St. Louis SX Lites

WOW!


The season that can't be predicted was to,sum up,-----unpredictable. With the tango for two set up coming into the weekend, the pressure was on two of the young guns in our sport.

----Ryan Villopoto----

At times, he has been the most dominating "lites" rider we have ever seen. He has blazing speed, he is an animal on the bike where others are mere humans, and he has an air of confidence around him that makes other riders shake in their boots. The Vegas odd makers absolutely KNEW he would win this year, every magazine KNEW he would dominate year, and I KNEW he was invincible. After a terrible race one, I KNEW he was still in it. After a mistake riddled second race, I THOUGHT he could pull it out. After getting pummeled at Daytona, I questioned his health but knew he was the fastest. Then he proved me right, by reeling off 3 easy wins, dominating the competition in true 2 fashion. With a final race left, mano y mano, I had no doubt he could use his dominating ability and put forth his confidence by showing his blazing speed to become truly invincible this season.

Heck, he jammed Ben Townley, the mx2 WORLD champion, under his boot when the pressure was on during the epic outdoor season, who is Trey Canard again?

----Trey Canard----

The rookie sensation took a vacation the past couple rounds, allowing Ryan Villapoto to get within striking distance. At this point, anyone who is anyone, and even those who aren't, thought Canard's dash for the cash (the title) was over for the year, although the general consensus was his debut season was a brilliant success.

The Villopoto train had just got rolling,
"CHUUU CHUUUU!"
and what started as a slow "CHAuuuuga chuuuuuga chuuuuuga, CHAUuuuuuuga chuuuuuuga chuuuuuuuuga"
changed into a ROARING "CHUGA CHUGA CHUGA CHUGA" moving at a speed so fast even asteroids had to throw their respect.
When Villapoto gets going, HE GETS GOING.

After a solid amateur career, and a championship at his final Loretta's, Canard entered the pro ranks as someone to look out for in the next couple years. In the remaining nationals after Loretta's, he had some strong showings, besting even his teammate Josh Grant a few times, but didn't show the blazing speed Austin Stroupe debuted or the amazing speed Villapoto showed the year previous at Glen Helen. Apparently, Trey is not one to sit idly in the off season, as he ripped into first 3 rounds of the AMA supercross Lites East Coast division by winning big. In doing so he amassed himself a seemingly infallible points lead and a ton of confidence.

But he the young one lost his way at some point, and let the talk get to his head! He started losing points faster than Russian Skaters with a French Judge, with no seeming answer.

On Saturday, April 20, Trey Canard fought back to a "chuging" Ryan Villapoto to not only win his 4th race of the season, but also his first ever championship.

Read at over RacerX the controversy that took place, but it was no doubt one for the record books. Thanks for reading, I'd do a race report, but others already have!

The Call to Arms

WHAM. Everything fades out, then comes back. You crawl off to the side, and lay there. You feel like you cant breathe, and every labored inhalation you take seems as if your sucking in nothingness. Yours ears are ringing, and you can barely hear the track crewman shouting to you.

".....ight?" filters softly into your brain. You try to process the comment, but it makes no sense

"are you aLL RIGHT?" fades in a man shouting at you.

Are you o.k.? You haven't had time to think that far ahead yet. You try and think about your body and each element, but you have to respond soon, or the guy will freak out.

You don't know, and shrug your shoulders at the man.

"Stay here, don't move." he says with clarity, looking you straight in the eyes.

You slowly move each body part, first your ankle, then leg. You repeat this on your other side. You move onto your fingers, wrists, arm, shoulder. Everything seems o.k,, but it still feels like you were hit by a Mac truck.

Slowly you begin to catch your breath.

Your neck feels fine, but a little stiff, and your head seems fine, although maybe a little fuzzy. Then you try to sit up, and the wave of nausea and pain hits you. Your right rib cage erupts in pain, and you nearly throw up.

The guy re emerges in your vision.

"You doing alright buddy? That was one heck of a wreck!" he says almost encouragingly.
"Glad you got off the track, though" he says gravely "watched a kid get hit just last week..." he begins "he was ok though..."

"Is my bike o.k.?" you ask.

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Two hours later, sitting in your house, you try not to hurt. Your buddies are chattering about events from the day's race, they joke at your wreck, you reflect. Tomorrow is going to hurt. BAD. You have broken a couple ribs, sprained a muscle or two, and have hit your head well enough to need a new helmet.
"Dammit" you think.

Amidst one of your friends jokes, you state, "Screw this riding crap, I'm selling everything"

The room bursts with laughter.

"Yeah, right, just like you said you were gonna land that double today!" One friends says.
"Ha Ha, yeah, just like Ricky Carmichael I think you said!" pipes another

Your trying not to laugh, let alone breathe, but everyone is laughing hysterically, and you can't help but crack a smile.

"No, no, no, let him sell it! Now I can get me a new bike, CHEAP!" laughs another.

Internally, you have about had it with riding though.

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A couple weeks later, while piddling around in the garage, you see your bike. It is still dirty from the day of your wreck, and you can still smell the race gas in the tank.
"George, can't you do ANYthing right?" you mutter to yourself chastising your buddy who dropped the bike off.
You walk over to your bike and lower it from the stand. You move it a couple inches to the left, straighten it to just the right angle, and re lift it.
The grips feel so good in your hands, the brake lever a perfect distance from the throttle.

You move on, and leave it.

A couple more weeks later, it calls to you. You have been avoiding the garage, but today, you can't help it. You enter, see your dirty bike, and know immediately what you must do.

Three hours later, the bike is showroom clean, has a fresh filter, every bolt is tight, you have lubed and adjusted the chain, and the oil has been changed, swapped out for some fresh synthetic.

The bike just sits there, and the more you stare at it, the more it begs you to turn it on.
"Just start me, that's it, I promise" the bike says.

You hop on, go through your start up routine, and then kick hard. It explodes to life. You let it warm up, get ready to turn it off, but you hear something.
"Just up and down the street once" you hear, ever so faintly.

Now, you don't even think, everything is secondary, and you feel yourself notch the bike into second, slip the clutch and roll off smoothly towards the street.

You cruise for a second, it feels good. Without thinking you get on it, whacking open the throttle. Internally the carb slide opens, air races towards the engine, sucking fuel along the way. The explosive mixture pours into the cylinder, compresses, and then silence. BOOM! The fuel ignites, forcing the piston down, and escapes out the exhaust. The bike leaps foward, Second, Third, Fourth gear fly by, and the wind is roaring around your ears. You snap closed the throttle and cruise up your driveway.

You kill the engine, dismount, find neutral and wheel the bike into the garage angling it just right before lifting it on the stand.

Your hands are shaking from the adrenaline, your hair is straight up from the wind. You look around, colors look sharp and crisp, you process things as if they were almost in slow motion.

The rest of the week feels so mundane, everything so dull.

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"RRRRRING. BBRRRRRRINNNNG." your house phone screeches.

"Heeellllo. Yeah. This sunday? 8 my place? Great, see you then."

Back to the races!

Detroit Sx- Lites Class

The lites class in Detroit looked like any other this year, with Villapoto laying down the fastest lap in practice, followed by Grant and then Canard. With Canard showing a strong performance in Dallas despite a first turn wreck, and the uncharacteristic reliability of the Honda's this year (the same can be said about all the bikes for that matter), everyone assumed that Ryan had no shot at the title.

When the race took off, Villapoto found himself out front, followed closely by Canard a few spots back. At this point, even Ryan admitted it didn't look like the night he was hoping for.

But somehow, Trey Canard threw it, along with his kung fu grip on the championship, away with a wreck that resulted in issues rekindling the fire in his screaming Honda. After he finally resumed his charge toward the finish, he was way back. With the night over, the "new 2" found himself a mere three points back with one round left! Talk about excitement. This means that in order for Ryan Villapoto to claim an East coast championship, he must win the upcoming race, and vice versa for Trey Canard. If Ryan wins the race, and Canard gets second, they will end the season in a points tie! The tie breaker would then go to Villapoto on a rule stating the rider with the most wins ultimately....wins.


The parallels existent in this years competition between the east and west coasts lites division has been unreal! They've both had a couple riders each who were favorite to win the championship. They've both had those riders experience misfortune in early rounds, and they've both had a rider with a seemingly unsurmountable points lead. Somehow, be it bad luck, or poor decision making, the once top dog made underdog has found himself the top dog once again in each series.

Unbelievable, I'm glad I'm not a betting man.

If you watch one race this season, make the next two! With turmoil in both classes unfolding in the past couple rounds, the time to watch is now!

Thanks for reading, shoot me an email at mhsgolfstud@gmail.com if you have and comments or thoughts. Be sure to check back soon for an extremely interesting article on the KTM suspension. Finally...some answers.