Motocross: Qwest for Hometown Superiority
Written by playerpress.com, Tuesday April 21 2009
Qwest Field is the place to make some noise in the Pacific Northwest. On April 18 the sounds weren’t generated by the 12th Man or the Sounders Alliance. Instead the auditory senses were bombarded courtesy of the AMA Supercross and the Monster Energy sponsored double bill of racing, flying and crashing that fired up the 50,016 treadheads in attendance.
The treadheads and the riders were treated to warm temperatures and sunny skies. That’s quite a difference from the usually rainy and breezy conditions that have come to plague this event in recent years when it visits Seattle. Instead of having to hit the local outdoor outfitters for rain gear, the spectators were in the market for sun screen.
While the sun shone brightly for the races, it had a particular glow for Poulsbo, WA native Ryan Villopoto who got to ferry back home across Elliott Bay having secured the win in the Supercross Class main event. Villopoto has been battling a viral infection that kept him from the last three races, so getting back in the saddle and winning on home turf was certainly sweeter than all those anti-biotic meds he had to ingest.
Villopoto’s first win for the Monster Energy Kawasaki team also added excitement to the overall point standings as leader James Stewart and second place Chad Reed struggled to finish in the top 10 in Seattle. A crash coming out of the gate had Reed as far back as 19th while Stewart never cleared the pack and lost valuable time to Villopoto.
While Stewart came back to claim second place and Reed finished in seventh, Villopoto battled with Mike Alessi as the Rockstar/Makita Suzuki rider claimed the hole shot and took the early lead. Alessi looked set for success until he slid out halfway through the race. Villopoto took the lead and never glanced back at the competition from that point on.
As Villopoto prepared to spray the victory bubbly Stewart continued to work his way through the pack to claim second place in the event and grab the point standings lead. Reed never found himself at Qwest and missed out on the podium for the first time this season. Along with not being able to rub shoulders with the Monster Energy girls, he has only three races left in the season to overtake Stewart.
After a thundering opening lap that saw four riders challenging for the lead, point leader Ryan Dungey pulled his Suzuki ahead and controlled the Western Regional Superlites Class race for the duration. Jake Weimer, second in point standings, finished fourth in the event to give Dungey a nine point lead for the season. Weimer was left behind by the rapid start of Dungey, Ryan Morais, Trey Canard and Jake Moss. He dropped to eighth after the first lap and never recovered well enough to make the podium. With the Western Regional concluding this weekend finishing out of the money in Seattle may have ended Weimer’s chances of taking the season title.
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