--  AMA Monster Energy Supercross - Round 7 – Arlington, Texas  - Smarty's Report

Arlington 450 Class Report: There is nothing surer that if Ryan Villopoto gets a holeshot he has a better chance than most to go on to win the race and that is what RV did at Arlington (actually, Millsaps got the holeshot but his lead lasted two bike lengths). On a slick hard-pack track RV simply put in a consistent series of low to mid 55 second lap times to inch, not ride way, from the leading pack.

Interestingly, RV’s KX450F had tyre warmers on it before the main event and his opening laps were the ones that got him a small break so perhaps that could be the secret to this week’s win. “I’ve had a target on my back this year, everyone knows that, and it’s stressful,” said Villopoto who has finally put his racing into prospective. “I’m just trying to have fun with riding again. If we get third, it’s on the podium, and if it’s second, that’s good too. Davi has been riding really good this year, so we have to just chip away at it. It’s going to take a while.”

Gone are the days of RV blasting away to ten second leads and wins. The defending champ had the advantage of a clear track but could only manage a 3.888 second gap over championship leader Davi Millsaps and just over 5 seconds from third place Ryan Dungey who had to come from just outside the top five to land the final spot on the podium.

Millsaps kept to his game plan, a good start followed by solid laps with minimal mistakes, in fact Davi was passed early by Chad Reed but then had to get back by the Aussie as the race heated up and his closest rival points wise in the championship, Ryan Dungey started closing in.

Once passed Reed, Dungey closed to within striking distance of Millsaps when the lappers got a little thicker late in the race but Millsaps slapped out a pair of 45 second laps compared to Dunguy’s 46 second laps to close the race down and extend his points lead to a handy 21 points (almost one race) as they head to Atlanta.

“It was definitely a good 20 laps,” said Millsaps. “I haven’t ridden all week because I’ve been sick, so it’s good to come away with a strong finish. Ryan rode really well, so you have to give it to him.”

Chad Reed didn’t do one sub 55 second lap all day but when the racing got going in the final he pulled out a 44.923 on lap three to keep in front of Millsaps and if it wasn’t for one 57 second lap when Dungey got by the Aussie would have battled for a podium in the dying laps. Nothing is surer that if Chad gets a holeshot he will win the main and he needs one very soon as he is now 39 points back from Millsaps.

Justin Brayton is getting some serious momentum behind him with a solid fifth place at Arlington and more importantly kept the more fancied Justin Barcia and Trey Cannard at bay to get his best result for the year. Brayton sits eighth outright in the championship right now and is poised to take advantage of his strength and consistency as the series gets to the ‘ugly’ stage.

I have to mention James Stewart. Bubba had a huge get off during the first practice then another half decent one in the qualifying session but still managed the second fastest time to Millsaps, then the lone factory Suzuki rider came out and blitzed his heat ahead of Villopoto but according to the man himself his clutch failed on the starting line of the main event.

I have a theory that will account for the pre-start failure. If you think about it, just last weekend alone there were Suzuki motocross bikes from 1973 to 2013 models jumping from start gates all over the world with absolutely no clutch problems yet the one Suzuki factory star in the AMA Supercross has a clutch failure BEFORE the gate drops.

Suzuki has signed Bubba with little money up front but with a ‘dollar value per points earned’ payment scheme with a big payout for a championship win. So now that the ‘World’s Fastest Soil Tester’ is once again out of the championship chase they don’t want to pay for any points earned so a nice little mechanical failure after a heat win suits the marketing budget perfectly.

Take into account the fact they don’t have to rebuild/repair the bike if Bubba crashes during the main event (60/40 chance in favour of crash) Suzuki will be happy with the result at Arlington. That is my theory anyway but as far as I am concerned this team deserves all they get after what they did to Brett Metcalfe.

A big shout to Matt Goerke, the BTO KTM team mate of our own Michael Byrne is exceeding all expectations so far this season and sits a handy 10th place overall after his eighth place at Arlington. Goerke had to race and win the Canadian Motocross Championships in 2012 to score a seat on a team in the AMA and so far it had paid dividends for both parties.

Speaking of the BTO Sport KTM team, with Byrne still out they have signed Andrew Short for the remainder of the 2013 Monster Energy Supercross series and the full AMA Outdoor National series. Short scored ninth at Arlington and sits an impressive seventh in the championship.

Arlington - 450SX Results

Heat 1 (Top 9 to Main): 1. J. Stewart. 2. R. Villopoto. 3. J. Brayton. 4. W. Peick. 5. C. Reed. 6. A. Short. 7. B. Tickle. 8. J. Hill. 9. T. Canard.

Heat 2 (Top 9 to Main): 1. D. Millsaps. 2. R. Dungey. 3. M. Alessi. 4. K. Partridge. 5. R. Kiniry. 6. B. Lamay. 7. J. Albertson. 8. M. Goerke. 9. J. Sipes.

LCQ (Top 2 to Main): 1. J. Barcia. 2. C. Blose.

Main Event: 1. R. Villopoto. 2. D. Millsaps. 3. R. Dungey. 4. C. Reed. 5. J. Brayton. 6. J. Barcia. 7. T. Canard. 8. M. Goerke. 9. A. Short. 10. B. Tickle. 11. W. Peick. 12. M. Alessi. 13. J. Albertson. 14. R. Kiniry. 15. J. Hill. 16. B. Lamay. 17. J. Sipes. 18. K. Partridge. 19. C. Blose. 20. J. Stewart.

450SX Points after 7 of 17 Rounds: 1. Davi Millsaps – 154. 2. Ryan Dungey – 133. 3. Ryan Villopoto – 130. 4. Trey Canard – 119. 5. Chad Reed – 115. 6. Justin Barcia – 98. 7. Andrew Short – 95. 8. Justin Brayton – 83. 9. James Stewart – 75. 10. Matt Goerke - 69 11. Broc Tickle 68. 12. Mike Alessi 49. 13. Jake Weimer 48. 14. Josh Grant 40. 15. Weston Peick 39. 16. Kyle Chisholm 37. 17. Matt Lemoine 34. 18. Vince Friese 30. 19. Jimmy Albertson 29. 20. Robert Kiniry 23.
Arlington 250SX Class Report: Dean Wilson was expecting to be among the front runners in the Supercross class (450) in 2013 but he ended up signing on for another year with Pro-Circuit Kawasaki to ride the 250SX East and if round one is any indication it was a good decision.

Wilson blitzed the whoops to take the early lead from Kyle Peters and the eventual win ahead of Blake Wharton who managed to come from the LCQ to finish second in the main event ahead of the talented Will Hahn, Peters and class Rookie Justin Hill (younger brother of Josh).

“This feels so good,” said Wilson. “It’s been 10 months waiting for that. I knew I needed to get the start, so I fought for it and it went well. I saw the leader and I knew I was good in the whoops, so I just went on the outside around him. He raced clean and I respect that. From there I just rode my own race.”

One of the pre-race favorites Marvin Musquin came from a first corner crash to end up in sixth ahead of 2012 Australian Supercross Champion Gavin Faith who rode solid all day and will be a threat to a podium if he can score a decent start. Earlier in the day Faith won his heat race.

Far North Queenslander Jackson Richardson has bounced back from injury to score a solid 11th place in the main event on his privateer Honda with his best lap of 47.721 but more importantly ‘Jatz’ kept every lap bar his last under 50 seconds.

Put that result into prospective, Josh Cachia’s best result after six rounds in the East was 12th place while Kade Mosig’s best finish was 16th place in one of the two main events he qualified in.

“It is just so busy out there when you are mid pack, my starts in the heat and the main event didn’t go to plan so I just pushed hard each lap and let the cards fall, 11th is good for the first round but we will work on starts next week and get ready for better results at Atlanta,” said Richardson after the race.

Arlington - 250SX Results

Heat 1 (Top 9 to Main): 1. G. Faith. 2. M. Musquin. 3. J. Decotis. 4. C. Thompson. 5. W. Hahn. 6. K. Peters. 7. M. Oldenburg. 8. R. Zimmer. 9. G. Swanepoel.

Heat 2 (Top 9 to Main): 1. D. Wilson. 2. V. Friese.3. L. Kilbarger. 4. B. Ripple. 5. A. Gulley. 6. J. Wentland. 7. L. Vincent. 8. J. Hill. 9. Jackson Richardson.

LCQ (Top 2 to Main): 1. Blacke Wharton. 2. Zach ‘Big Balls’ Bell (I just re-named him after his heat race crash)

250SX Main Event: 1. D. Wilson. 2. B. Wharton. 3. W. Hahn. 4. K. Peters. 5. J. Hill. 6. M. Musquin. 7. G. Faith. 8. J. Decotis. 9. V. Friese. 10. L. Vincent. 11. Jackson Richardson. 12. M. Oldenburg. 13. G. Swanepoel. 14. L. Kilbarger. 15. A. Gulley. 16. R. Zimmer. 17. C. Thompson. 18. Z. Bell. 19. B. Ripple. 20. J. Wentland.

250SX East Points after 1 of 7 Rounds: 1. Dean Wilson – 25. 2. Blake Wharton – 22. 3. Wil Hahn – 20. 4. Kyle Peters, Greensboro – 18. 5. Justin Hill – 16. 6. Marvin Musquin – 15. 7. Gavin Faith – 14. 8. Jimmy Decotis – 13. 9. Vince Friese – 12. 10. Lance Vincent – 11. 11. Jackson Richardson – 10.

Next week the SX riders head to Atlanta.


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