Josh Hill has been a tough guy to find as of late. When the curtains drew on the 2009 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship Hill found himself in 25th place, overall. Injury sidelined him for much of the season, but even when he was on-track, things didn't seem right.

We caught up with him to see what he's been up to.

Where have you been lately Mr. Hill?
I've basically been getting healthy, my back was worse than anyone thought or would have wanted to think. I had three herniated disks and a pinched nerve, my ankle was still messed up and my shoulder still wasn't 100%. I have been getting fixed up and now I definitely feel like it's time to get out there and race again. I'm ready. I've been riding a stock Yamaha and really putting my hours in.

With JLaw out of the picture (a'hem, in jail!), will we see a new JHill?

Is it true you will be with L&M next year?
NO, I can't say it won't happen but as of now nothing is set in stone. I'd really like to be, and we've been talking but we'll just have to see how everything goes. I think it would be a great place to be, especially because I'd be on a Yamaha, which is where I've been since I was 10 years old.

So you're not going to make it to the US Open, would it be safe to say we'll see you at Anaheim?
Oh for sure, if I have to buy my own bikes I'll be at Anaheim. I feel like I have more to offer than I've showed anyone. I've only won one race and I won't be sleeping tonight knowing I've only won one, when I could have won more.

Do you feel like your approach to this season has changed at all in comparison to last season?
Definitely. I've wanted nothing more than to go in and win. This past season there really weren't any races where I was at the top of my game, due to my injuries. I love racing but no matter how hard I trained my injuries just kept getting worse. Now that those issues are resolved I'm ready to get out there and race again.

Where do you see yourself ranking in the upcoming Supercross season?
Top three in the championship is where I want to be. I've ridden with James and when he's on his game no one can beat him he's just on a different level, but if I'm healthy, like I am now there is no reason why I shouldn't be there. I definitely want to be on the box.

Looking back how do you feel about the past few seasons leading up to this point in your career?
It's all been a learning experience. I've figured out that I have a lot more to show than I've shown. I need to get on that, and right now this is my last year to prove how good I am. I don't have much time and I'm not going to blow it. I've made a lot of changes and I'm in my best shape, I'm ready to go out and race.

Thanks for your time Josh.
Thanks

Well, it's over: She sang, and the fat lady is now crawling back under her little rock or wherever it is she hides between gigs. We now have ourselves a brand new (and perhaps overdue) 250 Motocross champion who is becoming a championship machine as his career rolls onward.

That machine, of course, is Ryan Dungey. He showed every attribute of a champion this season, as things went from dominant to depressing for him on several occasions, but he was able to hold it together and beat the incredibly talented Christophe Pourcel for the title. Yeah, yeah, Pourcel's motor DNF the first moto at Southwick, but that doesn't matter – what matters is that Dungey remained close enough in the points chase to that crazy fast and finicky Frenchman to strike out when it counted. He made his own luck, as Ricky Carmichael used to say, and just as it did for the GOAT, it worked out for Ryan in the end. So even though we've been prophesizing all season that Pourcel would be our next champ, Ryan Dungey proved us wrong and provided one half of a Suzuki sweep of national titles this summer. Congratulations to Ryan Dungey, his crew, and the entire Rockstar/Makita Suzuki team for sweeping this summer's national titles! It was cool that MX Sports arranged for Ryan Villopoto to hand over the #1 plate to Dungey, replaying the scene last season when Langston coughed it up for Stewart in the 450's.

So, what really happened at Steel City? It was a beautiful day, featuring an incredible track at a world-class facility - but more about the track later. We had a couple of new winners in the 450 class, two champs crowned, an unbelievable dice in the first 250 moto, and a whole lot of extra stuff going on all weekend long. First things first, and let's make that 250 moto #1. It was clear from the first few corners that Pourcel desperately wanted to get out front and hide. He almost immediately made his way up past holeshot winner Ryan Sipes, then set out after the youngster Justin Barcia, who was blazing away out front. It was amazing to watch the two completely different riding styles and attitudes face-off up front, as Barcia seemed way faster than Pourcel, who almost seemed bored with it all. Pourcel's style is so ridiculously smooth and precise, you don't even notice he's a gear higher everywhere and on the gas almost constantly and very carefully. There's very little wheelspin, very little hopping around, almost no energy is spent unless it equates to getting into and out of the next corner as quickly as possible. Christophe got past Barcia and pretty well checked-out, while Dungey took another lap to get up to 2nd, and that's when the fun began. In what was confirmed in interviews after the fact, Pourcel admitted to letting up on the pace a bit so Ryan would go by, but when Dungey would give it a shot, the Frenchy would gun it and go right back around again. This happened several times, and eventually ended up with Dungey no longer taking the opportunities to pass, since he no doubt realized there was absolutely nothing to gain by winning the moto and everything to lose. Still, ya gotta give the kid credit for getting up there in Pourcel's face when he had absolutely no business doing it – it showed the heart of a true racer, and the speed and tenacity of a deserving champion.

Pourcel, though, was damn impressive on the day. He owned that track and everyone on it, and flat-out killed everyone that second moto. It was all for naught, of course, but he did make a statement. He was visibly unhappy with himself afterwards despite the dominating performance (even with a kiss from the lovely Erin Bates, to boot!), but it actually appeared a little bit... orchestrated. The way he wouldn't get up from the podium floor to do his SPEED interview, the way he held himself and presented himself afterwards, it was just so 'whoa, look at me, I deserved the title but it was not to be'. Well, that's racing Christophe, and that's why you guys line up every weekend. We love ya baby, but come on, drop the theatrics at the podium.

Believe it or not, there was a whole lot more going on than just the 250 title chase, and that was two more new winners in the 450 class. It was Tommy Hahn who was credited with the overall win for the day, and the eldest of the Racing Hahns made quite an impression with his first moto win. Tommy moved his way past Jeff Alessi and Andrew Short early in the moto to gain the lead, but something happened and put him back to 3rd again while Ivan Tedesco gained the lead. Then Tedesco fell, Shorty moved back into first, and Hahn had to pass him again, this time making it stick. Tedesco eventually got going again and charged back to 4th at the finish. So, Tommy Hahn got his first moto win and later, his first overall win to make it one beautiful day for Tommy and the Canidae/Motosport Kawasaki team. Oh and please, don't think of Tommy as a privateer – that's just ignorant and misleading. The second moto was an interesting one too, as Reedy (who we haven't even mentioned yet) got off to a good start but fell in a rut at the top of the valley, taking quite a while to get rolling again. He eventually pulled off and DNF the moto (his second 2nd moto DNF in the last two weekends, and second of the entire season), and hey – why not? He was already wearing the big fat #1 that he earned for next year's series (which he probably won't be a part of). This was probably his only chance to run it, and he did.

The real story in that 2nd 450 moto, of course, was the wire-to-wire win for Muscle Milk/KTM's Justin Brayton. The Wisconsinite looked every bit the part of a winner as he clicked off 15 or so nearly perfect laps, just out of reach of the wickedly hard-charging Aussi Jake Moss in 2nd. Brayton would have none of it, though, and just kept going to the point of a 12 second gap by the finish – a veritable runaway victory, and a beauty of one at that. Team USA's Ivan Tedesco came across a solid 3rd, 22 seconds back and pretty pleased with himself that he managed to charge past Hahn for 3rd on the final lap. Brayton's win marked his first, and KTM's 2nd ever 450/premier class win. Rumor is that he'll be on a JGR Yamaha next season, no doubt taking the place of Cody Cooper who's had quite a forgettable season aboard the blue bikes.

While we're on the subject of impressive riding, how about that Blake Baggett? In his first non-mud-non-crash-in-the-first-turn moto as a pro racer (OK, maybe his 2nd if you count the first moto at Steel City), Baggett busted out a bag of skills that very few thought he had. Sure, everyone believed he was a very fast Loretta's graduate, but few thought he'd be running top-5 and knocking on the podium door at the final National moto of the season. He looked just plain awesome out there, clearly enjoying the feeling of finally being "on pace" with a rider of Blake Wharton's level. There were plenty of missed opportunities to pass Wharton, and lots of times his wide, sweeping lines didn't seem to make much sense, but what's important here was to see the maturity and good sense this rookie showed while running around at the front of the unbelievably talented 250 National motocross scene. It was a great ride, so let's hope Mitch Payton had some extra time to keep an eye on Blake as most of his other riders were riding around behind him...

Some riders that we didn't see toward the front that we were used to seeing up there which are worthy of noting are...

Kyle Regal. The talk of the pits for the past several weekends, Regal has been top 5 several times over the past few races but failed to make it to the starting line for either moto at Steel City due to an injury sustained during practice. Word has it that he sort of 'got stabbed' by one of those wooden stakes lining the circuit, but that hasn't been verified as of yet. Let's hope Kyle is doing well. We believe he's all set to stay with the Valli Motorsports team next season, and it seems to be a good fit.

Matt Goerke. Last weekend's winner was just never where he needed to be at Steel City. In fact, he was barely able to get into the top 10, ending up 9th overall via a 7-12. Maybe he's hungover from all of the partying that must've ensued following his Southwick victory? Nah, maybe not, but he was definitely off all day – first barely qualifying in the 33rd position (almost 7 seconds off the pace), going backwards in the first moto then moving from 17th to 12th in the second. Matt's already signed, sealed and delivered to ride for the Steve Lamson managed MotoConcepts Racing Team next season, who are rumored to be switching to Yamahas. Since Matt's stock has presumably risen since his win, do ya figure he's kicking himself for signing anything less than a full factory contract for next year? Hey, at least he knows what's going on – and that he's lined up to get a paycheck.

In addition, Cody Cooper was way back in the pack, as was Tyler Bowers, Weston Peick, Jarred Browne, Les Smith, Jimmy Albertson - the list goes on. What this shows us is how similar everyone's pace is in the 450 class, and how important a good start and no mistakes is to getting a good moto finish. This class isn't emaciated from lack of top stars, no siree, it's jam-packed with fast, hungry rookies or sophomores trying to make an impression and earn a paycheck next year. Good luck to them all.

We had a couple of visitors join us again this weekend, and this time they had a bit more star power. The fastest guy up in Canada-land all summer was Blackfoot Yamaha's Colton Facciotti, #361. He's a big dude, and apparently when he's really on his game, he's super-fast. He looked mmmpretty good all day at Steel City, there's no doubt about it, but this ain't the first time he's been down for this race so we sort of expected him to be more of a factor. Possibly battling with the likes of Nick Wey or even Timmy Ferry for a top-10 instead of barely making it off the track in time to DNF both motos. With all due respect, though, he did get a great start in the 2nd moto (top 3'ish) and stuck around in 7th all the way up to lap 9 when we saw him rolling slowly off the track for the DNF. Will there ever be another Jean-Sebastien Roy, who can dominate up north then come down here and do respectably on a regular basis? Yes. His name is Dean Wilson, 'cept he won't be spending much time up North...

Adding to the alien starpower was MXoN Team UK's Carl Nunn and Matiss Karro, from the Latvian team. Both were riding out of the same van at Steel City, and are teammates on the other side of the pond. Karro is the Junior MX2 World Champion and a pretty solid top-10-15'ish MX2 GP rider, while Nunn has had some success but spends a lot of his focus on the British Championships. Their results at Steel City: 16-16 for Nunn in the 450 class and 25-16 for Karro in the 250's. Motocross.com contributing pro racer Willy Browning commented on Karro to us afterwards: "Dude, he was fast as %^&*! But I passed him both motos so he must not be that great".

This, of course, is a perfect lead-in to talk about the next big race on the international calendar, which is of course the 2009 Red Bull Motocross of Nations coming up October 4th near Milan, Italy. Weimer, Tedesco and 250 Champ Dungey are a solid squad coming over from the states, there is no doubt about it. Are they the first choice? Of course not, or at least two of them aren't, but it doesn't matter – the U.S. still must be considered a favorite. The difference this year is, we're just not an overwhelming favorite. This year we can expect to have to work for it even harder than last year, and this team is capable of pulling it off. The track looks like it was custom-built for the U.S. team, what with it's quite supercrossy and overall flat appearance in the few photos that have thus far surfaced. This is what we said last year too, though, and look how that turned out. The big equalizer here is how much (or little) the track is groomed and watered before and during the motos. Last year at Donington, UK, the track definitely featured a wide variety of jumps, but they weren't really 'American Supercross' type of jumps, not to mention the fact that the ruts were never knocked down, and the braking/acceleration bumps just kept growing as the day wore on. When's the last time you saw a huge, fast supercross track with peg-deep ruts and monster holes to fall into? And it rained? Never, and this race could turn out exactly the same way.

It's easy to get the impression that Ivan Tedesco may be a weak link here, but that's probably not valid. He's been suffering a bit lately from injury and personal problems, but he seemed to have really kicked it up this weekend in PA, charging hard through the very last lap in both motos, He has the speed, the fitness and the experience to be a strong contender for that MX3 class win, and hey – no matter how many links are in the chain and now matter how strong they all are, somebody will always be the weakest link, right? Italy's David Phillipaerts, Spain's Jonathan Barragan, Australia's Michael Byrne and Belgium's Steve Ramon should be his biggest rivals. Go get 'em, Ivan.

Jake Weimer is stoked to be representing his country in the only team event of the year, and he's been vocal about the excitement and honor he feels every time he's asked of it. Jake's proven he can win indoors and out this year, and he is always on pace and is a hard fighter – he will do well. His biggest competition will probably be from a guy he lines up against every weekend, Australia's Brett Metcalfe. Also providing some excitement for Weimer will probably be Portugal's Rui Goncalves, Puerto Rico's (!) Zach Osborne, Germany's Ken Roczen, France's Marvin Musquin and – in his big international debut – Canada's Dean Wilson. The MX2 class should be a doozy, but it isn't as stacked as Jake's been dealing with all summer, that's for sure.

Ryan Dungey is kicking it up to the big RMZ-450, and he should do well too. Arguably the favorite for the win going in, it's tough to predict since Ryan's had so little time on a 450 during his career. He's done well in the amateur ranks, but hey – let's not forget that he was a "B" rider right before he moved up to the big rig. He's smart, calculating and talented, though, and is probably as patriotic as anyone on any team out there. His biggest rivals are, of course, his Rockstar/Makita teammate Chad Reed, new MX1 World Champion – Italy's Antonio Cairoli, and, uh, that's about it. Oh wait, there's also Josh Coppins on the New Zealand squad (although he's been sub-par all season). That's about it. We're looking pretty good, when considering the win is based on overall team performances. And in case we haven't mentioned it – Motocross.com will be providing you the same coverage for the Motocross of Nations as we have for the rest of the motocross and supercross seasons, with practice photo updates followed by a race report photo essay and mid-week report as well. We're going to Italy, baby (by way of Amsterdam)!

A few last tidbits about Steel City, though. First and foremost, we must give huge props and congratulations to our friend Shast Johnson, who put on an incredibly well produced "Save the Boobies" event for breast cancer awareness. There was pink everywhere around the track, on the riders, on the fans and even among the media (yours truly wore some pink socks for the occasion). Shasta did an amazing job in raising cash for the cause with several methods, most effective of which was the silent auction which went on all day. We didn't get a final count, but we'd say that judging by the level of interest it received, it was significant.

There was a 2-stroke that qualified for the 450 class again – and we say again because that's happened exactly twice this season, and exactly twice in the state of Pennsylvania. Local hotshoe Brian Shuckhart made it into the show at both High Point and Steel City this year, making him the only rider to do so all season long. He did respectably, too, going 25-28 on a track that he was probably somewhat familiar with.

It's almost disgusting that we've gone this far and not mentioned the WMX's final round action. The truth of the matter is that, even without two more motos and another championship to keep up on, there's too much to photograph and take notes on in one day. As a result, the "other stuff" (in this case the WMX action) becomes an afterthought. That is unfortunate, but that's just the way it is. Ashley Fiolek and her Red Bull Honda Racing CRF250R nabbed the championship, but it seemed like a foregone conclusion. That's not fair to Jessica Patterson, though, who's really come on fire since getting on the saddle of Trey Canard's Geico Powersports CRF250R. Patterson has been atop the podium a lot more than she hasn't been recently, and is no doubt once again showing up in Fiolek's nightmares every night, as she will likely come back next season even stronger and more determined. JP$ went 1-1 at Steel City, while Fiolek could muster only an uncharacteristic 7-21 but hey – she did that with a broken collarbone the second moto! Yep, she crashed pretty hard and hopped back on the bike for the final four laps of the season with a genuinely broken collarbone. Not a little crack, mind you, but a big nasty broken collarbone. She's a saint, a stud and an ambassador all wrapped up into one so a huge congratulations must also go to Ashley Fiolek for her second #1 plate in as many tries.

OK that's it, check back Thursday for 30 of our (well, MY) favorite hi-res wallpaper images from this summer's outdoor season. Then, be sure and remember to get the latest updates from the Motocross of Nations the first weekend of October. Thanks for reading!

Well, the boys in blue have done it again. Gone and completely re-designed the way we look at the modern motocrosser. The 2010 Yamaha YZ450F is a complete departure from its previous generation. But "radically different" and "all-new" just don't seem to do this thing justice.



Lets jump into some of the main points of interest, shall we?




Engine
- The rearward-slanted engine allowed engineers to design straight intake and exhaust ports, creating the most direct path for air flow into the fuel-injected engine for incredible performance.
- The YZ450F uses a battery-less fuel injection system with a 12-hole injector for superb fuel atomization. The 44mm Keihin® throttle body is designed for easy starting, with an integrated cold start and idle speed adjustment knob. Yamaha FI provides optimal air/fuel mixtures in all altitudes and wide range of temperatures for outstanding throttle response.
- 4-titanium valve cylinder head with a "pent-roof" design combustion chamber provides excellent combustion efficiency and unequalled power output.
- The air filter case is changed to accommodate the new engine layout. Putting it up front keeps dirt and dust kicked up from the rear tire away from the intake system.
- New "tornado-style" exhaust header with resonator efficiently scavenges exhaust gasses and helps the engine achieve its exceptional low-to-mid range torque characteristics, while the 150mm-longer muffler comfortably meets the latest noise stan- dards without a sacrifice of power.





Chassis/Suspension
- The aluminum Bilateral Beam frame is crafted from a carefully chosen combination of forged and extruded aluminum, 16 components in all, for the right rigidity balance and light weight. A very symmetrical chassis design promotes nimble handling, letting riders enter and exit corners as quickly as possible to put the competition behind them.
- The swingarm and rear shock are redesigned, with the shock mounted along the central axis of the frame, taking advantage of the space no longer needed for the front-mounted airbox. This optimized combination delivers exceptionally linear performance for excellent bump absorption and awesome cornering ability.
- The KYB® Speed Sensitive front fork has 10mm longer stroke for excellent feel and shock absorption.
KYB® rear shock with large capacity piggy back reservoir and 50mm piston for more consistent damping control.
New fuel tank is positioned underneath the seat, contributing to the centralized mass. The seat is long and flat for to allow free rider movement.
- The triple clamps are redesigned, with a change in offset from 25 to 22 mm for unequalled cornering performance. The ProTaper® bars are four-way adjustable to accommodate a wide range of riders.

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