VOL. 54 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 24, 2017 P75
should've been an indicator that
he would be the guy to beat,
but when Chad Reed (who is
the only active racer to have
won a Supercross champion-
ship on a two-stroke) and Ryan
Villopoto are in the field, it can
skew any pundit's perspective.
Reed ended up dropping out
on Friday after over-jumping
a section and breaking some
bones in his right foot/ankle.
Sipes was the top qualifier in
the Two-Stroke class, and he
was doing double-duty be-
tween the Two-Stroke and Lites
classes, along with Mac, both
riding the same 250cc two-
strokes in both classes. Sipes
moved past the first round with
two solo runs as his competi-
tion, Tevin Tapia, was unable to
line up. Ronnie Mac defeated
Ryan Morais in two-straight runs, as did Villopoto
over Mike Sleeter, and Steinke over Mike Brown.
In the semi-finals, Steinke indeed had his hands
full with Villopoto, but managed to take down the
legendary champion with a 2-1 score, and Mac did
likewise with Sipes to move into the finals.
In the bronze-medal round, Sipes just managed to
edge Villopoto 2-1 for the final spot on the podium.
"It was fun. It was really cool," Villopoto said.
"The event was awesome. But with the 250, I was
a little leery, just because it's slow. It was jetted
awesome—no bogs or nothing, the jetting was
perfect—but it's just super slow. One little mistake
and you can't get your rhythm or get the speed to
jump the next jump; there's no power to pull you
through. You had to be really perfect, and in that
middle round there, against 'Stank,' I cased the
same jump both times and blew both runs. I'm
Villopoto came out
of retirement to
ride the Red Bull
Straight Rhythm on
a two-stroke.
Two-stroke hero
Gared Steinke
(right) got the
better of Ryan
Villopoto in the
Two-Stroke class.
