All Stars: Grant Langston and Ryan Villopoto win National Championships - At 6:30 in the morning of the 2007 Glen Helen National, I motored north up the 57 freeway towards San Bernardino and looked out the windshield of my car. There was the Big A of Angel Stadium. Down below, I could see the parking lot that served as the pit area for the opening round of the 2007 AMA Supercross Series. The Friday evening before, Grand Langston quietly confided to fellow South African and World and National Champion Greg Albertyn that he was struggling to come to terms with his new Yamaha YZ450F. And he did. The next evening, he went out and ended up on his head the dirt, his supercross season shot. Hoping for a new start in the 2007 AMA Nationals, Langston also struggled, his average finish in the first seven rounds somewhere between sixth and seventh place. Then EVERYTHING changed. Ricky Carmichael kept his promise and went into retirement and James Stewart began to hear footsteps. At one point, Langston went on record claiming that the big race was going to be for second overall in points between himself, Andrew Short and Tim Ferry. And it was. Until James Stewart blew out his knee at Millville. Then it was on, as everyone smelled blood and the race for the prize that was the 2007 AMA Motocross Number One plate truly began. Serendipitously, Langston took possession of his new works 2008 Yamaha and placed second overall at both Washougal and Millville. The he won both Steel City and Freestone and found himself with a nine-point lead heading into Glen Helen. And that’s exactly where I was headed. At 2:15 P.M. on Sunday afternoon, an AMA official blew an air horn and the mechanics of Grand Langston, Mike Alessi, Andrew Short and Tim Ferry rolled the bikes to the starting gate. Only 17 points separated the four, and with Kevin Windham and Mike Brown — straight from last Sunday’s MX Grand Prix in Holland — in the mix, there was plenty of potential for chaos and trouble. When the gate dropped, the race was a sort of accordion. As things sorted themselves out, Alessi rode brilliantly at the front, hounded by Windham. Just behind and beginning to collapse in on the leading duo were Short, Ferry and Langston. Then, two-thirds into the moto, both ferry and Windham had bailed and Langston closed right up on Short. Soon, Langston was past Short, and then at the top of the 2000-foot high Yamaha hill (ironically), Langston dove under Alessi and stole the moto win. Once the 40-rider pack roared around the Talladega turn to begin the final moto of the season, for Langston, it was nothing more then a case of hanging on for 30-minutes-plus-two laps. He did that easily to place third behind Windham and Alessi, and in doing so won both the Glen Helen overall and his first AMA Motocross Championship.

Right from the onset at Hangtown on May 20, the race for the 2007 AMA Motocross Lites Championship was a race inside a race. There were Monster Energy Kawasaki teammates Ben Townley and reigning AMA Lites champion Ryan Villopoto and, well, the 38 other guys who lined up with them on any given Sunday. In fact Townely and 19 year-old Villopoto split moto wins in five of the 12 Nationals, with Townley wining the tiebreaker four times. The duo also won eleven of the 12 Nationals and 22 of 24 motos (Josh Grant and Broc Hepler won the other two). What really did Townley’s title hopes in, though, were his back-to-back 6-2 overalls at Steel City and Freestone. Thusly, upon arriving at Glen Helen Raceway, Villopoto had a 19-point edge on his rival. When it came time to race on the 1.5-mile, 36-obstacle track — complete with three hills hovering at 2000 feet in altitude — Bent Townley and Ryan Villopoto came flying out of the Talladega turn side by side. Townely led for the first six laps before Villopoto raced by to steal the moto win. With 22 points to make up, Townely went straight to the front in moto two, and by the nine minute mark had a 7.212-second lead on Villopoto. When the two -lap card was flashed, Townely was 18.042 seconds ahead. But it was to no avail, as Villopoto happily raced alone in second to win his second consecutive red and black Number One plate.