Villopoto Extends Points Lead at Steele City
9/05/2006
Steele City, PA (September 3, 2006) - The eleventh round of the AMA Toyota National Motocross Championships took place once again on a mud-filled race track. All of Saturday's scheduled events were cancelled and pushed back to Sunday, which caused riders to try and quickly adapt to the course after only one practice. In the first Lites moto, Broc Hepler jumped out to the early lead after grabbing the holeshot and from there used his home track advantage to pull away from the field. In the meantime, series point's leader, Ryan Villopoto had a terrible start and sat around 12th position on lap two. With the point's on his mind, Villopoto rode like a man possessed and worked his way through the field and by lap seven he was in fifth place. Up front it was Hepler, Andrew Mcfarlane, Troy Adams, Josh Grant, Villopoto and Mike Alessi running in sixth. Villopoto was able to quickly move by Adams and Mcfarlane into third and had briefly passed Grant for second before Grant caught his second wind and re-passed Villopoto. Grant was able to hold off Villopoto until the end to make it Hepler, Grant and Villopoto on the podium.
The first Motocross moto was another yawner as Ricky Carmichael grabbed the holeshot and checked out. James Stewart followed close for the first few laps but couldn't match RC's pace and settled for second. In a surprise to everyone, Ryan Mills rode his way through mud and muck to a third place finish after battling past Kevin Windham on the second-to-last lap. Michael Byrne had a consistent moto as he started near the front and ended up with a fifth place in moto one.
Lites moto two was basically a repeat of moto one as Hepler rocketed out of the gate to grab the holeshot. Hepler immediately began opening a huge gap. Behind Hepler, Villopoto began putting time on Grant who sat in third. Once the top three had opened enough time between the three, the remainder of the race was relatively un-eventful. Alessi was able to come from a poor start to fourth in moto two. Rookie sensation, Josh Hill put in an impressive ride and finished out the weekend with a seventh place in the mud while Chris Gosselaar came across the line in eighth.
The second Motocross moto began with a holeshot and early lead by James Stewart, followed by Windham, Mike Brown and RC. As he does so often, RC made quick work of Windham and Brown and was on Stewarts tail and looked to have another epic battle developing until Stewart made a bobble and handed the lead to RC. From that point it was RC way out front, Stewart then Windham. Back in seventh, Byrner continued working his way up to the front until crossing the line in seventh for a fifth place overall on the weekend.
Motocross Moto One Results
- Ricky Carmichael
- James Stewart
- Ryan Mills
- Kevin Windham
- Michael Byrne - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Davi Millsaps
- Nick Wey
- David Vuillemin
- Josh Woods
- Mike Brown
Motocross Moto Two Results
- Ricky Carmichael
- James Stewart
- Kevin Windham
- Davi Millsaps
- Mike Brown
- Tim Ferry
- Michael Byrne - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Nick Wey
- Travis Preston
- Mason Phillips
Motocross Overall Results
- Ricky Carmichael
- James Stewart
- Kevin Windham
- Davi Millsaps
- Michael Byrne - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Mike Brown
- Nick Wey
- Tim Ferry
- David Vuillemin
- Ryan Mills
Motocross Lites Moto One Results
- Broc Hepler
- Josh Grant
- Ryan Villopoto - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Andrew McFarlane
- Brett Metcalfe
- Mike Alessi
- Jason Lawrence
- Troy Adams - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Kelly Smith
- Steve Boniface - THOR
Motocross Lites Two Results
- Broc Hepler
- Ryan Villopoto - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Josh Grant
- Mike Alessi
- Andrew McFarlane
- Brett Metcalfe
- Josh Hill - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Chris Gosselaar - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Ryan Sipes
- Nathan Ramsey
Motocross Lites Overall Results
- Broc Hepler
- Ryan Villopoto - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Josh Grant
- Andrew McFarlane
- Mike Alessi
- Brett Metcalfe
- Kelly Smith
- Troy Adams - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Chris Gosselaar - Parts Unlimited & THOR
- Paul Carpenter