Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 22, 2013 Ryan Dungey's mistake of forgetting to run the Joker Lane cost him the win and a $100,000 paycheck. three-race format, a Joker Lane, and a split start, while the teams and riders have less technical rules to deal with and can try new things. For example, at the ME Cup, there are no homologation rules, and many things that are otherwise illegal in AMA Supercross and Motocross – such as Traction Control – are allowed. With the way the rules are writ- ten, teams could – if they wanted – use a completely custom chassis. However, fuel and sound regulations still apply. Even though the hot rumor at the first-ever Monster Energy Cup was that Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto – who earned $1 Million for winning all three main events in the inaugural year of the event – was using some form of traction control, Villopoto indicated prior to this year's event that the biggest value of the Monster Energy Cup for factory race teams is the ability to use the race as a proving ground for things they can legally use come time for Anaheim 1. "It's really a good place to try out things under race conditions," Villopoto said. "That's what we do. After all, it doesn't really matter if we can make the bike a 500 or anything like that, because the one thing our bikes don't need is more power. But it's good to test things that we might be running at Anaheim." To help you understand the ins and outs of what went on under the full moon in Las Vegas Saturday night, you need to understand the unique set of rules that accompany the unique features of the Monster Energy Cup. First, there's the split start. There are actually two starting gates at the Monster Energy Cup, with 11 racers on each gate. P45 Briefly... first main event that the lights would occasionally shine directly in their eyes as they were in the air over the finish-line jump and, more dangerously, over the big, fast triple that led out of the stadium. A lot of the lights, depending on the location, were turned off as the show went on, and all of the lights that stayed on had their power cut by half by the end of the night, at the request of the AMA's Kevin Crowther. Although the Monster Energy Cup is only three years old now, there has already been one graduate of the amateur program. Yamaha's Cooper Webb made his Cup-class debut this year, becoming the first racer to race in all three Monster Energy Cup classes. In 2011, Webb finished second (behind Adam Cianciarulo) in the Supermini class, and in 2012, Webb won the Amateur All-Stars event with a 2-3 score over the 5-1 of Cianciarulo. Webb had to qualify for the Cup class through the LCQ, but won that. He ended up 12th overall in the ME Cup with 9-12-16 scores. With all of the seeming popularity of the Showa air forks in the factory ranks, there are quite a few naysayers as well. Notably, TwoTwo Motorsports' Chad Reed went away from the factory Showa air forks during the 2013 Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Series, choosing instead to run the standard forks he had grown to love in 2011 and 2012. And at this year's Monster Energy Cup, JGR/ Toyota Yamaha's Josh Grant didn't have any stickers on his suspension. continued on next page

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