Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 23 JUNE 11, 2013 dialed. He was easily the fastest in timed qualifying and when the gate dropped on the first moto on the still slippery track, he and his Monster Energy Kawasaki checked out. He won by 16.6 seconds over rival Dungey, and his best lap was about 1.3 seconds faster than Dungey's best. That sounds bad for Dungey, but it wasn't a matter of him not riding at his best, it was simply Villopoto on that track, in those conditions, riding in the stratosphere. Consider the rest of the STEWART'S SHINING MOMENT For the first time this season outdoors, James Stewart looked like the Stewart of old, even though it was just for six laps, but it was encouraging for his fans and for the rider who hasn't really been on his game since injuring his knee at the opening round of the Supercross Series a long time ago. At High Point, in the second 450 moto, Stewart actually passed Ryan Villopoto back after being caught and passed by the series leader. Unfortunately his day came to an early end after a freak incident. He evidently whacked a pole with his bike's front brake lever and inexplicably it resulted in a cracked front brake rotor, forcing him to retire from the race while leading. Stewart's first moto didn't go much better, either. In fact, it was nearly disasterous. "I got a bad start and went down on the second or third lap," Stewart said. "I got back up and every time I would try to get past somebody by going outside the main line, I would lose two or three seconds and it was getting frustrating. I ended up pulling all my tearoffs and finally pulled my goggles off. On the last lap, I was coming around and took a rock to my [left] eye. It knocked me dizzy. I fell over and couldn't see out of it. I didn't care about the racing at that point. P49 Briefly... not in too bad of a spot yet. I like all the tracks coming up." WMX winner Jessica Patterson announced she is transitioning from motocross to off-road racing. "Since we only have three races now I have decided to try something different and started doing the GNCCs and I'm really enjoying it," she said. "It's a lot to learn, but it's something I want to do. I've rode moto for a long time and I just want to take a step back from it and do something different." "Then in the second moto I got up front," he said. "But the track was weird today. If you stayed on line you were okay, but if you tried changing up lines, you'd lose two or three seconds. I jacked up a couple of turns and Villopoto caught me and passed me on that triple step-up. I passed him going back down the hill. Then I came up by the mechanic's area and hit this little pole thing and it pulled the front brake in so hard that it actually snapped the rotor. It was weird." Despite the outcome, Stewart still took away positives from High Point. "When I was out front I was pretty much alone so there were no other bikes and it sounded like a Supercross, the fans were going nuts. That was exciting to have that. It felt normal to be out front. That's where I want to be and it was just starting to get good." Stewart feels he still has wins in him. "I plan on winning, simple as that," Stewart said. "That moto today showed me a lot. To be where I was after that first moto and saying to myself, 'I'm going to change that right now,' was a big step. And to have that confidence going into the off week, making big changes to the bike, and finally riding it like I should have, it was a lot better. For me personally I want to win, I need to win and I will win."

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