AMA flies at Angel
By TMX Archives on 2nd Jan 08
THE eyes of the off-road world will be on Southern California tomorrow night, January 5, as the biggest event on the American motocross calendar, Anaheim 1, kicks-off the 2008 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship in its usual spectacular style.
With the series recently unified as both an AMA and FIM world championship, and the championship taking in a round north of the border in Toronto, Canada, the 2008 is bigger and better than ever, and the racing will undoubtedly be jaw-dropping too, but when the gate drops on the 16-round scrap inside Angel Stadium tomorrow, who are the likely contenders for the silverware likely to be in the post Carmichael era?
Well the obvious choice is reigning AMA champion James Stewart.
The Kawasaki teamster has been the fastest man on two-wheels inside the stadiums of America for the past few seasons, but in 2007 he eliminated the big crashes that had kept him from the title before, kept it upright and sailed to the title from Carmichael, and you wouldn't bet against him repeating the feat in 2008.
With Carmichael in retirement, the major threat to Stewart is likely to come from Yamaha's Chad Reed, third place finisher in last year's championship, although after not being able match Stewart's pace with any kind of regularity last season, the Aussie will need to have found a dose more speed in his off season to compete for the title with any real meaning. After ducking out of the nationals and taking the summer off though, Reed should at the very least be completely refreshed.
Yamaha may well have another serious contender though in the shape of newly crowned outdoor champ Grant Langston. The former double Lites supercross champion has had a year to get used to a 450 in supercross and was the man to beat at the tail end of the outdoor season. A reasonable showing at Bercy has set him up well for the season too and anyone who has seen Langston race before will know that he tries harder than anyone.
He could be an outside bet, as could the formidable factory Honda trio of Andrew Short, Ivan Tedesco and Davi Millsaps, and Factory Connection Honda's veteran Kevin Windham. Honda is desperate to get their hands on a title again and has thrown down some big money in the quest to secure one, but unless one of that foursome finds some previously unheard of speed, then the bid red may have to wait one more year.
Undoubtedly the team with the biggest question mark hanging over them though is Suzuki. With the departure of Carmichael to pastures new, Roger de Coster's team had the biggest gap in history to fill, but fill it they did with three riders; Mike Alessi, David Vuillemin and Michael Byrne.
All three are undoubtedly talented riders capable of running top five regularly but it would be a very surprising thing indeed if they could challenge for the title like you could guarantee RC would.
Throw into the mix the newly formed Gibbs Racing team of Josh Hansen and Josh Summey, owned by Nascar legend Joe Gibbs, KTM''s new factory MDK KTM team lead by Nick Wey, and Stewart's Kawasaki team-mate Tim Ferry and you have the recipe for an unbelievable season.
Whether or not Stewart and Reed are one rung on the ladder above the rest once again, like most suspect, remains to be seen, but with so many evenly matched riders filling the factory berths the 2008 AMA Supercross series really does look set to be one to remember.