US Supercross Lites East Series: 3rd round Indianapolis, IN
. By Bikeland Staff
The nearly sold out crowd of 61,500 at the Lucas Stadium saw the best racing of the season at the AMA Indianapolis Supercross on an up and down night for the Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM Racing Team.
The first Lites heat had both Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM teammates, Martin Davalos and Wil Hahn, on the gate list. When the gate dropped Davalos jumped out front and grabbed the holeshot while Hahn was right behind him in 2nd. While leading on the second lap Davalos crashed together with Austin Stroupe through the whoops and lost the lead to Hahn. Davalos was 15th after he restarted his KTM and began to charge through the pack with three laps remaining to move up into a qualifying position. Hahn, who inherited the lead, took off and continued to lead the rest of the race and took his first heat win in his most impressive ride yet. Meanwhile, Davalos was flying through the pack passing eight riders in the last three laps to earn the final qualifying position.
"This is unbelievable! I've been working my butt off with my team behind me 110% and we finally made it happen. I'm sure my lap times looked horrible since I was so nervous but I am so happy to be on the podium. I can't thank the Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM Team enough," commented Hahn on the podium after his heat win.
The Supercross Lites main event couldn't have gone worse for the Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM riders. Davalos got caught in a first turn crash which proceeded to take out half of the field. Due to this crash the race was red-flagged. Davalos' bike was too damaged from the first turn crash and he was not able to line up for the restart. Hahn returned to the starting line but endured a first turn crash on the restart. He got going again but was already 20 seconds down from the leaders. With everyone ahead of him he had an open track ahead and put down some fast lap times to quickly catch up to the tail end of the pack. After moving from dead last to 11th, Hahn suffered another crash in the whoop section. This crash tweaked his front end and he had to take a lap to straighten it out. Hahn finished the race, but unfortunately, had to settle for 15th after a pair of crashes.
Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM West Lites Supercross Team rider, Ryan Sipes, traded in his KTM 250SX-F for the KTM 450SX-F at the Indianapolis Supercross for his second attempt at the Supercross class this season. Unlike his poor luck in Houston, Indianapolis turned out much better for Sipes who started his night with a smooth heat race to easily qualify 7th into the main event.
Sipes suffered from a near last start in the main event. He quickly caught up to Heath Voss and Tyler Bowers and spent the majority of the race battling with those two riders. At the end of the main Sipes finished his first-ever Supercross main event in 14th.
Results Supercross
1. C. Reed
2. J. Stewart
3. M. Alessi
14. R. Sipes - KTM
Standings Supercross
1. J. Stewart - 199
2. C. Reed - 199
3. A. Short - 150
4. J. Grant - 138
5. R. Villopoto - 138