't ride through the pack when he needs to. 17th at the end of lap one, Pourcel made it to 6th by the end, and stood in 2nd overall via his 1-6 to keep the points lead. 1060 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes
Barcia, and the scenery Posted: 06/28/09 This shot is more about the scenery than it is about Justin Barcia. The setting for the Thunder Valley National is dramatic, located about 30 minutes west of downtown Denver at the base of the foothills for the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Yea, it's a cool place for a national. 1039 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Barcia Posted: 06/28/09 Barcia again, this time during the 1st moto and with a bit of fancy camera work to show off how nice it is to spice up the series a bit with a night race. 1143 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Ryan Dungey's day Posted: 06/28/09 With two bad starts and a so-so history at the Thunder Valley facility, Rockstar/Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey is probably pretty happy walking away with the 33 points he scored via his 6-4 moto finishes. Losing an additional 7 points to Pourcel, Dungey's far from out of it with a 9 point gap between the two. 1193 Views 1 Comments Rating: 0 Likes	Timmy Ferry Posted: 06/28/09 Ferry made his comeback, and despite running way at the back in moto 2, he did manage a fairly respectable 12-22 for 17th overall. Ferry seemed to be one of the "play-it-safe" guys, opting to be careful and consistent in the dark conditions and minimize his risk of yet another injury in what's been a rough year for the likeable Floridian. 1400 Views 0 Comments Rating: 0 Likes

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kardy1

Posted on July 01, 2009 09:21 AM

J-Who?

clint7339

Posted on July 01, 2009 06:21 AM

I was rooting for Tommy Hahn.he got all the way up to 2nd and then finished 3rd now that was a great ride. Any new's on what happened to j-law? does he have the same ron lechien problem?