VOL. 50 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 20, 2013
P67
Briefly...
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT PALMER
T
he 2013 season might've started off a bit
rough for Ryan Villopoto but it certainly ended up silky smooth. After a rocky beginning
to his 2013 season, more specifically the AMA Supercross Series back in January, Villopoto turned
it all around by coming back to win the AMA Supercross title in April and now the AMA Pro Motocross 450-class Championship in August. And he
clinched both championships with room to spare.
For the second time this year, Villopoto came to
Utah with a chance of clinching a championship in
the penultimate round, and just like he did a few
months ago in Supercross, the Monster Energy
Kawasaki Team rider left Utah with his second
AMA title of 2013 in hand. It's his eighth career
AMA title, matching him with Jeremy McGrath.
(Only one rider, Ricky Carmichael, has more.)
mac
nd Eli Tomac get it done
gural Utah National
James Stewart talked about having
to pull out of the race. "I got a pretty
decent start and I made my way into
third," he said. "Then I came around
and there was a lapper on the triple
step-up and, at the last minute, I
had to change my line because he
didn't jump it and I came up short.
It's just a bummer because we had
so much momentum going until all
this happened. Now I just want to
get re-evaluated and see where we
stand before the last race."
GEICO Honda's Justin Bogle
looked like his old self again in the
second, wind-blown 250 moto. He
pulled the Motorcycle SuperStore.
com Holeshot and led the way for
a while. "The holeshot was good,"
he said. "In fact, both starts were
good. I led the second moto for
about six laps, which I haven't been
out front for that long in a while. You
couldn't see very much at all for a
good portion of the race, but everybody was in the same conditions,
so you just deal with it."
Another GEICO Honda rider led the
start of the first moto for a while. "I
got a good start in the first moto and
set myself up for a good run," Zach
Osborne said. "[But] I just rode a
little bit too tight at the end of that
one. The second moto, I was a little
bit sketched out by the wind and just
played it safe there. The dust got really bad, so I decided to keep my
cool and stay on two wheels."
Before the race, Monster Energy/
Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Adam Cianciarulo said he liked the Miller track
and it showed with his best finish of
the year in the first moto with a third.
A first-turn crash in the second moto
continued on next page
