Let’s Remember the 2007 Motocross of Nations at Budds Creek

It’s Budds Creek week!!! What a special time for everyone in the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia) and Mid-Atlantic. While I have been able to attend a handful of other Pro Motocross rounds aside from Budds Creek, there is something special about the hometown race. We get to see the locals like Justin Rodbell, Tyler Stepek, Jake Runkles, Max Sanford, Garrett Hoffman and plenty more race the best of the best on their home track. All of our friends are there and those who we have been riding and racing with all year long. But mainly the fact that it doesn’t require an airplane or super long drive to get there is why I’m stoked for this weekend.

As excited as basically everyone I know is for this weekend, let’s take a trip down memory lane to what could have been one of the most magical things to ever happen at Budds Creek: the 2007 Motocross of Nations. I’m talking about that one time we sent three redheads to a race and blew everyone out of the water. The race with attendance so large every hotel within a 100-mile radius of the track were sold out. The one where people were in line to get a camping spot starting Wednesday before the race when you couldn’t even get in for another day or so. Yeah, that one.

Why was this race so special you ask? 2007 marked only the second time MXoN had visited the United States with the first race taking place at Unadilla in New York 20 years prior in 1987. While the United States was in the middle of their run of domination, there were two other stories developing that made this race so special. The 2007 MXoN would mark the last time we would see The G.O.A.T., Ricky Carmichael, race professional motocross. Arguably the greatest Supercross/Motocross racer of all time would have his last race at none other than Budds Creek. The second story would be something on the opposite end of the spectrum. After turning pro in 2005, Ryan Villopoto would represent the USA for the second time in his career and go on to make history. Unlike RC, 2007 is near the beginning of Villopoto’s career and a run of great results in Supercross/Motocross.

I wanted to give everyone a brief overview of the events that day and what made it so special. If you would like a deeper drive into that weekend, I highly suggest you watch the movie Sixty Years and a Day. Troy Adamitis, who created The Great Outdoors, does a fantastic job of capturing the racing that weekend as well as the scale of the event. Break out your DVD player, buy it on Amazon, I don’t care what you have to do, just watch it.

While there was qualifying races on Saturday, I am going to focus on Sunday alone. In moto 1, Villopoto would get the holeshot from the inside while Ricky was forced to give up his qualifying position and move to the outside as he was on the 450. RC went down on the first lap and would put on one hell of a charge to get all the way back to third before the end of the race. Villopoto would go on to win the moto after pulling the holeshot beating Chad Reed by over 15 seconds, all on a 250. Villopoto was absolutely flawless in his first moto.

In moto 2, Villopoto would line up alongside Tim Ferry for the MX2 and Open moto. Ferry, who like Carmichael, lined up on the outside and would go down in the first turn. Ferry put his head down and charged all the way to fourth place before the checkered flag flew. Villopoto would get the inside gate pick and again pull the holeshot on his Pro Circuit KX250F.

Now this is where Villopoto would go on to make history. After pulling the holeshot again, Villopoto would go on to win the moto over Ken de Dycker and Tommy Searle by over 1 minute. By winning the second moto, it would go down as the first time in MXoN’s history that an MX2 rider would win both motos against the larger displacement bikes. Even with an incident in the second moto involving a lapper, Villopoto went 1-1 on the day pulling both holeshots while absolutely dominating everyone else that day leading every lap of every moto he was in.

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Before moto 3, RC would reveal that he has been battling Epstein-Barr for months to Mitch Payton and team manager Roger De Coster. The team decided that RC would get the inside gate pick and move Ferry to the 21st gate on the outside in hopes that RC would get the holeshot and check out. With just that happening, RC would go on to win the final moto of his career with Tim Ferry finishing in second giving Team USA the overall win for the weekend. The victory in 2007 would mark the third win in a row within a streak of seven from 2005-2011. While Ferry would only get one more win with Team USA in 2008, Villopoto would get two more wins with the likes of Ryan Dungey, Blake Baggett, and James Stewart.

With MXoN being back on American soil this year at RedBud, I am hoping we can see some of the same magic we saw in 2007 at Budds Creek. Team USA could really use a win this year and I believe that this weekend will be another preview of the elite talent we have between Eli Tomac and Chase Sexton. With a few races left, I am excited to see who will join these two so all of us can bench race until we gather in Buchanan, Michigan this September. Until then, I will see all of you at Budds Creek this weekend.

One Comment

  1. I was at that race and the only thing I missed and nobody got to see was Villopoto vs. RC. I will remember that day for the rest of my life. RV went 1-1 against the world. I will be at this years MXoN also.

Written by WadeRaynor

My name is Wade and my wife has a sick RV.

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