The opening round of the 2011 Monster Energy Supercross series was held in Anaheim, California last evening, and Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto took the victory in his first race after recovering from serious injury last year. Finishing second and third in the 450 class were Ryan Dungey (Suzuki) and James Stewart (Yamaha), respectively.
In the Western Region Lites main event, Kawasaki swept the podium. Josh Hansen took the win ahead of second place Broc Tickle and third place Tyla Rattray.
The series continues next weekend in Phoenix, Arizona.
For additional details, results and points, visit the official Monster Energy Supercross site.
The Lites class was amazing with the top 3 bikes all from the Pro-Circuit team. It was quite impressive to see them stop on the track to congratulate each other. I am sure that Mitch Payton has a photo of that hanging in his office right now!
Great race! It was nice to see a full field, with everybody healthy. I hope it stays that way. There were impressive rides from all of the top riders – Villopoto, Dungey, Stewart, Windham, and Reed. Tedesco is going to have a tough season if he keeps that crap up. It is probably too late, as he already fired the first (unnecessary) shot. He needs to go out there ready to race, and forget about “Revenge”.
JS will crash out of too many races this season to win a championship. He was fun to watch when he was a kid. Too bad he never grew up.
Man… what a season opener! Let’s just hope everyone stays healthy so this can be one of the best SX seasons ever! Go James!
Apparently it wasn’t such an awful idea to leave Stewart of the MXdN team.
Kawasaki have certainly had their successes with riders like Carmichael, Villopoto, Stewart, and the perennially strong Pro Circuit 250 team. However, recent examples of other brands’ success include Ryan Dungey taking the 450cc supercross and motocross titles on a Suzuki and Trey Canard snatching the 250cc motocross title on a Honda in 2010.
I don’t follow dirt racing, does Kawi dominate this area? Reason I ask is it seems the pics are always green–just wondering