Four motos, four different moto winners—and four different holeshots! The opening round of the AMA Toyota Motocross Championships at Hangtown had a dozen different story lines to follow, but this piece is about the holeshots. MDK Motorsports, Moto-Tees and Racer X combined to hand out $750 per moto in holeshot bonuses, with MDK handing out $500 checks each time, while Moto-Tees added $250 for each 450 moto, and Racer X posted $250 per Lites’ holeshot.
To no one’s surprise, Sobe No Fear/Samsung Honda’s
Josh Grant grabbed the first-moto holeshot at
Hangtown for the fourth year in a row! He then held the lead for more than half the moto before the intense pressure from Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki riders
Ryan Villopoto and Ben Townley, and Makita Suzuki’s
Ryan Dungey.
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Lites moto 2: Ben Townley | | |
In the second Lites moto, it was
Townley all the way. The 22-year-old New Zealander hit the fast, sweeping first turn with the lead and never looked back. His overall win marked the first ever for a Kiwi on the AMA Toyota Motocross circuit.
In the first AMA Motocross moto, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s
James Stewart pulled a monster holeshot, leading everyone past the line and right in front of the camera lens of Carl Stone. But just like last year, he made a mistake in the Grand Prix section which cost him many valuable positions. But James recovered, met up with
Ricky Carmichael out front, and it was on! (
If you’re not going to High Point this weekend, make sure you watch this race on Speed TV, Sunday afternoon at 6:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. West)
Finally, as you can see by this photo, Team Honda had a great start to the second moto, with
Davi Millsaps leading his teammate
Andrew Short across the line. Millsaps would go on to have his best-ever outdoor moto, finishing second to
Ricky Carmichael and serving notice that he is a podium threat outdoors.
Here’s a special thanks to MDK Motorsports for adding $2000 to the holeshot bonus at Hangtown, and to Carl Stone for manning the line and making these photos.
