2008 Las Vegas Race Report

Hello, Guest
Already a member? Sign In
Register

Date: May 05, 2008

Comments: 1

Rating:

2008 Las Vegas Race Report

Dungey and Reed crowned champs in Sin City.

Story and Photos by Jeff Kardas

The 2008 Monster Energy Supercross season has come to an end, and what better place for it to go down than in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. At a venue where the pit areas are such a spectacle that the racing almost seems like the sideshow, this weekend’s races were some of the best of the season. With Ryan Dungey as the surprise winner of the Dave Coomb Sr. East/West Lites Shootout and a battle in the Supercross class title between Chad Reed and Kevin Windham that kept the fans entertained until (nearly) the very end. Ultimately it was Reed who was crowned the 2008 Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Champion, not to mention the night’s winner.

Supercross Lites Qualifying

When Brawndo/Solitaire’s Bobby Kiniry came storming down the starting straight into the stadium at 70mph with 19 others in tow, he was probably as surprised that he was leading the race as everyone else was. The lead was short-lived though, as Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey and Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Austin Stroupe quickly made their way past by the middle of lap one. It wasn’t long after that Stroupe pushed his way past and immediately put a big gap on Stroupe and West Lites Champ, Boost Mobile Yamaha’s Jason Lawrence. Just behind the lead trio was Brett Metcalfe, who ultimately crossed the line in fourth.

The second heat was more of a yawner, as Monster Energy/Pro Circuit’s East Lites runner-up Ryan Villopoto nabbed the holeshot and instantly put a massive gap on the field. The field consisted first of Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Nico Izzi, Red Bull Honda Racing’s Ben Coisy and MDK/KTM’s Matt Goerke. East Lites Champ – Geico/Honda’s Trey Canard – was way back in the pack but moving up quickly. By lap 5, Canard had worked his way up past Coisy, and Goerke, and before the finish, both Canard and Goerke passed Izzi at the same time to move into second and third, pushing Izzi back into 4^th by the flag.

MDK/KTM’s Justin Brayton was the cream of the crop for the duration of the Lites LCQ, snagging the holeshot and never looking back. Behind him, Geico’s Jake Weimer, BBMX’s Matt Boni and Motosport/Xtreme Kawasaki’s Tommy Hahn were like a swarm of attacking bees racing for the final transfer spots into the main. Unfortunately for Hahn, his bike wasn’t interested in helping him to that goal as he DNF by the end of lap one. A couple of laps later, Weimer went down and out, which moved Boni into second, BBMX’s Kyle Cunningham up into third and Geico’s Dan Reardon into the final transfer spot.

Results:

Lites Heat One (West):

Austin Stroupe (Kaw)
Ryan Dungey (Suz)
Jason Lawrence (Yam)
Brett Metcalfe (Kaw)
Bobby Kiniry (Hon)
Broc Hepler (Yam)
Wil Hahn (Yam)
Matt Lemoine (Yam)
Justin Keeney (Hon)

Lites Heat Two (East):

Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
Trey Canard (Hon)
Matt Goerke (KTM)
Nico Izzi (Suz)
Ryan Morais (Yam)
Ben Coisy (Hon)
Ryan Sipes (KTM)
Tyler Bowers (Yam)
Kyle Chisholm (Kaw)

Lites LCQ:

Justin Brayton (KTM)
Matt Boni (Hon)
Kyle Cunningham (Hon)
Dan Reardon (Hon)

Supercross Class Qualifying

Supercross Heat number one saw Red Bull Honda’s Davi Millsaps lead the thundering pack down the straight and blasting into the stadium. Following behind him were MDK/KTM’s Nick Wey, Joe Gibbs’ Josh Summey and Millsaps’ teammate Andrew Short. While Davi set a fast and consistent pace up front, the pack sorted itself out behind him, with Short moving past Summey (who’d already dispatched of Wey) by lap 3. With Millsaps out front by about 8 seconds, Short put about the same gap on Summey in third, then back to Wey was another few seconds. Further back was the Reynard Mods Suzuki of Robbie Reynard and the factory Suzuki of David Vuillemin, who ended up 5^th and 6^th, respectively.

The second heat for the Supercross class was a preview of the main event, but with reversed results for the top two. When Kevin Windham came tearing into the stadium, Reed was in tow and on his wheel immediately looking for a way around. The two battled nearly bar-to-bar for the entire race, although Kdub was typically able to maintain a gap on the future 2008 champ. Just behind them, the Monster Energy/Kawasaki duo of Travis Preston and Timmy Ferry ran 3-4 for entire race before Ferry finally worked his way past on the final lap. When the checkers finally flew, Reed had made enough small mistakes for Windham to maintain a decent gap of nine seconds over Reed, who was another 5 seconds ahead of Ferry and Preston.

When the Supercross LCQ came down and into the stadium, some of the best racing was about to occur. After Yamaha’s Josh Hill quickly charged into the lead, the scraps left on the table for the final qualifying spot were contested hotly by Cernics/Kawasaki’s Jeff Gibson, Brawndo/Solitaire’s Ryan Clark and MDK/WWR’s Daniel Blair. Gibson and the rest finally dispatched of Blair, but Clark wasn’t done on his charge to the front, as he finally pushed past Gibson and into the main, leaving Gibson with the RacerX gas card.

Results:

Supercross Heat One:

Davi Millsaps (Hon)
Andrew Short (Hon)
Josh Summey (Yam)
Nick Wey (KTM)
Robbie Reynard (Suz)
David Vuillemin (Suz)
Paul Carpenter (Hon)
Kelly Smith (Kaw)
Kevin W. Johnson (Yam)

Supercross Heat Two:

Kevin Windham (Hon)
Chad Reed (Yam)
Timmy Ferry (Kaw)
Travis Preston (Kaw)
Heath Voss (Hon)
Jason Thomas (Hon)
Tyler Bright (Hon)

Supercross LCQ:

Josh Hill (Yam)
Ryan Clark (Hon)

Supercross Lites Main Event

The start of the Dave Coomb, Sr. Supercross Lites east/West shootout started out with a bang, as three of the five hottest lites riders in the world started up front and prepared for battle. With Villopoto, Dungey and Canard at the front, the stage was set for a great battle; although at first it certainly appeared to be more of the same, as a Villopoto runaway win seemed imminent. With RV2 out front and beginning to pull away, the pack strung out a bit behind him, although Dungey looked to be matching every move and line that Villopoto pulled out of his bag of tricks. The two set an absolutely blistering pace up front to put them out of reach of Canard, who’d quickly dispatched of teammate Reardon and Bobby Kiniry to move into third. Way, way back were two other favorites – Yamaha’s Broc Hepler and Monster’s Austin Stroupe – who were at the back of the pack after a crash in the start area. Also a bit further back was the #1W of Jason Lawrence, who’d given up the chase right away, pointing to a possible problem with the bike, and dropping out of the fray very early in the race. Meanwhile, Dungey was slowly inching up on Villopoto, gaining a bit here and losing a bit there, but overall, putting down faster laps than the clear favorite Villopoto. As the race wore on and the lappers came into play, Dungey appeared to deal with the situation better, while also making fewer mistakes on the quickly deteriorating track surface. The crowd was absolutely on their feet as the impossible appeared to be happening in front of their eyes – Ryan Villopoto was being chased down in a very important race that he was clearly trying very hard to win. As the duo danced around the track in tight formation and seeming ease, they came upon a group of “lappers” consisting of Hepler, Izzi (who’d gone down earlier) and Stroupe. Just before the finish line combo with the white flag waving, Villopoto tangled a bit with Hepler on the inside while Dungey railed the outside and got a good run up alongside of Villopoto going up the finish line jump to make the improbable pass. Canard stayed solid in 3^rd, but well out of reach of the top two while his teammate Reardon finished with his best result yet in 4^th. Ryan Morais put in a great come-from-behind ride to round out the top 5. The two Lites regional runners-up put on a great race and a totally unpredictable outcome. Villopoto felt sleighted by the lappers, while Dungey dealt with the same riders on the same track and was able to make a run on arguably the fastest rider in the world – and beat him. Ryan Dungey is – again – the East/West Lites Shootout champ.

Results:

Ryan Dungey (Suz)
Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
Trey Canard (Hon)
Dan Reardon (Hon)
Ryan Morais (Yam)
Justin Brayton (KTM)
Brett Metcalfe (Kaw)
Kyle Chisholm (Kaw)
Broc Hepler (Yam)
Austin Struope (Kaw)
Matt Lemoine (Yam)
Bobby Kiniry (Hon)
Wil Hahn (Yam)
Justin Keeney (Hon)
Nico Izzi (Suz)
Kyle Cunningham (Hon)
Tyler Bowers (Yam)
Matt Boni (Hon)
Ryan Sipes (KTM)
Ben Coisy (Hon)
Matt Goerke (KTM)
Jason Lawrence (Yam)

Supercross Main Event

With team tacticts, intra-team rivalries, friendships and long-time grudges playing into the final Supercross race of the season, things were bound to be interesting. Red Bull Honda Racing’s Davi Millsaps is a close personal friend of Chad Reed’s (the two had complementary butt patches on for this weekend, for instance) and has stated publicly he won’t do anything to help with Honda ‘team tactics’ for Windham to win a title. Andrew Short is just the opposite, and has been a Reed nemesis for some time. When Millsaps snagged the Progressive Direct holeshot with Windham hot on his heels, the two nearly collided in the 180 left corner after the super fast start straight. Millsaps maintained his lead on Kdub, even though many who believe in team tactics believe he should’ve backed off right there. But he certainly didn’t, and even appeared to be slowing Windham’s forward momentum while Reed began his charge to the front from a 6^th place start. Windham did get around by lap 4 after Millsaps bobbled and eventually fell, getting back up in about 10^th. Reed continued charging to the front even though he had no reason to (he needed only 6^th or better if Kdub won to clinch the title), catching up to Short in 3^rd by lap 5. After a few tense laps behind the Honda rider, Reed tentatively made his way past and into second on lap 10 and made a final charge for Windham in the lead. In what defines a racer in the purest sense, the Aussie wore down Kdub, who made a few mistakes that only helped Reed’s cause. After getting alongside a few times and clearly faster through the whoops, Reed finally made a charge at the end of lap 13 to go around Kdub just before the finish line jump and into the lead. He proceeded to put a big gap on Windham in the remaining few laps to take a big win and the series title. Behind the two, Short was able to stay remarkably close, finishing only a few seconds off the winning time. Just behind him was Josh Hill, who’d started barely inside the top 10 to make it past Ferry, Voss and Wey to make it all the way up to 4^th by the flag. Millsaps eventually crossed the line in 5^th.

Supercross Main Event Results: