The 2009 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship will air live on SPEED TV this Saturday evening, May 30, at 9:00 p.m. (ET), as the annual Hangtown Motocross Classic blasts off from Prairie City OHRV Park, right outside of Sacramento, California. The first set of motos will also stream live right here on www.allisports.com. The race will mark the second round of the 2009 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, as the series kicked off last weekend outside of San Bernardino, California. With that in mind, here are ten things to watch for when you tune in this Saturday night to SPEED TV’s first-ever live outdoor motocross race:

1. Josh Grant will get the Progressive Direct Holeshot…
Josh Grant erupted on the professional motocross scene at the very same Hangtown racetrack back in 2004, grabbing the holeshot and leading the first two laps of his first-ever AMA Motocross National. Since then, he’s gotten the first moto holeshot pretty much every time here at Hangtown, and after finishing third overall last weekend on the Joe Gibbs Racing MX/Toyota Yamaha, he’s definitely got a bike that can get him out front…

2. Unless Mike Alessi beats him to the first turn!
Ask any professional motocross journalist and they will tell you that Rockstar/Makita Suzuki rider Mike Alessi ranks as one of the best starters—if not the very best starter—in the history of the sport. Alessi grabbed both Progressive Direct Holeshots last Saturday afternoon at Glen Helen, then went on to finish second overall. After the race he went straight to Sacramento, where he’s been staying at the track and getting used to the heat.

3. The strong will survive in this climate
The Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross riders caught a break last weekend when relatively mild weather kept the temperature down at the usually blistering hot Glen Helen. No such luck this weekend as weather reports are calling for temperatures in the 90s, making this a very early test of fitness. Who gets faster when the temperatures rise? Alessi and Villopoto.

4. Ryan Villopoto is on track to catch Ricky Carmichael in the record books
Okay, so it might take seven more years to reach the one they call “The Goat” (greatest of all time), but so far in his young career Villopoto has won an AMA Motocross Championship in each of his first three seasons. That leaves him seven short of RC’s all-time record of 10 consecutive titles in outdoor motocross, after which Carmichael retired as the undefeated champion.

5. Chad Reed will be faster this time around
After making an eleventh-hour decision to join the Lucas Oil AMA Motocross tour, former two-time AMA Supercross Champion Chad Reed looked fast on his Rockstar/Makita Suzuki at Glen Helen, but he wasn’t ready to duke it out with the likes of Villopoto and Alessi. This week, he should come out swinging.

“Overall, I’m really, really excited,” Reed said after his first national in some three years. “My speed was there, and there were no surprises for me. We made a lot of changes to the bike Friday night after the media practice thing, and the bike was great. I felt good and confident, and there are a few things here and there we need to tweak with me and I think we’ll be good. I think that result on paper doesn’t explain our weekend, but I feel like we’re looking good for the series.”

6. Jason Lawrence may or may not be there
Love him or hate him, motocross fans can’t help but be fascinated by the wild child himself, Jason Lawrence. J-Law has missed almost as many races this year as he’s been in, going back to his unsuccessful defense of the #1 plate in Supercross Lites West Region. There have already been two suspensions by the AMA (one for fighting and one for a takeout move on Broc Hepler) and that’s just in supercross! Before last weekend’s outdoor opener, J-Law said he was going to be on the podium “or highly pissed if I’m not!” Well, he didn’t even make it to the starting gate, as he was still too sore to ride after taking a handlebar to the gut during a press day crash. Will he be at Hangtown? You will have to tune in Saturday night at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. PT) to find out.

7. Honda Red Bull Racing needs a win now more than ever
The Big Red Machine of motocross is Honda Red Bull Racing, but lately they’ve been more of a support vehicle than a championship contender. Honda has talent in Andrew Short, Davi Millsaps and Ivan Tedesco, but a bevy of injuries and bad luck has kept their riders from getting into the mix for race wins. The hope was that outdoor motocross would give the team a new lease on its season, but at Glen Helen, the best they could do was fifth overall via Millsaps.

8. Weston Peick might be for real
Never heard of Weston Peick? He’s an amateur national motocross champion who jumped right up into the big boy’s class of 450cc motorcycles for the summer. Peick, who hails from Wildomar, CA, grabbed a solid ninth overall in his Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross debut last weekend. Now that he knows the speed and endurance he will need to compete, look for this kid to do even better this time around.

9. Ryan Villopoto will be all right….
As long as he starts in the top three. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider knows that his longtime rival Alessi will likely be first or second off the start, but he’s comfortable that he can reel him in if he’s not too far behind. “Mike’s really good at the starts, but as long as I’m there in the top three or whatever, I’m sure I’m okay. I can work on some starts and maybe work on some engine stuff, but other than that, I should be all right.”

10. Ryan Villopoto should win Hangtown
Okay, he’s now proven that he can win on a 450 both indoors (he won two of the last three SX rounds) and outdoors (Glen Helen). With a race win now under his belt and a seven-point lead in the rankings (50 to 42 over Alessi), RV can start to settle into his role as points leader and begin focusing on his primary competition: Alessi, Reed, Grant and the Hondas. “It’s tough because you never know until you get there and you see where everybody’s at and how fast they are,” he said after sizing up the competition that might keep him from a fourth consecutive title. “I’m glad I didn’t let anybody down!”

To watch the first set of motos live, check out www.allisports.com beginning at1pm, PST, 4 p.m. EST. To figure out what time that means in your neighborhood, here are some examples:

USA Mountain Time Zone (Denver): 2pm
USA Central Time Zone (Chicago): 3pm
USA East Coast Time Zone (New York): 4pm
Brazil: 5:00pm
United Kingdom (London): 9pm
Europe (Brussels): 10pm
Iraq: 11pm
Afghanistan: 12:30am
West Coast Australia: (Perth): 4am (Sunday)
Japan: 5am (Sunday)
East Coast Australia: (Sydney): 6am (Sunday)
New Zealand: 8am (Sunday)