Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel wins the ESX Lites opener and Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto scores his first SX podium

CORONA, Calif., (Jan. 26 , 2009) – Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel won the opening round of the 2009 ESX Lites series this past weekend at Houston’s Reliant Stadium and Monster Energy’s Ryan Villopoto scored his first-ever SX class podium (3rd) to lead the Monster Army generals in a very successful operation at round four of 2009 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship.

Beginning with Villopoto and the premier SX class, the Poulsbo, Wash., racer stepped up and put his Kawasaki KX450F on the edge and seemed to break loose of the “rookie” moniker he’s been carrying around in 4th place this season – putting in a ride worthy of his multi-time Lites class championships en route to the 3rd place spot on the podium.

“Like anything, a good start helps out, being up front and clear,” said Villopoto. “Had a good race going there until I tipped ‘er over, but thanks to my Monster Energy/Kawasaki team for getting me up there to begin with.”

Having finished second in his heat race to SX class points leader Chad Reed, Villopoto lined up at the main and shot out to the first corner, appearing like he was going to pull the holeshot – only to have longtime rival Mike Alessi snake him to the chalk line. RV quickly made short work of Alessi and took over the race lead for the first several laps. Former champ James Stewart then caught up to RV and the two swapped the lead several times before Stewart got out in front. Comfortably in 2nd, a momentary lapse in concentration later in the contest caused RV to bury the front end of the bike and, unfortunately, allowed Reed to catch him for 2nd.

Said Reed: “Yeah, I got a bit of a gift there with Ryan going down.”

RV was able to remount and hold off a host of other factory-backed SX class veterans to save 3rd place.

In the MX Lites class the series shifted to the East Coast and Monster Energy was led by the Frenchman Pourcel who pulled the holeshot in the main and led it from start to finish – scoring the second career AMA SX Lites win of his career.

“I am very happy to have come back from injury so soon and to be able to win,” said Pourcel. “I would like to thank my Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team for giving me the fastest bike. I will head back to France now for a while then be back ready to go for the Atlanta Supercross.”

Pourcel’s Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki teammate, Austin Stroupe – who broke his collarbone at about the same time Pourcel broke his in December – had an excellent first weekend on the ESX tour as well. Stroupe put up the fastest lap times of the weekend in practice (51.663 to Pourcel’s 51.701) and won the second heat race by 1.5 seconds over Matt Lemoine. Set to rock the Lites main, Stroupe would tangle with Darryn Durham at the start and come out well behind his teammate Pourcel and the rest of the lead pack. But back quickly to within the top ten (9th) following the first lap, Stroupe would make the top four by lap four – a position he’d hold through the checkers (4th).

Also putting his Monster Energy/Kawasaki in the top ten with Villopoto in the SX class was Tim Ferry, who started 9th and finished 8th. Monster Energy’s Josh Hill (Yamaha) would ride well and finish just outside the top ten (11th) and Monster Energy/Cernic’s/Kawasaki’s Paul Carpenter would place 13th.

Noteworthy: Nick Wey (Boost/ampm/Monster Energy/Troy Racing) would run into some rough luck – at no fault of his – in both his heat and the LCQ and would not qualify for the main, marking the first time that’s happened this year to Wey. Monster Energy’s Sean Hamblin (Yamaha) torqued his leg pretty good in practice and tried to gut out his heat race, but had to retire and was unable to answer the bell for the SX class LCQ.

Next up for the Monster Energy-backed Monster Energy AMA Supercross racers is round four of the series at San Francisco’s AT&T Park – and back to the 2009 WSX championship – this Saturday, Jan. 31th.

Monster Energy supports the sport. Be it SX, rally, insane distance jumping, MX, MotoGP, road racing, supermoto, off-road, FMX, skate, MTB, rock crawling, wake, mini bikes, surf, snow, BMX – name it – the athletes are rockin’ Monster Energy more than anything these days. Check out all the types – Original Monster Energy, Monster Lo-Carb, Monster Assault, Monster Khaos, Monster’s fruit juice hybrid dubbed “M-80,” the party-friendly MIXXD, the ground-breaking Java Monster premium coffee & cream drink line supercharged with our Monster Energy blend, along with the new Monster Energy “Hitman” energy shot. The Monster Energy guys running the Monster Energy Supercross series dig ‘em – so will you. On the ‘Net at www.monsterarmy.com and www.monsterenergy.com