Supercross: Villopoto Gets Seattle Win

Shan Moore | April 13, 2014

Seattle, Washington (April 12, 2014) – Ryan Villopoto came up just shy of wrapping up his fourth-straight Supercross title, but still managed to claim his fifth win of the season, and second-straight, at round 15 of the 2014 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series in Seattle’s CenturyLink Field.

With 53,927 fans cheering him on, Villopoto grabbed the holeshot to start the main event. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider held off early pressure from James Stewart before pulling away to a relatively easy victory, crossing the finish line with a 12-second margin over the Yoshimura Suzuki rider to complete the wire-to-wire win.

“I don’t think I’ve ever raced in front of a crowd cheering me on this loud. It’s tough to race at home and in the past I haven’t been that stellar here, so to have a race like that is awesome,” said Villopoto. “With Stewart and [Ryan] Dungey standing up here next to me, getting a win is huge. I’m not thinking about the championship right now, but it does feel good to have an opportunity to wrap up the title in New York in a couple weeks.”

Dungey ran in second for the first three laps, but dropped to third when Stewart went by on lap four. Stewart and Dungey maintained their podium positions throughout the race and finished in second and third, respectively, ultimately preventing Villopoto from wrapping up the championship. With a 48-point lead in the standings, Villopoto can clinch the title at the next race, which will take place at MetLife Stadium for the first-time ever next weekend.

Fourth place went to Eli Tomac, the GEICO Honda rider starting to get back into the groove after getting off to an injury-plagued start to his season. Meanwhile, Team Muscle Milk Honda teammates Trey Canard and Justin Barcia battled over fifth during the late stages of the race, with Canard getting the nod, while Barcia settled for sixth.

Dungey’s Red Bull KTM teammate Ken Roczen had a mediocre race for seventh, with BTO Sport’s Andrew Short, RCH Soaring Eagle Suzuki’s Josh Hill and MotoConcepts’ Mike Alessi rounding out the top 10.

Results

450 Class

1. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)

2. James Stewart (Suz)

3. Ryan Dungey (KTM)

4. Eli Tomac (Hon)

5. Justin Barcia (Hon)

6. Trey Canard (Hon)

7. Ken Roczen (KTM)

8. Andrew Short (KTM)

9. Josh Hill (Suz)

10. Mike Alessi (Suz)