The Day' that Blake bagged it!
By TMX Archives on 14th Mar 11
For a second consecutive week, Kawasaki stood on top of both the Main and the Lites class in the Monster Energy AMA and World Supercross Championships.
Pictures HOPPENWORLD.COM/ KTM IMAGES and SUZUKI RACING
Whilst it was Ryan Villopoto once again in the right place at the right time in the big bores, Blake Baggett took the Lites win for the green team, and in doing so his first win of the season.
This week the AMA Supercross saga headed to Daytona's International Speedway for the ninth round of the Main class and the third round of the Eastern Lites. Out of the gates it was Yamaha's James Stewart who had the pace to hit the front and take the lead. Right behind him was Villopoto who, just as last week, was content with riding his own race on what was proving to be a tricky track.
"I got a good start right behind James and just followed him,” Villopoto said. "He was on it those first couple of laps. I was just riding my pace, my race. I figured I was either going to stay where I was and he was just going to do what he was going to do or he was going to go down.”
As the opening couple of laps passed, both Stewart and Villopoto started to pull away from the rest of the field. Just as the crowd started to think that Stewart had it all sewn up, the Yamaha rider made a mistake on lap four, hitting the front of the jump and causing the back end to kick up and catapult him over the bars. As Vllopoto sailed past, along with the entire field, Stewart was left confused and searching for his bike that landed down the track. For the remainder of the race, Stewart fought back to an impressive ninth and Villopoto took the chequered flag followed by Honda's Chad Reed, and Suzuki's Ryan Dungey.
"Once I got in the lead, I kept putting in some hard laps,” Villopoto said. "With the track being as long as it was ... It was a pretty brutal track and it wasn't that easy. I was just trying to be smooth and keep an eye on where second and third was.”
Things were a lot less complicated in the Lites division as Blake Baggett rode to a Gate to flag victory in the 15-lap event, but not without having to fend off the charges of Honda's Justin Barcia in the early stages, before pulling away to take the victory by a comfortable 15 second margin over Barcia, who was in turn followed by Yamaha's Ryan Sipes.
Last weeks winner Dean Wilson struggled to get to grips with the harsh track. The Kawasaki rider got off the line with a bad start and even hit the dirt on numerous occasions. In the end though Wilson was able to salvage ninth overall.
Next week the series heads to the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the tenth round of the series.
AMA & WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 9 – Daytona Speedway
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
SUPERCROSS CLASS: 1 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw), 2 Chad Reed (AUS - Hon), 3 Ryan Dungey (Suz), 4 Andrew Short (KTM), 5 Davi Millsaps (Yam), 6 Justin Brayton (Yam), 7 Kevin Windham (Hon), 8 Ken Roczen (D - KTM), 9 James Stewart (Yam), 10 Mike Alessi (KTM), 11 Ivan Tedesco (Kaw), 12 Matt Boni (Kaw), 13 Trey Canard (Hon), 14 Michael Byrne (AUS - Kaw), 15 Nick Wey (Yam), 16 Fabien Izoird (F - Kaw), 17 Tye Simmonds (KTM), 18 Brett Metcalfe (AUS - Suz), 19 Chris Blose (Kaw), 20 Matt Goerke (Kaw).
SERIES STANDINGS after 9 (of 17) rounds: 1 Villopoto 196 points, 2 Stewart 173, 3 Reed 172, 4 Dungey 165, 5 Canard 154, 6 Short 128, 7 Metcalfe 107, 8 Justin Brayton 105, 9 Millsaps 104, 10 Windham 89, 11 Tedesco 88, 12 Wey 69, 13 Regal 60, 14 Mike Alessi 57, 15 Blose 50, 16 Chisholm 46, 17 Boni 34, 18 Roczen 27, 19 Peick 24, 20 Izoird 19,...
SUPERCROSS LITES (East): 1 Blake Baggett (Kaw), 2 Justin Barcia (Hon), 3 Ryan Sipes (Yam), 4 Blake Wharton (Hon), 5 PJ Larsen (KTM), 6 Jason Anderson (Suz), 7 Malcolm Stewart (Suz), 8 Dean WILSON (GB - Kaw), 9 Matthew Lemoine (Kaw), 10 Les Smith (Hon), 11 Lance Vincent (Hon), 12 Taylor Futrell (Hon), 13 Alex Martin (Hon), 14 Levi Kilbarger (Hon), 15 AJ Catanzaro (Hon), 16 Hunter Clements (Hon), 17 Nico Izzi (Hon), 18 Kyle Keylon (Suz), 19 Hunter Hewitt (Suz), 20 Ryan Zimmer (Hon).
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 9) rounds: 1 Barcia 69 points, 2 Baggett 65, 3 WILSON 60, 4 Ryan Sipes 54, 5 Blake Wharton 51, 6 Anderson 41, 7 Lemoine 35, 8 Stewart 34, 9 Larsen 33, 10 Vincent 33, 11 Martin 28, 12 Hewitt 17, 13 Trettel 16, 14 Kilbarger 16, 15 Futrell 13, 16 Les Smith 11, 17 Catanzaro 11, 18 Gosselaar 10, 19 Izzi 10, 20 Rife 9,...
NEXT ROUND: March 12 – Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.