Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey (Photo: Steve Cox) » More Photos

The Lites event in Vegas was the Dave Coombs Sr. Lites East/West Shootout. There were no points offered, but East and West champions -- Trey Canard and Jason Lawrence -- ran their number-one plates for the first time (numbers 1e and 1w).

Lawrence never seemed all that interested in wining the race, as he was concerned that he would remain healthy for the outdoors, but Canard seemed game for it. However, it was the East runner-up, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto, who grabbed the holeshot, followed by the West runner-up, Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey and East champ Geico Powersports Honda’s Trey Canard. Immediately, Dungey and Villopoto began to pull away from Canard, putting in lap times faster than the fastest of the night in the 450cc class.

Villopoto actually pulled away from Dungey over the first few laps, but then last year’s winner Dungey found his groove and began to close back up on Villopoto, finally making a challenge for the lead with only about three laps to go. Villopoto thwarted his every move, only to succumb to a brilliant outside/inside move through the off-camber before the finish. Dungey grabbed the lead down the ensuing straightaway and led the final lap to take his second East/West Shootout in a row and continue the streak of non-champions winning the race.

“It was a great race,” Dungey said. “I really didn’t know if I could catch him, but then I started reeling him in, and this is great. Now, I’ll have two free Toyota Tundras (the prize for winning the race), so that’s really cool. You can never have too many trucks.”

The big SX and MX names now go on hiatus for the next three weeks until the Glen Helen AMA National MX opener at the end of May.