This Week in Monster Energy Supercross: Toronto
Yamaha’s hill is the most recent winner, scoring the victory at Minneapolis’ Metrodome after passing early leader Ryan Dungey, of the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team, on lap three. A rookie in the AMA Supercross class, Hill now sits sixth overall heading into this weekend’s race.
Torco Fuels Honda’s Trey Canard, of Elk City, Okla., who won the first three races of his AMA Supercross Lites class career, finished fourth in Minneapolis. It was the first race of the year that he did not win his heat race or main event. He has a 24-point lead over Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto in season points standings.
Team San Manuel Yamaha’s Chad Reed, of Tampa, Fla., finished seventh overall in Minneapolis after a crash in the early stages of the AMA Supercross class race. It was his second consecutive seventh place finish. The week before, on the rain-drenched Daytona International Speedway course, Reed’s bike stalled on the last lap. His seventh-place finish was his worst in 90 starts. He leads Windham by 17 points.
MDK KTM Factory rider, Nick Wey, is set to fly to Toronto to contest the 12th round of the AMA Supercross class.
Wey enjoyed his weekend off, spending time with his family and friends back in his hometown of Dewitt, Mich. Once he returned from his weekend getaway he put down laps at the KTM test track making sure everything was flawless for the weekend’s race. “I am looking forward to Toronto. I feel like I am as close to 100% as I’ve been in weeks. My cold is gone and my endurance is back,” commented Wey.
Wey will be the only MDK KTM Factory rider at Toronto. His teammate Martin Davalos has decided to stay home and train as the Toronto supercross doesn’t count as a points round in the AMA Supercross Lites championship. In addition, all MDK KTM Lites team riders have decided to sit this race out as well as it will not benefit them in the points standings. Many of the team members will test at the KTM supercross track and others will begin testing for the outdoor season.
After a relaxing off weekend, the
Monster Energy Kawasaki team is ready to get back into the action at
Toronto. Timmy Ferry will race for the
first time since being injured before the
Indianapolis round. Ferry is currently fifth in
the points standings and hopes having helped design the track in
Toronto will pay off for him.
“I thought about coming back for Minneapolis, but that was too soon,” said Ferry. ”I’ve been riding for a couple of weeks and am about 90%. When Saturday comes I’ll be at 100%, though, because you always get an adrenaline rush on race day. I helped design the track in Toronto, but it seems they change it a little bit from the designs we sent in. It seems the designers have had good luck at their tracks and I hope the same holds for me.”
Though Travis Preston had the weekend off, he still traveled to get some riding in. Preston loaded up his Kawasaki KX™450F and drove to Motosport Xtreme Kawasaki rider Tommy Hahn’s place in Texas to train. Preston wanted to get some riding in on softer dirt, much like the remaining tracks on the schedule.
“It has been fun riding at Tommy’s,” said Preston. “We are pushing each other a lot out there and his track is a good change for me. The dirt is softer and there are a lot of ruts. It is a lot like the tracks we will be racing on. My endurance is still getting better and I think we will be in good shape for Toronto.”
Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing’s David Vuillemin is eager to race his RM-Z450 at this weekend’s AMA Supercross class at Rogers Centre. Having had some much-needed time off for the holidays, the Frenchman is ready to get back to racing.
“I took a couple of days off after the most recent race in Minneapolis, but I started riding my Makita Suzuki RM-Z450 again on Wednesday,” said Vuillemin. “I rode supercross and started testing in motocross on Thursday because the AMA Motocross season is coming and we have to get ready. Even on the off-weekend, I was riding motocross in the high desert. I’m looking forward to this weekend’s race in Toronto, though. I had a good race last year there. The track is pretty big and the dirt is soft. It was pretty tricky with a lot of ruts last year. Tim Ferry designed the track this year and hopefully it will be fun!”
For more information on the Monster Energy® AMA Supercross an FIM World Championship please log on to www.SupercrossOnline.com. For all media requests, please contact Denny Hartwig dennyhartwig@livenation.com or 630-566-6305.
