Langston Steel's victory
By TMX Archives on 30th Aug 07
IN the fiercely contested four-way battle for the 2007 AMA Motocross championship crown, Yamaha's Grant Langston assumed control of the fight with his first ever win and the overall victory at round ten of the championship at a damp and demanding Steel City Raceway, Pen-nsylvania, on Sunday.
The factory Yamaha rider went 2-1 for the overallvictory from another first time race winner, Red Bull KTM's MikeAlessi, whose 1-3 scorecard was enough to net him second overall fromKevin Windham, and with previous championship lead-er Tim Ferrymanaging only a fifth on the day, Langston now takes a slendertwo-point lead in the final two rounds with Honda's Andrew Shortsitting just another two points back on Ferry in third.
The ultra-competitive, dead-locked two man battlefor Motocross Lites glory took what could be a decisive turn at SteelCity also, as Ryan Villopoto broke free of teammate Ben Townley to gosix points clear in after both were forced to ride through the packfrom a first turn pile-up in heat one. RV made it all the way up tothird, while Townley could only manage sixth, and the reigning championput two more points on the Kiwi with a resounding second moto win.
Mike Alessi grabbed the holeshot in the openingMotocross class moto with Windham right on his tail, eventually passingthe young rider about ten minutes in to the moto, but Alessi was havingnone of it and dropped his lap times significantly to go back past andleave Windham to fend-off the charging Langston. It went back andforward a few times, with the pair even touching in mid-air at onepoint, but Langston had the legs and ran in a distant second to Alessiwho claimed his first 450 class win, with Windham third in front ofFerry and Short.
TOYOTA AMA MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 10 - Steel City Raceway, Delmont, PA
Motocross: 1 Grant Langtson (Yam) 47, 2 MikeAlessi (KTM) 45, 3 Kevin Windham (Hon) 42, 4 Andrew Short (Hon) 34, 5Tim Ferry (Kaw) 32, 6 Ivan Tedsesco (Suz) 31, 7 Gavin Gracyk (Hon) 28,8 Michael Byrne (Suz) 24, 9 Yoshi Atsuta (Hon) 23, 10 Josh Summey (Hon)21, 11 Kyle Keylon (Hon) 20, 12 Justin Sipes (Kaw) 13, 13 Chris Blose(Hon) 12, 14 Jeff Alessi (KTM) 12, 15 Jason Thomas (Hon) 11.
Series Standings (After 10 of 12 rounds): 1Langston 347, 2 Short 345, 3 Ferry 343, 4 Alessi 337, 5 Windham 296, 6Ricky Carmichael (Suz) 291, 7 James Stewart (Kaw) 290, 8 DavidVuillemin (Hon) 207, 9 Byrne 192, 10 Davi Millsaps (Hon) 186.
Motocross Lites: 1 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw) 45, 2 BenTownley (Kaw) 37, 3 Brett Metcalfe (Kaw) 33, 4 Austin Stroupe (Kaw) 31,5 Nico Izzi (Suz) 28, 6 Josh Grant (Hon) 28, 7 Martin Davalos (KTM) 26,8 Broc Hepler (Yam) 25, 9 Jake Weimer (Hon) 23, 10 Trey Canard (Hon)21, 11 Matt Goerke (Yam) 20, 12 Jason Lawrence (Yam) 19, 13 Thomas Hahn(Hon) 18, 14 Ryan Sipes (Hon) 17, 15 Broc Tickle (Yam) 16.
Series Standings (After 10 of 12 rounds): 1Villopoto 447, 2 Townley 441, 3 Grant 340, 4 Lawrence 277, 5 RyanDungey (Suz) 267, 6 Weimer 211, 7 Hahn 177, 8 Metcalfe 169, 9 Tickle164, 10 Chisholm 151.
Next Rd - Sept 2, Freestone County Raceway, Wortham, TX.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August 31, 2007.
