Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto wins the Daytona Supercross
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto clinched the victory at the Daytona Supercross that took place on 5th March at Daytona Beach, Florida. He managed the feat with a 6.5 lead over Two Two Motorsports Honda’s Chad Reed to cross the finish
line. Finishing in third place was Rockstar/Mikita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey, as San Manuel Yamaha’s James Stewart had an excellent start, but a nasty crash resulted in him finishing in ninth place.
Villopoto had found himself in the right place at the right time last week at Atlanta, as a collision between Stewart and Reed had allowed him to overtake and grab the win. This weekend, he found lady luck shining upon him again.
As the Supercross final kicked off on the sandy and unforgiving track at Daytona, the riders found themselves caught off guard, clearly not expecting the track to prove so challenging. On the other hand, Stewart wasted no time in adapting to the track and
securing a comfortable lead. Villopoto remained in pursuit, though quite a distant one. Even though he managed to pull away from the riders behind him through his skilled and sensible riding, there was no chance for him to overtake Stewart even with plenty
of race left, unless of course the Yamaha rider was met with some unfortunate incident.
Fortunately for Villopoto, that is exactly what happened. On the fourth lap of the 20-lap race, Stewart’s bike kicked high off a jump with the front end hitting the face of another jump before the back came down. The resulting crash left him in a state of
shock, with his bike landing well down the track. Villopoto capitalised on the moment to take over the lead and from there on managed to maintain it throughout the remaining laps to cross the finish line with a 6.5 seconds lead over the first runner up.
While talking about the race later, Villopoto said, “I got a good start right behind James and just followed him. He was on it those first couple of laps. I was just riding my pace, my race. I figured I was either going to stay where I was and he was just
going to do what he was going to do or he was going to go down.”
For the first time ever, a racer has been able to defend his title at the Daytona Supercross since Ricky Carmichael in 2003. Earning his fifth American Motorcyclist Association Supercross win of the year, Villopoto has further increased his lead over Stewart
to 23 points.
Finishing in second place was Reed, even though this was not exactly a memorable performance by him. The runner-up finish has put him just one point behind Stewart in the AMA World Championship.
Dungey rounded out the podium after finishing third, as he was not having an ideal day due to plenty of hardships during the contest, including the poor gate choice qualifying through the Last Chance Qualifier. When later asked about it, Dungey said, “I
was on the outside. It’s a little bit of a disadvantage, but I’m not going to make any excuses cause its part of racing. We all get dealt a hand and have to make the best of everything.”
Stewart recovered from the nasty crash, and with the fans supporting him through deafening cheers, he got back on his bike and resumed the race. He was met with even louder cheers from the fans when he managed to run all the laps and finish in ninth place.
The strength and perseverance shown to finish the race even after such a serious crash was indeed something one could only expect from two people, Superman and Stewart.
The battle between the superstars turned out to be as spectacular as expected. The day turned out to be Villapotos’, but we will soon see how the World Championship unfolds.
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