After the three-time and defending champion of Monster Energy Supercross grabbed his second win of the year last weekend in Oakland, and took the points lead back, you can see the fight of the 450 riders to not let him get away. This could become a pivotal time in the championship, if RV gets on a roll, he could shut down hope in a hurry. So, the contenders attacked the track in practice today to try to get an edge. Eli Tomac, back in action after a shoulder injury delayed the start to his season, busted out a triple-quad jump into a 180 corner (and still made the darned turn) that became a focal point by the end of practice. We heard only Ryan Dungey joined Tomac in the triple-quad club with the big leap in the second practice, but late in the final session several riders, like Andrew Short, Justin Barcia and Jake Weimer jumped it.
Barcia, in particular, looked like he was really pushing it, looking much more aggressive than he has the last few weeks. He was routinely near the top of the practice board throughout the day. Also super fast was Anaheim 1 winner Kenny Roczen, who dueled with Barcia for the top spot in both sessions.
And then, on the very last lap of the very last practice session, Villopoto put in a flyer and ended up with the top spot overall. He also didn’t bother triple-quadding. This sounds a lot like last week!
As for the 250s, Dean Wilson should just stay on the bike and keep riding…through the pits, maybe up on the highway, whatever, just do not get off that bike. He is in the zone right now, looking very aggressive and using his size to hammer the big whoop section. He’s one of only a few 250 riders are tripling into a rhythm lane that the 450 guys use for the triple-quad. No 250 is able to quad out, though, but Wilson was going fast enough to put nearly a second between himself and the field through most of the final session. Only in the end did 250 West points leader Jason Anderson step up the time considerably, but he still ended up second fastest .9 seconds off of Wilson. Dean—just keep doing whatever you’re doing and don’t stop.
In other news, we talked to Tomac about his return tonight and he says he’s gonna go with 90 percent as for how he feels. “Not quite roosting and shredding but not miserable either,” he said. His shoulder is pretty good but the time off the bike left him feeling just a tad bit off. He looked good but wasn’t a factor in the battle for fastest time. His GEICO Honda teammate Wil Hahn had a huge crash in the whoops, which are gnarly. Wil likes big whoops, though, and said even though he crashed, he doesn’t want anyone to change them. He’s a little banged up but he’ll be racing tonight.
