Ryan Villopoto is coming out of retirement—for one weekend. The four-time Monster Energy Supercross Champion confirmed he will race the entire 2016 AUS-X Open on November 12-13 in Sydney, Australia.
The event will serve as Villopoto’s first full-schedule racing appearance since announcing his retirement from professional racing last year.
Villopoto will once again face off against Chad Reed, who has also confirmed he will race the event for a second straight year.
“Racing [against] Chad will be awesome. I think that not only will Australian fans be tuning in, but the world also,” Villopoto said. "It’s a unique opportunity for supercross fans. It’ll be a thing like, “Cool, Chad’s there and so is Ryan, lets see how this pans out,” which will be exciting.”
Prior to competing in the FIM World Motocross Championship, in what would be his final season of racing in 2015, Villopoto joined Jeremy McGrath as the only two riders in AMA Supercross history with four consecutive titles. The Washington native is fifth all-time in AMA Supercross wins with 41.
The event has spared no expense in bringing top talent to Australia. In its inaugural season in 2015, Chad Reed and Cooper Webb raced the event. (Webb was a late replacement for the injured James Stewart.)
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events and Minister for Sport, Stuart Ayres, said: “Ryan Villopoto is a legend of World Supercross, and it’s great to see him come out of retirement to compete at this year’s AUS-X Open. The event has been secured exclusively for Sydney by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW and with an all-star field announced, it promises to be a must-see event.”
Tickets are on-sale now. Further information can be found at www.ausxopen.com along with the AUS-X Open social media channels.
