Last weekend in San Diego Ryan Villopoto made a definitive statement: the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider is the man to beat in the 2012 AMA Supercross series. Certainly the defending champ has had his stumbles this season already, but he has also shown he is the quickest to rebound from mistakes and bad luck.
At Anaheim I Villopoto trounced the competition, winning by more than ten seconds over Chad Reed. In the following three rounds, however, he had to deal with two first lap crashes in a row, neither being his direct fault. Ryan recovered brilliantly, coming from nearly dead last after the first lap to finish third in Phoenix, and then fourth in Los Angeles. While round four in Oakland marked the return to the top for James Stewart, Villopoto repositioned himself to take command of the last two California rounds at Anaheim II and last weekend in San Diego.
From the start of the main event, Villopoto had the clear lead, while Ryan Dungey, Reed, and Stewart were all further back. With short lap times, the main separator on the track was the long whoop section after the second turn, and this is where Reed and Stewart shined. Both are known for their whoop-de-doo prowess and their speed was clearly faster as they picked off rider after rider. Stewart finally made his move on Reed for second place as the race neared halfway and looked ready to challenge Villopoto for the lead. But disaster struck for Stewart in the whoop section only one lap later, as he went tumbling off the track. James was uninjured, but got entangled in an electronic cable and took a while to remount. By the time he did, he was almost a lap down.
Meanwhile, Reed continued to plug away, gaining tenths of a second at a time until he was within striking distance of Villopoto. On lap 18, Reed made his move, which is when Villopoto showed that he is more than prepared to win. Before the second triple jump, Ryan was a few feet behind, but he scrubbed the jump low enough that by the time the two bikes hit the ground, they were dead even, with Ryan to the inside of Reed as they set up for the right hand bowl turn. One final block pass is all it took for Villopoto to regain control of the lead and eventually take the win.
Ryan is now, for the second time this season, in the points lead as series heads east and his bike will be adorned with the red number plate for Dallas.
Lauris Freibergs Paul Friedrichs Steven Frossard Eric Geboers Sylvain Geboers Broc Glover Rui Goncalves Josh Grant
Jeff Leisk Victor Leloup Aigar Leok Tanel Leok Billy Liles Ove Lundell Sten Lundin Jeremy Lusk
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Who dat?
This week I caught up with Kevin Windham. In the video below, Kevin Windham talks about the Superbowl Champions, the NFL's New Orleans Saints, his family, his future plans for racing and beyond.
The Superbowl XLIV champions, the New Orleans Saints, have many fans - among them is none other than the number 14 in Supercross, Kevin Windham. While the NFL season started when Supercross was in its off season, Kevin was able to take part in season tickets to his favorite NFL team - da' Saints. Eventually the 2010 Supercross season got underway in January, which meant Kevin was flying off after those Saturday night Main Events back East to watch the New Orleans Saints Playoff games.
On February 7, 2010 the New Orleans Saints headed to the Superbowl in Miami, Florida and Kevin Windham and his wife Dottie made arrangements to attend this momentous occasion. First, however Kevin had to finish up a Supercross race in San Diego the night before.
Carl Nunn Johnny O Mara Zach Osborne Trampas Parker Travis Pastrana Gautier Paulin David Philippaerts Mickael Pichon
Ryan Morais' goal for a 2010 West Coast Lites Supercross championship came to a screeching halt in just the 3rd round of the series, when another racer landed on the back on his bike, sending both riders crashing to the ground. This unfortunate crash would sideline Ryan for a few rounds, but he would eventually return to racing action in Seattle and finish the season 10th overall points. When the AMA Motocross Nationals came into around, Ryan was ready to get back to racing, but going into the second round he was once again out with an injury. Ryan has been busy the past few months, but is back and ready to set some new goals for the upcoming 2011 series. I spoke with Ryan about what he learned over the past year and his prospects for the new season.

Angela: Well Ryan, here we are just a few short weeks until the first Supercross race of the season; let's talk about sponsors and the bike?
Ryan: Yeah, DC Shoes stepped up recently and is sponsoring the entire Rockstar Energy Suzuki Team, so I am really excited to be a part of it. I have only been with this sponsor for a few days now and they're really taken care of the team. I'm with the same team as last year, Rockstar Energy Suzuki, with the same mechanic (Rene Zapata), and the same team manager, and owner, everything is pretty much the same, but Suzuki really is stepping up this year. Last year we were on a 2009 carburetor bike, so we were kind of behind the ball, but this year we are on the new 2011 fuel injected, the whole new chassis and everything, and Suzuki has really helped us out with factory support. Our bikes are pretty much in house bikes, running Shoei Suspension, so everything is looking great. Everyone has been doing a great job and the people at Yoshimura have been doing a lot of testing and getting our bikes dialed in, so I'm excited for Anaheim 1. Our bike should be one of the best ones out there, making things really competitive, and that is very cool.
Gilbert De Roover Clement Desalle John DeSoto Tony DiStefano Jamie Dobb Gert van Doorn John Dowd John Draper