Daytona Report
Monday 07 March: Daytona is not a Feld Motor Sport event, it is run by Daytona International Speedway.
Ryan Villopoto took advantage of a James
Stewart miscue and captured his second straight Daytona Supercross By
Honda on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
Stewart led the first three laps but
took a spill on his Yamaha on Lap 4 of the 20-lap event. Villopoto
inherited the lead and led the remaining 17 laps for a 6.506 second
victory.
"I got a good start right behind James
and just followed him,” Villopoto said. "He was on it those first
couple of laps. I was just riding my pace, my race. I figured I was
either going to stay where I was and he was just going to do what he was
going to do or he was going to go down.”
After taking the lead, the rider of the No. 2 Kawasaki put his head down and maintained a solid pace.
"Once I got in the lead, I kept
putting in some hard laps,” Villopoto said. "With the track being as
long as it was ... it was a pretty brutal track and it wasn’t that easy.
I was just trying to be smooth and keep an eye on where second and
third was.”
Three-time Daytona Supercross By Honda
champion Chad Reed finished second on a Honda and defending AMA
Supercross champion Ryan Dungey rounded out the podium. Stewart rallied
from the spill to finish ninth.
Villopoto’s win was the first time a
rider has repeated as a Daytona Supercross champion since Ricky
Carmichael in 2003. It was the fourth AMA Supercross win of the year for
Villopoto and the Seattle, Wash., native expanded his championship lead
to 23 points over Stewart and 24 points over Reed.
Blake Baggett captured the 15-lap Lites East Supercross event on a Kawasaki by a margin of 15.073 seconds.
For the fourth straight year, the
Daytona Supercross By Honda course was designed by five-time Daytona
Supercross champion Ricky Carmichael and built by three-time National
Champion Mark Barnett.
New to the course this year was the
placement of the starting gate, which was located on pit road and
provided fans with a great view of the first turn.
Copy and photos courtesy of Daytona International Speedway.