US Supercross Lites East Series
By TMX Archives on 2nd Mar 08
2nd round Indianapolis, IN. MDK KTM Lites rider Ryan Sipes earned his second top five finish of the season at the Indianapolis Supercross.
Sipes' day began well when he lined up for his Heat early in the evening.Sipes came around the first turn in 3rd off the start and was able to stay therethroughout the heat. His teammate Matt Goerke lined the gate for the earlierHeat race along with MDK KTM Factory rider and last weekend's second placefinisher, Martin Davalos. Both MDK KTM riders launched forward off the start toget out front early in their heat. Davalos came around in the top three withGoerke only two spots back. When the checkers flew, Davalos came across thefinish line jump in 3rd while Goerke held on to 5th.
The Lites Supercross main, identical to all Lites races this season, wasaction-packed. Davalos and Goerke came around the first turn in 5th and 9threspectively while Sipes nearly had the holeshot but got pushed out and back to10th. A few sections later as Sipes came over a triple he got tangled up withsome riders who had crashed ahead of him. He went down and remounted near theend of the pack. Sipes, a podium finisher at last week's event, was not to bediscouraged and displayed remarkable speed as he charged forward. By the end ofthe second lap he was already up to 10th. Davalos, who at one point was in thirdon the first lap, also went down and had to fight his way up. By the third lapDavalos was in 6th and Goerke, also on the move, was now in 7th. In no time,Davalos was back into the top five and Goerke was running as high as 6thposition before he slowed down slightly due to nagging chest pain resulting froma crash at the Atlanta Supe rcross. Shortly after the finish line jump on lap 7,Davalos while in 5th, became cross-rutted and hit the ground for the second timeduring the main. This crash was more difficult to recover from and cost him tofall back to 14th before he was going again. He stayed on the gas picking uppositions and was just able to move back into the top ten by the last lap.Davalos would finish 10th while Goerke was one spot up in 9th. Sipes, whoimpressed the crowd throughout the 15 lap main came from near dead last to 5thoverall for the night. Sipes now sits 2nd in overall series points while Davalosmoves to 3rd.
MDK KTM Factory Team Manager Steve Lamson commented on the race, "Despite afew mishaps Martin (Davalos) showed incredible speed tonight. Although you can'ttake back the crashes, I believe he would have had another podium tonight had hestayed up. He continues to impress me and I am excited that he is running thirdin overall points and even more thrilled to see what he will bring to the tableat Daytona."
Results
1 48 Trey Canard Honda
2 2 Ryan Villopoto Kawasaki
3 341 Nico Izzi Suzuki
4 979 Ben Coisy Honda
5 57 Ryan Sipes KTM
9 41 Matthew Goerke KTM
10 577 Martin Davalos KTM
Standings
1 48 Trey Canard Honda 50
2 57 Ryan Sipes KTM 36
3 577 Martin Davalos KTM 33
4 341 Nico Izzi Suzuki 33
5 391 Tyler Bowers Yamaha 30
14 41 Matthew Goerke KTM 12