Photo: KTM Images
The 2012 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship Series, heads across the border to the Great White North. Toronto, Ontario’s Rogers Centre will host round twelve of the Supercross class and round six of the 2012 Eastern Regional Lites Championship. Toronto has been hosting SX races since 2004, but this will be only the fifth time it has been included as part of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series. Previously, Toronto was a part of the World FIM GP SX series and was used as a tune-up race for the AMA series. The first-ever winner in Toronto was Ricky Carmichael in 2004.
Heading into the 2012 version of the Toronto SX, the Supercross Class Championship looks to be in the firm grasp of the defending champ: Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto. With second place in the points, Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey, still at home nursing a broken collarbone and JGR/Yamaha’s James Stewart going down hard in his Indy SX heat race and missing the Main Event due to a possible cuncussion, RV1 now has a commanding fifty-four point lead over Dungey and a sixty-nine point lead over Stewart. Dungey is not expected to return in the next few weeks, and the updates coming out of the Stewart are that he will sit out the Toronto SX. You can read the James Stewart update here. What this means is that RV1 will line up on Saturday night with a ninety-five point lead over his nearest active competitor: JGR/Yamaha’s Davi Millsaps. We expect the #1 to try and collect as many win bonuses as possible, but we doubt we will see much more of the ultra-aggressive Villopoto as he tries to stay healthy enough to wrap up his second-straight Supercross Championship.
Now that the Championship hype has come to a screeching halt, most of the focus in the Supercross Class turns to the guys battling for the newly vacated podium positions. Last weekend, it was Muscle Milk Honda’s Justin Brayton, Davi Millsaps, Yoshimura/Suzuki’s Brett Metcalfe and MotoConcepts’ Mike Alessi battling for those positions. You can expect appearances by GEICO Powersports/Honda’s Kevin Windham and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer up there as well. All of these guys are now in a great position to grab some podium money, jump up in the points and even possibly steal a win or two.
One other rider throwing his hat in the Supercross Class ring in Toronto is the GEICO Powersports/Honda Lites West rider turned new Muscle Milk/Honda fill in rider, Wil Hahn. Cole Seely had been an awesome fill in rider for the team, but it is now time for the Californian to head back to his Troy Lee Designs/Honda Lites bike to prepare his three race run at his first Championship out west. With Cole now unavailable, the Factory Honda team gave Wil, who is just recently recovered from injury, the call to the big leagues. Wil broke his back at the opener in Anaheim riding the Lites Western Regional Championship, so it will be awesome to see him back on a bike. Good luck to Wil in Toronto.
Supercross Class – After 11 Rounds – 2012 Championship Points
1 1 Ryan Villopoto Seattle, WA, USA 246 2 5 Ryan Dungey Belle Plaine, MN, USA 192 3 7 James Stewart Haines City, FL, USA 177 4 18 David Millsaps Murrieta, CA, USA 151 5 14 Kevin Windham Centreville, MS, USA 146 6 10 Justin Brayton Murrieta, CA, USA 143 7 24 Brett Metcalfe Lake Elsinore, CA, USA 142 8 21 Jake Weimer Wildomar, ID, USA 134 9 22 Chad Reed Dade City, FL, USA 128 10 800 Mike Alessi Hilliard, FL, USA 128
Going into round five of the 2012 Monster Energy Eastern Regional Supercross Lites Championship, most of the focus surrounded GEICO Powersports/Honda’s Justin Barcia and his four-race win streak. Everyone was wondering whether or not he could run the table in 2012. Well, with Rockstar/Suzuki’s Blake Wharton winning the Indianapolis SX Main Event last Saturday night, we now know the answer is no. Barcia had an off night and finished third in Indy. The #1 had a bad start in the Main Event and a tip over, but was helped out by a red flag and the subsequent staggered start. In the restart, Barcia used his speed and consistency to fight back from eighth to salvage a spot on the box. In the end, Barcia may have ended his win streak, but his Lites East podium streak is now at an incredible sixteen straight that dates back to round seven of the 2010 SX season.
Heading into last weekend, Red Bull/KTM’s Ken Roczen was third in the points–just one point out of second place–and on the top of everyone’s list as the man that could possibly challenge Barcia down the stretch of this Championship. If you stopped last weekend’s Main Event on lap seven, everyone would have looked quite smart, too. Before the red flag, Roczen was in the lead and looking well on his way to his first win of 2012 while the #1 was buried back in the pack, but the restart appeared to change everything. We cannot be sure if it was nerves, a loss of rhythm due to the situation, pushing too hard or just a freak mistake, but just two laps after the restart, Kenny was down. After the crash, he could only salvage fifteeenth place points. Now, the German is forty-five points down and in a nothing to lose situation.
Sitting second and third in the points after finishing first and second in Indy are Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Darryn Durham and Blake Wharton. Both Darryn and Blake have been extremely consistent–with each ending up fifith in their worst Main Event races–but they still find themselves twenty-two and twenty-three points back in the Championship with only four Main Events left to race. We said last week that in order to get back into this title chase, they would need to try to rattle the defending champ’s confidence, and stopping Barcia’s win streak was a huge step in the right direction. Still, it may take more than that to rattle the confidence of the defending champ.
On to Canada!
Lites East Region – After 5 Rounds – 2012 Championship Points
1 1 Justin Barcia Ochlocknee, GA, USA 120 2 35 Darryn Durham Butler, PA, USA 98 3 956 Blake Wharton Pilot Point, TX, USA 97 4 12 Blake Baggett Grand Terrace, CA, USA 80 5 70 Ken Roczen Murrieta, USA 80 6 57 Jake Canada Sun City, CA, USA 72 7 49 Justin Bogle Cushing, OK, USA 61 8 19 Kyle Cunningham Aledo, TX, USA 43 9 37 Malcolm Stewart Haines City, FL, USA 42 10 927 P Larsen Murrieta, CA, USA 38
