It's a Reed lead!
By TMX Archives on 11th Mar 09
ROUND ten of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross and FIM SX World Championship saw Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing's Chad Reed take a valuable win at the Daytona International Speedway, Florida, leaving him with a 11-point lead over LandM San Manuel Yamaha rider, James Stewart.
Once again, the main race was all about the start, where Bubba Stewart was at the front at the first turn but it all went wrong for the Yamaha rider as what appeared to be too much front brake caused him to slide on the slippery grass, hitting the ground and restarting 17th out of a 20-strong field.
Meanwhile, through the carnage, came Suzuki's Mike Alessi with AMPM Boost Mobile Yamaha's Jason Lawrence not far behind. Chad Reed, never the quickest of starters, managed to avoid the worst of the crash and finished the opening lap in eighth position.
By the third lap, Jason Lawrence had taken the lead from Alessi, while Reed continued to work his way through the pack and, by lap eight, was up into fourth, just ahead of GEICO Powersports Honda's Kevin Windham. Reed maintained his push hard on the leaders and on lap ten he worked his way round Alessi and into second behind Lawrence.
Lawrence, who had never previously completed a 20-lap event, was exhausted by lap 16 saying, "I knew Chad had a lot of gas left in his tank, because he always turns it on late in the race.” And Reed proved exactly that as, by lap 17, the Suzuki rider took the lead and went on to take his second consecutive win.
Meanwhile, behind, Stewart was doing his best to salvage as many points as possible, and eventually finished the night in seventh, 15 seconds behind Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto, who was in sixth. The Daytona result has really opened the series up and the Stewart-Reed battles are sure to rise in their intensity.
Round eleven of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross will take place on March 14, at the Superdome in New Orleans.
In the East Coast Lites final, Suzuki City's US-based Brit, Steven Clarke grabbed the holeshot but it was Star Racing's Matt Lemoine who came through to lead the pack. This was short-lived as MDK KTM's Martin Davalos saw his chance to take the lead for the next ten laps with Monster Energy Kawasaki's Christophe Pourcel chasing hard in second.
Meanwhile it wasn't Austin Stroupe's night as he crashed heavily on the opening lap, and was forced to retire without completing a single lap.
Pourcel continued to pressurise Davalos and, on lap 12, made a pass over a jump, blocking the KTM rider in the following turn to take the lead and the win with a six-second advantage.
Davalos maintained his second place to the finish whilst Suzuki's Nico Izzi worked his way through to take third place after a disappointing start.
AMA & WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 10 – Daytona Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
SUPERCROSS MAIN: 1 Chad Reed (Suz), 2 Jason Lawrence (Yam), 3 David Millsaps (Hon), 4 Mike Alessi (Suz), 5 Kevin Windham (Hon), 6 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw), 7 James Stewart (Yam), 8 Andrew Short (Hon), 9 Ryan Sipes (KTM), 10 Thomas Hahn (Kaw), 11 Josh Hill (Yam), 12 Broc Hepler (Yam), 13 Ivan Tedesco (Hon), 14 Tyler Bowers (Hon), 15 Heath Voss (Hon), 16 Kyle Chisholm (Yam), 17 Ben Coisy (Hon), 18 Matt Boni (Hon), 19 Tim Ferry (Kaw), 20 Michael Byrne (Suz).
SERIES STANDINGS after 10 rounds: 1 Reed 224 points, 2 Stewart 213, 3 Short 163, 4 Villopoto 153, 5 Tedesco 140, 6 Grant 138, 7 Millsaps 136, 8 M Alessi 131, 9 Windham 128, 10 Ferry 100, 11 Hill 92, 12 Voss 65, 13 Coisy 55, 14 Nick Wey 55, 15 Paul Carpenter 46,...
SUPERCROSS LITES: 1 Christophe Pourcel (Kaw), 2 Martin Davalos (KTM), 3 Nico Izzi (Suz), 4 Matthew Lemoine (Yam), 5 Wil Hahn (KTM), 6 Matthew Goerke (Suz), 7 Darryn Durham (Yam), 8 Broc Tickle (Yam), 9 Blake Wharton (Hon), 10 Kyle Keylon (Hon), 11 Daniel Blair (Hon), 12 Levi Kilbarger (Hon), 13 Branden Jesseman (Kaw), 14 Vince Friese (Hon), 15 Shane Sewell (Yam), 16 Steven Clarke (Suz), 17 Josh Lichtle (Hon), 18 Bradley Ripple (Hon), 19 Austin Stroupe (Kaw), 20 Jason Thomas (Hon).
SERIES STANDINGS (East) after 4 rounds: 1 Pourcel 97 points, 2 Izzi 82, 3 Stroupe 59, 4 Davalos 56, 5 Hahn 52, 6 Jesseman 51, 7 Lemoine 47, 8 B Wharton 46, 9 Clarke 40, 10 Goerke 38, 11 Blair 36, 12 Kilbarger 33, 13 Durham 31, 14 Friese 24, 15 B Metcalfe 22,...
NEXT ROUND: March 14 – Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana.
It was the first time that runner-up, Jason Lawrence, had completed a 20-lap race.