Monster Energy congratulates Blake “Bilko” Williams for his outstanding performance and silver medal win today in Moto X Speed & Style at X Games Austin 2014. Teammate Kris Foster also stood out and landed in fourth place.
Unfortunately, Monster Energy’s Nate Adams who is a constant threat to all dropped out with an injury from X Games Austin, but Monster still had Foster and past event medalist Williams in the field.
Nearly every freestyle motocross competitor in the world got their start racing motocross. Freestyle Motocross became a sport of its own in the late 1990s, and 1999 marked the first year for Freestyle Moto X at the X Games. Knowing the roots of freestyle competitors, though, the advent of Speed & Style as its own competition just makes sense.
Back in 2010, X Games introduced Moto X Speed & Style, which combined the racing element most of the freestyle competitors grew up doing, with the tricks they started learning in their FMX careers. The winner is determined by combining each racer’s time with their trick score.
Williams started out the event, inside Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, by handily defeating Mat Rebaud in the quarterfinals. Foster got a bye in the first round due to injury.
In the Semi-Finals, Foster and Williams faced off, and Williams took the win with a score of 86 to Foster’s 80.52. That sent Foster to the Bronze-Medal match, and Williams to the Final.
When the gate dropped for the Speed & Style Final, Mike Mason took the holeshot, with Williams putting a lot of pressure on him through the first few turns, but as the two headed to the trick jump on the back straightaway, Williams let Mason get away a little bit, likely because he needed some room to complete his 360 over the jump.
However, Williams was unable to close the gap back up, and although the two scored very closely for “Style”, Williams lost in “Speed” and had to settle for the Speed & Style silver medal for the second consecutive X Games.
Former Speed & Style gold medalist Mike Mason took down whip specialist Jarryd McNeil in his semi-final to get to the final, and McNeil faced off against Foster in the bronze Match. Foster ended up tying McNeil on “Style” in the Bronze match, but finished the “Speed” portion just about a second behind.
Today marks Bilko’s fifth X Games medal and his third silver to add to his silver in Speed & Style in 2013, bronze from Best Trick in 2006, gold in Freestyle in 2009 and silver in Best Trick in 2009.