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FEATURE STORY

NOW IT'S REALLY ON!
It wasn’t long ago that we wondered how James Stewart would do against the best on a 250. I found this picture by Steve Bruhn from Vegas a couple years ago giving us a tease of what we are witnessing now for real. Stewart is the fastest rider on the planet. I’m not saying he’s the greatest or anything, I’m just saying that right now he is setting the pace. What makes his win even more impressive to me is that he isn’t even 100% right now with a sore ankle that kept him from his normal routine, plus he had to adjust to riding without his front brake most of the time. Now that he knows what it takes to win with the Reed and Carmichael breathing down his neck he is only going to get faster. If this continues it could dissolve some of RC’s outdoor confidence.

It seems to me like Reed is looking past RC and on to what Stewart is doing. Since RC’s career is closer to the end than Chad and James’, I think Reed is realizing that he HAS to figure out a way to match Stewart’s speed or he could be getting second for most of his career. Now that Reed and Stewart are riding with nothing to lose and Ricky seems to be riding a little more cautious, a little gap is opening up between Chad and RC. Reed has had Carmichael’s speed or more for 3-rounds now. The first race after RC said he has to stop crashing he crashed twice. He doesn’t look like the guy I saw in Atlanta, but he is in a tough spot. Losing the title for being too aggressive would be tough to live with, but losing from now until the nationals start just to secure the title feels awful for a guy like Ricky. Decoster has to be telling him to calm down, get the title and get ready to dominate the outdoors again.

Congratulations to Langston. After a year or more of injuries and switching teams and having to prove himself all over again he has done it. It didn’t look good after Daytona, but he has shown his toughness once again. Millsap’s is faster, but he is still a kid. Davi will figure it out, but it just takes time.

Yesterday I went with my son to the Attack MX event at Elsinore. The turnout was weaker than they anticipated, and the timing system was down so there were quite a few changes made in the original 2-day program and it’s enormous payout. As upset as some folks were at first and I’m including myself here, you could see that the people behind this Attack MX concept of a big amateur race with a huge payout and prizes are trying to make it work. They don’t seem set in their ways and are willing to listen and makes changes in order for their events to eventually be successful. I think they had their goals set a little too high, but they seem to have the flexibility to make it work. For the turnout to be weak and the payout to shrink considerably, my son still made $175 for 7th in the intermediate class.

What this race DID attract were the Alessi’s and the Villapoto’s! While there was some major anticipation going on down in Dallas, there was also some heavy interest in the outcome of the first Alessi/Villapoto showdown since minibikes! What happened next was nothing new. Alessi (KTM450) got to the front and pulled a 6-second gap before Villapoto (KX250) could get around Jeff and Tim Weigand and try to get to Mike. For the first couple of laps Villy matched Alessi’s speed, but eventually Ryan made some mistakes trying to gain time on Mike and the gap grew. The final moto saw the same thing off the start with Mike out front and Villapoto in 4th behind Jeff and Tim. As Villapoto appeared to have made a pass on Jeff around the outside of a left hand sweeper and through a set of jumps into a tight left, they slammed into each other with Ryan going down hard. Some say Jeff (on the inside) went right for him and couldn’t even make the turn while others say their lines just came together and Villapoto got the worst of it because he was on the outside. Either way, Villapoto was thought to have broken his wrist and was in pain. Jeff and his dad Tony came over to apologize as a crowd gathered, but the Villapotos weren’t too happy. I can see why. If he is in fact hurt, that will not only knock him out of the World Mini coming up in Vegas, but it will take him out of Loretta’s as well since all the qualifiers are going on now. He looked great and seemed more aggressive on that 250 than Mike Alessi on his 450, but the results show Alessi with the win and Villapoto with perhaps some tough days ahead. Here's hoping he just sprained it and that his recovery is quick.

The next Attack race is in Gorman at I-5. If you want to make some dough, tell your friends. Attack MX has a tag line that says, “It pays to Attack.”

I think it should say, “The more the Merrier!”

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