It was rising AMA Motocross and Supercross star Ryan Villopoto's night at the AMA Pro Racing Awards Banquet Sunday on the final day of the the AMA's Las Vegas Invasion, with the Supercross Lites Champion and International Motocross of Nations front-runner taking home the coveted AMA SPEED Athlete of the Year Award.

Full story here (http://home.ama-cycle.org/post/07Vegas/story.asp?id=497)


Supposedly, he's going to use Jeremy McGrath's #2 for next season. Haven't found an article on that yet.

Interesting... first time I heard about him... :corn

guess you don't follow US AMA motocross too much....he's the next up and coming rider. he's good, but i'm not sure that he can give a healthy bubba much of a challenge.

guess you don't follow US AMA motocross too much....he's the next up and coming rider. he's good, but i'm not sure that he can give a healthy bubba much of a challenge.

Yeah the only AMA guys I know are pretty much Mladin, Spies, DuHamel, and maybe a couple more... :lol:lol

What's wrong with Bubba? Is he gonna be fully recovered soon? :corn

What's wrong with Bubba? Is he gonna be fully recovered soon? :corn

He'll never be fully recovered. He gets just healed enough to hurt himself again. He reminds me of Pestrana, but on a much faster scale. Pestrana would have been a great racer, but couldn't stay healthy long enough.

I've seen him race and he is pretty damn good

Didn't Pastrana and Bubba race together in the early days?

guess you don't follow US AMA motocross too much....he's the next up and coming rider. he's good, but i'm not sure that he can give a healthy bubba much of a challenge.


Actually, for the meantime, the two of them wouldn't race against each other unless it's supercross (250F only). If so, I think Villopoto would kick Stewart's ass. The times he's shown this year is phenominal to say the least.

If Villopoto were to go up to the 450F ranks, I'd say give him one, maybe two years to familiarize the bike and he'll be king.

Actually, for the meantime, the two of them wouldn't race against each other unless it's supercross (250F only). If so, I think Villopoto would kick Stewart's ass. The times he's shown this year is phenominal to say the least.

If Villopoto were to go up to the 450F ranks, I'd say give him one, maybe two years to familiarize the bike and he'll be king.

Well, I guess we need to see him of a 450 first...:mrgreen

Can't imagine he'd do more that one more year in the SX lites division. Maybe 2009 (if Bubba can even still walk by then...:lmao)

Well, I guess we need to see him of a 450 first...:mrgreen

Can't imagine he'd do more that one more year in the SX lites division. Maybe 2009 (if Bubba can even still walk by then...:lmao)


Exactly. It's too hard to call what someone would do on one size bike or the other. As to the SX lites, they are supposedly doing away with the 450 SMX. I'll have to see if I can find the article talking about it.

Edited for correction.

Villopoto ran lap times and race pace fast as the 450 this year in some instances . the 450 class is experiencing what the 500cc two strokes did(killed by hp}. the race bikes are putting out so much hp only a few people can ride them to their full potential. and bubba has gotten bit by the thumper a few times recently. watching stewart and carmichael lap the entire field but hanging it out trying to race each other was fun . the ama went to the the manufactures asking for a smaller displacement production bike to replace the 450 and they collectively said yuck foo- they have too much money invested in the 450 and the public isnt tweaking some crazy hp out of the bikes (450cc 4s are probably up 8-10 hp over 250cc 2strokes) the stock 450 is a solid user friendly but expensive race bike for the average person but the pro race bikes(tapping into the full potential of the motor) are starting to remind me of the 500cc class and how only a few people in the world could hang on .Its like history repeating itself, now i get to see if villopoto can ride the monster.