Villopoto goes ballistic in AMA MX opener

The days of Ryan Villopoto deferring to the likes of Chad Reed and James Stewart are now over, after the prodigiously gifted 20-year-old dominated round one of the 2009 AMA Motocross Championship at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California.

The Kawasaki-backed Villopoto scored maximum points in an awesome display, winning race one by a whopping 18.236secs from Yamaha's Mike Grant, before pushing aside Suzuki's Mike Alessi in a tighter race two.

Alessi's teammate, Australia's Chad Reed, kicked off his first AMA motocross season in two years with fourth and third place finishes, which the 27-year-old was pleased with.

"It was good. I got flashes of brilliance. There are some things I need to work on with me and I think we'll be real good," said Reed. "The results on paper aren't really as important to me as what it means to me. I was really more comfortable than I expected to be. I didn't expect to be the fastest guy in practice, and I was.

"There's a realistic side of things, and we tested twice and came racing. We made a lot of changes throughout the weekend that were positive ones - it's promising."

Stewart did not compete in round one.

Three other Aussies competed in the open class, with Honda's Daniel Reardon 10th and 35th, Suzuki's Michael Byrne 15th and 14th, and Honda's Jake Moss 33rd and 22nd.

New Zealander Cody Cooper, a well known face in Australia, went 11-12 in the two motos on his Yamaha.

In the 250cc class, Australia's Brett Metcalfe (Honda) made a strong return to racing after a long injury-enforced layoff to finish seventh and sixth. Christopher Pourcel (Kawasaki) and Suzuki's Ryan Dungey shared the wins.

Round two will be held in Sacramento next weekend.