Adam Cianciarulo raced in his first Pro Motocross race at Budds Creek in 2013; 11 years later, he will assume pit reporter responsibilities for the second time since he announced his retirement from professional dirt motorcycle racing midway through the 2024 Monster Energy Supercross Series in Round 27 of the SuperMotocross World Championship this week in the Budds Creek National in Mechanicsville, Maryland.
Cianciarulo’s first reporting stint since retirement came in the Southwick National in Round 5 of the Pro Motocross season.
“It was really exciting to join the crew at Southwick,” Cianciarulo told NBC Sports prior to the weekend activities. “Commentating, broadcasting TV was always something that came natural to me and I really enjoyed when I had the chance to do it when I was still racing. So I always imagined that is what I would pick up on for my second career. Being able to go to Southwick, I’m no longer just a rider that’s there - a guest - it’s the real thing. It’s actually the start of a new career for me.”
But at his core, Cianciarulo is still a racer who only recently climbed off his Kawasaki and picked up the microphone. And so we asked him about some of the things to watch for this week at Budds Creek, a track on which he won in the 250 division in 2017. He finished second there in the same division in 2019.
“The first challenge at that track is the 180 degree left hander at the start,” Cianciarulo said. “Gate pick, when you have such a sharp first turn, is more important. It puts more of an emphasis on qualifying.
“Some of the sections that stand out with Budds Creek are the off camber turns. TV camera work does not do it justice. There is always a couple of lines in the switchbacks after the triple step up and it can make or break your race if you come up on lapped traffic and have to pick inside or outside. It’s really easy to tip over in some of those turns.”
According to Cianciarulo, the far inside is not necessarily the best gate pick, but riders definitely want to be on that side of the dog house where the mechanism for lowering the bars are located. In addition to being having a tight radius, the first turn is off-camber and can force riders to tiptoe around it.
Track crews have been attempting to lessen the impact of that tendency all season.
“With the way they’ve been prepping the tracks this year, they are letting the natural characteristics of each track come out; they aren’t ripping it as deep,” Cianciarulo said. “Budds Creek can go either way. If they rip it really deep it can be rutty and rough and if they go a little lighter on the prep like they have been all year, it can turn into a hard-packed, edgy (track), (with) sharp bumps - a perfect track to have massive arm pump on.”
And then, only an hour and half south of Washington, DC in the middle of August, riders have at least one more obstacle: the weather.
“Guys are always checking the weather to see how hot it will be,” Cianciarulo said. “Budds Creek sits down in a little valley, so it can feel really still and mucky and hot there. Especially, on the starting gate, there’s not a lot of shade. Those have been some of the hottest races of my career, at Budds Creek.”
The forecast for 1 p.m., when the motos are scheduled to begin is for 80 degrees with a 16 percent chance of rain. The relative humidity will be in the mid-70s, so the riders might catch a break, but rain or shine, Pro Motocross will race.
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