An all-terrain sprint from start to finish, motocross is among the most grueling of motorsports. Remaining balanced, upright or not, over pin-sharp turns is a difficult task. And drivers must navigate jutting ramps and airborne confrontation with gravity at play along with vehicles.
Yet in Lakewood, at the only Rocky Mountain race on the American Motorcyclist Association’s top tour, engine smarts are added to the mix.
Saturday’s AMA Pro Motocross Championship event at The Thunder Valley National course — what has grown into a top stop among pro MX — will force riders already braced for racing into some unique and crafty setups.
“Up here at elevation, you lose a lot of power,” Ryan Dungey said after winning last year’s 450 division. Dungey went 1-2 in the Lakewood motos, outdueling Ryan Villopoto — the eventual season champion.
“You have to make the right changes,” Dungey said.
Those changes include adjusting fuel intakes to maximize power at altitude.
James Stewart enters this weekend with the red number plate, earned as the early leader in the 450 class standings.
Racing Lakewood for the first time since winning at Thunder Valley in 2008 (the first AMA race run at night under lights), Stewart remains concerned about the Colorado course.
“Now we’re going to Colorado, and Lakewood is not one of my better tracks,” Stewart told Motorcyclist magazine this week. “But we’re going in there with the red plate. Also, it’s at altitude, so it’ll be another tough race, but the team has a really good setup for me with the Yoshimura Suzuki RM-Z450, and we’ll do our best to put it on the podium.”
In sweeping four races over two stops this season, including last week at Freestone Raceway in Wortham, Texas, Stewart leads Dungey by an already healthy margin.
But the season is young, with 10 tour stops remaining.
It’s a tighter contest in the 250 division, with Blake Baggett leading the standings with two victories.
And in the Women’s MX division, just three points separate leader Jessica Patterson and Ashley Fiolek.
They have combined for the last eight WMA titles, with Fiolek winning three of the past four, including her first as a 17-year-old in 2008.
