Ryan Villopoto is rider to catch as motocross season opens
Fresh off his third consecutive supercross championship, Ryan Villopoto is the rider everyone will be chasing when the motocross season opens Saturday near Sacramento.
The 12-race Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship series starts with the Red Bull Hangtown Motocross Classic in Rancho Cordova and ends Aug. 24 at Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Riverside County.
Motocross is off-road motorcycle racing and supercross, whose schedule runs from January to May, is the stadium version of motocross. Villopoto, 24, had a career-best 10 victories en route to his third supercross title this year.
Villopoto, a Kawasaki rider from the Seattle area, missed last year’s motocross season with a knee injury. Ryan Dungey of the Red Bull KTM team dominated motocross in 2012 to win his second title in that series.
James Stewart, another of the sport’s top riders, also said he’ll be ready for the motocross opener after the Suzuki rider missed the last three races of this year’s supercross season with a wrist injury. Stewart is the defending winner of the Hangtown motocross race.
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