Results Sheet: Atlanta

The Monster Energy Supercross series visit to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta is always one of the crown jewels of the series, and 2012’s visit was no exception, with a sold out crowd of over 71,000 fans, and some great racing action.

Supercross Class

In the Supercross main, it wasn’t one of the usual championship contenders who grabbed the holeshot. Instead, it was Cole Seely, on loan to the Team Honda Muscle Milk squad from Troy Lee Designs Lucas Oil Honda. Cole grabbed the start, followed by Ryan Dungey (Red Bull/KTM), and proceeded to not just lead the race, but pull away a bit at one point.


A first-lap scan of the pack found series points leader, Ryan Villopoto (Monster Energy Kawasaki), in sixth at the end of the lap, and James Stewart (Toyota/JGRMX/Yamaha) also just inside the top ten. Afterwards,  Dungey said, “Cole, obviously I remember him being on the 450 last year. He's a great rider, has a lot of speed, and is great in the 250s as well. He's a great starter, and he showed us that tonight. I had trouble getting around him. He was riding good. The track was tough, being a little bit tacky in some areas, and but being really slippery in others. A couple times I almost tucked my front end but I was able to keep it up and make the pass on Cole.”


Seely led a six-pack of laps, before Dungey was able to get by. Behind him, Villopoto had charged through the pack, making it third by lap seven. It took Ryan another two laps to wrest second place away from Seely, who eventually slipped to sixth.

James Stewart was on the march forward as well, and was making progress on both Dungey and Villopoto before he came up to a triple where the warning lights had come on for a downed Weston Peick, but only just as Dungey and Villopoto made it through. James said, “Those guys, I don’t know what happened, but the red cross flag was on, so I rolled the triple, and those guys jumped it. I lost all my time right there. I’m kind of pissed off about that. Somebody was down, so I understand safety, but we’ve got to go back and look at the tapes. I came around and saw the thing flashing, but those guy ended up jumping it.”


Villopoto kept the pressure on Dungey, despite a quick tip-over crash early in the main, and in the closing stages of the race, it looked at one point like he was going to have a good shot at a pass for the lead. Villopoto said afterwards, “I was obviously hoping for a different outcome…I was thinking Chisholm would hold him up in that turn, maybe he wasn’t going to triple, and maybe double-double and hold him up on the outside and I’d be able to go underneath him, but that’s not what happened.”


What did happen was Dungey crossed the line with his second win of the season, and closed the points lead back to within ten points of Villopoto.


Davi Millsaps (Toyota/JGRMX/Yamaha) finished in fourth, and Justin Brayton (Team Honda Muscle Milk) got by his temporary teammate with two laps to go for fifth.

Supercross Lites Class

The Supercross Lites main event was all Justin Barcia (GEICO Honda). He’d grabbed the holeshot, and was never really threatened, en route to his second straight main event win.


After a rough start to the Lites East series last week in Dallas, Blake Baggett (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) started in second, and stayed there throughout the main. Barcia’s teammate, Justin Bogle, had started fifth, but picked off Darryn Durham (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) on lap three, and Blake Wharton (Rockstar Energy Suzuki) for third at the 2/3 mark.


With his pair of wins, Barcia’s points lead in the Supercross Lites East series is now 12 points over Durham, who finished fifth on the night.


Afterwards, Barcia said, “Tonight was a good race. It was kind of emotional for me, that race was so demanding. The track really demanded your full attention. When I came off I was like a wreck. These last two races I haven’t felt like myself, honestly. I’ve been uptight and nervous a little bit. It’s been weird. First race jitters, I guess. I think next week it’ll be a lot better. But it was great. Holeshot, rode a smart, hard race, and got a second win, so that was awesome for me.”


Next week the series will be in St. Louis, MO, for round nine, the midway point of the season.

Results
2012 Monster Energy AMA Supercross
Atlanta, GA

Supercross Lites Heat 1
1.    Blake Baggett
2.    Justin Barcia
3.    Darryn Durham
4.    Blake Wharton
5.    Daniel Herrlein
6.    Austin Politelli
7.    PJ Larsen
8.    Angelo Pellegrini
9.    Bradley Ripple

Supercross Lites Heat 2
1.    Justin Bogle
2.    Ken Roczen
3.    Kyle Cunningham
4.    Hunter Hewitt
5.    Levi Kilbarger
6.    Shane Sewell
7.    Shawn Rife
8.    Les Smith
9.    Matt Lemoine

Supercross Heat 1
1.    James Stewart
2.    Davi Millsaps
3.    Cole Seely
4.    Josh Hansen
5.    Mike Alessi
6.    Justin Brayton
7.    Jake Weimer
8.    Justin Sipes
9.    Weston Peick

Supercross Heat 2
1.    Ryan Villopoto
2.    Ryan Dungey
3.    Brett Metcalfe
4.    Kevin Windham
5.    Broc Tickle
6.    Matt Goerke
7.    Nick Wey
8.    Kyle Chisholm
9.    Jeff Alessi

Supercross Lites LCQ
1.    Jake Canada
2.    Lance Vincent

Supercross LCQ
1.    Robert Kiniry
2.    Kyle Partridge

Supercross Lites Main Event
1.    Justin Barcia (Honda)
2.    Blake Baggett (Kawasaki)
3.    Justin Bogle (Honda)
4.    Blake Wharton (Suzuki)
5.    Darryn Durham (Kawasaki)
6.    Ken Roczen (KTM)
7.    Kyle Cunningham (Yamaha)
8.    Hunter Hewitt (Suzuki)
9.    Jake Canada (Honda)
10.    Shane Sewell (KTM)
11.    Lance Vincent (KTM)
12.    PJ Larsen (KTM)
13.    Matt Lemoine (Kawasaki)
14.    Les Smith (KTM)
15.    Shawn Rife (Honda)
16.    Levi Kilbarger (Honda)
17.    Daniel Herrlein (Honda)
18.    Angelo Pelligrini (Suzuki)
19.    Austin Politelli (Honda)
20.    Bradley Ripple (Honda)

Supercross Main Event
1.    Ryan Dungey (KTM)
2.    Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki)
3.    James Stewart (Yamaha)
4.    Davi Millsaps (Yamaha)
5.    Justin Brayton (Honda)
6.    Cole Seely (Honda)
7.    Jake Weimer (Kawasaki)
8.    Kevin Windham (Honda)
9.    Brett Metcalfe (Suzuki)
10.    Nick Wey (Kawasaki)
11.    Kyle Chisholm (Kawasaki)
12.    Mike Alessi (Suzuki)
13.    Matt Goerke (Suzuki)
14.    Robert Kiniry (Yamaha)
15.    Josh Hansen (Kawasaki)
16.    Broc Tickle (Kawasaki)
17.    Kyle Partridge (Kawasaki)
18.    Jeff Alessi (Suzuki)
19.    Justin Sipes (Kawasaki)
20.    Weston Peick (Kawasaki)

Supercross Lites East Point Standings
1.    Justin Barcia 50
2.    Darryn Durham 38
3.    Blake Wharton 36
4.    Ken Roczen 35
5.    Blake Baggett 28
6.    Justin Bogle 27
7.    Jake Canada 26
8.    Hunter Hewitt 22
9.    PJ Larsen 22
10.    Lance Vincent 21

Supercross Point Standings
1.    Ryan Villopoto 180
2.    Ryan Dungey 170
3.    James Stewart 136
4.    Chad Reed 128
5.    Jake Weimer 106
6.    Kevin Windham 105
7.    Brett Metcalfe 100
8.    Justin Brayton 96
9.    Davi Millsaps 94
10.    Mike Alessi 90