Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Villopoto Takes Big Step In Defending His Title

September 5, 2007, 6:20am

Monster/PC/Kawi’s Ryan Villopoto (1st), Ben Townley (3rd) and Austin Stroupe (10th) are the fastest three racers at inaugural Freestone National

CORONA, Calif., (Sept. 2, 2007) – The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/ Kawasaki Lites class bikes were tuned to the nines and absolutely FLYING at the inaugural Monster Energy/Tetco Freestone (Texas) MX National on Sunday, clocking the top three fastest times in each of the two motos.

Able to hold onto that hyper-fast KX250F bike the best was Ryan Villopoto, who took a massive step in defending his 2006 overall AMA Lites class title by going 1-1 in the two moto event and extending his series lead to 19 points over Monster Energy-backed teammate Ben Townley.

“It’s nice to have the lead heading into Glen Helen, but the series is far from over,” said Villopoto, who won for the fifth time this season. “Ben (Townley) proved in the first moto that he still wants it as bad as I do.”

Townley, who went down on the first turn on the first lap of moto one, battled back valiantly from 35th place to finish 6th. The New Zealander then stayed upright in the second moto, finishing 2nd to Villopoto to take 3rd overall and giving Monster two of the three podium spots.

Also ripping up the Texas countryside was Monster/Pro Circuit/ Kawasaki’s Austin Stroupe. The rookie racer scored a 2nd place finish in the first moto and was poised to make the podium when a second moto sketch took him out of contention. Still, his 2-35/10th place performance put him in the top ten for the second consecutive week. And teammate Brett Metcalfe would race to a solid 4th place finish overall with a 4-6 two moto finish – just behind Townley.

But the racer that set himself apart from the rest was Villopoto.
Case-in-point was his first moto time of 2:14.337 – a lap run nearly two seconds faster than the next closest competitor (Stroupe). In all, Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki bikes went 1-2-3 in terms of fastest lap times in both motos!

Next up for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team is the Sept. 9th Glen Helen MX National final in San Bernardino, Calif., Round 12 of the 2007 AMA Toyota Motocross Championships.