Photo: Supercross.com
The Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, heads down to the Southern tip of California to Qualcomm Stadium for the San Diego Supercross. The 2012 edition will mark the twenty-ninth time the gate has dropped in San Diego for a supercross race, and one man lining up on Saturday has won a record six of them: Two Two Motosports/Honda’s Chad Reed. While most outside of the supercross world call the venue Qualcomm Stadium, if you go to the event this weekend, you will quickly realize it may as well be called Chad Reed Stadium. With Chad’s success at the venue, the San Diego fans seemed to have adopted the Australian as one of there own. So if you are a Reedy fan, get your #22 signs ready, and if not, be prepared to deal with a huge crowd that is.
Chad Reed heads to San Diego second in the points, just three behind the Monster Energy/Kawasaki of Ryan Villopoto. Last weekend after passing Villopoto on the opening lap for the lead and quickly being passed back, Reedy had a hard time keeping the #1 in sight. In the end, he fell victim to the charging Joe Gibbs Racing/Yamaha of James Stewart. Reed finished with his fourth podium of the year in third but, after being in a great position to get his second win of 2012, seemed very disappointed with his performance. While the podium was solid, it was not enough to keep the red plate on the Two Two Motosports/Honda for a second straight week. If there is ever a place where Chad can rebound and get the red plate back with a win, that place is San Diego.
One man who will be trying to stop Reedy from increasing his record in San Diego to seven wins will be the man with the red plate. Last weekend, Ryan Villopoto went into Anaheim 2 having not won since the opener a month earlier and left the first two-time winner of 2012. With a dominanting performance, Ryan wrestled the red plate away from Chad Reed and Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey, but more importantly he reestablished himself as the man to beat in 2012. Expect Villopoto to try to further that belief and erase Qualcomm Stadium from the quickly shrinking list of venues he has not won at this weekend for round six.
Sitting third in the Championship, after two straight races finishing off the box, is Ryan Dungey. Dungey was the only rider to land in the box in each of the first three Main Events, but since round three at Dodger Stadium, he has not found his way back. Two fourth place finishes would not seem like such a confidence killer if the 2010 Supercross Champ was battling near the podium, but that has not been the case. The #5 has been a distant fourth in last two Main Events and has been quite a bit off the pace. We understand that consistency wins Championships, but we think the 2012 Championship will be all about wins. The question is: is Dungey just playing the points game, or is he really off the pace? We are sure we will begin to find out as the series nears the halfway mark.
One rider who has come alive over the last two Main Events and is still very much alive in the title hunt is the former two-time champion James Stewart. James spent the first three weeks of the series off the podium and licking his wounds after Main Event crashes, but over the last two Main Events, he has kept the rubber side down. Sure, the #7 threw it away in his heat race with a huge crash, but in the end, he got up, qualified through the LCQ and banked a second in the Main Event. At the end of the day, James must have left round five feeling good about his second podium of 2012. Being able to finish second in the field on a good day is a confidence builder, but to finish second after a huge crash and an LCQ appearance is something he can definitely build on. Look for James to try to cut into his thirteen-point deficit, and into Ryan Villopoto’s mojo, in San Diego on Saturday night.
In the 2012 Monster Energy Supercross Championship, it is all about the “big four”, but we will still not be surprised to see a few outsiders crash the podium party on occasion. Three men we could definitely see getting up there on a more regular basis are Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer (2nd in Phoenix), GEICO Powersports/Honda’s Kevin Windham (five straight top 10’s and a fourth) and Muscle Milk/Honda’s Justin Brayton, who has two top fives and a fifth last weekend in Anaheim. All three of these darkhorses have brought podium speed to select events, but none surprised us more than Brayton qualifying on pole last weekend in Anaheim. If any of them can start at the front consistently, we could definitely see them finishing inbetween the Championship contenders.
With the series now five rounds deep, we have four different riders that can call themselves winners in 2012, and they are only seperated by a mere thirteen points in the Championship. With Ryan Villopoto being the first to call himself a two-time winner after last weekend, he may have vaulted himself ahead in the points, but he that does not automatically make him the Championship favorite. All four of the “big four” know how to win and have won championships before. They all still believe that they can be the 2012 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Champion, and as the red plate switches bikes again this week, any one of them could be right.
Supercross Class Championship Points
View full championship points standings here>>>
1 Ryan Villopoto Kawasaki KX450F 108 2 Chad Reed Honda CRF450 105 3 Ryan Dungey KTM 450 SX-F 103 4 James Stewart Yamaha YZ450F 95 5 Kevin Windham Honda CRF450 73 6 Jake Weimer Kawasaki KX450F 71 7 Andrew Short Honda CRF450R 59 8 Brett Metcalfe Suzuki RM-Z450 57 9 David Millsaps Yamaha YZ450F 56 10 Justin Brayton Honda CRF450 53
Check out the San Diego SX animated track map.
