Race Report - Indianapolis

The first Supercross heat race became a hurried affair for Red Bull Honda teammates Davi Millsaps and Trey Canard has the duo scrambled to make their way into the top ten for a qualifying spot in the main event. They would easily achieve the task and safely lock themselves in, but not without the added stress of being held up by Kyle Partridge’s stalled Red Seven Kawasaki or facing the competing seventeen riders. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto wasn’t as fortunate; he was also caught in the first turn chaos but a hole in his radiator made it impossible to continue, sealing himself a spot in the LCQ. Up front San Manuel/L&M Yamaha and co-point leader Josh Hill was without a challenge, as Hart and Huntington’s Matt Boni and temporary Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Nick Wey battled for second place and let the title contender pull away to a five second lead.

Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGR/ Yamaha pilot Justin Brayton was the first to the stripe, but Geico Powersports Honda’s and the day’s fastest qualifier Kevin Windham made short work of Brayton and went on to duplicate his practice domination, with a wire to wire win. Co-point leader Ryan Dungey and his Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki settled for second behind the veteran after a numerous lap charge, but backed off instead of pushing himself to a catastrophic mistake. The main event’s final line up was soon to be established, just as soon as the LCQ was run.

After a dismal heat, Ryan Villopoto found himself in the LCQ. When the pack of riders came jostling around for the first lap, he was shuffled to a mid pack position to begin his charge. RV2 knew his time was limited in the six lap sprint and forced his to the front, blowing up berms to steal away positions for Rock River Yamaha’s Weston Peick and Kyle Partridge. BTOSports.com Suzuki’s Jason Thomas could sense that Villopoto was closing in for the lead and to defuse the battle or the block pass, waved the Kawi rider by. Villopoto and Thomas would finish the race one-two, respectively.

As mentioned earlier, the bid for the recently vacated champion role is up for grabs, and while at Indy the fans got to see exactly how heated this year has gotten. In the day’s practice session, Ryan Dungey let it be known to long time Achilles heel Jason Lawrence that the number five was here to win a championship, not become psyched out by the tag team efforts of the 75 and 338.

Ryan Villopoto also was on a mission to move higher up in the points chase and to forget the LCQ laps he was forced to do. Off the start it was Millsaps, Windham, Villopoto, Dungey, and Grant Langston in that order, and instantaneously the sideswipes and stand up passes were being exchanged. KDub14 put a serious squeeze play on Davi, but just as quickly had the pass been made Millsaps was on the rear fender of the Geico Honda to much avail. Millsaps would slide back a few more markers, most importantly to Ryan Villopoto just after turning the pressure off of Windham. Villopoto only saw first place in his future, smashing through the whoops and bowl corners like they were fresh mountain powder as he shrank the distance between himself and Windham. In nearly every corner, Villopoto looked to make a similar block pass to the ones he attempted on James Stewart at the US Open back in October by charging up next to Windham just before braking at the very last second. Down the start straight is where RV would find his opportunity that would final stick, taking Windham high and slamming the door on the next turn. A rider that was documenting every move made by Villopoto was Ryan Dungey, who made a copycat pass on Windham and chomped at the lead built by the former Lites class competition while hoping that lapped traffic would come into play. Dungey’s hopes would backfire and would actually find himself held up by slower riders while Villopoto would go on to finish with his third win of the season, moving himself into the point lead alongside Dungey. During all of the commotion in the front, it was clear there was one vital contender nowhere to be found near the main pack. Josh Hill, fresh off a heat race win, was mired to a ninth place finish after a very remedial start and faced with a difficult, one lined track to pass on. Hill is now ten points out of first in the points chase as the series heads to the sell out Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.