OAKLAND, CA, JAN. 25 – How long would it take Ryan Villopoto to rebound from a disappointing Anaheim II? Not very long as it turns out. The defending series champion and his Monster Kawasaki dominated in Oakland tonight, easily besting the charging James Stewart to win his second race of the four-race-old season. Last week’s popular winner Chad Reed finished third.
Vince Friese grabbed the holeshot, but it didn’t take Villopoto long to take the lead and ultimately pull away from the pack to secure win number two. Behind him for most of the race was team owner/racer Chad Reed while the battles were raging on behind him.
And most of the charging was coming from Stewart, who was picking off riders one by one after getting off to a sixth=[lace start. And the first one to meet the wrath of Stewart was rookie Wil Hahn, who lost fifth place to Stewart on lap three.
Soon after, Hahn would lose even more positions when he and Justin Barcia came together with the latter making a strong pass on the former, causing Hahn to go down.
In the meantime, Stewart had already set his sights on Ryan Dungey and he picked off the Red Bull KTM rider on lap five to move up to fourth. Dungey tried to challenge Stewart for the position, but was unable to keep up with the Yoshimura Suzuki rider.
Next on the list was JGR Yamaha’s Justin Brayton. Stewart got past Brayton on lap eight with Dungey following suit, pushing Brayton back from third to fifth.
Much to the fans’ delight, Stewart kept charging and chased down Reed. With eight laps to go, Stewart was able to redeem himself a bit after last weekend’s loss to Reed by displacing the Australian.
Dungey closed in on Reed as well, but ultimately had to settle for fourth with Brayton finishing fifth. In sixth place was Dungey’s KTM teammate Ken Roczen, a disappointing finish that dropped him out of the series points lead behind Villopoto and Reed.
Barcia rebounded from his lap-nine crash and finished seventh with Hahn trailing right behind him in eighth. Finishing ninth was Villopoto’s teammate Jake Weimer and closing out the top 10 was Andrew Short on the BTO Sports KTM.
450 Supercross Results
1. Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki)
2. James Stewart (Suzuki)
3. Chad Reed (Kawasaki)
4. Ryan Dungey (KTM)
5. Justin Brayton (Yamaha)
6. Ken Roczen (KTM)
7. Justin Barcia (Honda)
8. Wil Hahn (Honda)
9. Jake Weimer (Kawasaki)
10. Andrew Short (KTM)
