Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 21 MAY 29, 2013 art at the end. Barcia ended up fourth ahead of his teammate Canard. With his second sweep in a row, Villopoto enjoys a 12-point lead over Dungey who is doing his best to keep pace with the Kawasaki rider. "It's great to be consistent but we have to start getting race wins," Dungey said. "It's important to be there at the beginning and not let Villopoto get away." Villopoto said the win wasn't as easy as it looked. "Today was not the easiest and the track got rough. I just tried to sit back and be patient and try to work on one guy at a time. Now I'm heading back to my place in Florida this week; I have a new track built there. It's going to be hot and humid back east so we need to get ready for that." With his strong 2-2 performance, Dungey is right there in the championship hunt, but he just needs a little more. "I'm trying to be prepared coming in to each race," he said. "It was rough and My Own Race: 800 MIKE ALESSI 5TH (6-6) 450 13TH (11-13) 250 After missing all of Supercross with a torn MCL, Rockstar Energy Racing's Nico Izzi is getting back to speed. At Thunder Valley, however, a bike problem held him back. "I lost my rear brake around the fourth lap of the first moto and then it was survival mode because the track was so rough, but I was happy to salvage 11th," he said. "Then the same thing happened again in moto two! I've never lost rear brakes in both motos ever before, so it's frustrating, but I was safe and made a few points, so I'm just looking forward to next weekend." 38 KYLE CUNNINGHAM Briefly... right now. I should be ready by next week though." The Rock River Yamaha team and rig was also absent from the event after their semi truck broke down in Utah on the way to the race. Yamaha's Dan Rambert said, "[The team's] Ben Lamay is still out with a knee injury and the women didn't race today, so it kind of worked out actually. They have to wait on a part, but they should be there next week at Muddy Creek." that I passed and I wanted to race it. I'm glad I did because I got ninth that second moto and kind of saved the day." MotoConcepts/SmartTop's Mike Alessi has been struggling with his starts. "I haven't been getting the starts that I'm accustomed to, so I need to look into that and get that figured out," Alessi said. "I haven't got a holeshot yet and I'm not even in the mix for that holeshot bonus. I rode all right today, though we have some things to work on, but we're still in there. We're healthy and it's a long season and we want to be in the mix each week and hopefully be closer at the end. Mike Genova has got me a great bike and we have no help from Suzuki, but that is their decision. We have great sponsors and great parts and we'll keep plugging away." 30 NICO IZZI P55 16TH (DNF-9) 250 MyPlash Metal Mulisha Yamaha's Kyle Cunningham went down hard in the first moto and hit his head. "I went into the Asterisk Mobile Medical Unit for a concussion test and I passed, but my team manger Ryan Morais didn't want me to race the second moto," Cunningham said. " I told him 29 ANDREW SHORT 18TH (18-16) 450 34 COLE SEELY 14TH (10-14) 250 35 RYAN SIPES 16TH (19-13) 450 BTOsports.com KTM's Andrew Short was unhappy with his performance. The Colorado-native said, "This is probably the worst I've ever done at a National. I went down in the first moto and never got going in the second moto. I had lots of friends and family here today and although it's fun, it is also stressful." Lucas Oil Troy Lee Designs Honda's Cole Seeley, who missed last year's outdoors series with an injury, has been slowly getting back up to speed after the first two rounds. "I had a full year off and I wasn't looking forward to outdoors because of it," Seely said. "I feel like I'm riding all right and just need to keep working on things. I sucked in the second moto today but rode good the first moto. I'm still not used to these back-to-back races, and I was still tired from the first moto. I almost went down in the second moto and I backed it down after that. I'm now realizing how big of a setback that injury from last year was." After a strong and impressive showing at the Hangtown opener a week earlier, Ryan Sipes was not the same rider at Lakewood. "Today was not the best, but I tried hard and had a crash," the Rockstar Energy Suzuki rider said. "I didn't make friends with the track today. It was tough, rough and not a lot of good lines, but everybody had to ride it. You're going to have bad weekends. I'm just looking forward to next weekend. I raced there a lot since back when I was on 50s, and I'm used to the dirt, but it's going to be humid for sure."

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