MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES
mally rides.
However, few expected anyone
to out-perform Ryan Villopoto on
the roughest and longest track of
the year. As many predicted, the
Monster Energy Kawasaki Team
rider thoroughly dominated the
20-lap main event, leading every
lap and pulling out to a 20-sec-
ond lead by the halfway mark be-
fore finishing the race some 12
seconds ahead of Roczen.
VOL. 51 ISSUE 10 MARCH 11, 2014 P41
Briefly...
After the race, Ryan Villopoto gave
his opinion about why he was able to
pull such a big lead in the main. "On
this track, to be faster than someone
here is a lot easier because the lap
times are longer and it's more of an
outdoor track," said Villopoto. "When
you're talking about an indoor-style
track, you're talking about 10ths of a
second difference in lap times, but at
an outdoor track, then you are talk-
ing seconds difference in riders. A
half second difference is a lot on a
supercross track."
Justin Barcia was at the center of
another controversy, this time when
he and fellow Honda rider Malcolm
Stewart came together on lap nine
of the main event, sending both rid-
ers to the ground. Barcia was trying
to make a pass on Stewart, which
would have put the Team Muscle
Milk Honda rider into fifth place at
the time. After coming off of a long,
rough straightaway, Barcia tried to
cut under Stewart in a turn but end-
ed up taking Stewart's front wheel
out from under him when Barcia
lost his front end. Stewart was not
happy and pushed Barcia when the
two riders got up off the ground, and
then, though it may have been an
accident, Stewart launched his bike
into Barcia's bike before taking off.
Both rider lost considerable time and
Stewart eventually pulled off after
losing all of his radiator fluid.
One of the things riders always
struggle with at Daytona is the light-
ing. "The lighting isn't exactly opti-
mal here for Supercross, and along
with the black dirt, it makes it hard to
see," said Villopoto. "Ruts and holes
develop quickly on this track and you
might not even see them on the pre-
continued on next page
Dean Wilson (15) gets
off to a fast start, while
Mike Alessi goes down.
James Stewart (7) clipped
Alessi's bike, damaging
his bike's header pipe.
