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| Red Bud Race Report | July 06, 2008 |
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| | Words & Photos by Steve Cox |
| | Printer Friendly | |  | | | The 35th Annual Red Bud National - round six of the Toyota/AMA National MX Championship - saw a strong crowd turnout on Independence Day Weekend, and they witnessed both championships getting blown wide open.
MDK KTM's Ryan Sipes (57) grabbed the opening Lites moto holeshot over teammate Martin Davalos (577), Geico Powersports Honda's Trey Canard (48), Dan Reardon (122) and Josh Grant (20), Rockstar/Makita Suzuki's Nico Izzi (341) and Ryan Dungey (28) and defending champ (and points leader) Ryan Villopoto (1) of the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki squad.
Sipes led the opening lap before dropping two spots in successive laps to follow.
Villopoto was the first rider by Sipes for the lead...
...then Canard (48) made his way by for second. The final finishing order was Villopoto, Canard and Sipes in the top-three spots.
Izzi was fourth in the opening moto.
Grant was fifth.
Rockstar/Makita Suzuki's Mike Alessi (800) got his customary holeshot to start the first 450cc moto, over teammate Michael Byrne (26) and Monster Energy Kawasaki's James Stewart (not shown).
Stewart made quick work of Byrne and Alessi and led from lap two on.
With Alessi in second, Honda Red Bull Racing's Andrew Short (29) fought his way by Byrne and was fighting off teammate Davi Millsaps when Millsaps went down in a heap, which put him out for the day (and possibly longer). Short finished third, and Byrne finished fourth.
MDK KTM's local hero Nick Wey was fifth in the opening moto.
Stewart celebrates his opening-moto victory with a fat whip over the finish line.
Davalos (577) got the holeshot in the second Lites moto, putting the MDK KTM team at two for two on the day in Lites holeshots.
Villopoto quickly worked his way by Davalos and led every lap of the moto to take his fifth overall win in a row (and 11th moto win in a row).Canard fought his way into second and was keeping Villopoto honest until he fell down. The fall didn't cost him any spots, but it put Dungey right on him. For the rest of the race, Canard had to fight off Dungey for the number-two spot.
Dungey was the only Lites rider consistently jumping LaRocco's Leap in the second moto, and as he was working on Canard on the last lap for second place, he reportedly ran out of gas and failed to finish, which put an even bigger points gap between he and Villopoto.
After Dungey dropped out, Davalos inherited third in the moto, and overall.
Grant ended up fourth in the moto, and overall.
Izzi was fifth in the moto, and overall.
Villopoto now leads the points by 95 points over Dungey at just the halfway point of the series.
The top three celebrate on the podium.
Stewart ended Alessi's holeshot streak at seven when he grabbed the second-moto holeshot, but just seconds after this photo was taken, Alessi went down in a heap and was run over by multiple riders, ending his day, and possibly his season. The race was red-flagged, and Stewart again got the holeshot in the retry.
Stewart led every lap of the second moto.
Short ran second in the early going, but lost a spot to Stewart's teammate Timmy Ferry late in the race. Ferry finished outside the points in the opening moto, which helped to reward Short with second overall.
Byrne finished fourth in the moto, and his 4-4 was good for third overall. Wey was fourth overall.
JGR Yamaha's Josh Summey went 9-7 for an amazing fifth overall.
Stewart has now won every single moto at the halfway point of the championship. He leads Alessi (who may be out for the rest of the season) by 79, and is a full 99 points in front of teammate Timmy Ferry, who sits third in points.
The 450cc podium celebrates in front of the massive Red Bud crowd.
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