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Minneapolis Supercross – Racing gone Radioactive

Photos and Stories
Matt Wellumson

It has been five years since we have last seen a Supercross event here in Minneapolis Minnesota, something that many of us local to the region wished we could change. In the scope of Supercross, a 5 year span is almost an eternity in our sport, and a lot has changed since our last round here. While some of the top favorites who competed then are still active, many of the greats are no longer racing this sport. In 2008 Kevin Windham finished with a 3rd place Podium position, behind a 2nd of Ryan Dungey who was led by Josh Hill to the checkered flag.

 Here in 2013, we are nearing the end of the Supercross season, with this likely being the last ever race in the Metrodome, Minneapolis’s home for Monster Energy Supercross.  I can only assume the weather was a bit of a shock to both Feld Motorsports (The race promoter), as well as the competitors themselves.  It is likely this event was put on the schedule with the expectation of having Similar weather to the spring of 2012, when temps averaged in the 70s. In stark contrast to 2012, Minneapolis received a heavy dose of snow just prior to  Press day on Thursday, with temperatures barely expected to go above freezing during most of the day Saturday.

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The day prior to any Supercross, there are usually open house events at local dealerships for Supercross fans to meet their favorite riders, and to take in more of the Supercross experience. For Minneapolis, one of the larger events was held at Bob’s Cycle in nearby St Paul Minnesota. Seen here are some of the locally grown riders that came out to see their fans. From Left to right, Mitchell Oldenburg, Nick Jackson, Jesse Wentland, Zack Williams, and Alex Martin.

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After a quick exchange of messages to Nicky Beatty, he decided to make it out to Bob’s Cycle to check out the event himself. Not long after, Staff quickly set him up at the autograph table with the other riders in attendance for signing. Even though he didn’t have any posters with him, bob’s quickly found items for him to autograph, and hand out to fans (many of them new). Cole Thompson was invited out as well, but unfortunately wasn’t able to get a ride to the event.

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Among the riders, Motocross adventure stars Ami Houde & Jamie Routley came down to Bob’s Cycle to sign posters for their fans as well. Just like the riders, These two quickly ran out of posters, due to the epic crowd that showed up to attend this autograph session

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Saturday Morning not long before track walk, I caught up with Cole Thompson, and Nicky Beatty for a quick iPhone interview and chat. Both riders had high spirits this AM, which set them apart from many of the others complaining about the cold temps.

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Minneapolis Supercross Track as it looked Friday afternoon, the day before Supercross.

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The track was full of many local riders , and families for the Track walk. Perhaps a bit of news for some Supercross fans, Many of the track workers, and cleanup crew are hired locally to help carry out trackside tasks. This group consists of local area riders who were selected to work Minneapolis Supercross.

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Will Hahn was much more serious in practice here in Minneapolis than he was in Houston last weekend. With his points lead slowly crumbling away, he was likely on the hunt for the most speed he could gather on Minneapolis’s dirt.

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Cole Thompson looked comfortable in morning practice and qualifying. With 8th fastest qualify time, and less than a half second off of being in the top 5 fastest, his speed clearly wasn’t affected by the cold weather outside!

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Munn Racing KTM rider Ozzy Barbaree, like many other riders, had difficulties with the greasy track conditions for early practice. This mistake didn’t keep him down, as Ozzy would qualify for both the night show, and the main event!

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Tyler bowers continues to have great success in Supercross racing, taking his Arenacross skills to a new level, and pushing the fast guys in this sport as well.

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The last time Ryan Dungey raced at Minneapolis things were much different. He had just moved up to the 450 class, and was racing a completely different field of competitors on his factory Suzuki. Ryan went on to set the fastest qualify time at the Metrodome, almost a full half second ahead of Villopoto.

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I am not sure if it was the cold weather reminding him of home, or his night out at Bob’s Cycle the night before, but Nicky was in high spirits all day, and it showed on the track. He would go on to comfortably qualify for the night show.

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Opening ceremonies were similar to that of all other races in the series. The Minnesota crowd loved the pyrotechnics display, and really voiced their support for their favorite riders.

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After a brief, and brand new locally themed intro video, Ryan Dungey did a parade lap of the track to his 2013 season song “Radioactive”. Like we had seen at many previous races, Ryan came out wearing the NFL team jersey from the Local to Minneapolis, Minnesota Vikings.

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The candles were lit, and Lites Moto #1 was poised to start. Cole Thompson was there, and in a good spot due to his 4th gate pick.

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After a great holeshot, Cole Thompson had a tight pack of riders behind him early in the 1st lap out of the whoops.  Thompson would go on to finish 4th this moto, giving him an other solid gate pick for the main.

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Fort Dodge Iowa Native, Gavin Faith could easily consider Minneapolis somewhat of a Home track for him as well. Gavin has spent much of his amateur career racing Minnesota tracks like Spring Creek, having grown up racing with members of the Dungey family as well. Gavin would go on to finish 3rd in heat 1.

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Nicky Beatty looking pumped for his 2nd night show.

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Josh Hill is a rider that likely has good feelings about Minneapolis given his history here. Hill won the 2008 race besting Ryan Dungey’s best effort in front of his own crowd. By how things looked in Heat #1, he was on par to make a repeat performance. Josh  held 1st for most of the race, ahead of Reed, Villopoto and Canard.

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Marvin Musquin continues to chase down that red plate, and put down some of his best laps of the year in Minneapolis.

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While Nicky didn’t make the night show, it didn’t take away from his night being one for him to remember. Just before the LCQ he mentioned that I may want to be near the finish line for the final lap. Checkered flag came out, and Nicky gave some of his new Minneapolis a little show, sparking some ooh’s from spectators who saw it happen.

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Cole Thompson may not have had the podium finish he was after in Minneapolis, but overall rode well in. Cole Continues to prove that hard work pays off which is obvious by his current place in the points race among some of the fastest riders in the world.

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The 450 main will likely go down in History as one of the best races of all times in Supercross, and started off with the all too familiar usual suspects in the front 6.

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Some of you may have wondered why I titled this report “Radioactive” , well let me say it was only partially due to it being the name of Ryan Dungey’s theme song. Compared to all other races I have attended during the past 6 years, no crowd was near as loud as that of this recent Minneapolis race. Spectators remained on their feet during the last half of the race, as Dungey continued to chip away at Villopoto’s lead.

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With Villopoto feeling the pressure, more and more slight mistakes happened as he pushed himself to the limit to keep ahead of the charging RD5.

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With nothing left to hold him off, Villopoto rounded behind Dungey with 4 laps to go. He would make continued attempts to push past, but this was RD5s night.

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In front of some of the loudest spectators in Supercross, Ryan Dungey lit the finish candles, a Minnesotan won the final Supercross to be held in the Minneapolis Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome.

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Likely a key part in making this night happen, Fans remained on their feet for most of the 450 race, cheering on their favorites.

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After a tough battle with Villopoto, Dungey took a well deserved victory lap, in front of his home town crowd.

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While it may have been Ryan’s night, Nothing in our sport could happen without the support of close friends and family. Ryan took a moment with his mom and dad before talking to anyone, or heading unto the podium

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While for the most part I try to be neutral in showing support for riders, I have to say it is always great to see the home town guy do well at their respective race. Both Villopoto and Dungey gave us all a reason to stand up during this race.

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With a solid 1-1 win for KTM in Minneapolis, the entire team decided to take over the podium to celebrate. Looking back 5 years ago, an Orange dominated night would have sounded impossible at the time. Great to see both this company, and riders hard work pay off.

One comment

  1. great report well, it’s cool that bob’s set up nick to sign autographs…good to see another Canadian taking a shot down south.

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