AMA THO 12Scc Western Region Supercross Championship Series
Defending 125« Western
Region Champion Ivan
Tedesco came from a lang,
long way back to finish
ter several runner-up finishes last year,
Team Suzuki's Broc Hepler finally did it.
The 18-year-old Pennsylvania native
stepped up to the podium as a winner
uring the second round of the
AMA/THQ 12Scc Western Region Supercross
Series at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix.
In front of a record breaking, sellout crowd of
49,822, Hepler ran away to score a convincing win
over the hard-charging defending champion,
Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Ivan Tedesco. Team
WBR Suzuki's Ryan Sipes crossed the finish line third.
Last season Hepler was a rookie. He had never
even raced Supercross before then, and yet he still
came out and surprised everyone with his secondplace finish in the I2Scc East Coast Supercross Series
Championship. He might actually have won the title
had it not been for that pesky James Stewart, who no
one could beat. This year, however, now that
Stewart has made his move up to the 2S0cc class,
Hepler is a bridesmaid no more.
"It feels real great," Hepler said. "I was able to
stay real relaxed the whole race. I was nervous the
A
most [on] like the second and third lap."
If Hepler was nervous it didn't show. When the
gate dropped to start the IS-lap main event, Sipes
got the holeshot, only to have Hepler push him wide.
"I was actually glad 1got the holeshot, " Sipes said.
"I was like, 'I kind of want that money,' and I kind of
crossed over in the whoops. He [Hepler] passed me
right away... but I was in second until past halfway,
and I was pretty content with it."
Once Hepler passed Sipes, he began to build up a
lead that no one could erase, while Sipes got behind
him and tried to learn as much as he could.
"I've ridden with Broc a lot," Sipes said, "and his
style hasn't changed a lot. It has just gotten faster."
Meanwhile, Tedesco was back in the pack,
attempting to recover from a horrible start.
"I think I wheelied a little bit out of the gate,"
Tedesco said, "and got pinched by the two guys that
were on the left and right of me. 1went into the first
corner and I tried to just kind of sneak in on the
inside there... and me and [Andrew] Short came
together and knocked me way back."
From then on, Tedesco had a lot of ground to
HCond'
.
