AMA Champs are crowned at Glen Helen -ozzy go- alpinestarsinc.com

All Stars: Grant Langston and Ryan Villopoto win National
Championships. At 6:30 in the morning of the 2007 Glen Helen
National, I motored north up the 57 freeway towards San
Bernardino and looked out the windshield of my car. There was
the Big A of Angel Stadium. Down below, I could see the parking
lot that served as the pit area for the opening round of the 2007
AMA Supercross Series. The Friday evening before, Grand
Langston quietly confided to fellow South African and World and
National Champion Greg Albertyn that he was struggling to come
to terms with his new Yamaha YZ450F. And he did. The next
evening, he went out and ended up on his head the dirt, his
supercross season shot. Hoping for a new start in the 2007 AMA
Nationals, Langston also struggled, his average finish in the first
seven rounds somewhere between sixth and seventh place. Then
EVERYTHING changed. Ricky Carmichael kept his promise and
went into retirement and James Stewart began to hear footsteps.
At one point, Langston went on record claiming that the big race
was going to be for second overall in points between himself,
Andrew Short and Tim Ferry. And it was. Until James Stewart blew
out his knee at Millville. Then it was on, as everyone smelled
blood and the race for the prize that was the 2007 AMA Motocross
Number One plate truly began. Serendipitously, Langston took
possession of his new works 2008 Yamaha and placed second
overall at both Washougal and Millville. The he won both Steel
City and Freestone and found himself with a nine-point lead
heading into Glen Helen. And that’s exactly where I was headed.
At 2:15 P.M. on Sunday afternoon, an AMA official blew an air
horn and the mechanics of Grand Langston, Mike Alessi, Andrew
Short and Tim Ferry rolled the bikes to the starting gate. Only 17
points separated the four, and with Kevin Windham and Mike
Brown — straight from last Sunday’s MX Grand Prix in Holland —
in the mix, there was plenty of potential for chaos and trouble.
When the gate dropped, the race was a sort of accordion. As
things sorted themselves out, Alessi rode brilliantly at the front,
hounded by Windham. Just behind and beginning to collapse in on
the leading duo were Short, Ferry and Langston. Then, two-thirds
into the moto, both ferry and Windham had bailed and Langston
closed right up on Short. Soon, Langston was past Short, and then
at the top of the 2000-foot high Yamaha hill (ironically), Langston
dove under Alessi and stole the moto win. Once the 40-rider pack
roared around the Talladega turn to begin the final moto of the
season, for Langston, it was nothing more then a case of hanging
on for 30-minutes-plus-two laps. He did that easily to place third
behind Windham and Alessi, and in doing so won both the Glen
Helen overall and his first AMA Motocross Championship.

Right from the onset at Hangtown on May 20, the race for the
2007 AMA Motocross Lites Championship was a race inside a race.
There were Monster Energy Kawasaki teammates Ben Townley
and reigning AMA Lites champion Ryan Villopoto and, well, the 38
other guys who lined up with them on any given Sunday. In fact
Townely and 19 year-old Villopoto split moto wins in five of the 12
Nationals, with Townley wining the tiebreaker four times. The duo
also won eleven of the 12 Nationals and 22 of 24 motos (Josh
Grant and Broc Hepler won the other two). What really did
Townley’s title hopes in, though, were his back-to-back 6-2
overalls at Steel City and Freestone. Thusly, upon arriving at Glen
Helen Raceway, Villopoto had a 19-point edge on his rival. When
it came time to race on the 1.5-mile, 36-obstacle track —
complete with three hills hovering at 2000 feet in altitude — Ben
Townley and Ryan Villopoto came flying out of the Talladega turn
side by side. Townely led for the first six laps before Villopoto
raced by to steal the moto win. With 22 points to make up,
Townley went straight to the front in moto two, and by the nine
minute mark had a 7.212-second lead on Villopoto. When the two
-lap card was flashed, Townley... click on ozzy go to the full story