Wide World of Kitsap Sports

Here’s a funny story out of Arizona about how Willie Bloomquist’s teammates like to take advantage of his temper.
Poulsbo’s supercross star Ryan Villopoto is close to winning back-to-back titles.
South Kitsap product Aaron Cunningham is in the running for a bench spot in Cleveland.
South Kitsap’s Jason Hammel is in Baltimore this year, and his last spring training start went well.

Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto is starting to generate some national buzz with his riding on the AMA Supercross Series. Check out this story in SI.com.

Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto was the main feature in Supercross.com’s mid-season report. Villopoto leads the series standings after missing nearly all of last season due to injury.

You can read about it here.

Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto took advantage of a late crash to move from third to first during the AMA Supercross at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on Saturday night. It was his third win of the season and left him 10 points ahead of James Stewart in the points race at the halfway point of the season.

Here’s a photo of Villopoto at the finish line.

Ryan Villopoto of Poulsbo is leading the AMA Motocross standings and will look to capture his second victory in three races this weekend. 

Villopoto and the rest of the field will race at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

You can read the rest of the L.A. preview story here.

Here’s an Associated Press story mentioning Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto.

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Ryan Villopoto made a huge statement in the season-opening Supercross race in Anaheim over the weekend. The Kawasaki rider and Poulsbo native won his 10th career race and first since breaking his leg is a race at St. Louis in April. Read more about his victory here.

Check out some photos of Villopoto’s main event victory here.

The tour moves to Chase Field in Phoenix (Saturday, Jan. 15) for the next race. Seattle’s stop at Qwest Field is April 16.

The 2011 Supercross season starts next month and Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto is one of the three or four best in the sport. But Ryan Dungey, the rookie who took advantage of injuries to Villopoto and James Stewart, is the guy to beat. Read the story here.

Here’s a profile of Dungey, featured in ESPN The Magazine as one of the breakthrough athletes poised to shine in 2011.

You can read more about that here.

Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto, one of the superstars of Supercross, has a Kawasaki teammate for the 2011 season.

Kawasaki recently signed Jake Weimer to run with Villopto in the 450 class. Weimer was one of the top riders in the 250 circuit.

With bikes sales down, the economy is taking a toll on a lot of the teams, who are opting to go with one star and a less expensive backup rider.

Here’s the lineups of some of the other factory teams:

Honda: Signed Trey Canard earlier, and added Josh Grant as the backup.

L&M: James Stewart is the hotdog with Kyle Regal in the support role.

Suzuki: Ryan Dungey’s the main man with Brett Metcalfe the backup.

Yamaha: Tommy Hahn and Kyle Chisholm.

Toyota/JGRMX: Davi Millsaps and Justin Brayton.

KTM: Andrew Short and Mike Alessi (motocross only).

Villopoto was at Dodger Stadium last week, trying to explain what it’s like to race on a new track. The venue will host a Supercross race on Jan. 22. Villopoto won seven races a year ago before suffering a broken leg that ended his season.