Derek Costella, Kurt Nicoll and Matt Burton were the big winners at the XTRM AMA Supermoto Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, yesterday. For Costella, on the Hart & Huntington Honda, it was his first AMA Supermoto win in the Premier main event, and it could not have happened at a better place - in front of his hometown fans.

For the first time, the Supermoto Championship visited the South Point Hotel & Casino, utilizing both the casino's arena and nearby parking lot, which offered about a 50/50 mix of street and dirt. Most of the riders said they enjoyed the venue and track layout, though the transition from bright sunlight to the indoors was tough on the racers' vision, especially one area that went from light to dark right at the start of a fast whoop section that was inside a dark tunnel that led to the arena floor. The "Tunnel of Love," as it was called, wasn't so loving to all, as it claimed a couple of riders, including Unlimited contender Martin Lind on the Highland 507.

Costella, however, seemed to have no problems at all with the track, except for a Tuff Block that got a little too close to Costella's Honda. He clipped it, bending his rear brake pedal under his footpeg while leading the Premier final. By the time he managed to kick the lever back into a position where he could use it again, Dymond had already taken over the lead. But Costella closed back in and challenged Dymond for the lead.

Dymond put up a fight but it wasn't quite enough to keep Costella from passing him. By this time, the two leaders had caught up to lappers, and Costella managed to eek out a three-second win over Dymond.

"It feels awesome to get my first AMA win in front of my family, my home town - I feel ecstatic," Costella said. "I really can't explain it."

Dymond never could let up, as he had Jeff Ward breathing down his back at the finish, but he still held on to finish a season-best second on his CHM Honda.

"Hey, I hung in there and got second," Dymond said. "I wasn't the cleanest nor the fastest, but I was there at the end. I made it, I'm happy."

Despite nursing a tender ankle, Ward, on the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull Honda, finished a close third, but not after first surviving challenges by Brandon Currie, Mark Burkhart, and fourth-place finisher Sylvain Bidart.

Currie and Burkhart both ended up crashing - Currie while trying to pass Dymond late in the race, and Burkhart who slid out earlier in the race while running third. Burkhart ended up seventh and Currie eighth.

In the Lites race, MDK KTM rider Matt Burton scored the win in a crash-filled main event. Burton was one of the few riders that managed to keep the rubber side down the whole race, though he nearly threw it all away when he swapped hard through the whoops and barely saved it.

Cody Bastian looked to have second place all sealed up, but he slid out two laps from the finish, giving Dan Casey second place. Bastian finished a close third for his first trip to the podium.

Casey Yarrow finished fourth and Cameron Welsh fifth.

The Unlimited final was an ugly affair that saw three riders get hurt, two red flags, and a race controversially shortened by about five laps. When all was said and done, it was Jagermeister KTM's Kurt Nicoll walking away with the first-place trophy and defending champ Steve Drew walking away with a bad taste in his mouth.

The first red flag came out when Johnny Lewis and Martin Lind, who were running second and third, respectively, crashed in separate incidents while Nicoll was leading and Drew was running fourth. On the restart (but without Lewis or Lind), Nicoll again got away first, while Drew dropped his bike in the first turn after getting bumped by another rider.

Drew was on the move and had taken over third place when the second red flag came out after Craig Peyron fell and was injured. Since the race was more than 50 percent complete and had already taken up so much time, AMA officials decided to call it a race, with Nicoll getting is third win of the series, Jamie Siever getting second and Drew third.

"It's a bummer," Drew said. "To end a race like that and not to be able to cross the finish line and go, 'Okay, I got beat,' but I didn't get beat! I had somebody beat me by calling the race! Some race director decided that this race didn't need to go on any more. The race should not have been called. I think I would've won today - I think I can say the confidently."

"The way it turned out was obviously good for me," Nicoll said. "After the first three laps I had a four-second lead, and after the second three laps I had a five-second lead, so I feel like I deserved to win today no matter what. But it's always nicer to cross the checkered flag than to have the race called like that."