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.
Source: http://www.supercross.com/news/2012-monster-energy-ama-supercross-series-an-fim-world-championship-san-diego-recap-dallas-preview
Jeff Stanton Rex Staten
