Weimer Dominates Anaheim Opener
By TMX Archives on 12th Jan 10
Jake Weimer stood on the top step of the podium for the second consecutive year as he dominated the lites class at the season opener for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki.
The season opener at Anaheim is the SuperBowl of supercross as everyone is excited for the new season. With thatexcitement comes added pressure, but that didn't seem to affect Weimerat all. He paced both practice sessions, easily won his heat race,rocketed to the main event holeshot and led wire-to-wire for his fifthcareer supercross lites win.
"Anaheim is probably the moststressful race of the year,” said Weimer. "There's so much hype and somany appearances leading into the race. Everyone is watching and youfeel a tremendous amount of pressure. I'm definitely happy to be donewith this race and to come away with a win. I felt really good. I wascomfortable in the lead, but it was nice that I had to ride hard tostay out front. I felt like I was in control and I felt good on myKawasaki KX250F. I could do whatever I needed, whenever I needed. Mybike was turning great and getting the holeshot shows I had all thepower I needed. Today was tough, but I had fun and I felt like I rodewell.”
Reed's American debut with the Monster Energy Kawasakiteam didn't end as planned as contact on the first lap broke severalspokes and forced him to retire early.
"I think we came a longway from practice to the main event.” Said Reed. "We tweaked littlethings on the bike and I'm confident to say I would have been on thepodium tonight. I think I could have got up to the front and mixed itup with the leaders. It would have been exciting. It was just a racingincident. I was running fifth after the first turn and in sight of theleaders. Then Stroupe just turned down really quick. He had the sameidea I did. We both wanted to make a pass and our lines came together.There was nothing we could do. Neither of us did anything wrong. I wasjust in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Villopoto madehis return to racing after undergoing knee surgery over the summer. Thereturn showed how difficult it is to simulate race conditions in theoff-season as the pace at the test track can never duplicate how fast arider needs to be on race day.
"I got a good start and wassitting there in third place,” said Villopoto. "I just tightened up.This was my first real race back since my knee surgery. I did the USOpen, but that was more just for fun. I had only been back to ridingfor a couple of days. It's not what I wanted, but we still got a topfive.”
After getting a great start in the main event,Hansen looked poised for a podium finish, but a crash early in the racesent him back in the pack. Despite the end result, Hansen showed he hadthe speed to be a championship contender.
"I got a good jump outof the gate and battled for the holeshot,” said Hansen. "I wanted tojust settle in behind Weimer. We ride together a lot during the week soI am comfortable with him. My plan was to just sit there until lap 10and then make a move. It didn't work out like that though. I had acrash. All in all I think we're moving in the right direction. To be apart of this team really means a lot.”