Reed, Rattray Rock in Texas

Cycle News Staff | May 28, 2011

FREESTONE, TEXAS, MAY 28 – There were two red plates on the track at Freestone Raceway, after the tie at round one of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, but only one rider left with the points lead this time. Chad Reed (pictured below) placed his TwoTwo Motorsports Honda on top of the box in Wortham, Texas with a flawless 1-1 victory, but it wasn’t without the gut-wrenching misfortune of Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey that he was able to pull it off.

With a lap and a half left to go in the second moto Dungey slowed to a stop on the side of the track, appearing to be out of gas. With a second place in the first moto, Dungey was looking at an overall win in Texas, but had to watch it all slip away as he was literally left in the dust. Reed sailed by to capitalize on the mishap and capture his second win in a row. The TwoTwo Motorsports rider now has a 21-point lead in the championship over Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto, who finished third on the day with a 3-5 score.

Dungey (pictured above) was left to collect eighth overall with a 2-25 finish. Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGR Yamaha’s Davi Millsaps was particularly impressive in Freestone, riding to second with a 4-2 score. Millsaps also wowed the crowd by wheelying into a wall jump just before the “Texas 12-pack” – a move that allowed him to fend off the advances of a hard-charging Villopoto in the second moto. Millsaps held on to third despite the pressure, and was granted a bit of breathing room when Villopoto had a tip-over and hit the ground. He rebounded quickly, but his lap times got slower from that point on, and he would also let Brett Metcalfe and Ricky Dietrich by before the checkered flag.Metcalfe rounded out the podium in the second moto behind Reed and Millsaps, and his 9-3 finish was good for fourth overall. Ricky Dietrich of the Valli Motorsports Yamaha team rounded out the top-five with an impressive 8-4 finish.

 

In the 250 division it was Tyla Rattray of the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team who once again tasted a Texas victory. Similar to last year, the South African capitalized on the misfortune of his teammate, Dean Wilson, to collect the overall win at Freestone Raceway. Wilson captured the first moto victory, and was on his way to the overall win by way of a second-place finish in the second moto behind GEICO Powersports Honda’s Justin Barcia. But Wilson stepped up to challenge Barcia for the lead, and the two came together (by the admitted error of Wilson), and Wilson hit the ground while Barcia rode away with the lead.

 

Barcia then held the lead over Rattray, who conserved his strength for the last laps of the race. While other riders began to show signs of fatigue, Rattray managed to find a few extra seconds per lap, and pull up on the rear wheel of Barcia. Rattray impressively got around Barcia for the lead and the overall win.

 

Wilson worked his way back through the field from seventh to third. And had Rattray not made the pass on Barcia, the overall would have gone to Wilson, but he had to settle for second behind his teammate. Third overall in the 250 class went to hometown racer Kyle Cunningham of the DNA Shred Stix/Star Racing Yamaha team. After nearly dehydrating himself in the first moto en route to a third-place finish, Cunningham was able to return to card a fourth in the second moto to get on the overall podium.

 

The Texas national spelled disaster for KTM’s Marvin Musquin. The reigning MX2 World Champion was the victim of a rather freakish incident in the first moto when he crashed into the airborne rear wheel of Barcia’s GEICO Honda. Musquin came away with a compound fracture to his right thumb, and will likely be sidelined for several months.

 

In the WMX class, Ashley Fiolek snagged the win after Jessica Patterson suffered some hard luck in the first moto. Fiolek and Patterson came together in the first moto causing them both to crash, but Fiolek was able to get her Red Bull Honda fired up quickly enough to hold on to the lead, but Patterson had to watch a big chunk of the field fly by before she got going. Patterson rebounded to win the second moto ahead of Fiolek, but her 13-1 performance was only good enough for fourth.

 

Tarah Gieger cashed in a pair of third-place moto finishes for second overall and Mariana Balbi rounded out the overall podium with a 2-4 finish.

 

450 Overall finish

1. Chad Reed (1-1)

2. Davi Millsaps (4-2)

3. Ryan Villopoto (3-5)

4. Brett Metcalfe (9-3)

5. Ricky Dietrich (8-4)

6. Jake Weimer (6-7)

7. Christian Craig (5-8)

8. Ryan Dungey (2-25)

9. Andrew Short (15-6)

10. Nick Wey (10-11)

 

250 Overall Finish

1. Tyla Rattray (2-1)

2. Dean Wilson (1-3)

3. Kyle Cunningham (3-4)

4. Justin Barcia (9-2)

5. Eli Tomac (5-6)

6. Martin Davalos (10-7)

7. Matthew Lemoine (8-11)

8. Cole Seely (14-8)

9. Blake Baggett (7-16)

10. Gannon Audette (12-12)