5 Minutes with Ryan Villopoto

Courtesy of Monster Energy

Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto came out swinging in the 2011 Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Championship, winning Anaheim 1 and placing himself in the position to be the man to beat from the start. Eventually, he stretched his lead to more than one race, but that was before he failed to make the main event in Jacksonville. Still, he’s a scrapper, and between then and now, he has fought for every lap. Then, this past weekend in Salt Lake City, at the penultimate round of the championship, RV grabbed another win at the perfect time, and now he sits pretty with a nine-point lead going into the finale, meaning if he finishes fifth place or better, he wins his first-ever 450cc title.

So, you didn’t get the greatest start. I think you were fifth or sixth or something?
Ryan Villopoto: Fourth. [Justin] Brayton was in front of me.

Despite starting there, you definitely had a consistent push to the front of the pack. How did you do that?
Yeah... I got around Brayton pretty quick and then Chad [Reed] was there. And I was riding well and I knew that I couldn’t let myself fall into his rhythm or into his pace, so I just knew that I needed to put in a push. There was one or two laps before I passed him where he got squirrelly in the whoops a little bit, and I knew that that’s where I was going to be able to get him. I just went in there and got past him, and pushed him a little bit wide...

Saw you dive down the inside there...
Yeah, and then [James] Stewart was right there; he wasn’t really pulling away. And, obviously, I know Stew knew that I got into second. He knows what’s on the pitboard and things like that, and obviously he heard the crowd. He was right there and then he just slid out and then crashed in the whoops.

I know you went by him when he fell in that turn, but you didn’t know he went down again, did you?
Well, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him go over the bars in the whoops. I saw it.

Oh, you saw the bike flipping?
I knew that he went over, yeah. And so, then I knew that I didn’t have to worry about him anymore; it was just Chad...

Did you start to feel less pressure or anything?
No. I mean, Chad was right there. These type of tracks he seems to ride pretty good on. So, I knew he was still going to be there. You know, with the lap times being short, and nothing really separating us other than the whoops, I knew that it was going to stay close and then, obviously, the lappers came into play. They were pretty bad. So it was cat-and-mouse. I’d get by one and then I’d get hung up; he’d get by...

Yeah. He was actually killing the whoops about every other lap behind you.
I don’t know what lap it was, but I started just blitzing and then jumping out.

Yeah, but he was blitzing over the big gap in the whoops.
That’s what we were doing in the beginning of the race.

And then, at the end, with two to go, right before you got the white flag actually, he blitzed and got pretty damned close to you.
Yeah, I heard him...

But then it seems like lappers again got in the way.
Lappers, and then I think I was really good on the other parts of the track. So, I knew that it was kind of over then.

So, considering a nine-point lead... I mean, every time we talk, you’re like, “Oh, there’s a lot of racing left.”
There’s 20 laps left now.

Yeah, there’s one race left!
It’s good; I feel good about it. You know, I had said that I at least wanted to get one more win before the season’s end, and I’ve done that now.

You won Vegas a couple years ago...
Yeah. We’ll go into Vegas obviously a little more relaxed than if I wouldn’t have won tonight...

Yeah... I mean, you’d be three points ahead if you’d have swapped spots.
Right. But for sure, if a win presents itself, I’d like to take it for sure.

You’re not going to turn down a win? Is that what you’re saying?
[Laughs] No! So, we’ll get through the night with a strong finish, and, for sure, we want to ride well and just, like I said, be patient and let things come to you there.

So, are you going to buy yourself anything nice if you win the title? It’s a lot of money.
I don’t know.

It’s a seven-figure bonus, right?
Well, [Bobby] Nichols [Villopoto’s manager, who was sitting right there] gets about...

Oh, Nichols gets half of that, I’m sure...
Over half of it. [Laughs]

He does; I heard about that.
So, I don’t know; we’ll see.

Because Monster Energy is sponsoring the US GP, I heard for a while that you’d be racing it at Glen Helen, but now it sounds like that’s not happening. What’s up?
That’s not our series. We have nothing to do with that. It’s just a situation where we need time to prepare, and I don’t have time enough to prepare for that one event as we get ready for the Nationals. I would’ve liked to race, but it’s tough.