With
a video production crew on-hand, this week at Glen Helen Raceway in San
Bernardino, California, four-time supercross champion Ryan Villopoto completed
what will be his last U.S.-based test session before packing it all up
and flying to Europe to begin what will be his highly anticipated run at
the 2015 FIM MXGP World Championship. Atop what will be his potent
Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team KX450F race bike, RV absolutely flew
around the high speed, abnormally rough and chopped up Glen Helen
circuit. America’s great hope to bring back the first MXGP world title
in over 20 years, Ryan looked brilliantly quick and all who were present
at the test/video shoot – Kawasaki team technicians, family members and
those close to the overall RV racing program – were visibly pleased by
the form Ryan is showing a month shy of the opening round of the World
Championship slated for Qatar on February 28. Immediately after
completing the test and shoot, RV sat down with Monster Energy to speak
about his imminent and historic globetrotting odyssey which will see him
compete in 18 races in 16 different nations.
“I
want to win. I’m not doing the work now not to,” said Villopoto, the
first rider in the 58-year history of the World Championship to try and
win both a supercross title and premiere class world title. “”I’ve been
putting in the work. I’m going in there wanting to win and I’m going to
give it everything I have.”
Villopoto
also pointed out that he believes the challenge he is about to take
will captivate race fans the world over, saying, “I think now having all
these people who have watched me race the last nine years in America,
they’ll now actually have somebody to watch and relate to in the World
Championship. I think this challenge will bring a lot of people in to
see what’s going on with Grand Prix motocross. I’ve had a lot of people
tell me, “Yeah, I keep up on the GPs about once a month and check to see
what’s going on. Now, with you racing, we’re going to be watching it
and checking it all out every Sunday.” I think it’s going to go both
ways. I think this will get a lot of eyes on MXGP that have never been
on it in the past.”
And what will it take for Ryan Villopoto, considered by most to be the greatest motocross racer in the world?
“It’s
going to come down to consistency. It’s a long season. It’s going to be
like a supercross season here, but I think in the end the cream always
kind of rises to the top. I think there will be two or three guys who
will be, I don’t want to say always there, but that you can see will be
there all season long and I think seven-time world champion Antonio
Cairoli is going to be one of them. If everything goes well, I’ll be one
of those guys. Clément Desalle seems like he is one of those guys. So
do Kevin Strijbos and Gautier Paulin. There are a lot of GP guys that we
go racing against at the Motocross des Nations every year and they’re
all fast. Now this year is going to be a bit different just because the
des Nations is just one race, the World Championship is going to be a
whole series. It’s time to go racing and I’m going racing to win.”.
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