Ryan Villopoto to miss the 2012 Lucas Oil AMA Motocross Championship due to knee injury
American motocross and supercross star Ryan Villopoto will not return to defend his crown at the 2012 Lucas Oil American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Motocross title after sustaining a knee injury at the Seattle stop of Supercross Champion on Saturday,
April 21.
It has been confirmed by Monster Energy Kawasaki that the Washington-based rider is out for the season and is scheduled to undergo knee surgery this week.
The 23-year-old Villopoto expressed huge disappointment for not being able to return to the outdoor championship to defend his title, something that he had been looking forward to quite strongly.
“I'm pretty disappointed right now,” said Villopoto. “I have trained hard for this season and even though I won the supercross title, I really wanted to defend my outdoor championship. I've been through injury before and I know how hard I have to work to
get back.”
The Supercross race that went down at Seattle this past weekend did not go well for Villopoto, who had been dominating the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, an International Motorcyclist Federation (FIM) series so far. He got off to an average
start and was looking to edge past Davi Millsaps when the front-end of his bike washed out in a left-hand corner. He attempted to save his legs from injury by buckling them under his bike to divert the force of impact towards his stomach. However, he failed
in preventing his left knee from getting caught up in a cradle as he crawled halfway off the race track.
Villopoto had a dream season last year, emerging triumphant in both the AMA Supercross as well as Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. He continued his excellent run of form in the 2012 season of the Supercross series to successfully defend his title.
The early exit of Chad Reed and absence of Trey Canard, not to mention a lacklustre performance by James Stewart made his campaign for the 2012 AMA Supercross title pretty smooth.
The news of Villopoto to miss the 2012 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross comes as a huge disappointment for his fans that were looking forward to witness another successful title defence.
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