Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

was pretty demoralizing. So I started see- ing my points gap start to shrink, and I thought, 'I need to pin it! I need to get those points back.'" Villopoto and Alessi continue to domi- nate a series that was stacked deep on tal- ent when the season began, and has only gotten deeper thanks to the return from injuries of several top riders. At Red Bud, much of the hype centered on the long- awaited debut of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Ben Townley. The 2004 MX2-class World Champion from New Zealand has sat out for nine months with a knee injury, and he mixed speed with a lit- tle bit of rust to take fifth overall at Red Bud via 8-3 scores. The consistent rides of Boost Mobile Yamaha of Troy's Andrew McFarlane (who went 2-4 for third overall) and SoBe/Samsung Mobile Honda's Josh Grant (who went 4-5 for fourth) just edged out the friendly Kiwi. Townley's arrival, along with Broc Hepler's debut for the season at the previ- ous round at Budds Creek, had tightened up the already tight Lites class. This led to close racing at Red Bud, which was much appreciated by the huge crowd on hand. While no one could match Villopoto's speed in the first moto, a huge battle raged for second between seven riders. McFarlane ran second the entire way and dealt with serious pressure from the rest of the pack. Townley and Hepler saw their charges end with costly spills, as did Rockstar Suzuki's Jason Lawrence, who was putting in his best ride of the year, run- ning third, until he fell with two laps to go and dropped to sixth. This left second to McFarlane. "I kept focused on what I was doing and I stayed calm and tried to put in consistent lap times," McFarlane said. "It paid off, because he [Lawrence] rode over his head and he crashed." This put Alessi into third place, but he was under heavy pressure from Grant. On the last lap, Grant went after Alessi hard, and the two collided in a corner, with Alessi edging away with third. Grant and Alessi have had heat plenty of times before, so it was no surprise to see Grant ride up to Alessi and give him a warning after the moto. "I don't know what happened," Alessi said. "On the last lap, we were going up to LaRocco's Leap, and he just came around the outside too fast and blew the berm. He did almost like an endo. After the race, he came up to me and said, 'If you do that to me again, blah blah blah,' and I was like, 'I didn't even do anything.'" Grant saw it differently. "I was on the outside and was going to pass him, and he got out of shape and just came flying up on the inside," Grant said. "He ran into me." Alessi wasn't bothered by Grant's accu- sations, but he was bothered by being so far off Villopoto's pace. "I don't know what's wrong with my speed," Alessi said. "I know I can ride bet- ter than that." Alessi and Grant would have a chance to settle their score in moto two. Grant grabbed the Racer X Holeshot Award, while Alessi got into second quickly. Grant looked solid out front until he suddenly stalled his Honda, handing Alessi the lead. "Josh was riding really well," Alessi said. "I know we've had some heat before, but he's a great rider and a good guy." Grant restarted his bike just as Team Honda's Andrew Short and Hepler were rolling toward the front. Hepler then bumped Grant's rear wheel and crashed. Then Short tipped over as well, as did Brett Metcalfe. The ruts kept getting deep- er on the Red Bud track, which led to a variety of small crashes and tip-overs. Villopoto made his way past all of the commotion into second, and he was about five seconds down on Alessi by the time he got there. "I made a few mistakes early in the moto," Villopoto said. "Mike got a good start. I was inching up just a little bit, but then he pulled away quite a bit. He was going good, and I didn't have anything for him." Alessi took a big win, as it helped stop the momentum Villopoto had been build- ing. "I'm still not that excited, because I did- n't even win the overall," Alessi said. "But all in all, it was a good weekend for me." McFarlane ran third most of the second moto, just like he ran second in most of the first race. But late in the moto, Townley reeled him in. "I like racing Ben; I know from Europe that he races clean," McFarlane said. "That was a good ride for his first race here. I haven't been getting the best starts, so we worked on a few things during the break, did some home- work on the bike setup so we could get better starts." CN RED BUD TRACK 'N' TRAIL BUCHANAN, MICHIGAN RESULTS: JULY 2, 2006 (ROUND 5 OF 12) MX LITES MOTO 1: 1. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw); 2. Andrew McFarlane (Yam); 3. Mike Alessi (KTM); 4. Joshua Grant (Hon); 5. Andrew Short (Hon); 6. Jason Lawrence (Suz); 7. Brett Metcalfe (Yam); 8. Ben Townley (Kaw); 9. Troy Adams (Kaw); 10. Kyle Chisholm (Kaw); 11. Sean Collier (Yam); 12. Paul Carpenter (Hon); 13. Broc Hepler (Suz); 14. Joaquim Rodrigues (Hon); 15. Steve Boniface (Hon); 16. Richie Owens (Yam); 17. Danny Smith (Hon); 18. Matthew Goerke (Yam); 19. Nathan Ramsey (KTM); 20. Bryan Johnson (Yam); 21. Brian Gray (Suz); 22. Jake Weimer (Hon); 23. Matt Walker (Yam); 24. Tucker Hibbert (Yam); 25. Zach Osborne (KTM); 26. Justin Brayton (Yam); 27. Kelly Smith; 28. Levi Kilbarger (Hon); 29. Robert Kiniry (Hon); 30. Christopher Pugrab (Kaw); 31. Tony Sherman (Yam); 32. Joey Mueller (Kaw); 33. Bruce Dehn (Kaw); 34. Nicolas Evennou (Yam); 35. Ryan Morais (Suz); 36. Rustin Meyer (Kaw); 37. Mitchell Dougherty (Kaw); 38. Michael Brown (Suz); 39. Stephen Stella (Kaw); 40. Martin Davalos (Yam). MX LITES MOTO 2: 1. Mike Alessi (KTM); 2. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw); 3. Ben Townley (Kaw); 4. Andrew McFarlane (Yam); 5. Joshua Grant (Hon); 6. Andrew Short (Hon); 7. Brett Metcalfe (Yam); 8. Troy Adams (Kaw); 9. Kelly Smith (Hon); 10. Danny Smith (Hon); 11. Jason Lawrence (Suz); 12. Paul Carpenter (Hon); 13. Broc Hepler (Suz); 14. Kyle Chisholm (Kaw); 15. Robert Kiniry (Hon); 16. Steve Boniface (Hon); 17. Joaquim Rodrigues (Hon); 18. Sean Collier (Yam); 19. Ryan Morais (Suz); 20. Justin Brayton (Yam); 21. Matt Walker (Yam); 22. Zach Osborne (KTM); 23. Christopher Pugrab (Kaw); 24. Matthew Goerke (Yam); 25. Nicolas Evennou (Yam); 26. Levi Kilbarger (Hon); 27. Nathan Ramsey (KTM); 28. Bruce Dehn (Kaw); 29. Tucker Hibbert (Yam); 30. Mitchell Dougherty (Kaw); 31. Tony Sherman (Yam); 32. Rustin Meyer (Kaw); 33. Brian Gray (Suz); 34. Joey Mueller (Kaw); 35. Jake Weimer (Hon); 36. Michael Brown (Suz); 37. Stephen Stella (Kaw); 38. Richie Owens (Yam); 39. Bryan Johnson (Yam); 40. Martin Davalos (Yam). MX LITES OVERALL: 1. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw); 2. Mike Alessi (KTM); 3. Andrew McFarlane (Yam); 4. Josh Grant (Hon); 5. Ben Townley (Kaw); 6. Andrew Short (Hon); 7. Brett Metcalfe (Yam); 8. Troy Adams (Kaw); 9. Jason Lawrence (Suz); 10. Paul Carpenter (Hon); 11. Kyle Chisholm (Kaw); 12. Broc Hepler (Suz); 13. Danny Smith (Hon); 14. Sean Collier (Yam); 15. Kelly Smith (Hon); 16. Steve Boniface (Hon); 17. Joaquim Rodrigues (Hon); 18. Robert Kiniry (Hon); 19. Richie Owens (Yam); 20. Matt Goerke (Yam); 21. Ryan Morais (Suz); 22. Nathan Ramsey (KTM); 23. Justin Brayton (Yam); 24. Bryan Johnson (Yam); 25. Matt Walker (Yam); 26. Zach Osborne (KTM); 27. Chris Pugrab (Kaw); 28. Tucker Hibbert (Yam); 29. Levi Kilbarger (Hon); 30. Brian Gray (Suz); 31. Jake Weimer (Hon); 32. Nick Evennou (Yam); 33. Bruce Dehn (Kaw); 34. Tony Sherman (Yam); 35. Joey Mueller (Kaw); 36. Mitchell Dougherty (Kaw); 37. Jake Weimer (Hon); 38. Michael Brown (Suz); 39. Stephen Stella (Kaw); 40. Martin Davalos (Yam). AMA MOTOCROSS LITES SERIES POINTS STAND- INGS (After 5 of 12 rounds): 1. Mike Alessi (198/1 win); 2. Ryan Villopoto (193/3 wins); 3. Josh Grant (169); 4. Andrew Short (166/1 win); 5. (TIE) Brett Metcalfe/Andrew McFarlane (161); 7. Nathan Ramsey (90); 8. Mathew Goerke (84); 9. Troy Adams (74); 10. Jason Lawrence (72); 11. Paul Carpenter (68); 12. Sean Collier (67); 13. Danny Smith (62); 14. Grant Langston (61); 15. Steve Boniface (56); 16. (TIE) Broc Hepler/Billy Laninovich (53); 18. Kyle Chisholm (44); 19. Matt Walker (42); 20. Michael Brown (41). C Y C L E N E W S • JULY 12, 2006 23 MY OWN RACE 101 Ben Townley 5th Place "It was all right," said Townley about his debut ride for the season. "It was decent. I have a lot things to work on - starts, obviously, and that intensity at the beginning of the race. For me to come straight in after not racing for nine months - I was out there racing in the first moto and people were diving inside and outside the whole moto, and I was like, 'Whoa!' It's really intense in those first few laps, much more aggressive and intense than in Europe. In the first moto, I fell twice, and the second one cost me a lot of time. If I had eliminated the mistakes out there, it would have been a whole lot better." 123 Brett Metcalfe 7th Place Yamaha of Troy's Brett Metcalfe wasn't too happy with his ride, although the Aussie contin- ues to be one of the most consistent riders in the series. "The first moto was not that good," he said. "I didn't have it going on. I think everyone had a spill somewhere in the sec- ond moto. The corners were really packed, and every crash was like a tip-over. I was there, but then I fell. I knew I was way back, because I had to wait to get my bike turned around. It was kind of hard to pass; you just had to wait for everyone to make a mistake." 60 Broc Hepler 12th Place After finishing second overall in his first race of the season at Budd's Creek, the Makita Suzuki rider was on target to put in another good ride at Red Bud until crashes did him in. In the first moto, Hepler fought his way into fifth, but he fell while chasing the pack. In the second moto, he was in a similar position, but he ran into Josh Grant's rear wheel in a slow corner and went down. Another small tip-over knocked him back to 14th, but Hepler charged all the way to the finish to pick up one last position. 29 Andrew Short 6th Place "I had two bad starts, and it was a tough track to pass on in the new section," said Team Honda's Andrew Short. "Otherwise, I thought the track was great. In the first moto, I was making good times, but I got a bad start. In the second moto, the same thing, I was making good times and working toward the front. Then I made a stupid move, and a little stupid move cost me more than it should have. It's disappointing. It was the first week that I had the speed, and I ended up getting sixth because I had bad starts." Andrew McFarlane was a front-runner all day long. The Aussie ended up going 2-4 for third overall. Ben Townley made his return at Red Bud.

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