Ryan’s third-straight 450SX Championship was clinched a round early at the 2013 Salt Lake SX. – Photo by: Hoppenworld
Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto has won the last three-straight Monster Energy Supercross 450SX Championships, and in the last two seasons, he has clinched the championship before the gate dropped on the finale in Las Vegas. Villopoto’s first 450SX Championship went all the way to Las Vegas, with Villopoto carrying a nine-point lead over Chad Reed and twelve points over Ryan Dungey into the finale. Villopoto—in his 3rd year on the 450—looked unphased by the pressure and scored a solid 3rd in Las Vegas to lock down his first-ever big bike Championship.
While 2011 went down to the finale, 2012 was a much different scenario for the defending champ. In 2012, Villopoto became the first man in the history of the sport to clinch the championship with four rounds remaining. With Trey Canard, James Stewart, Ryan Dungey and Chad Reed all having an injury-riddled season, Villopoto went on a terror, winning eight out of ten main events and clinching his second-straight 450SX Championship at round thirteen in Houston. In the end, that was huge, because Villopoto would go out with a torn ACL at round fifteen in Seattle and miss the remainder of 2012.
After tearing his ACL, missing the last three rounds of supercross and the entire 2012 Lucas Oil Pro Motoross Championship, some wondered how well Villopoto would rebound in 2013. Those question marks grew larger when he only scored five points at round one, and they continued to grow as the series went east for round seven with Villopoto twenty-seven points behind Davi Millsaps. From then on, though, it was the Villopoto show. Starting at round seven, Villopoto won eight out of the last eleven rounds, never finished worse than second and, miraculously, clinched his third-straight 450SX Championship a round early in Utah. It was a dominant display of a champion doing what he had to do when it was time to get it done.
So here we are, eleven rounds into 2014, and Villopoto is leading Dungey by thirty points while trying to become only the second man in history to win four-straight 450SX Championships. With that, and the fact that Villopoto has never lost a SX Championship after leading the points, it’s becoming a question of when he will win the 2014 450SX Championship, not if he will win. Below we posted this week’s poll, so give us your vote on what round you think RV will clinch his fourth-straight.
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