Villopoto Wins San Francisco Slugfest while Reed & Stewart remain sidelined
— Kawasaki Report
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto returned to the top step of the podium Saturday night at AT&T Park in San Francisco with his first win of 2010. After dominating his heat race, Villopoto took every advantage at his disposal to earn his third career supercross win. In his debut with the team, Nick Wey scored his first top-10 finish of the season coming home in eighth.
Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer earned his fourth straight supercross lites podium with a runner-up finish, while his teammate Josh Hansen came from last to finish seventh.
Villopoto had been looking for a breakout race and San Francisco showed the 21-year-old was ready to battle for the title. After moving into second, Villopoto started to cut the gap to first. When the leader went down, Villopoto was able to take control of the race.
“I went into the main with a good gate pick,” said Villopoto. “I didn’t get the start that I wanted, but I got up to third pretty quickly. (Josh) Hill and I went back and forth for a little bit. I was able to get around him and out of the corner of my eye I saw (Ryan) Dungey go down and I thought, ‘it is on now.’ I took the lead and I made up some points this weekend.”
Wey got a great jump off the gate coming out of the first turn in third place and held steady for most of the race as he continued to get acquainted to his new factory Kawasaki KX450F.
“This is probably one of my best races in the last couple of years,” said Wey. “The bike was great, I just need more time on it so I know how it is going to react on the softer dirt. The race didn’t go exactly how I wanted but I got a good start. I rode a little tight and I was nervous. I’ll get over that for the next race and it should be good.”
After winning his fourth straight heat race, Weimer looked poised to sweep the evening program again. After getting through the first turn in fourth, he quickly moved up to second. He started to slowly trim the gap to the leader when a small mistake at the finish line forced him to ride for second place.
“All things considered, I’m happy,” said Weimer. “I struggled a little bit today with the dirt and the track. I made a little mistake in the main event and landed on a tuff block. The contact with the tuff block bent my shifter, but it didn’t slow me down too much. The layout was super easy and it was tough to make up time. It wasn’t a horrible night and I salvaged points and I’m still motivated to win. We’ll learn from some things tonight and move forward.”
Hansen looked to get his third holeshot in as many weeks when he wasn’t able to slow down enough for the slippery first corner and he went off track. Though he wasn’t able to rejoin the race until after every one had gone by, he steadily moved up through the field and finished inside the top 10.
“I came up to seventh from last,” said Hansen. “I went into the first turn a little hot and went off the slippery track. It’s just little things that are holding me back. I feel like I can be on the podium, but it just hasn’t gone my way yet. I felt like I rode with some heart tonight. I didn’t want to give up, because in the past I have. I’m excited to be a part of this team. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s a winning program and I know I belong here.”
Villopoto came into San Francisco looking to be more aggressive out on the track and the Washington native wasn’t afraid to battle for position. For two laps, RV2 and Hill battled for second place with Villopoto finally making the move stick just before the finish line.
“Hill and I battled back and forth,” said Villopoto. “He ran me high after the finish line and I got into the tuff blocks a little bit. It wasn’t too bad. It was all racing. I didn’t know if Dungey was going to be able to get back or not. I pushed to build a gap so I could get the win. The track was tough, and you had to be smooth and perfect. It was slippery and rutty.”
Wey only had three days of practice on the Monster Energy Kawasaki before Saturday’s race and the Michigan native is still getting used to the powerful bike.
“It’s going to take some time to get used to this new bike,” said Wey. “I know we can get better results. You can ride it all day on the practice track, but there are small differences in the race that I need to get used too.“
Rain early in the week made for difficult track conditions all day. The soft dirt in the corners made setting up the bike like trying to hit a moving target.
“The track was slick and the berms weren’t very steep at all,” said Weimer. “They were pretty flat which made it hard to turn. My KX™250F made it easier to get around the corners because it turns so well. It’s just that there really weren’t any rhythm sections to get anything done and the whoops were flat. There wasn’t a lot you could do to make up time.”
— Yamaha Report
Hill takes third successive podium in San Francisco
LandM San Manuel Yamaha were down to single rider representation at the ATandT Park in San Francisco for the fourth round of seventeen in the AMA Supercross/FIM World Championship series as Josh Hill captured his third podium result in a row with second position. Hill was left to steer the 2010 YZ450F after team-mate and defending champion James Stewart required surgery on a broken scaphoid in his right wrist and will now assess his recovery and fitness on a weekly basis.
Over 41,000 spectators were present in the scenic city of northern California for only the eighth AMA Supercross event to take place in the metropolis. Ryan Villopoto won his first Main event of the season on the open and exposed track after a crash by rookie and points-leader Ryan Dungey but Josh Hill had started brightly and kept a strong pace to push Villopoto all the way to the chequered flag.
The 20 year old is currently second in the standings and 11 points adrift of Dungey. ‘Those guys were riding great, but with James out, any of us could’ve won tonight,’ said Hill who has taken 6th, 3rd, 2nd and 2nd in 2010 so far. ‘Villopoto was tough tonight and I did what I could to hold him behind me but I didn’t want to do anything dirty. This is my second second-place in a row, and that’s good. It’s not a win, but it’s good.’
Justin Brayton (6th) and Ivan Tedesco (7th) were other YZ450F campaigners notably placed on the San Francisco leader-board. Stewart, who broke his wrist in a Heat race incident in Phoenix two weeks ago and then raced to a brave 3rd place the following week in LA, is 9th in the table and is facing an steep uphill task to retain his crown.
On the same evening Yamaha’s Broc Tickle gave the YZ250F its first podium in the West Coast Lites division with 3rd spot. British rookie Max Anstie was 8th. Tickle sits 4th in the Lites ranking and 12 points away from further promotion. ‘It’s funny because I know this is my first podium of the season, but I think third place is as far back as I should ever finish this year,’ said Tickle. ‘So even tonight I can’t really be that happy about it. I could’ve and should’ve done better. At least there’s next week.’
The fifth round takes place next Saturday at the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
| AMA SX Rnd 4 Results | AMA SX Championship Standings |
| 1 Ryan Villopoto Kawasaki USA 18’12.229 2 Josh Hill Yamaha USA 0’03.885 3 David D Millsaps Honda USA 0’06.328 4 Ryan Dungey Suzuki USA 0’08.563 5 Andrew Short Honda USA 0’22.443 6 Justin Brayton Yamaha USA 0’24.594 7 Ivan Tedesco Yamaha USA 0’25.899 8 Nicholas Wey Kawasaki USA 0’33.298 9 Thomas Hahn Yamaha USA 0’35.101 10 Michael Byrne Yamaha AUS 0’44.732 11 Kevin Windham Honda USA 0’55.550 12 Kyle Chisholm Yamaha USA -1Laps 13 Jason Thomas Suzuki USA -1Laps 14 Cyrille Coulon Kawasaki FRA -1Laps 15 Fabien Izoird Kawasaki FRA -1Laps |
1. Ryan Dungey Suzuki USA 90 2. Josh Hill Yamaha USA 79 3. Ryan Villopoto Kawasaki USA 77 4. Andrew Short Honda USA 68 5. Kevin Windham Honda USA 61 6. David D Millsaps Honda USA 57 7. Ivan Tedesco Yamaha USA 57 8. Justin Brayton Yamaha USA 56 9. James Stewart Yamaha USA 51 10. Thomas Hahn Yamaha USA 42 11. Nicholas Wey Kawasaki USA 38 12. Michael Byrne Yamaha AUS 29 13. Kyle Chisholm Yamaha USA 28 14. Jason Thomas Suzuki USA 22 15. Grant Langston Yamaha RSA 19 |
| AMA SX Lites Results | AMA SX Lites Standings |
| 1 Trey Canard / Honda 2 Jake Weimer / Kawasaki / 3.95 3 Broc Tickle / Yamaha / 10.50 4 Wil Hahn / Honda / 21.35 5 Cole Seely / Honda / 26.55 |
1 Jake Weimer 97 2 Trey Canard 81 3 Wil Hahn 74 4 Broc Tickle 62 5 Blake Wharton 59 |
