It’s been said that the fastest man on the track isn’t always the guy who wins the race. Tonight was not one of those nights. At the inaugural Monster Energy Cup, Ryan Villopoto set the fastest qualifying time, won his heat race, and led every lap of all three main events, winning by huge margins on his way to claiming $1 million, the largest purse our sport has ever seen.
Dungey was fast, but was never able to battle with Villopoto. The first race saw Dungey and Ben Townley battling down to the wire for second, with Townley taking the spot. Dungey started the second race right on Villopoto’s heels, but he just wasn’t able to match the blistering pace that RV was running. The third and final race saw Mike Alessi take a holeshot, with Villopoto and Dungey in tow. Villopoto got by Alessi quickly, but Dungey wasn’t so lucky. RD5 and Alessi battled back and for while, and by the time Dungey got into second place, Villopoto had a huge lead and was able to cruise to the cool million. Dungey’s second place earned him $35,000.
Brett Metcalfe had a great night, going 4-3-3 for third and winning $20,000 in the process. After a brilliant performance in the first race, Ben Townley’s black cloud struck once again, as his DNF’d the second race with bike problems and didn’t make it to the third race. Kevin Windham never quite find his groove, and after qualifying out of the LCQ, went 15-14-12 for 13th overall. Josh Hansen went down in practice and was racing with a sore knee, and had a night he’d probably rather forget. Hansen DNF’d the first race after coming together with Broc Tickle (Hansen quickly popped up off the dirt to give Tickle the bird), took 17th in the second race, and DNS’d the third race. His results earned him 21st overall.
Top Ten
- Ryan Villopoto 1-1-1
- Ryan Dungey 3-2-2
- Brett Metcalfe 4-3-3
- Martin Davalos 7-7-5
- Eli Tomac 5-4-10
- Kyle Chisholm 9-9-7
- Nick Wey 14-11-4
- Jimmy Albertson 11-10-8
- Jake Weimer 12-6-11
- Mike Alessi 6-21-6
Stay tuned to Racer X Online, a full race report and pictures will follow this summary.
