By Rob Potter
CUDDEBACKVILLE — They were not the kind of finishes Andy Karadontes was hoping for, but he will take them.
During last Saturday’s program at Oakland Valley Race Park in Cuddebackville, Karadontes, who is known as “The Jeffersonville Jet,” placed second in both the open expert and sportsman motorcycle feature races.
Despite his best efforts, Karadontes crossed the finish line second to Will Adams in both races on the 1/5-mile dirt oval.
“He’s tough and he’s a good racer,” Karadontes said of Adams.
In both of the 12-lap feature events, Karadontes ran in third place for the first couple of laps before moving his 1998 Honda XR400 up to second place. But Karadontes could not catch up to Adams in either race.
“I don’t like second place,” Karadontes said moments after the sportsmen feature. “But Will beat me fair and square. He had the faster motorcycle tonight.”
Karadontes noted that the track conditions changed during the evening. In the time between his heat races and the features, the sun dropped lower in the western sky, which made the surface a bit slicker.
“It’s hard work to muscle the bike around the track, especially when it’s getting slippery,” he said.
While he would have rather finished first in both features, Karadontes pointed out that he still is the season points leader in both the open expert and sportsmen classes at Oakland Valley Race Park. Karadontes said he has about a 600-point advantage in the open expert class and leads the sportsmen class by more than 500 points.
Counting his 11 victories back in February at the AMA Sports Winter National Dirt Track Series at Daytona Bike Week ’08, Karadontes has a total of 28 feature wins this year.
“I’ve had a very consistent year,” said Karadontes, who, since April, has raced weekly at both Oakland Valley Race Park and Accord Speedway.
And he hopes to remain consistent in the final weeks of the 2008 racing season.