Dungey Dome good!
By TMX Archives on 2nd Mar 12
An unbelievable 71,000 fans packed out the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for the eighth round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship where KTM pilot, Ryan Dungey, managed to hold off series leader Ryan Villopoto for his second win of the series. Meanwhile in the second round of the Eastern Lites revision Honda pilot Justin Barcia took another win to keep his series points at the max.
As the main class kicked into action for the final, replacement Muscle Milk Honda rider, Cole Seely grabbed the holeshot prize with Ryan Dungey also having a good start to sit on his back wheel along with Davi Milsaps. Points leader Villopoto crossed the line on lap one in sixth, whilst Yamaha rider and fellow title contender, James Stewart found himself in ninth at the conclusion of the opening lap. Seely was able to fend of the charges from the man in orange for several laps, however Dungey remained steady, eventually finding a way through on lap seven.
Whilst Dungey had be waiting for the opportunity to make a pass, Villopoto and Stewart had been fighting their way through the pack and come lap-11 had moved up to run in front of Seely in second and third. Once into second Villopoto was on a charge and began to claw in Dungey. As the duo entered the final lap they had the crowd on the edge of their seats with only a second separating them. However as the chequered flag approached Villopoto made a small mistake giving Dungey a slight breathing space come the end of the race.
"To get that first win right off the bat (for KTM) in Phoenix was nice, but it took a while after that,” said Dungey. "But, to back it up here in Atlanta, it was a great night. We've been looking for that one for a while. The whole team has been working hard and things haven't gone our way with testing and stuff, but we're coming around to it and I think things are progressively getting better.”
Stewart was able to hold onto third as Davi Millsaps finished just off the podium in fourth ahead of Justin Brayton and Cole Seely.
Despite losing three points in the championship to Dungey, Villopoto still remains at the top with a 10-point advantage
"I just made a little mistake, and early on in the race I fell over and that cost me, huge,” said Villopoto. "The track was tough tonight, you could really see (that) and I just slipped up and washed the front end out. Overall, we had a good night. It just wasn't the best of weeks coming into this (race), so to come out with a second is good.”
As the Lites hit the track for the final time of the night, Justin Barcia shot out of the gates to take the holeshot award, with Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki duo Blake Baggett and Darryn Durham in second and third. As the Team Green riders battled for second along with Suzukl's Blake Wharton and Honda's Justin Bogle, Barcia cruised away to take the win by a clear margin.
After several laps of close riding Baggett began to pull a lead ahead of third placed Bogle, who had found a way past Wharton on lap nine to take his first podium finish.
"Two for two is not a bad way to start,” said Barcia. "I wanted a good start, I got the holeshot, and just rode hard from there. The track was super tough tonight. It was very slick and there were a lot of places where the bike was sliding around. I was trying not to make any mistakes. Fortunately, everything went really smooth and we got the win.”
AMA & WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 – Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
SUPERCROSS CLASS: 1 Ryan Dungey (KTM), 2 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw), 3 James Stewart (Yam), 4 Davi Millsaps (Yam), 5 Justin Brayton (Hon), 6 Cole Seely (Hon), 7 Jake Weimer (Kaw), 8 Kevin Windham (Hon), 9 Brett Metcalfe (AUS - Suz), 10 Nick Wey (Kaw), 11 Kyle Chisholm (Kaw), 12 Mike Alessi (Suz), 13 Matt Goerke (Suz), 14 Robert Kiniry (Suz), 15 Josh Hansen (Kaw), 16 Broc Tickle (Kaw), 17 Kyle Partridge (Kaw), 18 Jeff Alessi (Yam), 19 Justin Sipes (Kaw), 20 Weston Peick (Yam).
SERIES STANDINGS after 8 (of 17) rounds: 1 Villopoto 180 points, 2 Dungey 170, 3 Stewart 136, 4 Reed 128, 5 Windham 105, 6 Metcalfe 100, 7 Brayton 96, 8 Weimer 95, 9 Millsaps 94, 10 Mike Alessi 90, 11 Hansen 86, 12 Chisholm 77, 13 Short 59, 14 Tickle 59, 15 Wey 55, 16 Partridge 29, 17 Peick 25, 18 Kiniry 24, 19 Tedesco 21, 20 Goerke 17,...
SUPERCROSS LITES (East): 1 Justin Barcia (Hon), 2 Blake Baggett (Kaw), 3 Justin Bogle (Hon), 4 Blake Wharton (Suz), 5 Darryn Durham (Kaw), 6 Ken Roczen (D - KTM), 7 Kyle Cunningham (Yam), 8 Hunter Hewitt (Suz), 9 Jake Canada (Suz), 10 Shane Sewell (KTM), 11 Lance Vincent (KTM), 12 PJ Larsen (KTM), 13 Matthew Lemoine (Kaw), 14 Les Smith (KTM), 15 Shawn Rife (Hon), 16 Levi Kilbarger (Hon), 17 Daniel Herrlein (Hon), 18 Angelo Pellegrini (I - Suz), 19 Austin Politelli (Hon), 20 Bradley Ripple (Hon).
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 (of 9) rounds: 1 Barcia 50 points, 2 Durham 38, 3 Wharton 36, 4 Roczen 35, 5 Baggett 28, 6 Bogle 27, 7 Canada 26, 8 Hewitt 22, 9 Larsen 22, 10 Vincent 21, 11 Nicoletti 16, 12 Stewart 15, 13 Cunningham 15, 14 Thompson 12, 15 Smith 12, 16 Sewell 11, 17 Martin 10, 18 Lemoine 10, 19 Politelli 10, 20 Pellegrini 7,...
NEXT ROUND: March 3 – Edward Jones Dome, St Louis, Missouri, USA.
