BT wins again

[Danger]

Last lap and Ben is now 8 seconds back, no way is RV going to let him catch and pass from here.

[Danger]

Tommy Hahn is up on his feet and in the cart.

[Danger]

Its over, Ben finishes 4 seconds behind RV, RV takes the overall, not sure where Ben finishes up for the day but he will be 5 seconds back in the Championship and thats going to be hard to pull back on Ryan Villopoto.

[Danger]

Not a great weekend for BT after setting the fastest practice times. Looses 7 points to Ryan Villopoto.

[Danger]

Waiting to see if Ben gets to the overall podium or not with a 6-2.

[Danger]

Ben gets 3rd overall behind Metcalfe in 2nd and RV in 1st.

[FlangMasterJ]

Awesome! Ben's fitness level is obviously alot higher than RV's.

[oldguy]

Sound like not a very good weekend for our MX boys, still as they say, its not over till the fat lady sings, both still in with a chance.
fingers crossed

[takitimu]

Awesome updates from Danger, to be honest I knew less about times etc at the race.
The track was real wet first thing, I've attached a photo from the Women's race early on & they had the toughest ride, they did real well.
BT's practise seemed to go ok, but he was loose ( sign of things to come ) but fast, damn that guy is good.
The first race I missed the prang, was trying to take photo's of the leaders, BT fought hard for a bit but the track was real slippery, I'm not sure what the helmet addition is for, but it looks like he added it 1/2 way through, RV was riding real good hard fast & clean.
The second race, BT got kicked in the holeshot so was always playing catchup, at times he was real loose ( fell off ), but once he relaxed midway through the race & rode clean, he was fast, real fast, but to far back ( the crash cost him badly ).
It looked to me like BT was trying to hard & feeling the pressure, it was an ugly track & on a dry track he might have got away with it, but it was to slippery, just my perception though.
Regarding the track, to give you guys an idea for the first race I was at the far corner from the start & it was basically an uphill double, well a number of the 450's were not clearing it in practise & how they survived some of those landings was amazing. It was really slippery & it rutted real fast, they were dozing the track vs flattening the ruts witht he dozers.
Here's some pic's to look at ( the ones from Sat were mine to ), P.S. check out the top of the screen in the crowd shot.

[paturoa]

P.S. check out the top of the screen in the crowd shot.

I assume you aren't the chick in the pink t-shirt.....

[FlangMasterJ]

Steel City images: http://stevebruhn.com/News07/MX10/Lites.htm

[takitimu]

I assume you aren't the chick in the pink t-shirt.....

lol, the bloke with the grey beard would be closer to the truth.

There's a few more races before I head home, GNCC this weekend & Bushkill HillClimb the following, so I'll try & get some eye candy to post before I get back to NZ, the hillclimb will be the go there I suspect.

[arj127]

Lets take this championship

[Danger]

I want to make a prediction, that Ben Townley will go 1-1 this weekend. Its his best chance to close the 6 point deficit on Ryan Villopoto and they will be even on points if Ben goes 1-1 and RV goes 2-2. Wishfull thinking? Perhaps but here is why.
Ben has to be disapointed with the result last weekend. Its coming down to crunch time and he lost his two point advantage. Its time to bounce back.
Its a new track that RV has not ridden on in previous years at Freestone Texas. Ryan has ridden most if not all of the other tracks.
I saw that RV mentioned that all the riders are feeling a little burned at this time of year. I hope Ben read that comment. Because if he did its that little incentive to push that bit harder and make a statement that Ben Townley is not burned and that he needs to grasp this Championship before heading into the Motocross class next year!
Ryan has been trying for a while to either pull a gap on Ben or at least close the 2 point gap that Ben had. Now he has done it, and perhaps its a relief and time to take a deep breath. The fire should be burning brighter in Ben Townley.
Ben commented that he was not happy with his front tire choice in Moto 2 last week at Steel City. He crashed 3x in the first Moto and I'm guessing he put it down in part to the tire. He tried a change and it didn't work for him, and yet he worked his way up from another bad start to finish within sight of RV.
The cards are evenly stacked for this race, and I don't think Ben Townley cracks under pressure. Lets see if he can crack Ryan Villopoto.

What do you think? I can't wait!

[takitimu]

Ben has to be disapointed with the result last weekend. Its coming down to crunch time and he lost his two point advantage. Its time to bounce back.
Its a new track that RV has not ridden on in previous years at Freestone Texas. Ryan has ridden most if not all of the other tracks.

This is a very good point, Steelcity was almost exactly the same as last year, which gave RV a big advantage.

Ben commented that he was not happy with his front tire choice in Moto 2 last week at Steel City. He crashed 3x in the first Moto and I'm guessing he put it down in part to the tire. He tried a change and it didn't work for him, and yet he worked his way up from another bad start to finish within sight of RV.

That makes alot of sense, BT's rear was snaking pretty bad in both moto's ( 1st 1/2 of the second ), the track was changing in condition rapidly as well once the sun came out & it was drying fast enough that they would be nearly considering watering it by the end.

The big question mark for me will be the holeshot, if BT can get parity with RV, then I think BT will pull a 1-1, because my read is he's a faster rider, especially at the end of the moto & the SteelCity experience will have taught him heaps.

Nigel