The Vault: Ryan Villopoto, Part I
Friday, December 28, 2012 | 10:50 AM
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Print2002 Loretta Lynn's 85 (9-13) Mod
Weege: Ryan was a good prospect for Yamaha in these days, but his profile shot skyward when he battled amateur phenom Mike Alessi wheel-to-wheel all week at Loretta's. He even took his first moto win at the Ranch. Team Green scooped him up after this, and a rivalry was set.
Matthes: Yeah, I don’t know much about RV back in these days. I’m sure he was fast but I just think that Yamaha shouldn’t have let him go. I mean really, the blue guys had Alessi, they had Villopoto and their future was set. I know revisionist history is easy to do and I’m no Wes Williams/Vurb Moto but I really think Yamaha should’ve kept both guys.
Results from 2002 Loretta Lynn's
2003 Loretta Lynn's 105 Supermini
Weege: Oh, the Loretta's vault is a glorious place of stories within the story. Click on the results below and you'll see the constant struggle for Villopoto against the Alessi Amateur Championship Assembly Line. In '03, Alessi went 1-1-1-1-1-1 in his six motos to Villopoto's 2-2-2-2-2-2. And by the way, have a look at who got third in the supermini class that year—never mind the extra r on his name of the Florida address, it's the same guy you think it is.
Matthes: In the words of the great Tony Alessi, “Ryan Villopoto never, ever, beat us in amateurs.”
Results from 2003 Loretta Lynn's
That's Ryan Villopoto (20) on a Yamaha in 2002. Talk about a flash back in time.
Chris Hultner photo
2005 Loretta Lynn's 125 A
Weege: Once Alessi moved to big bikes in 2004, Ryan looked set to finally win some Loretta's minicycle titles, but he broke his collarbone before the race, which ruined his week. In '05, he was pitted against the trash-talking legend known as J-Law, who famously said after taking a moto win against him, “I keep hearing Ryan Villopoto is supposed to be the next big thing, but I haven't even seen him all week.”
No J-Law in 125 A, and Villopoto finally got his title. And look who finished second!
Matthes: Yeah, uh, this was awesome. Loretta’s is so awesome, these kids are so fast, nothing will ever go wrong with them and they’re ALL going to make so much money once they turn pro. I don’t know why Weege puts these in here, does anyone care about old amateur results?
Weege: Dude, Alessi vs. the World drama in the amateur ranks matched any of the drama in any of the pro races. In fact, it was probably better.
Results from 2005 Loretta Lynn's
2005 Glen Helen National
Weege: Suffice to say a lot went down in this race—home of the infamous “Mike Alessi stands on Ivan Tedesco's kill switch” incident—and lost in that is Villopoto, in just his third pro race, going 2-2 for second overall behind his Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate Grant Langston. Check out the results from this one—Alessi was DQed and The Vault lists him in the ever rare “zeroth place” position.
Matthes: This kid from Washington was supposed to be pretty good and getting a ride right onto the Pro Circuit team indicated that but in talking to all these amateur race dorks, none of them would have said that they predicted the awesomeness of RV’s career. If they tell you they did, they’re lying. Villopoto was a solid prospect for sure but no one, not even his dad, thought he’d be this good, this fast.
RV burst onto the pro scene in 2005.
Matt Ware photo
2006 Budds Creek National
Weege: Villopoto had a solid rookie pro season going, with a supercross win in Dallas and a National MX win at High Point. But Budds Creek was the one that changed everything. There, he suffered a bad start but ran down long-time rival Alessi, then threw in some contact on the pass to take Mike down. And RV didn't shy away from admitting the pass was powered partially by all the frustration of racing him in the amateur ranks. From this day forward, RV has been an absolute beast outdoors. He easily won the Lites MX title in his rookie season.
Matthes: Villopoto's confidence just grew and grew and I remember this race because I think Josh Grant was flying through the pack, RV dominated, Alessi’s mechanic Paul Delaurier hit RV with his pit board or something like that and Broc Hepler was fast. Sweet Jesus, this is just six years ago but it could have been 6000.
2007 San Diego Supercross
Weege: RV was ready to add a Supercross Lites title to his mantle, and he won the Anaheim opener. Christophe Pourcel won round two and looked ready to be a challenger, but he soon broke his leg. From there, RV won five-straight races to wrap the Lites West Championship up in February. That's clinching early! He made it six in a row with a home-race win in Seattle later in the season.
Matthes: I think Weege is drunk and high here, Pourcel just went back to Europe after the first two races. I don’t even know anything about breaking his leg but I could be wrong. But I think Weege is. You could see that Pourcel would be back and he’d be pretty good when he did.
Weege: The friggin' TV coverage of the Anaheim 2 race even has Pourcel coming up short on a double and breaking his shin. Pretty sure it happened in practice. If the dude really came and saw, won a race and just left, you don't think that would have been more legendary?
RV rocking the #1 plate for the first time in his career in 2007.
Andrew Fredrickson photo
2007 Hangtown National
Weege: An outdoor battle was looming between RV and teammate Ben Townley, who won the East Lites SX title and also packed an MX2 Championship from the GPs. At the Hangtown opener, they split moto wins, and it was obvious this battle was going to be a good one.
Matthes: BT and RV were so much better than anyone else this entire year it was ridiculous. The cool thing was that hanging out in the Pro Circuit truck for much of the year, you could see that both guys were very friendly with each other and there was lots of respect for the others talents. So it’s sort of the exact opposite of Dean Wilson and Blake Baggett nowadays.
2007 Spring Creek National
Weege: The Villopoto/Townley duel was super intense, but at Millville, something turned. RV, oddly, waved Townley by and gave him the first moto win. But he blew everyone away in moto two, and seemed to gain an upper hand on Townley after that. He won Steel City and Freestone to open a points lead and clinch the title at the Glen Helen finale.
Matthes: After an early injury, Brett Metcalfe came back from injury on the Pro Circuit team and he could keep the BTRV train in sight for a little bit, but that was about it. Did I mention how much better these two were? Weege is right though, near the end of the year Townley seemed to wear down or Villopoto got stronger, one of the two.
Results from 2007 Spring Creek
2008 Atlanta And St Louis Supercross(es)
Weege: A crash with Josh Grant in the Atlanta main knocked him out of the race. He scored zero points, and was left with a huge deficit to rookie Trey Canard. In a crazy finale, Canard won with an aggressive pass. But really, that was desperation time for both--the hole dug at round one was just too much for Villopoto to overcome.
Matthes: RV had a wrist problem this year, he wasn’t fully recovered when the series started and then this opening crash made it worse. As for the St. Louis finale, the race was epic for sure and I still don’t see anything wrong with Canard’s pass he made on Ryan but I know Ryan did. The two guys still don’t really speak all that much from this series to the point where this past off-season Canard was close to signing with Kawasaki and put in a call to Ryan to make sure that he was cool with Trey coming onto the team.
Weege: Good job Matthes, we already covered the St. Louis story in the Canard Vault a month ago. This is about Atlanta, where RV finished 22nd. Check the results below. Look, Martin Davalos finished second! Still going, baby!
RV was upset by Trey Canard in the 2008 Lites East Region.
Simon Cudby photo
2008 Unadilla National
Weege: The very first national of the year made it look like there would be some competition for RV: Jason Lawrence won a moto, and Austin Stroupe won the overall. Hmmm, those are some dudes we need to look up in The Vault!
But losing the opener only “make RV angry.” He won seven-straight Lites Nationals, culminating with this 1-1 at Unadilla. Late in the year, though, Ryan Dungey was beginning to stir and took a few wins away, but Villopoto claimed his third-straight title, putting in some rare company. Plus, who cares what that Dungey guy did, it's not like he'd have to battle him again on 450s, right?
Matthes: So so weird that Villopoto has never won at Washougal, his home track. This year he had everyone covered badly once again but Dungey started to get better and better and at Washougal, captured the overall over RV. Anyways, yeah Unadilla. Awesome race for sure. Huh?
Weege: I was just trying to point out that he won seven in a row there. And yup, that's pretty much all I remember from it. Look, Nico Izzi got fourth on his factory Suzuki! Is that news? Screw it lets put the Washougal results in here, too. The J-Law threat was over, but now Villopoto was going to have to deal with that Dungey guy for the foreseeable future.
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The pass that RV made on Townley at the end of the whoops was one of the best passes I've ever seen in person at Millville 07. RV has awesome riding style
RV has come a long way. I have a picture of him at his 1st national in Binghamton. He is sitting on the step of the PC rig eating a sandwich and Mitch told him to move over to a chair to get out of the way ! We see him race at Unadilla....unreal corner speed !!
RV rides his best when under pressure. He is under a lot of pressure this year with the 3-peat and a stacked and currently healthy field. That could spell doom for the other riders. I don't think he will get the 3-peat. This might sound crazy, the Kawi and Suzuki are great bikes but are relatively the same for a while now with just tweeks. It makes a great bike just leaves less room to progress the bike throughout the year as the other 3 newer designs. I would imagine the Kawi and Suzuki will be better early and the Honda and KTM will get better every race, the Yamaha who knows. To me this tells me that if all the bikes seem equally good in the first few races by the end the Hondas and KTM will be better and that is what I think could derail the 3-peat. Just something to think on don't get pissed.
RV is a legend and still in the making! Same for RD. both have accomplished a lot. Pure joy to watch him race. If only he could get hurt less, he could break some records, through the toughest competition ever
Gentlemen, you left out the BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHEMENT !
Spanking the world on a 250F at MXON in 2007 at Budds Creek !
BOTH MOTOS he was in !
I'd say in ONE year winning SX , MX , MXDN , and the Monsta' million kinda sums his skill level up. @miso If it ain't broke ..don't fix it.
-The-all-time-podium-best-line-
“I keep hearing Ryan Villopoto is supposed to be the next big thing, but I haven't even seen him all week.”
Leave it up to the morons of RX to leave out MXDN 2007 where RV smoked the whole world on a 250F that even left the GOAT RC in ahhh. Way to go Matthes and Weege, instead of celebrating and praising RV in his legendary career, you two idiots negatively nit pick at him and try to fault him every step of the way. Phags!!!!
RV is a BAMF. Hopefully one day these goons will write something positive on his career without deprecating him every step of the way.
....I remember 2008 standing on the hill watching Villo geting beat 2nd moto at Washougal by RD, I remember thinking that history will forget the reality of this. It was more than RV getting beat, it was RV conceding victory. It was in the far north-west corner where there where no cameras or spotters, and few fans since the rest of the track was out of view from that vantage point. RV was near RD for awhile and had been pouring it on to no avail. On the last lap RV was full throttle and stood himself up in that corner. He almost highsided, paused, took of his goggles and nonchalantly continued on into view at a cruisin speed. He took the second place with the vague reason being he "had a goggle problem". Fact is, he just got dirt in the his goggles when he almost highsided (nothin out of the norm when racing) but more crucially, he realized he couldn't beat Dungey. That was the 'TSN turning point' for RD; I believe that was the day he tore his helmet of and jumped around on the track in tears of celebration. RD has only gotten quicker and smoother since then, it's just too bad no media caught RV's will break in that particular corner on that particular day. It proved to RD that RV can sometimes be broken.
Awesome career todate summary...you may need a part 3 eventually...
Yeap, a reminder of what a kook J-Law was/is...he talked smack and messed with Dungey and RV....and look at him now ....seeing the #5 and #2 posted all over anything moto must chap his hide....punk!!!
GO RV!!!
meankx: RV is hurt so much because he rides over his head a lot. That's also why he wins so much. My point: If he's not crashing, it's gonna be because he's not going quite as fast and taking quite as many chances. If he's doing that, then he won't win nearly as much-IN THE SHORT TERM. Can't have your cake and eat it too. His wide open, risky riding is what gets him the wins and press but I wonder if he'll look back one day and think, "man, Dungey, despite all the criticism, actually had it figured out didn't he..."
Poor dumb Jason Lawrence "woke a sleeping giant" when he messed with RV. Then, showing how dumb he really is, did the same thing with Dungey.
Actually, if you look back to their lites career, Stewie did the same with Reed. It just took Reedy a lot longer to get James back.
^^^
I don't get it. You keep saying RV rides over his head and crashes a lot ? Would like to go back over the last couple of seasons and see who's crashed more, him or RD. Dungey has been quite lucky while RV not so much. He had a minor tip over and wrecked his knee. Hardly riding over his head! 'Riding over your head' generally infers you're riding outside of your abilities which clearly he is not. His trophy case can attest to that.
RCRDDW - Indeed...I liked when Dungey told ONE Industries to go pound sand when they signed J-Law alongside of Dungey....ONE sure picked the wrong guy there..... I dont think you can compare the actions of J-Law to RV or Dungey with the Stewart / Reed shinnigans over the years tho.....both Reed and Stewart are still out on the track racing and its never sunk to that level...And if history serves right, I think Reed was the guy who started the "drama"... ....J-Law is at home watcing his former prey run off with millions while he is broke
Hate on Killo, but many 'lites' champions don't go on to become stars like #5 or #2. You can't discredit those guys. And hey, had J-Law chosen to stick around, it could all be for not... just look at how IT9's career is going. If a number 9 can't do it up, it's probably wise to get out early.
Just look at a Tickle or a Hahn, unless they can make shit happen why risk injury.
With the current state moto (and economy), where only the top survive,
J-Law could be considered wise, at least he didn't have a Morias demise.
Take it easy fellas. I think that 07 MXdN race would be in part 2. That was one of the best displays of arse whooping on a dirt bike, if not the best, ever!
@ Jesus
Unfortunately, j law is a whimp. All the talent and speed in the world, but zero will power. When everything flowed for him, he was one of the fastest. When it didn't, he would quit. When I was @ Dilla in '10, he was supposed to be racing on Sat. Then I heard that he hurt himself during the week. Next day we went for practice @ e-town and he showed up by the end of the day. What a whimp! Excuses excuses... If he was working hard as Dungey and Villo, he could be right up there
Ya J-Law had issues, that's why it's a good think he didn't keep racing and endanger others or himself! C'mon @meanKX? Brayton, Short, Canard and Windham are working just as hard as RD and RV! Hepler worked HARDER than everyone!! If hard work alone gave out championships, you don't think Tommy Hahn would have multiple?
It's status quo to hate on J-Law, but think about what you're sayin about the other riders man!
Oh Jesus- Yes, not all 125/lites class champs go on to illustrious careers like MC, RC , JS, CR, RV or RD.... my point was, the dude (J-Law) had ZERO respect for his competitors and like said above, he did posess the talent to achieve more, but didnt...he was more concerned about being a "billy-bad ass" and look where that took him...not a fan onbiously, but I think he could of done something......using "wise" and J-Law in the same sentence is silly......he is a punk who punked himself right out of raicng....
I wouldn't say he "easily" won the 2006 Lites title. He won a lot or races but Mike Alessi had the points lead at Binghampton until he crashed his bike in front of the entire field. Only after that did he get a decent points cushion.
if it wasnt for rv to break his leg in 2010 at st louis he would of already had 3 supercross titles by now
Had been reading about RV in Amateur MX and since he wasn't a Florida or Cali kid I was psyched. I went down to the 2003 Loretta Lynn's Championship as a spectator just to see him and Alessi beat him like a baby seal all week!
@ Jesus Tommy Hahn sent a pick to me to send to YOU Enjoy Sloan
http://instagram.com/p/TuajvJy5J-/
I was there, MXoN 07. The final moto was epic, RV was stupid fast on that 250 and spanked the world. Absolutely dominant. I can't believe it was left out. They're already past it in this article.
And I, for one miss J-Law racing. Yeah I know he was a punk, lazy, blah blah blah but dang the dude could ride. He was good and he knew it, I thought it was funny all the crap he said. Plus the drama made the racing all the more interesting for me. Dungey HATED that dude I swear it
Pickle Man Go!
Check out the results from 2002 Loretta's its like a whos who of moto
http://llvault.racerxonline.com/2002/85-9-13-modified
@ruleingtheroost it hard to believe that Trey Canard got 27th place.
Alessi who? 2013: the Ryan's Show.