LATE BRAKING NEWS - REVIEWS - FORUM

--  AMA Monster Energy Supercross - Round 4 - Oakland - Smarty's take on proceedings... --  By Darren Smart 450 Class Report: With Jake ‘Sookie’ Weimer out with a head cold the 450 riders took the tight and technical Oakland layout like a fat kid in a lolly shop but when it was all said and done Ryan Villopoto ruled round four. RV was on fire all day and blitzed his heat and once he got the holeshot in the main it was all about what was going on behind Villopoto as the 20 laps rocked on. RV was the only rider to get into the 54-second lap time and finished the main over 10-seconds ahead of championship leader Davi Millsaps. “The points race is what we are going after, and winning the holeshot gives you a great advantage,” said Villopoto. “We made some changes to the bike today that I think really helped us out there tonight, so hats off to my team. It is a long season, and we are going to keep plugging away.” When I got my first look at the Oakland track map during the week I raised my eye brows at the whoop section straight out of the first corner and sure enough it was that whoop section that caused the biggest pile up that I have seen in supercross for years. And they were a shit set of whoops with square edges and ruts all through them so when 20 riders came charging out of the first corner Chad Reed dove off to his right to get a clear run but Chad’s CRF spewed sideway immediately and just as Chad had sort of got some control he made contact with Josh Grant who was blitzing the whoops on the inside. Riders don’t practice going through square edges, rutted out whoops so this was bound to happen. With the number 22 and 33 bikes locked together they smashed their way into the right hand berm taking James Stewart and Justin Barcia down with them while Trey Canard and Ryan Dungey were left high on the berm while everyone else on the inside was forced to take drastic measures to stay out of the pile up. In fact it was only RV, Justin Brayton and Millsaps who got through the second turn without some form of delay. While Stewart and Barcia limped back to their trucks, Millsaps got by Brayton on the second lap to take over the runner up position and put together a solid 20 lap main event to extend his points lead to 7 as the circus heads back to Anaheim for round 5. Ryan Dungey made his way from his poor start and second corner mishap to finally put the KTM on the podium while Trey Canard finish fourth after a tough 20 lapper that had him off his bike in turn two then again a few laps later when he jumped onto the tuff blocks and crashed. With the L&MC Chapparal team folding this week Andrew Short was parked under the Kranyak Racing rig with a production Honda CRF450 with Enzo KYB forks, a high compression piston and an FMF pipe. The good news is that Short was able to put in a solid night and garner a solid sixth in the main. Speaking of the Kranyak team, they were helping out Josh Hansen but the former Australian Supercross Champion fell sick and was forced to miss this Oakland. Chad managed to get back to 12th place after being half a lap down on the field and was keeping pace lap time wise with RV and Millsaps when he had a clear track and has managed to keep fifth place in the championship heading to A3. Daniel McCoy crashed out of his heat race but managed to put together some good sub 1 minute times on his way to sixth in the LCQ. Oakland - 450SX Results Heat 1 (Top 9 to Main): 1. Davi Millsaps. 2. Ryan Dungey. 3. Trey Canard. 4. Justin Barcia. 5. Josh Grant. 6. Justin Brayton. 7. Andrew Short. 8. Matt Lemoine. 9. Vince Friese. Dan McCoy – DNF. Heat 2 (Top 9 to Main): 1. Ryan Villopoto. 2. James Stewart. 3. Mike Alessi. 4. Matt Goerke. 5. Kyle Chisholm. 6. Chad Reed. 7. Bobby Kiniry. 8. Les Smith. 9. Cedric Soubeyras. LCQ (Top 2 to Main): 1. Broc Tickle. 2. Jimmy Albertson. 3. Tevin Tapia. 4. Antonio Balbi. 5. Kyle Partridge. 6. Dan McCoy. Main Event: 1. Ryan Villopoto. 2. Davi Millsaps. 3. Ryan Dungey. 4. Trey Canard. 5. Mike Alessi. 6. Andrew Short. 7. Matt Goerke. 8. Broc Tickle. 9. Vince Friese. 10. Justin Brayton. 11. Jimmy Albertson; 12. Chad Reed. 450SX Points after 4 of 17 Rounds: 1. Davi Millsaps (Suz) – 85. 2. Trey Canard (Hon) – 78. 3. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw) – 73. 4. Ryan Dungey (KTM) – 68. 5. Chad Reed (Hon) – 65. 6. Andrew Short (Hon) – 58. 7. Jake Weimer (Kaw) – 47. 8. Justin Brayton (Yam) – 42. 9. Justin Barcia (Hon) – 41. 10. Matt Goerke – 39. 11. James Stewart – 38. 12. Josh Grant – 37. 13. Broc Tickle – 35. 250 Class Report: It was definitely Ken Roczen’s night. The German rode superbly throughout practice, qualifying and his heat and with the championship leader out of the main Roczen simply run down early leader Cole Seeley and took off to a relatively easy win. “I am so happy with this win tonight,” said Roczen who now leads the championship. “There was a lot of bar banging on that opening lap, but I charged hard and got out front. I am excited to bring this momentum back to Angel Stadium next weekend.” Seely has led most of the main event laps over the last two main events but for the second week in a row the TLD Honda pilot lost the lead late in the race but thanks to Tomac’s dnf Seely now sit second in the championship. And as far as Tomac goes, it simply wasn’t the championship leaders night with a poor start in the heat and a struggle back to 7th place then in the main event a first corner crash followed by a major swap out and crash on the same whoops that would later catch out half of the 450 main event riders put a stop to Tomac’s dominance of the class. With five rounds remaining Tomac now trails Roczen by 15 points so the defending champion is going to have to win the five remaining rounds if Roczen stays trouble free and continues with second place finishes. It is going to be an interesting five rounds that is for sure. The surprise package for so far this season me is the J-Star/JDR KTM rookie Joe Savatgy. The former Australian Junior Motocross Champion is getting great starts and riding hard and smart. Joe currently sits 12th in the points after bouncing back from a poor round 1 and is definitely a star of the future – pity he signed with the wrong team this year but I am sure he will get a ride from someone. Kade Mosig managed to transfer to the main event from his heat with a solid ninth place while Cachia JUST missed out on a direct transfer with an 11th in his heat then he blitzed the LCQ to join the main event runners for the second time this season. Mosig basically spent most of the main at the rear of the field but Cachia had made ground and was as far up as 13th before a late crash put him back in 16th place at the checkered flag, one spot in front of Mosig. Cachia now sits 19th in the championship. Oakland - 250SX Results Heat 1 (Top 9 to Main): 1. Jessy Nelson. 2. Tyla Rattray. 3. Jason Anderson. 4. Coel Seely. 5. Jake Canada. 6. Christian Craig. 7. Eli Tomac. 8. Jean Ramos. 9. Chris Plouffe. Heat 2 (Top 9 to Main): 1. Ken Roczen. 2. Zach Osborne. 3. Martin Davalos. 4. Joe Savatgy 5. Malcolm Stewart. 6. Austin Politelli. 7. Kyle Cunningham. 8. Travis Baker. 9. Kade Mosig. 11. Josh Cachia. LCQ (Top 2 to Main): 1. Josh Cachia. 2. Killy Rusk. Main Event: 1. Ken Roczen. 2. Cole Seely. 3. Jason Anderson. 4. Martin Davalos. 5. Malcolm Stewart. 6. Joey Savatgy. 7. Kyle Cunningham. 8. Austin Politelli. 9. Christian Craig. 10. Zach Osborne. 11. Tyla Rattray. 12. Travis Baker. 13. Jessy Nelson. 14. Chris Plouffe. 15. Jean Ramos. 16. Josh Cachia. 17. Kade Mosig. 18. Killian Rusk. 19. Jake Canada. 20. Eli Tomac. 250SX West Points after 4 of 9 Rounds: 1. Ken Roczen – 91. 2. Cole Seely – 80. 3. Eli Tomac – 76. 4. Zach Osborne – 58. 5. Jason Anderson – 52. 6. Kyle Cunningham – 49. 7. Martin Davalos – 48. 8. Christian Craig – 47 9. Malcolm Stewart – 45. 10. Tyla Rattray – 45. 11. Jessy Nelson – 38. 12. Joey Savatgy – 38. 13. Ryan Sipes – 31. 14. Austin Politelli – 26. 15. Max Anstie – 26. 16. Travis Baker – 23. 17. Jake Canada – 21. 18. Michael Leib – 16. 19. Josh Cachia – 12. 20. Jean Ramos – 10 -- Monster Energy Supercross’ Title Fight Continues at Angel Stadium This Saturday Night -- Roczen’s KTM Set to Carry Red Number Plate for First Time in 250SX After four races and three different 450SX Class winners, Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, returns to Angel Stadium this Saturday night for the 60th time. Current points leader Davi Millsaps, who won the season opener in Anaheim earlier this year aboard his Rockstar Energy Racing machine, has a seven point lead on Team Muscle Honda Muscle Milk’s Trey Canard and an eight point lead on Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto, the two-time defending champion. In the Western Regional 250SX Class, Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen moved into the points lead after winning his first race of the season last weekend in Oakland. Villopoto became the first repeat winner in this parity-packed season and is quickly making up for his 16th-place finish at the season opener. Villopoto has five career wins at Angel Stadium and is hoping to win his third-consecutive race of the season this Saturday. “The points race is what we are going after, and winning the holeshot gives you a great advantage,” said Villopoto. “We made some changes to the bike today that I think really helped us out there tonight, so hats off to my team. It is a long season, and we are going to keep plugging away.” Millsaps finished second in Oakland last weekend and controls the points race for the first time in his seven-year career. "It was a good ending to a day that started off not that great and I'm pretty excited about it. Pretty cool ride,” said Millsaps following Oakland. “First practice and second practice were not that great. Third practice was better but I was still uncomfortable and not feeling it. Even in the Heat Race I was struggling. To come out on the podium, I definitely got my confidence back up [to where it needs to be]. Next week is next week. I’m going to take this one step at a time." Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey rounded out the podium with a third-place finish. In the early stages of the 450SX Class Main Event, a huge crash in turn two collected TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed, Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart, Toyota/Yamaha/JGR’s Josh Grant, and Team Honda/Muscle Milk’s Justin Barcia. Stewart, Reed, and Grant re-entered the race near the back of the pack and Barcia was forced to withdraw from the race. In the 250SX Class’ Main Event, Roczen moved into the lead on Lap 11 and rode the third win of his career. Troy Lee Designs/Lucas Oil/Honda’s Cole Seely finished second and Rockstar Energy Racing’s Jason Anderson finished third. Roczen has an 11-point lead in the season point standings over Seely. “I am so happy with this win tonight,” said Roczen. “There was a lot of bar banging on that opening lap, but I charged hard and got out front. I am excited to bring this momentum back to Angel Stadium next weekend.” GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac, who came into Oakland with a nine-point lead in the championship and a three-race winning streak, crossed the finish line on the opening lap in eighth place. On the following lap, he re-entered the race in 18th place. On Lap 5, he crashed again in the whoops section and was unable to finish the race. He now sits third overall, 15 points out of the lead. At last Monster Energy Supercross race at Angel Stadium, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer opened the 450SX Class Main Event with the Nuclear Cowboyz® Holeshot Award with Team Honda Muscle Milk teammates Justin Barcia and Trey Canard in tow. After a sixth-place start, Villopoto began to charge through the field, eventually passing Canard on Lap 5 for the lead and rode to victory. The first supercross race held in Anaheim was December 4, 1976, when Marty Smith won on a Honda. This weekend’s race will be the 60th time the gate will drop for a race in Anaheim in 38 years. James Stewart, Ricky Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath are tied on the all-time 450SX Class win list in Anaheim at eight. Ivan Tedesco holds the 250SX Class all-time win record in Anaheim with five wins.

RND 1 - MILLSAPS WINS ANAHEIM I RND 2 - BARCIA WINS PHOENIX RND 3 - RV OPENS ACCOUNT

- AMA Supercross 2013 -

RND 1 - MILLSAPS WINS ANAHEIM I

RND 2 - BARCIA WINS PHOENIX

RND 3 - RV OPENS ACCOUNT

- AMA Supercross 2012 -

RND 1 - VILLOPOTO OPENS ACCOUNT	RND 2 - DUNGEY WINS PHOENIX	RND 3 - REED WINS AT DODGERS
RND 4 - BUBBA WINS OAKLAND	RND 5 - VILLOPOTO TAKES ANAHEIM II	RND 6 - VILLOPOTO AGAIN IN SAN DIEGO
RND 7 - VILLOPOTO WINS - REED OUT	RND 8 - DUNGEY WINS ATLANTA	RND 9 - VILLOPOTO BACK ON TOP
RND 10 - STEWART WINS DAYTONA	RND 11 - VILLOPOTO WINS INDY	RND 12 - VILLOPOTO WINS TORONTO
RND 13 - VILLOPOTO WINS TITLE	RND 14 - VILLOPOTO AGAIN	RND 15 - SHORT WINS SEATTLE
RND 16 - DUNGEY WINS SALT LAKE	RND 17 - DUNGEY WINS VEGAS

- LATE BRAKING NEWS - REVIEWS - FORUM - WALLPAPER -