ROUND 13/APRIL 6, 2013
RELIANT STADIUM/HOUSTON, TEXAS
SUPERCROSS
P64
MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES, AN FIM WORLD
>>Tyler Bowers: Call To Duty
Fresh off of wrapping up his thirdstraight Amsoil AMA Arenacross title,
Tyler Bowers was swooped up by
Mitch Payton to help out his injury
riddled Monster Energy Pro Circuit
Supercross Team, which just lost
East team members Dean Wilson
and Justin Hill to assorted ailments.
Bowers was an easy choice for
Payton, having been a Kawasaki
rider for the past four years and has
Supercross experience.
"It was amazing when I got the
call, just coming off my third Arenacross title," said Bowers. "I was
just sitting on the couch taking a
vacation, I wasn't planning on doing
Supercross this year since I broke
my collarbone during Arenacross
and I'm wasn't really able to ride a
lot during the week. I was just doRyan Dungey
looked good but
Villopoto was
just unbeatable
on this night.
ing a lot of road-bike riding to stay
in shape, and then Mitch [Payton]
gave me the call and he said, 'Hey,
we might need ya, I'm going into
a meeting with Kawi, I'll know by
tomorrow.'"
Things happened fast once Payton got the go-ahead and Bowers
spent the next day testing with suspension tech Jim "Bones" Bacon all
day at the Kawasaki practice track,
which made for a good birthday
present for Bowers who just turned
24.
This isn't Bower's first venture into
Supercross; the Kentucky rider has
a couple of top-10 finishes in last
years series.
"I've had good luck in Supercross," says Bowers. "Basically, the
biggest difference between Super-
cross and Arenacross is there's a lot
more room out there in Supercross,
I can get all over the track. But
mainly, Supercross is the big show.
Arenacross is shorter lap times,
however, I think the tighter racing in
Arenacross makes it more difficult.
In Supercross, you can get caught
up in a situation where you're between two groups but you might be
all by yourself for the entire race; but
then other times you have a battle
the whole race with someone. But in
Arenacross it's not like that, there's
something going on all the time,
whether it's lappers going down in
front of you, or guys trying to take
you out in every turn. It's kind of a
different ball game. You know, I love
Arenacross, and I love Supercross,
and I wouldn't compare the two at
