VOL. 51 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 14, 2014
P39
Briefly...
Justin Brayton (10) was playing hard
to get in Phoenix and almost no one
did. Just Villopoto.
In the Western Regional Supercross 250cc class, however, it
was almost a mirror image of last
week's race, with Jason Anderson making another last-lap pass
on Cole Seely, who led every lap
until that point, to take the thrilling
victory. Again!
Perhaps the notoriously slippery conditions usually offered
up at the Phoenix race had
something to do with it. Or maybe
it's just that every year Anaheim I
seems to turn out to be an anomaly when compared to the rest of
the series. But whatever it was,
the racing at Phoenix was again
excellent and exciting.
Like Roczen last weekend,
Toyota/Yamaha/N-Fab/JGRMX
Team's Justin Brayton surprised
many with his stellar performance and by nearly winning
the 450 main event. The Yamaha
rider who has been pretty quiet
as far as his results since 2012,
took the lead on lap one and held
it until lap 14 when Villopoto finally
went by to take the lead. Brayton
had held the point as though he
has been there many times before.
Even after getting passed,
Brayton continued to push Villopoto for the final six laps, and
even closed on the Monster Energy Kawasaki Team rider on two
occasions, making it uncomfortable for the defending champ. All
Red Bull KTM's Dean Ferris finished seventh in only his second Supercross. Like several riders, Ferris
came into the race with a cold, and
the Australian didn't have a lot of time
on the practice track between Anaheim I and the Phoenix races. "I'm
very happy to earn a top-10 finish tonight," said Ferris. "I'm new to Supercross so each week, during practice
and racing, I am learning a lot and
making improvements. I am glad to
get a better finish for my team this
weekend and hope I can continue
to work toward a top five result," said
Ferris.
Wil Hahn crashed on the third lap
of the 450 final, but still managed to
finish a credible 10th overall in the
450-class main event. "I need to get
better," the GEICO Honda Team rider said. "Right now it's all on me. I'm
getting used to the bike and the competition, and I need to get my head in
it a little more. It's easy to point to the
starts and say those need to get better, and that's true, because if I had
started better, I wouldn't be back in
the riff-raff where you get taken out
at times, but it's more about believing in myself and riding like I know
how to ride. Things are already getting better and I expect a big jump up
next weekend. The good thing about
Supercross is you don't have long to
wait until you get to race again."
GEICO Honda's Zach Osborne
grabbed his second straight podium
finish after again coming out on top
of a fierce battle with Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Dean Wilson. "Reaching the podium is good
and I'm happy to get the points, but
at the same time I'm not going to be
continued on page 43
