It's Flyin' Ryan!

Published: 20th January 2007

Villopoto leads Lites from new-boy Pourcel

In the Supercross Lites division at Anaheim I Ryan Villopoto earns the second AMA SX Lites win and the eighth AMA professional win of his career by stomping the rest of the 22-rider field during the 15-lap Main Event.

The 19-year-old rounds the first turn in third place behind his Pro-Circuit Kawasaki team-mate Christophe Pourcel and Red Bull KTM's Josh Hansen. He storms past Hansen at the end of the whoop section and then runs down Pourcel over the step-up jump to take the lead. The two appear to make contact but neither rider crashes.

From here Villopoto runs consistent 58-second lap times en route to the win. "This being the first race everybody is nervous and you just have to overcome that and get it out of the way," Villopoto says. "I got inside [Pourcel] and I was going too fast to stop without crossing his line. Luckily he didn't go down and I came out on top."