DUNGEY WINS IN LAS VEGAS
 Team
Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey took overall victory in Saturday
night's grand finale East Coast-West Coast Lites Shootout
at the final-round AMA and World Supercross Championship event
in Las Vegas.
The teenager took to the front on his RM-Z250 early on and
dominated the 15 lapper at Sam Boyd Stadium, to win by 4.6
seconds over Honda's Jake Weimer.
"It was unbelievable," said Dungey from the podium.
"I'd hoped to get a good start on my Makita Suzuki RM-Z250
but it was unimaginable to lead the whole 15 laps like that.
I'm happy to have my whole family here and I'd like to thank
Makita Suzuki for giving me this opportunity."
Dungey's evening started strong with a third-place finish
in his heat race and just got better with the main. The 17-year-old
rider got a great start, taking over the lead just after the
first turn on lap one and went on to lead all 15 laps to the
finish.
"I crossed the finish line and I couldn't believe it,
I'd just won the shoot-out," said Dungey afterwards.
"I guess the hard work paid off. Just last year, before
I turned Pro, I was watching this race from the stands. We've
come a long way in a year and I was so pumped to be up on
the podium. I owe this to my Makita Suzuki team and my family
who have supported me all year. This was a great crowd. I
could hear them every lap, screaming and cheering."
In the Supercross class, Ivan Tedesco was heading towards
a second-place finish in his heat race when a get-off resulted
in his going to the Last Chance Qualifier. Ever the professional,
he holeshotted and won the LCQ and advanced to the Main.
"Today's first practice didn't feel great," said
Tedesco. "I was kind of off the pace so we made a few
changes to the Makita Suzuki RM-Z450 and second practice felt
better. In my heat race I was riding really well but I lost
the front end right before the finish line. I had to go to
the LCQ, which turned out to be pretty good because we tested
a front tyre in the LCQ and that's what I ended up running
in the Main. It was a plus in the end."
The 20-lap main event saw the Makita Suzuki rider get a good
start and settle into fourth position. Although he moved into
fifth place for a portion of the race, he regained the lost
position and brought home his fourth fourth-place finish of
the season.
"In the main event I was all the way on the outside
but I made something happen on the start," said Tedesco.
"I felt like I rode well tonight. I just wanted to stay
off the ground because I've been crashing a lot. My goal was
just to finish where I needed to finish and not crash."
Team Makita Suzuki Racing will return for round one of the
AMA Toyota Motocross Championship at Hangtown Raceway in Sacramento,
California on May 19-20th.
Main Event: 1 James Stewart (Kawasaki),
2 Chad Reed (Yamaha), 3 Kevin Windham (Honda), 4 Ivan Tedesco
(Makita Suzuki), 5 Andrew Short (Honda).
Lites: 1 Ryan Dungey (Makita Suzuki), 2
Jake Weimer (Honda), 3 Martin Davalos (KTM), 4 Jason Lawrence
(Yamaha), 5 Thomas Kahn (Honda).
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