250 Words: Las Vegas Lites
The annual Dave Coombs Sr. Memorial East/West Shootout has come and gone and once again, neither coast’s champion won the thing. Rockstar/Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey (and dragons) captured the win for the second year in a row and also won his second super sweet Toyota Tundra for his efforts. Ryan’s ride was just textbook: he methodically clicked off the laps and ate away at Monster Energy/Pro Circuit’s Ryan Villopoto’s lead. The Vegas track was unforgiving as the harder a rider pushed, the more mistakes he made. And on this night, everybody made mistakes; everybody but the mighty Minnesotan that is.
In a season that started with so much promise and ended all wrong, this race had to put a smile on Ryan’s face as he was simply the best rider on the track and showed the East and West champ what was up. Not only that, but he caught and passed RV2, the guy that most people would say is the best 250F rider on the planet. And although RD won another truck, I’m sure that he would gladly give this win and the truck back if he could’ve held on and won the West Coast title.
Villopoto was strong as well, the two riders finishing a whopping 42 seconds in front of third-place finisher, Geico Powersports Trey Canard. These two riders, who rode different coasts this year, got familiar with each other a little earlier than most anticipated. The real battle begins for them in three weeks on the hills of Glen Helen.
Results:
1. Ryan Dungey (Suz)
2. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
3. Trey Canard (Hon)
4. Dan Reardon (Hon)
5. Ryan Morais (Yam)
6. Justin Brayton (KTM)
7. Brett Metcalfe (Kaw)
8. Kyle Chisholm (Kaw)
9. Broc Hepler (Yam)
10. Austin Stroupe (Kaw)
11. Matt Lemoine (Yam)
12. Bob Kiniry (Hon)
13. Wil Hahn (Yam)
14. Justin Keeney (Hon)
15. Nico Izzi (Suz)
16. Kyle Cunningham (Hon)
17. Tyler Bowers (Yam)
18. Matt Boni (Hon)
19. Ryan Sipes (KTM)
20. Ben Coisy (Hon)
21. Matt Goerke (KTM)
22. Jason Lawrence (Yam)