The 2008 AMA Toyota Motocross Championships are now officially rolling along smoothly, as the third round of the series wrapped up this weekend at Freestone County MX in Wortham, Texas.

In the second year of the event at the facility, a few changes were made to the track based largely on what was learned in the first year. The biggest news coming out of the event, however, was the absolute domination of both James Stewart and Ryan Villopoto in their respective classes. Both racers remain the riders to beat as the series heads to the fourth round in Mt Morris, Pennsylvania, next weekend for what should be an interesting race on an entirely new track. But that's next weekend's news. Right now, let's get into exactly what went down at Freestone this weekend. So without wasting anymore time, here's What Really Happened from the Lone Star state, but as always, if you missed any of the other coverage over the weekend, simply click the links provided below.

In the series thus far, the racers have had it relatively easy with the weather. Glen Helen was mild, Hangtown a little warmer, but at Freestone, everyone was greeted with temperatures that hovered around the high 90s to low 100swith humidity too boot. For the riders, it was no doubt challenging as numerous racers could be seen rolling around the track-or just letting the leader lap them-in hopes that the moto would just finish up. After having to work his way back into the top-10 in the second moto, Team Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Brett Metcalfe crossed the finish line and nearly passed out from heat exhaustion. Other riders were affected as well, and in fact, Metty's teammate Austin Stroupe didn't show up to the press conference because of the heat. Villopoto talked a little bit about what it was like and how you can't really prepare. "This has really been the first weekend where it's been really hot and humid," Villopoto said. "It takes a toll on everyone, because we all have to ride in it. It's hard to say. Who knows, maybe they didn't drink enough. Heat exhaustion... I guess it could have something to do with training, but if you didn't drink enough or eat enough, it could happen to anybody."

Some how RV managed to get through the moto and actually put in his fastest laps towards the end of the race. Making his domination of the motos in the horrible heat even more impressive. "I was just putting in the laps," Villopoto said. "Ryan [Dungey] is a good rider and I knew that if I let my guard down, or backed off a little, he would probably take advantage of that." How dominant was Villopoto? He won the second moto by nearly 17 seconds.

Like Villopoto said, the other Ryan-Dungey-is no slouch when it comes to racing, and at Freestone, he proved that he can run Villopoto's pace for a little while, as he led the beginning portion of the second moto, battling with both Stroupe and Villopoto for much of it. When asked what he thinks it's going to take to step it up and really run with RV, though, RD62 had this to say. "It's been really hot in Florida, so it's been good to ride in that," Dungey said. "I think just working on some speed and trying to get a little faster. I think it's a total package for me to get to the point where I feel good all the way around." Dungey has, however, been staying at Stewart's house, training and riding with the Floridian racer at his home. "It's been working well," Dungey said. "I've been down there since the beginning of Supercross. We've been riding together and it's definitely helped out a lot. He's a top guy in racing, so I think that it's a really good thing to be there. He also just really takes me under and helps out a lot-him and his family-I really appreciate that."

One rider in the Lites class that is having incredibly bad luck so far this season is East Coast Lites Supercross Champion Trey Canard. It seems that almost every moto he enters this year, he gets tangled up with riders either in the first turn or on the first lap, forcing him to climb back up from the back of the pack. At Freestone, it was just another one of those bad luck weekends, as Trey crashed hard in the first moto, tried to climb back up, but pulled out before the moto was over. After the race, we learned that he had sustained a concussion in the crash, and thus him and his team decided not to line up for the second moto. Here's hoping that Canard can turn his luck around for the better, however, there is no official word yet on the severity of his concussion.

While in the pits, we ran into Josh Grant's trainer, Darin Stockton. Grant has been out of action since the final Supercross in Vegas after he went down and sustained a concussion, but from the way it sounds, we should see Grant back maybe as early as Colorado in a few weeks. "I've had him go up to L.A. to get some testing done to see how he's improving," Stockton said. "He's been steadily improving over the past few weeks, so he should begin really riding next week." On another note, Darin also trains Grant's teammate Dan Reardon.

One rider that returned to action this past weekend was MDK/KTM's Martin Davalos. Davalos has been out since the beginning of the outdoor season. In the motos, Davalos probably didn't have the results he was hoping for, however, nonetheless, it was good to see him back out there.

There was a bit of a fire drill right before the beginning of the first Lites class moto, as Team Xtreme/Motosport/Kawasaki mechanics scrambled to change out the entire rear brake set up on Tommy Hahn's KX250F. It was cool seeing these guys perform a task in one minute that would probably take most people an hour or so. Tommy lined up and was ready to go racing before the whole field was at their gates.

Moving onto the Motocross class, we've already said it, but Stewart is in a class by himself. He flat out has been dominating every race. In the first moto, after getting a third-place start and then going down briefly, he climbed his way back up to take over the lead a few laps later. One pass in particular was incredible. Following the finish line at Freestone, there were three rollers with the middle one being considerably taller than the first and third. Stewart went around the first and hit the middle one flat out, jumping past Davi Millsaps for second and nearly landing on the third roller that was roughly 80 feet away. If you missed it, the pass can be seen on the Racer XMotocross Show, and believe us, when you see it you'll have to watch it again. "I saw him [Millsaps] go to the inside and hit the first single, so I just went around the outside and flew off it," Stewart said. "It was good, because I could see that he was starting to put space between him and Mike [Alessi], so I just wanted to get around him pretty quick."

We mentioned it in the race report already, but if you missed it, Stewart actually had such a big lead in the second moto, that he decided to let five lappers un-lap themselves. "I saw those guys battling and a lot of people were dropping out. They were battling for points, and for the privateers, that's money," Stewart said. "I saw my lead, and like I said, they were racing so I just let them go by." It's pretty cool to know that James is looking out for the privateers. Although, we're not sure they would thank James for the extra lap in the heat or not... "I could tell the ones that really didn't want to go another lap-they would just pull off the track [laughs]."

While we are on the subject of privateers, though, it seems that this season more than ever privateers are popping up in the top-10 and even top-five on a regular basis. And this week at Freestone was no different. Suzuki rider Cody Cooper from New Zealand piloted his RM-Z450 to fourth in the first moto, beating numerous top factory stars including Red Bull Honda teammates Davi Millsaps and Ivan Tedesco. Unfortunately for Cooper, however, his luck took a turn for the worst in the second moto. While we didn't see exactly what happened to Cooper, we did see that his muffler was missing during most of the second moto and he eventually finished just out of a points-paying position in 21st. Despite that, though, his numerous top-10 finishes thus far in the series have bumped him up to 10th in the overall points standings. Not bad!

Last year, Texas local Andrew Short won the first moto, but a tip over in the second caused him to lose out on the overall. "This place is really close to my house and I don't have to jump on a plane, which is a good thing," Shorty said of the race. "The soil is also really similar to my practice track. I just love it. When you get close to home, you get a little extra motivation." This year, while he didn't win a moto, he did once again land on the podium. After finishing third in the first moto, Shorty was looking strong in the second, however, dropped back to finish sixth-just good enough for third overall. "I was hurting in the second moto. I just kind of hit the wall there at the end. It was really hot and I was in survival mode coming in there at the end. I gave it everything I had, and I'm pretty excited with how it turned out."

Last week at Hangtown, Mike Alessi's race didn't go quite the way that he had wanted it to-he finished a dismal 16th in the first moto and a fourth in the second outing. Needless to say, it was a far cry from his round one performance where he went 2-2 for second overall. According to Alessi, he got a stern talking to from Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki team manager Roger DeCoster, and went to work hard in the week between Hangtown and Freestone. What was he rewarded with? Another outstanding runner-up overall finish where he even led Stewart for a few laps in both motos. "I practiced a lot of starts this week, that was pretty much it," Alessi said of his week between Hangtown and Freestone. "I didn't really change too much, because the bike is fantastic. The bad starts that I got last week weren't something that I am familiar with-coming up through the pack and getting roosted didn't feel good."

Perhaps some of the best racing of the weekend happened during both motos of the second round of the WMA Nationalseries. In her first year racing pro Red Bull/Alpinstars/Honda's Ashley Fiolek has been turning a lot of heads. In the first moto, she held her own, holding off defending champion Jessica Patterson until the checkered flag flew. Then in the second, after taking the holeshot, it appeared that the two riders would be doing the same, however, when Patterson went down, Fiolek ran away with it. In the overall, Sarah Whitmore took second while Mariane Balbi completed the podium.

That's about it from the racetrack. Below are some shots we thought were interesting from the weekend. Enjoy, and don't forget to check back here at Motocross.com for everything you need to know about MX. There are also daily updates to the www.live.motocross.com site for your viewing pleasure each and every day of the week!

See you at Mt. Morris!

 Courtesy of MotoCross.com