Article – Round 13 Mx

July 27, 2011

Hot, Hot, Hot!  Three words which accurately describe round 13 of the 32^nd annual points championship series at Dade City Motocross.  The weather was extremely hot and humid, but the frequent rains which plague Florida in the summer took a couple days off leading into Saturday afternoon.  Lately, due to summer rains, the track has been very soft and sandy, but all (maybe almost all) were pleased to see the track much more hard-packed than it had been in quite some time.

Practice went off without a hitch, as usual, and it was capped off with the timed qualifying session for the realmotocross.com Sponsor’s Cup.  Tyler Livesay, who had been on a dominant roll, was on a brand new 2012 KX450F, but was still only able to garner second best lap time.  Mike Picone seems to have found the speed he showed throughout his championship season last year, and qualified on pole.  Having skipped the AMA National at Washougal Kyle Keylon was on hand to put in the third fastest lap, and he was followed by Jerry Kopoian and Ian Millett.

The Supermini class often provides some of the most exciting racing action, with the fastest youngsters on super fast little bikes there are usually battles all over the racetrack.  When the gate fell for the first moto William Klee grabbed the holeshot followed closely by AJ meadows, on a borrowed bike he had never ridden before (since both of his superminis had expired in practice).  Early on it was apparent that AJ was struggling a bit with the differences in handling between the borrowed Kawasaki and his usual Suzukis, as he followed Klee around.  After just over a lap Klee fell in a corner and handed the lead to Meadows, and at about the same time Meadows appeared to have figured out the handling on the Kawasaki and began to gap the field.  As Meadows led Bryce Mauldin was doing a great job of holding off third place Robbey Ruffner.  The two battled for the second position while they also began to reel in Meadows.  Eventually, after much close racing Meadows took home the win with Mauldin holding off Ruffner for second.  Kaleb Damon came home 4^th, and Braden Meyer finished fifth.

After the sight lap the gate fell for the Sponsor’s Cup class, and Millett jumped out to grab the holeshot.  Millett was followed closely by Picone and Kopoian, who is getting faster on his Yamaha each week.  Livesay came around the first time past the finish line in fifth position, and he had his work cut out for him.  Out front Millett led the first three laps until he succumbed to the pressure and let Picone past on lap four.  Kopoian was running a great race, but on the ninth lap Livesay made the move past to grab the final spot on the podium.  Picone finished first, Millet second and behind Livesay Kopoian came home fourth followed by Wilfredo Guzman in fifth.  Kyle Keylon struggled, and after spending some time on the ground could only get back up to the ninth position.

The second moto is the one that really counts, and as the Supermini class lined up everyone could feel the tension in the air.  Meadows has a lot of talent, and adapts quickly, as he grabbed the second moto holeshot on his borrowed Kawasaki.  He would pull away from the field right away and lead wire-to-wire.  Behind Meadows, Mauldin was again in the second spot, with Ruffner trying everything to get past from his third spot.  On lap three Ruffner dove inside coming down the ant hill and stuck the bike inside Mauldin into the corner.  Both bikes did not fit into the inside line and only Ruffner came out of the corner, taking over second place.  Although much drama would take place over this move it was determined by race officials that there was no foul play, just hard racing.  After Mauldin went down Kaleb Damon took over the third spot, and would finish there.  Unfortunately, Mauldin had a hard crash on the final lap, just two straight-aways from the finish, going over the bars hard when he misjudged a kicker on the face of a jump.  Fortunately he is a tough kid, and he got up and was able to make his way off the track on his own. Mauldin has made tremendous improvements lately, since he began riding a 250F, and it is only a matter of time before he gets a win in this highly competitive class.  Meadows took home the overall win with Ruffner finishing second and Damon third for the night.
The final moto of the Sponsor’s Cup class began with a holeshot by Picone, looking much like he did last season when he put in a dominating performance.  Just behind Picone Livesay and Millett went into the corner together and something had to give.  Livesay had the inside line heading down from the ant hill, and he pushed Millett wide taking control of the second position.  This allowed Pup Whatley, on a 250F to take over the third spot.  On lap two Kopoian made a move past Whatley to take over the third spot and set his sights on Livesay in second.  Just a lap later Kopoian took the second spot and left Livesay to battle with the hard charging Millett.  Millett and Livesay rode half a lap side by side, with neither rider giving an inch.  Finally Millett made a great move in the big sweeper connecting the front straight to the back straight and took over the spot from Livesay.  Millet’s pass was short lived, as Livesay scrubbed the big table on the back straight extremely hard and passed Millet back while he was facing straight at him in the air.  Millett appeared to back it down just a bit, and Livesay pulled a small gap.  Picone rode flawlessly out front to take home the moto win as well as the overall.  Behind him Kopoian had his best finish of the season, keeping Picone in sight and even closing in on him as the laps wore down.  Third place went to Livesay, Millett was fourth and Michael Clarke came home  fifth.  Not only were these the second moto scores, but the overall results as well.  Whatley also deserves some credit, as he finished 6^th overall in his first Sponsor’s Cup race ever, on a 250F, congratulations.

 

As the summer season wears on both riders and equipment get tired, budgets are tested along with strength, stamina and desire.  It looks like this year’s Sponsor’s Cup will once again go down to the wire, with Livesay on top of his game and the resurgence of Picone.  Will Kopoian continue to improve his results; he has shown he has the speed to be a contender as well.

By Gifford Quast