Image: Octopi Media.

Improvements at Unadilla have Dylan Ferrandis certain he’s ‘back to normal’ after the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider delivered his best performance of the 450MX season yet over the weekend.

Former champion Ferrandis commenced the ninth round of the 2023 Pro Motocross season by qualifying seventh fastest and made a decent start to moto one to feature in the top-five early on.

From there he progressively worked his way forward and capitalized on a mistake from Chase Sexton (Team Honda HRC) to move into second with three laps to go, then charging to within just 1.690s of race-winner Jett Lawrence (Team Honda HRC) come race’s-end.

An issue with his holeshot device saw his start negatively impacted in moto two and he was P8 at the conclusion of the opening lap. The number 14 made his way to third, where he would ultimately finish the race, to secure his 14th moto podium of the season and P3 overall on the day.

“You know, some races like Washougal, I was not really feeling great and didn’t really have the speed, but I was getting the holeshot,” Ferrandis said. “This track, I was feeling great today and trying to get a holeshot… I broke my holeshot device. I don’t know what broke, but it broke like two feet after the gate and obviously, the bike wheelied and it was over.

“Yeah, lack of luck. I don’t why it happened today, it sucked, but it is what it is. Then I was dead-last to the first turn and I had to come back from behind. Still, a better day for me, it was the first race of the season that I was able to fight the Honda boys and I feel like myself.

“I feel like I was back to my normal riding style, normal speed and yeah, it feels good because at some points I was like ‘maybe I’m over, maybe I don’t know how to ride a dirt bike anymore’. I was pretty sure it was more bike set-up than anything, but after so many bad races you start to question yourself.

“We used this break after Washougal, we had a meeting with the team and realized I was struggling with the bike and I wanted to try some specific parts. We did, they agree and, obviously, I was right – the bike is way better, the set-up is way better. It fits my riding style and fits exactly what I was looking for, for a long time.

“I think I proved to myself that I still know how to ride a dirt bike fast and now, with more confidence and more time on the new set-up, maybe for the next two rounds I can give a shot to the boys next to me [Jett Lawrence and Chase Sexton].”

The 2021 450MX championship winner is second in the standings with four motos remaining, as the gates drop on the penultimate round of the series this Saturday at Budds Creek.