The veteran Reed, who has two overall premier class Monster Energy Supercross titles on the mantel, enters the 2009 SX season, with Villopoto, as one of the odds-on favorites to wrestle the title away from James Stewart.

About as durable as they come in the sport of dirt bike racing, the Australian is fresh off winning the overall 2009 Monster Energy Australasian Super-X Championship this past month and no doubt likes his chances in battling for the 2010 SX title through the end of the 17-round series that opens in Anaheim (Calif.) next Saturday, Jan. 9th, and culminates in Las Vegas on May 8th.

Coming in on the very short list of riders outside Reed and Stewart that have won a Monster Energy Supercross main event the past couple years is Villopoto. Winner of the ’09 Seattle and Vegas SX class main events, Villopoto battled back valiantly from injury last year to shine late in the season.

He parlayed those two performances into an absolutely dominant 50-point 1st/1st finish at Glen Helen Raceway (Calif.) to open the ’09 outdoor MX season. Villopoto then wound up injuring himself prior to the next round in Sacramento (Hangtown) and sat out the remainder of the 2009 outdoor campaign.

Considered “Next” in terms of SX greatness, Villopoto has already proven he’s a title contender outdoors and will look to be a factor in SX as well throughout the 2010 Monster Energy/Kawasaki SX campaign.