Atlanta Practice Report
Saturday, February 25, 2012 | 5:30 PM
Share
Comment
Email
Print
Practice is complete here at the Georgia Dome. The biggest story of the day? We hear the event may be headed toward a sell out of 71,000 seats. 71,000! Wow.
Other news: During the morning, people were buzzing about James Stewart and his struggles with the JGR/Toyota Yamaha this year. But then he went out and looked strong and aggressive in the first two practices, which then changed the buzz to…how strong and aggressive Stewart is riding. Could the east coast soil work better for the JGR team after they logged most of their testing at Stewart’s house in Florida? Well….
… the other big story was the rumor that Ryan Villopoto had the flu and wasn’t 100 percent. But in the final practice, RV was on the gas, attacking the track, and ended up logging the fastest lap of that session, even faster than Stewart. So much for that rumor!
Will we get to run a photo like this and the old "This is all the competition saw of Ryan Villopoto" caption tonight?
Cudby photo
Villopoto’s trainer Aldon Baker confirmed that RV was indeed under the weather this week, but he started feeling better yesterday and then felt fine today. The illness isn’t an issue. RV’s best time was a 50.7 while Stewart ran a 51.1, so that’s a difference of four tenths of a second.
How about the rest of the SX class? Ryan Dungey was third fastest overall with a 51.3, then Davi Millsaps was fourth with a 51.7, followed by Kevin Windham’s 52 flat. Jake Weimer, Kyle Chisholm, Justin Brayton, Broc Tickle and Cole Seely rounded out the top ten.
In the Lites division, Justin Barcia was busting out fast laps and testing his rev limiter over every jump in the early practice sessions. He was fastest in the first timed session. There’s a tricky rhythm section here that really gives the Lites riders fits, they can go triple-triple-triple single if they get it right, but it’s not easy. Ken Roczen eventually got the section clean and really pushed it through the second timed session, and he logged the fastest time of the session (52.1), which became the fastest Lites time of the day. Kenny Boy then said he was going to take a nap before the heat races and come out ready for the night show.
Barcia (52.3) Justin Bogle (52.5) Blake Wharton (53.6) and Kyle Cunningham (53.8) rounded out the Lites top five. Malcolm Stewart, Matt Lemoine, Darryn Durham Jake Canada and Blake Baggett rounded out the top ten.
In other news, Andrew Short is still out with a shoulder injury suffered two weeks ago in San Diego. Nico Izzi has been nursing sore wrist for a few weeks and is going to park his 450 this weekend to try to get the wrist fixed. And Chad Reed is….not here. Bummer. We’ll see if someone else can step up and challenge Villopoto and his three-race win streak tonight.
Kenny Boy was fastest in Lites practice.
Cudby photo
Did you like this article?
Check out ACTION FIGURE
in our Latest issue of Racer X available now.
Troy Lee Designs/Lucas Oil Honda’s Cole Seely is a man of many talents— skateboarding, BMX, import drifting … and he’s pretty good at this motocross thing, too. Page 156 .
Look for the verified symbol 
Impulse Studios
Roczen might set the fastest but come race time its all Barcia. This is Barcia's home. Rv looking good but come race time anything can happen. JS looked comfortable at practice
Kenny Boy? Is that the official moniker? Kinda lame.
K-Roc is lame too, but it's better than Kenny Boy
dgiz, I know you have your fingers crossed for Stew , may he and Villo have a 20 lap war, both stay on 2 wheels the entire time, both get good starts and may the red head win!
Very cool picture of Villopoto!
Yep, if JS wins, its going to be because RV was cruising.. I can agree with that. But, it will be interesting to see how agreesive RV will be if they are battling each other. JS's has really no choice but to go balls out. Really SUCKS Reed's not racing..
Villo will let 7 go if he has too.
JimM
Pala374
Top 5 450...
Dungey
Stewart
Weimer
Millsaps
Windham
Villopoto stuggles tonight and finishes between 5-10...Dungey leaves the ATL about 5 points out of the championship lead...
This is funny...if by chance Stewart wins another race or two this year, the VILLOTARDS have already started to chant their mantra that the leprechaun will be "letting" him win....you guys are fools....here's to hoping the leprechaun has a couple really bad races so he has to actually try and win again....what a joke!!
RV wants all the points he can get. It's like money in the bank.
These guys race to win races....especially your RV and JS7 of the world....RV will not take any unneeded risks since at this point he only needs to finish ahead of Mr Dungey to keep that points lead growing.....I would like to see some close racing and maybe Stew make it back into the mix....atleast for second....
I'll be suprised if bubba makes it to RC's win record. I'm pretty confident that Mcgrath's record is safe. Villo's the one who's gonna be making the big jumps up the all time win list this season. I predict he gets four in a row tonight
im just telling this guys we all can forget about rv battling with js7 if js7 starts in front of villo for the rest of the season rv its not putting a fight its a bummer but thats the way its gonna be rv will play it safe thinking championship i hate to know this because we are the ones that wont see battles for the rest of the season its really bad but you will see im right, the good thing its that rv already proved a lot hes faster than js7 this year and hey newguy clearly rv wont fight js7 hes no longer a factor in the championship and as i said before yo can se in lap times all year long villo has been faster than js7 so he has nothing to prove moron he only needs to beat rd to extend his comfort zone in the points
just like rc rv its going to be thinking championships not races hes not only faster than anyone else he is smart and look what that kind of thinking give to the goat 15 CHAMPIONSHIPS GREATEST OF ALL TIME not like js7 with the stupid win or crash he is not the same he was in 07 maybe he is getting older i dont know and i dont give a shit theres a new sheriff in town go rv
Some of you fellows are kinda silly, Nobody lets anyone by... this aint the last race of the year!
There are alot of assumptions that JS will be anywhere near the front. He has not had the best track record this year in case all of his disciples have not noticed. RV would be smart to not battle him due to his erratic riding this year, but I would not expect him to lay down on this title, he is faster than JS, has proven it week after week, call them Villotards, I call them believers, and I am not even a big RV fan. Don't discount the 2nd place rider either. He is there for a reason!
And why does every dang story on here have to revolve around JS???? I didn't drink the kool aid!!!!
RV1 & JS7 are both gifted and fast, but the fact is, and this is totally objective by what we seen for the last 3 years is that JS7 is not good under pressure whereas RV1 is calm, cool, and collected. JS7 has either crashed or choked under pressure either from being in the lead or for the points battle. He is clearly a fast rider but he doesn't know how to slow down to go faster and stay consistent. There are tracks that you dominate and then there are ones you struggle with, you can't win them all and I think that's what JS7 has always tried to do....win them all.
Come on KW!!! get up there and fight. If not I think it will be RDs turn JS & RV will go down tonite...everyone please be safe!
And someone please punt JB off the tract tonite, Even though I like him he needs to be put down! Sorry just my opinion, he shows little respect for others and needs to learn a lesson. Hopefully no one will get hurt in the process.
RV will let JS win to protect his points????? Sometimes I wonder if posters that say things like this even ride let alone race. What makes the rare racers like RC and RV is not wanting to win, it is the fear of losing. People like this cannot stand to lose and consquently they seldom do. If this were Vegas then maybe, like RV did last year. RV is not afraid of JS in fact he knows he has his number. CR is more dangerous to ride close to then JS and you watched RV put it to him in San Diego with the last lap pass. He qualified fastest again tonight and he will run lap times like that, so the only way to best him is run faster or hope he gets a bad start. You RD fans can forget it he is not even close to being on pace with RV or JS.
Barcia wonders, "To punt or not to punt? That is the question". Go Bogle, Wharton, Roczen, Durham and whoever else. We need a good punt return here.
Can you pass on the yellow flag like RV! did to Metcalf in their qualifier?
alezx9=V I L L O T A R D!! nuff said!!
@newguy--you are such a dumb tool you cant even make up a real nickname. Give up the "tard" crap, it is a name for guys lioke you STEWTARDS. YOu have to try and grow a brain and come up with something else for RV fans.. Anmd YOU are nothing but a one rider fan STEWTARD..
Claxton: Are you new to the sport?