After the first round of the 2011 Motocross season, Ryan Dungey and Chad Reed are tied at the top. Dungey and Reed both took victories during Saturday’s event at the Hangtown Classic, and both riders also took home a second place finish. Reed and Dungey are currently tied with 47 points, 7 points more than the 2011 Supercross champion, Ryan Villopoto, who took two third place finishes.
It took Dungey 12 rounds to grab his one and only win during the 2011 Supercross season, but the young Suzuki rider only needed one race to get his 2011 Motocross title defense started in the right direction.
"I had a week of outdoor testing and that helped us out," said Dungey. "I felt good today. Coming into the weekend, we had a couple weeks of testing and got a good base setting. I just wanted to get things started, see where were at and move forward. I was trying to bulldog it in the second moto and Chad (Reed) got by me. I got behind him and saw some different lines. It took me a while to get back up there. I made one last attempt, but I'm happy with that result. I made a hard attempt to get by and was riding on the ragged edge, so I decided to back it down. It's a long season."
Chad Reed, who finished 6 points ahead of Dungey in the 2011 Supercross standings, also took home a win at Hangtown.
"I'm a little surprised," said Reed. "I tested the last two weeks and it's gone well. Normally, this track is always hard, choppy and one lined. We came back this weekend and it was a completely different track than we were expecting. I had a lot of fun today. It was a great racetrack. I got two good starts, (ran) up front and I fought for it. I'm a little surprised how comfortable I was with the track and bike. We've had only a little time to work on the bike."
Ryan Villopoto was also pleased with his results. Villopoto raced his first MX race since the Hangtown race in 2009, and was happy to come away with two podium finishes and 40 points.
MX Standings
- Reed - 47
- Dungey - 47
- Villopoto - 40
- Windham - 33
- Metcalfe - 32
