If I came away from Jacksonville Supercross with anything, it is this: Ryan Villopoto and Trey Canard are bad dudes. Don’t get me wrong, if you race Supercross on a professional level, you’re a badass in my eyes, but these guys definitely reinforced my opinion this weekend. Villopoto went down in the first practice pretty damn hard, hurting his foot. It was enough that he didn’t bother coming out for the second practice. Most of us weren’t even sure he was going to ride; even after his mechanic Mike Williamson reassured me that he was fine. When RV2 did finally emerge from the Monster Kawasaki semi before opening cermonies, he clearly favored his foot as he made a final pit stop in the Asterisk Medical Unit before taking his place in the stadium’s tunnel. With little track time and a wounded foot, RV2 dominated his heat race, then turned around and won the main event with relative ease. Badass.
Trey Canard, moonlighting as a 450 pilot aboard Andrew Short’s Red Bull Racing Honda, has scored five straight podiums while waiting for the West Coast Lites Championship to resume in Seattle. He currently sits in second place behind Pro Circuit’s Jake Weimer, but after only six races in the premiere 450 class, he is already 12th in the big bore points. This weekend in Jacksonville, he reeled in his teammate, the legendary Kevin Windham, and passed him for the final podium spot in the last second of the main event. Badass.
Both of these guys have bright futures in the 450 class… We may even see a rekindling of the East Coast Lites battle of two seasons ago. In the more immediate future, Supercross gets a weekend off this next week. After that, they will reconvene in Houston.
In case you missed any of the coverage from Saturday, check out some of the interviews below.
HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? – BARCIA, POURCEL, METCALFE, VILLOPOTO
CATCHING UP WITH JUSTIN BARCIA
TAGS: canard, jacksonville, JAX Supercross, kickstart, supercross, villopoto
