Ryan Villopoto says that more testing and more familiarity with the system should advance his cause in the MXGP series.
Reigning Monster Energy AMA Supercross Champion Ryan Villopoto didn’t exactly set the world on fire in his FIM MXGP World Championship debut for the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team at round one of the series in Doha, Qatar, last Saturday, but the 26-year-old American remained positive about the experience afterward.
Villopoto put together 9-8 moto scores to finish seventh overall, not the podium finish he was looking for but far from a disastrous performance considering his nine-month layoff from racing after he chose not to contest the 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship while he healed from a lingering ankle injury.
Despite the cultural and procedural differences between the American and World series, Villopoto appeared to be up to the challenge in practice and qualifying. He was within a second of the leader at all times and qualified eighth for the race, but in the first moto he got off to bad start when he stalled his engine. Villopoto recovered, only to crash twice en route to the ninth-place finish. Villopoto struggled in the second half of moto two after his rear brake was damaged by a rock, and that contributed to his eighth-place finish in the race.
“It wasn’t a good day, but we scored points and that’s definitively something we have to work on,” Villopoto said. “I never had a schedule like that one for a long time, but I’ve got to get used to that and all the rest, including how the gate drops, how they do everything. We struggled a little bit with the start, a little me and a little the bike, but we came back and got points. We’ve definitively some work to do, but that’s part of it. We learned a lot, and will be stronger at the next GP.”
After the Qatar round, Villopoto returned to Belgium for more testing before heading to Nakhonchaisri, Nakhonpathom Thailand for round two of the series, which takes place March 8.
“We have to work on setup stuff, which makes things a little bit easier,” Villopoto said. “For me every time I went on the track this weekend things went better; in the second race I had some issues as my rear brake felt strange; I don’t know if it’s a rock or what, but it’s part of the deal. We can make some stuff this week, even if the team doesn’t go back home, and we will be better next weekend.”
Villopoto’s Monster Energy Kawasaki teammate Tyla Rattray suffered misfortunes throughout the weekend. The South African had the 22nd gate pick after qualifying, and he, too, suffered a crash in the first moto, finishing 17th. In moto two, Rattray went from 21st to 16th.
“It was a tough weekend for me, for the team, for Ryan, for everyone,” Rattray said. “We’re not where we want to be; we did a lot of testing, with suspensions, and we thought we had good settings coming here, but the GP tracks are much different than the US tracks and where we’ve been testing in Europe. We will continue to work hard. Sometimes you have to deal with the circumstances, and do the best that you can, but we’ll be ready for Thailand.”
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