Back 12 months ago, when the World Supercross championship headed to Abu Dhabi, it was Joey Savatgy who emerged the WSX 450cc class winner and took over the WSX points lead on his Rick Ware Racing/Mobil 1 Kawasaki, surviving a night of ups and downs for everyone.

Savatgy went 1-4-2 to snag the overall in the three-race format. Firepower Honda's Dean Wilson and MotoConcepts Vince Friese took second and third overall.

Ken Roczen, the series' leader coming into the event, had troubles in qualifying and had to overcome a bad start in race 1, he got to Friese to try to take the lead on the last lap but crashed, and instead finished 14th. Roczen ended up 14-3-1 on the night fighting through the pack, and by finishing fourth overall, loses the points lead to Savatgy with one race remaining.

Funnely enough, there was some banging action between Wilson and Friese, which was of course the same in Australia a week ago, when Friese took Wilson out and cost him any chance of racing this week in Abu Dhabi.

Friese was the center of the action all night though, nailing his usual good starts and making it extremely hard for anyone to make passes on him on the tight race track. There definitely appeared to be some tension throughout the night.

Friese was penalized two positions for "dangerous racing" in the first race (he block passed Wilson hard for the lead, knocking Wilson down) and two more in the final race, when Savatgy block passed him off the track, and Friese rode down the side of the track and retook the position.

Paul Malin called the weekend, although this year, the legend of motocross commentary will be holidaying in New Zealand and a long way from a race track. Instead, it will be Jeff Emig, the 1994 MXdN rival of Malin, who will call the action.