Sign of the (Lap) Times: Glen Helen

May 28, 2008 8:12am

The 2008 AMA Toyota Motocross Championship kicked off the season right where it left off last September at San Bernardino’s Glen Helen Raceway. The Jody Weisel-designed track again presented riders with one of the gnarliest courses on the circuit, with massive uphills, treacherous downhills, off-cambers, deep sand, gut-wrenching ruts, whoops, hardpack and very big jumps. But enough about the track; we’re here to analyze the lap times in Sign of the (Lap) Times, presented by RXR Protect.

Lites

In all four motos on Sunday, the moto winner turned out to have the fastest time of the race, and that kicked off with Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy’s Jason Lawrence logging a 2:43.412 in Moto 1 on his way to his first career moto win. But the next four riders weren’t too far off his pace. In fact, the top five lap times in this first moto were all separated by a mere .33 seconds! That’s close!

J Law laid down the law in the first moto

In Moto 2 it was the defending champion, Ryan Villopoto, logging the fastest time in the moto (2:42.684), which was faster than that of J-Law’s first moto best lap. Second fastest in both motos was eventual winner Austin Stroupe on his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki. Check out the lap times of the top 20 finishers below:

Pos.	Moto 1	Moto 2	Rider	Bike
1	02:43.694	02:43.201	Austin Stroupe	Kawasaki
2	02:43.740	02:42.684	Ryan Villopoto	Kawasaki
3	02:43.412	02:47.751	Jason Lawrence	Yamaha
4	02:43.742	02:43.944	Ryan Dungey	Suzuki
5	02:43.668	02:45.701	Brett Metcalfe	Kawasaki
6	02:46.117	02:47.988	Jake Weimer	Honda
7	02:44.546	02:49.049	Matt Lemoine	Yamaha
8	02:46.441	02:46.846	Trey Canard	Honda
9	02:46.446	02:50.308	Kyle Cunningham	Honda
10	02:47.115	02:49.837	Tommy Hahn	Kawasaki
11	02:47.414	02:51.375	Andrew McFarlane	Kawasaki
12	02:47.475	02:49.920	Broc Tickle	Yamaha
13	02:46.375	02:49.971	Nico Izzi	Suzuki
14	02:46.346	02:50.554	Branden Jesseman	Kawasaki
15	02:47.326	02:48.761	Jake Moss	Yamaha
16	02:47.586	02:51.874	Justin Brayton	KTM
17	02:46.444	02:50.172	Dan Reardon	Honda
18	02:46.215	02:50.884	Matt Goerke	KTM
19	02:47.988	02:52.315	Kyle Chisholm	Kawasaki
20	02:51.446	02:51.465	Wil Hahn	Yamaha

Biggest surprise: Scanning the top 10 finishers, the name that really sticks out is Division 7/Star Racing’s Matt Lemoine. The Texas-born rider has been pretty quiet so far in 2008, as injuries and bad luck hampered his supercross season, where his best finish was a 10th in Houston. But he came out blazing at Glen Helen, going 6-9 for seventh overall.

Matt Lemoine rode well inside the top 10

AMA Motocross
As you already know, it was all James Stewart in the 450 class at Glen Helen. Not only did he log a convincing 1-1 tally, Stewart also had the fastest lap times in the class both times out aboard his Monster Energy Kawasaki. The closest rider to him was Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Mike Alessi, who finished 2-2 in his return to AMA Pro Racing. Alessi’s lap times weren’t that far off of Stewart, and in the second moto Alessi’s fastest lap was almost three full seconds faster than third place finisher Davi Millsaps. Check out the top 20 below:

Guess who has the fastest 450 lap times?

Pos.	Moto 1	Moto 2	Rider	Bike
1	02:41.242	02:43.124	James Stewart	Kawasaki
2	02:43.581	02:44.835	Mike Alessi	Suzuki
3	02:44.475	02:47.304	Davi Millsaps	Honda
4	02:44.811	02:47.707	Tim Ferry	Kawasaki
5	02:44.883	02:50.042	Ivan Tedesco	Honda
6	02:47.694	02:51.096	Michael Byrne	Suzuki
7	02:46.549	02:49.627	Sean Hamblin	Yamaha
8	02:47.967	02:50.262	Cody Cooper	Suzuki
9	02:48.531	02:50.922	Nick Wey	KTM
10	02:47.057	02:50.648	Jeff Alessi	Honda
11	02:48.173	02:51.077	Antonio Balbi	Honda
12	02:47.385	02:52.262	Steve Boniface	Honda
13	02:44.773	N/A	Andrew Short	Honda
14	02:44.249	N/A	Ben Townley	Honda
15	02:48.792	02:51.551	Bobby Bonds	Kawasaki
16	02:50.109	02:51.260	Jarrod Browne	Suzuki
17	02:50.101	02:52.514	David Vuillemin	Suzuki
18	02:52.478	02:51.038	Josh Summey	Yamaha
19	02:49.218	02:51.365	Josh Hill	Yamaha
20	02:51.026	02:53.477	Kyle Summers	KTM

Biggest surprise: Again, scanning down through the top 10, the name that jumps out is Sean Hamblin. Or does it? This seems so similar to 2002, when Hamblin came out on a privateer Suzuki and ran in the top 10, gaining the attention of Roger DeCoster and Team Suzuki. Hamblin surely got some looks on Sunday, and stay tuned to Racer X Online later this week for an interview with the Yamaha privateer.

Tuf Racing's Sean Hamblin