MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES
VOL. 51 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2014 P53
Alessi, Villopoto and Roczen.
The Red Bull KTM rider kept
the two front-runners in his sights
in case either one of them fal-
tered, but he was just a little off
their pace all night.
"I'm happy with tonight, there's
a couple of things we could have
done better, but that's racing and
we'll do better next time," said
Dungey. "We had a good pace
going out there, I lost a little time
near the end, I switched up lines
and it cost me. This track really
deteriorated and wore out, so it
was hard to push, everyone was
going the same pace. But there
was that one point where Villo-
poto made a mistake and Kenny
capitalized on it, and that's what
you had to do on this track. You
just couldn't force it."
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
James Stewart looked very ca-
pable of making it three wins in
a row in Atlanta after dominating
qualifying and winning his heat
race on the Yoshimura Suzuki.
He also took the lead in the main
event after passing holeshotter
Mike Alessi on the first lap. Not
long afterward, though, the Yo-
shimura Suzuki rider made a huge
mistake when he let the front end
wash out in a relatively flat and
benign corner. He had to scram-
ble from underneath the bike as
the entire pack funneled by him,
wasting a great opportunity to
gain ground on points-leader Vil-
lopoto for the third straight week.
It was a major disappointment for
him and the team.
He still managed to climb back
up to 11
th
but that was far cry from
what he was expecting going into
the race. Stewart lost significant
ground to Villopoto and Roc-
zen in the championship. He's
26 points behind Villopoto and
17 behind Roczen, and just four
points ahead of Dungey.
BARCIA BLUES
Justin Barcia was another rider
heading into Atlanta riding a wave
of momentum. After having his
best ride all season the week be-
fore at Dallas, where he finished
third, Barcia was hoping to get
his first win of the season at the
Georgia Dome, but things quick-
ly unraveled for the frustrated
Honda Muscle Milk Team rider.
Two hard crashes during practice
left him bleeding, bruised and
battered and out of the evening
program.
His worst crash was in the
whoops in the last practice/qual-
ifying session when he suffered
a contusion to his knee. Despite
doing everything he could to
patch things up, he ended up
choosing to sit this one out and
start getting ready for next week-
end's race at Indy, where he
hopes to be fit enough to race.
HAHN HAULS
GEICO Honda's Wil Hahn took
advantage of a good start to fin-
ish fourth in the 450 main. It was
his best finish since moving up to
the 450 class this year.
"This was like a homecoming
for me," he said. "Atlanta was my
first win last year and I like this
place. Another good start and
everything clicked.
"I just tried to stay calm and
ride steady," he added. "I think
that was the key tonight because
the track was tricky. I just got off
Ryan Dungey passes Alessi
en route to a third.
