Led by Team USA’s Ryan Villopoto Team USA laid a whooping on the 20 best motocross nations in the world on Sunday, September 23, 2007 at Budds Creek, Maryland to win the 60th annual Motocross of Nations. While teamed with 450F riders Ricky Carmichael (Suzuki) and Timmy Ferry (Kawasaki), it was Villopoto, on his Monster Energy Kawasaki KX250F who truly upstaged his teammates (and every other rider who dared to line up next to him).

In the opening MX/MX2 moto, Villopoto enjoyed a great jump out of the hole and quickly motoring around Germany’s Max Nagl, Great Britain’s Tommy Searle, Italy’s David Philippaerts and Chad Reed. With Carmichael down in a first lap crash, it was all on Villopoto’s shoulders to lead the American charge, and that’s exactly hat he did, pulling out to 20-second lead. All was well until lap five when a lonely lapper fell in front of the American, sending him to the dirt. Ryan got right to his boots, kicked his KX to life and, once again, roared away. He was simply untouchable, easily defeating 450cc-mounted riders Reed and Carmichael.

Moto number two at the Motocross of Nations — the Open/MX2 moto — was, yet again, a Ryan Villopoto, the young American checking out on the first lap, never to be headed. At one point he had an astonishing 1:30 second lead on Belgian Open bike rider Ken de Dycker. With teammate Tim Ferry charging from the back of the field after getting caught up in a first turn crash, Villopoto held the point for Team USA, dazzling the 40,000 fans who watched his awe-inspiring performance. After 30-minutes-plus-tow-laps of racing, Villopoto flashed across the finish line to easily with the moto. Teammate Ferry raced all the way back to fourth. After the final moto, the MX1/Open moto that was easily won by Carmichael and Ferry, Villopoto spoke about his performance in Maryland. "I got the inside gate in the first moto, I got the holeshot and I was wondering where Ricky was. I broke the gap and rode it out to the end.”

And of the lapper who almost did him in?

“I came over the finish line and onto the three rollers and I rode into some guy who was crashed. I got stuck on top of him. I kind of got the heart rate up a bit. It helped to have one of the best bikes out there. It makes it easy going to the line when you know you have one of the best teams.”

But perhaps it was Ricky Carmichael, the greatest motocrosser the world has ever seen, who paid Villopoto the biggest compliment on Sunday. “As for Ryan, he stunned everybody,” said RC in the post-race press conference. “[Antonio] Cairoli is the World Champion, but he isn't racing over here and our guys are beating third place by a minute plus (Not: As Villopoto and Townley did all summer in the AMA Motocross Lites National Championship). Cairoli is a great rider, but the pace over here is so different and when you race fast guys you get faster. Everyone is going to be scared to death of him (Villopoto), and they should be, because he has that something special.”