After visiting the hospital and still powering through the main event last week in Toronto, Villopoto arrived in St. Louis 100-percent healthy and ready. He won his heat race without challenge and took over the lead on the first lap of the main event. The champ then led the charge for 10 laps until James Stewart got to the inside of him. Villopoto changed a few lines after following in second but could not find a spot to make the pass back. Second place allowed him to extend his championship lead by 10 points and gives him a 35-point gap with four rounds remaining.
“Tonight was good for us,” said Villopoto. “Considering how last week went and how close the points could have been, we can’t ask for much better. James (Stewart) rode really well tonight and I didn’t expect him to go for the pass where he did, but we’ll learn from it and be back next weekend.”
While Villopoto was out front, it looked as though he was giving up a little bit in the whoop section as he was going down the right side. His mechanic gave him the signal to switch his line to the left side, which helped his lap time and allowed him stay in contention for the win.
“I saw that Stewart was going down the left side of the whoops,” said Villopoto. “But once I switched the left I didn’t feel like it was much faster than where I had been going. The whoops themselves were getting pretty chewed up and were slippery so you really had to be precise.”
