Sign of the Lap Times: Indianapolis
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | 4:00 PM
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PrintThe Indy Supercross created some head-scratching during the Lites Main on Saturday night amongst all of those who were not AMA officials. Sure, there are a select few out there who claim to have read and memorized the rulebook cover to cover, but even the riders were at a loss for words as the closest comparison to the staggered restart they could come up with was "the GNCC start" and "they had us lined up like we were at a fair race". The situation was unfamiliar to all except for Tyler Bowers, as it turns out, since this has happen in Areancross. As you'll see, it was even unfamiliar on the lap charts!
But before we dissect the unusual Lites race, let's ease into it with something slightly more familiar from the Supercross class.
AMA Supercross
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 1 | 52.356 | 5 | 53.299 | Ryan Villopoto |
| 2 | 2 | 52.521 | 5 | 53.647 | Justin Brayton |
| 3 | 4 | 52.613 | 5 | 54.046 | Brett Metcalfe |
| 4 | 3 | 52.821 | 15 | 53.734 | Davi Millsaps |
| 5 | 18 | 52.999 | 4 | 53.603 | Kevin Windham |
| 6 | 6 | 53.025 | 4 | 54.524 | Mike Alessi |
| 7 | 5 | 53.059 | 12 | 54.009 | Cole Seely |
| 8 |
7 | 53.292 | 13 | 54.567 | Marvin Musquin |
| 9 | 10 | 53.627 | 6 | 56.258 | Nico Izzi |
| 10 | 20 | 54.059 | 4 | 55.115 | Kyle Chisholm |
| 11 | 9 | 54.122 | 6 | 55.965 | Weston Peick |
| 12 | 16 | 54.284 | 7 | 57.983 | Kyle Regal |
| 13 | 8 | 54.309 | 7 | 55.263 | Broc Tickle |
| 14 |
15 | 55.477 | 4 | 57.726 | Jeff Alessi |
| 15 | 14 | 54.752 | 7 | 57.321 | Matt Goerke |
| 16 | 11 | 55.000 | 15 | 56.163 | Josh Grant |
| 17 |
12 | 55.291 | 4 | 56.442 | Justin Sipes |
| 18 | 19 | 55.466 | 7 | 1:11.079 | Gavin Faith |
| 19 | 13 | 55.604 | 7 | 56.960 | Bobby Kiniry |
| 20 | 17 | 56.865 | 4 | 59.602 | Ryan Clark |
And it doesn't get any more familiar than this: once again, Ryan Villopoto tops the lap charts and cruises away with another victory. Big players Chad Reed, Ryan Dungey, and James Stewart were not there to line up for the Main, so many feared RV would go unchallenged in the Main Event. He did win, but he wasn't exactly unchallenged since there were still four other riders matching the 52-second lap range. Villopoto also battled with the likes of Brett Metcalfe and Justin Brayton for the vast majority of the race. It was far from a start-to-finish runaway for the defending champion, who did say it was a track where you couldn't really push too hard.. With his main competition out of the running, though, RV2's championship strategy is still something to debate.
Villopoto walked away with the win, but it
certainly wasn't unchallenged.
Andrew Fredrickson photo
AMA Supercross Lites
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 16 | 46.016 | 6 | 2:08.398 | Ken Roczen |
| 2 | 1 | 46.017 | 6 | 1:58.942 | Blake Wharton |
| 3 | 2 | 47.568 | 6 | 1:59.231 | Darryn Durham |
| 4 | 6 | 48.348 | 6 | 2:00.349 | Justin Bogle |
| 5 |
3 | 50.091 | 6 | 1:59.069 | Justin Barcia |
| 6 | 4 | 50.689 | 6 | 2:00.120 | Blake Baggett |
| 7 |
8 | 51.307 | 6 | 2:00.760 | Tyler Bowers |
| 8 | 7 | 52.262 | 6 | 2:00.586 | Matt Lemoine |
| 9 | 5 | 53.207 | 11 | 1:59.846 | Jake Canada |
| 10 | 20 | 54.040 | 3 | 54.560 | Kyle Cunningham |
| 11 | 11 | 54.195 | 6 | 2:02.007 | Angelo Pellegrini |
| 12 | 14 | 54.640 | 11 | 2:01.753 | PJ Larsen |
| 13 | 9 | 54.655 | 4 | 2:01.267 | Les Smith |
| 14 | 15 | 55.128 | 13 | 2:02.505 | Alex Martin |
| 15 | 10 | 55.577 | 12 | 2:01.658 | Shawn Rife |
| 16 | 13 | 55.740 | 12 | 2:01.931 | Shane Sewell |
| 17 | 17 | 55.750 | 3 | 2:08.170 | Tommy Weeck |
| 18 | 12 | 56.028 | 11 | 2:01.413 | Kyle Peters |
| 19 | 19 | 56.238 | 8 | 2:09.391 | Brad Ripple |
| 20 | 18 | 56.263 | 6 | 2:08.213 | Kelly Smith |
Ken Roczen seemed to be running away with his first win of the year, but his lead was diminished as soon as the red flag came out at the end of the fifth lap. In fairness, the staggered restart had a massive effect on lap times in this one. When the staggered restart was implemented, scorers began the sixth lap by hand timing the riders from the moment the green flag waved. But that means the riders started the lap on the start stretch, not at the finish line jump, so almost every rider has an abnormally quick sixth lap.
If you take the red flag and restart laps out (laps five and six), it was Justin Barcia, though, who set the fastest full lap time with a 52.465. Roczen had the fourth fastest full lap with a 52.873, after Darryn Durham's 52.557 and Blake Wharton's 52.715. The riders' average lap time was also thrown off by the 16-minute recorded waiting period between the red flag and the restart.
Ken Roczen was able to set the fastest lap of the night from this point forward.
Andrew Fredrickson photo
But it was Justin Barcia who set the fastest full lap of the Lites Main.
Andrew Fredrickson photo
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Roczen put down a 46 ????? Average lap time of 2:08????
You should check your spreadsheet dude. Do you even look at it before you post it every week?
Read and learn Bob... Read and learn.
Dude.... 2 minute average laptimes? wtf you smokin??
@ManiacsXtrem ,, take some advice from Jordan Roberts..
I was a very entertaning race in both classes ..something new in each...the Season of Suprises ...wonder what will happen in Canada next weekend???
Ha ha- Jordan. Just curious, why not exclude the restart lap from the average and min? Trim the outliers.
Boy, alot of guys bagging on the writer and it seems they didnt even read the article.. Boy they are amking themselves not look to smart.. READ THE ARTICLE, before you start insulting somebody..
I read it and I saw what happened. The times he posted have zero relevance. I could care less what happened on the restart lap. Post the times and averages for the FULL laps.
Come on Roberts get a clue nobody wants to see the crap you posted.
I'm sorry Jordan Roberts (new guy) but, I DO enjoy seeing (reading) that I'm not the only one uninformed (by choice) customers complain to without a real reason for their gripes. Next time, BobTheBuilder will look before he leaps. Being a regular poster and getting busted is a humbling experience........so I've heard.
Don't worry too much, there will be another chance to screw up and when it happens, SOMEONE will be there to pounce like a caffienated super-Ninja and DC will remind you about the time you asked for a raise after you got the "sign-of-the-lap-times" story right and Matthes will say something like "the day's not done 'till there's a death threat".
I completely understand dumbazzez.........Post the times and averages that mean something.
Explaining why a pointless spreadsheet is pointless doesn't make it any less pointless. Perhaps it needs the coveted asterisk * next to each lap time that was had on the short lap! Asterisks always get peoples attention!
450 lap times are meaningless RV didn't push it, no one there to actually challenge. Brayton, good ride but probably riding better because he is supposedly "hurt". I'm kind of thinking some of these guys are over training... Maybe?
The track didn't allow enough separation from the front guys to the back. Even Alessi was within a second of Villy.
Oh boy, here we go again with the lap times. Generally that tells me there is nothing left to talk about. Let the silly season begin until the outdoors starts.
To say RV "didn't push it" goes against what Ryan himself said in the monday conversation. I wonder how Braytons going to ride when he's 100%?
@Jake511 Good question. I believe it's important to process the data as is so it presents an accurate depiction of how the officials implemented the staggered restart and logged lap times accordingly. I think it'd be a disservice to anyone wanting to know more about this rare occurrence.
However, I did write the fastest full lap times for some of the faster guys out there for the sake of bench racing. Thanks for reading.
Still have a burning question about the staggered restart? Write in to [email protected] For anything else burning, please visit your local practitioner.
@BobTheBuilder its clear you didn't read the article before your first post. He posted the race the way it was run. Do you want him to only post some of the laps? Lap 6 was part of the race. What if someone crashed on lap 6? You made an ass of yourself on your first post and you still call someone a dumbazz. Dude these guys print all this info for free and thats the way you talk to them after its your mistake for not readiing the article? Show a little respect, none of these guys are getting rich working at Transworld.
So.... we should omit the lap that Roczen had to pick him self up and run after his bike and limp it to his mechanic to continue. Like most who understand lap times we know they do not matter. In a race all that matters is who crosses the finish line first, it does not matter how fast he was going on what lap but that he was there at the end. Congrats to Ryan and Blake. By the way I cannot wait to see who goes the fastest on lap 8 next weekend.
I don't think anyone mentioned this already, but aside from the 6th lap calculation that explains why the lites riders had an abnormally fast lap compared to the 450 guys (why they didn't exclude this lap from the lap times is beyond me and shows a lack of common sense by the writer), how in the world is RV's avg lap time faster than his fastest lap time? I've been reading these fast lap columns for a long time and they screw them up quite often...someone new needs to start doing them!
I wanted to see the crap he posted, and thought the article was well executed.
Whoa Whoa Whoa...my bad!...RVs avg lap time is in the 53's and fast lap in the 52s...I thought they both were in the 52s so MY BAD...they still make mistakes often though
@slarveson you have to remember that lap 6 was part of the race and if anyone would of crashed or had a bad lap their average lap time would not make sense. You have to remember that in 40 years this has happened once and it could be another 40 untill it happens again. During the lites race I was pissed that they threw the red flag when I saw Cunningham walk away like he wasn't hurt, then I found out that he was out cold for a few minutes. It was nice to see Wharton get the win.
Funny how they didn't include the time that Kyle Cunningham didn't race in the calculation for average laptime like they did the others...
The lap times were close to RV for two reasons, one the track was slick and two it was a baby track like they are all becoming as the pattern to Nascar for close racing. Think back to San Diego with those hoops and check the lap times on that race. When Mikey boy can go fast through the hoops then it is setup for anyone. It is getting where I can draw the tracks now before I get to see them.
Time for a new company to take on the issue of designing better and more challenging tracks. Should get more input from former champs of the Series too.
WOW, what a huge group of morons. wtf was wrong with Indy's track other than it was slick, could that be why everyone was so close in numbers RV couldn't go faster or he would have(and did) fallen in a corner. Then you have the slow riders that are going as fast as they usually do because they are not going to over ride the track. As far as track design is concerned what are they going to do different? Take out the triple, put in a gator pit, maybe we could put bleachers in the track and have the riders jump over some fans. They are dealing with a small area all they can do is shuffle obstacles around. I suppose that if you could do better rent some equipment and build tracks until then either don't go or stfu. By the way I am surprised that there are not more successful online magazines out, as most of you idiots think you can do better.
Some of you guys are astounding, you complain when one guy has a massive lead and the race is boring, now you complain that the race was too close and Dirt Worx should be replaced for building the track that encouraged it...Good Grief!!!
So Mike Alessi is getting good...(well lets run with better...) at whoops, and the field closed up....really, that is a problem...REALLY?
Do any of you whining, walking V***na's ride a dirt bike at all?
"SOMEONE will be there to pounce like a caffienated super-Ninja" --lol
This isnt to take away from Braytons ride, he did well. What's all this talk about a broken/hurt leg? I've read it over and over again in many articles. Wasnt it like 5 weeks ago that he landed kinda hard on it, and was nearly or semi concust? The guy isnt riding on a hurt leg. Maybe a couple weeks after, not now.
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