If someone had said that Team USA’s Ryan Villopoto would have won both the MX2/MX1 and MX2/Open motos, most people probably wouldn’t have believed it. At the 2007 Red Bull Motocross of Nations at Budds Creek, though, he did just that, and in convincing fashion. As for his teammates, Ricky Carmichael and Timmy Ferry, they held up their end as well, and after climbing their way back up from horrible starts in the first motos, came back in the second outing to take the wins in their respective classes, going 1-2 in the final MX1/Open race. Needless to say, after three performances as strong as these, the powerful USA team took the overall team win as well as all three individual overalls.

MX1/MX2:

While this race did have the bigger MX1 bikes combined with the smaller displacement MX2 bikes, none of that mattered for USA’s Ryan Villopoto, as he took the holeshot, and just like qualifying on Saturday, never looked back. As for Team USA’s main rider Ricky Carmichael, he unfortunately tipped over on the first lap and found himself in dead last. Behind Villopoto, but ahead of Ricky was Germany’s Maximilian Nagle, Great Britain’s Tommy Searle, Italy’s Davide Philippaerts, and Australia’s Chad Reed in second through fifth respectively. After only a few laps, though, Nagle dropped out allowing everyone else to move up.

As the race continued, Carmichael began to quickly advance in the big field, and by the halfway point, had work his way up to sixth. Ahead of him, Reed had moved into second after a confrontation with Searle that caused the MX2 rider go down. Philippaerts was in fourth, while fifth was France’s Sebastien Pourcel. As for Villopoto, he was way out front. Things didn’t change much until a few laps later when Carmichael made his way up to third, by that time, though, Reed was too far ahead in second for the Suzuki rider to catch, and the top-three finished in that order. The 1-3 finish for Team USA gave the team the overall lead heading into the next two races.

As a few small side notes to the race were that Villopoto set the fastest lap of the whole race, and Team Italy’s MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli suffered bike problems and didn’t finish the race.

RESULTS:

1. Ryan Villopoto MX2/Team USA
2. Chad Reed MX1/Team Australia
3. Ricky Carmichael MX1/Team USA
4. Sebastien Pourcel MX1/Team France
5. Johnathan Barragan MX1/Team Spain
6. David Philippaerts MX1/Team Italy
7. Tanel Leok MX1/Team Estonia
8. Steve Ramon MX1/Team Belgium
9. Tommy Searle MX2/Team Great Britain
10. Nicolas Aubin MX2/Team France
11. Billy Makenzie MX1/Team Great Britain
12. Julien Bill MX1/Team Switzerland
13. Gareth Swanepoel MX1/Team South Africa
14. Carlos Campano MX2/Team Spain
15. Rui Goncalves MX2/Team Portugal
16. Colton Facciotti MX2/Team Canada
17. Jean Sebastien Roy MX1/Team Canada
18. Paulo Goncalves MX1/Team Spain
19. Andrea Hultman MX1/Team Sweden
20. Martin Barr MX2/Team Ireland

MX2/OPEN:

The start of this race was nearly a carbon copy of the first, as USA’s Ryan Villopoto got an amazing jump aboard his MX2 class machine to take over the lead and pull away from the field, while his Team USA counterpart Timmy Ferry suffered from a horrible start and was forced to work his way up. Behind Villopoto off the start was Belgium’s Ken De Dycker, and Great Britain’s Tommy Searle. As for Italy’s Antonio Cairoli, he got a second place start behind Villopoto, but went down, bending his wheel and forcing him to make a pit stop to get a new one. The costly mistake dropped him a lap down. Ferry was all the back in 32nd. “There were quite a few riders that went down in the first turn and I kind of got caught up in that,” Ferry said. “There was a rider (Joaquim Rodrigues) who was down for quite a while, so it was pretty bad.” The race was nearly red flagged, but the officials decided not to do so when they were able to route the riders around Rodrigues.

By the halfway mark, Villopoto’s lead grew to untouchable proportions while De Dycker held down second, with Searle third, Australia’s Michael Byrne fourth, and France’s Pierre A. Renet fifth. As for Ferry, he had worked his way up to ninth and was continuing to climb the running order even further. A few laps continued on, things changed slightly when Byrne’s bike broke, forcing him to drop out of the race, which needless to say allowed everyone behind him to move up, including Ferry. With three laps remaining, Ferry had worked his way back up to fifth, and by the end worked his way around Renet to take over third. Up front, though, it was all Villopoto as he took the race win and the MX2 overall. Finishing second in the race was De Dycker while third went to Searle. Ferry finished fourth—second Open class rider.

RESULTS:

1. Ryan Villopoto MX2/Team USA
2. Ken De Dycker Open/Team Belgium
3. Tommy Searle MX2/Team Great Britain
4. Timmy Ferry Open/Team USA
5. Pierre A. Renet Open/Team France
6. Nicolas Aubin MX2/Team France
7. Carlos Campano MX2/Team Spain
8. Yoshitaka Atsuta Open/Team Japan
9. Martin Barr MX2/Team Ireland
10. Jeremy Van Horebeek MX2/Team Belgium
11. Marcus Schiffer Open/Team Germany
12. Colton Facciotti MX2/Team Canada
13. Rui Goncalves MX2/Team Portugal
14. Antonio Cairoli MX2/Team Italy
15. Davide Guarneri Open/Team Italy
16. Kazumasa Masuda MX2/Team Japan
17. Lauris Freibergs Open/Team Latvia
18. Antonio Balbi Open/Team Brazil
19. Wyatt Avis Open/Team South Africa
20. Arnaud Tonus MX2/Team Switzerland

MX1/OPEN:

After each having to come from behind in their first motos, Team USA’s Ricky Carmichael and Timmy Ferry were looking to redeem themselves in their second outing. After taking the holeshot, Carmichael quickly opened up a lead over second place Team Belgium’s Steve Ramon, while Team France’s Sebastien Pourcel sat in third with Ferry fourth. As the laps continued on, Ferry worked his way up and got around Pourcel, and from there, set his sights on MX1 World Champion Steve Ramon.

At the halfway mark, Ferry made his move on Ramon at the bottom of one of the many down hills. After that, the running order remained the same until the final lap when Team South Africa’s Grant Langston took over third. When the checkered flag flew, it was all about Team USA, as Carmichael took the race win with Ferry second. With those finishes, Team USA easily took the overall team win, and the MX1, MX2, and Open class overall championships.

When the race was over, Villopoto commented on his outstanding 1-1 performance. “In the first moto, Ricky gave me the inside gate which gave me a good advantage, so it was nice,” Villopoto said. “I think it helps out to have one of the best bikes out there. With everyone that has helped us get here, it also makes it easy to come to the line with one of the best teams backing you. I wouldn’t say it was easy, though. The good starts helped, and once I got out front I could ride my own pace. It was pretty warm out, and the back-to-back motos made it a little tougher.”

“I didn’t think Ryan was going to ride like that,” Villopoto’s teammate Ferry said. “It was unbelievable to see a 250f smoke everybody.

RESULTS:

1. Ricky Carmichael MX1/Team USA
2. Timmy Ferry Open/Team USA
3. Grant Langston MX1/Team South Africa
4. Steve Ramon MX1/Team Belgium
5. Tanel Leok Open/Team Estonia
6. David Philippaerts MX1/Team Italy
7. Yoshitaka Atsuta Open/Team Japan
8. Billy Makenzie MX1/Team Great Britain
9. Sebastien Pourcel MX1/Team France
10. Julien Bill MX1/Team Switzerland
11. Ken De Dycker Open/Team Belgium
12. Michael Byrne Open/Team Australia
13. Maximilian Nagl MX1/Team Germany
14. Pierre Renet Open/Team France
15. Jean Sebastien Roy MX1/Team Canada
16. Davide Guarneri Open/Team Italy
17. Marcus Schiffer Open/Team Germany
18. Alvaro Lozano Open/Team Spain
19. Andreas Hultman MX1/Team Sweden
20. Lauris Freibergs Open/Team Latvia

OVERALL TEAM RESULTS:

1. Team USA
2. Team France
3. Team Belgium
4. Team Italy
5. Team Great Britain
6. Team Spain
7. Team Japan
8. Team Switzerland
9. Team Germany
10. Team Canada