VOL. 50 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 13, 2013
P41
Briefly...
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHAN MOORE
R
yan Villopoto claimed his fifth overall victory of the season with
a dominating 1-1 sweep at the iconic Unadilla motocross facility
in New Berlin, New York, extending his lead in the 450-class
championship chase to a whopping 44 points over title rival Ryan
Dungey. With a little luck, the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider can
technically wrap up the outdoor title early at next week's round in
Utah, much like he did in this year's Supercross Series, needing only
to duplicate his 1-1 Unadilla performance to do so.
Riding in front of a partisan hometown crowd, Justin Barcia pleased
the rowdy fans with a 4-2 performance for second overall. The Team
Muscle Milk Honda rider was particularly impressive in moto two,
where he went the entire distance in second behind Villopoto.
Ryan Villopoto
extended his
points lead after
dominating
both motos at
Unadilla.
Previous round winner James
Stewart came into the Unadilla
banged up and far from 100-percent. The Yoshimura Suzuki Team
rider crashed earlier in the week,
straining his neck. It still bothered
him at Unadilla, though he was still
able to pull off a third-place finishing in the first moto. He said that
he backed off a bit late in the race
when the neck started tightening
up. In the second moto, Stewart
went down in the second turn and
aggravated the injury and, at that
point, chose to sit out the rest of
the day. The team is fairly certain
that Stewart will compete at the
next round in Salt Lake.
MyPlash/Metal Mulisha/Star Yamaha's Cooper Webb finished
12th overall in the 250cc class at
Unadilla, which wasn't bad when
you consider that he didn't even
think he would race after injuring
his arm in practice. Webb initially
thought he had broken his arm and
was certain he was done for the
day, but when the pain subsided
and it appeared he had suffered
a nerve injury, he suited up at the
last minute and rode. He'll have the
arm looked at further this week just
to make sure, but it appears the
rookie will be good to go next week
at Salt Lake.
After capturing the holeshot in the
first 250cc moto at Unadilla and
picking up his 13th point in the Motorcycle Superstore.com Holeshot Championship, GEICO
Honda's Wil Hahn clinched the
championship and pocketed the
$15,000 that came with it. After
missing the first four rounds because of injury, Hahn focused his
continued on next page
