Lawrence Lites up!
By TMX Archives on 6th Feb 08
YAMAHA was celebrating another double victory in the AMA Supercross Series on Saturday night as runaway series leader Chad Reed and Lites class man of the moment Jason Lawrence again swept to convincing victories at the third and final visit to Anaheim's Angel Stadium.
YAMAHA was celebrating another double victory in the AMA Supercross Series on Saturday night as runaway series leader Chad Reed and Lites class man of the moment Jason Lawrence again swept to convincing victories at the third and final visit to Anaheim's Angel Stadium.
Reed led from gate to flag to make it a clean sweep of the three Anaheim rounds, comfortably beating Honda's Davi Millsaps for the second week running by just
over four seconds, while Kawasaki's Tim Ferry mounted the podium for the first time all season in third as Reed's closest championship rival Kevin Windham lost his 100% podium record as a front wheel flat forced him to nurse his bike home for fourth place.
A second straight dominant win for Lawrence and a consecutive disaster night for one-time runaway championship leader Ryan Dungey resulted in the championship gap between the two closing significantly to just eight points by the end of the night after Dungey crashed three times and could manage no better than 11th by the flag.
A techincal, rutted track greeted the riders at Angel Stadium, perfect conditions for Reed, and he controlled the race from the off.
Reed grabbed the holeshot and only early challenger Windham could match his pace as he pushed the Australian hard during the early stages.
As the front wheel started to lose pressure though, Windham's challenge faded and he had to back down the pace and relent second place to Millsaps. The factory Honda teamster took up the challenge of chasing Reed but he could not get close enough to challenge and, in the end, Reed cruised to his fourth win from the five starts this season, and more significantly a 26 point lead over Windham at the top of table.
Tim Ferry finally got a good start and some luck to mount the podium in third, coming on very strong and seriously testing Millsaps' reserve late in the race too, while Windham superbly wrestled his bike round to still take fourth in front of Andrew Short and Suzuki's Mike Alessi, who now has the Honda freight train of Millsaps and Short sat within four points of him for fourth place in the championship.
MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES
Rd 5 – Angel Stadium, Anaheim, CA
SUPERCROSS: 1 Chad Reed (Yam), 2 Davi Millsaps (Hon), 3 Timmy Ferry (Kaw), 4 Kevin Windham (Hon), 5 Andrew Short (Hon), 6 Mike Alessi (Suz), 7 Nathan Ramsey (Yam), 8 Nick Wey (KTM), 9 Troy Adams (Hon), 10 Manuel Rivas (Kaw), 11 Paul Carpenter (Hon), 12 Josh Hill (Yam), 13 Eric Sorby (Hon), 14 David Vuillemin (Suz), 15 Travis Preston (Kaw).
Series Standings after 5 (of 16) rounds: 1 Reed 122 points, 2 Windham 96, 3 Ferry 77, 4 Alessi 69, 5 Short 67, 6 Millsaps 65, 7 Ramsey 57, 8 Ivan Tedesco (Hon) 53, 9 Wey 53, 10 Hill 49,...
SUPERCROSS LITES: 1 Jason Lawrence (Yam), 2 Austin Stroupe (Kaw), 3 Brett Metcalfe (Kaw), 4 Billy Laninovich (KTM), 5 Kyle Cunningham (Hon), 6 Thomas Hahn (Kaw), 7 Justin Brayton (KTM), 8 Dan Reardon (Hon), 9 Robert Kiniry (Hon), 10 Gavin Gracyk (Hon), 11 Ryan Dungey (Suz), 12 Michael Willard (Hon), 13 Justin Keeney (Hon), 14 Chris Blose (Suz), 15 Turbo Reif (Hon).
Series Standings after 5 (of 8) rounds: 1 Dungey 96 points, 2 Lawrence 88, 3 Reardon 80, 4 Metcalfe 78, 5 Stroupe 74, 6 Hahn 70, 7 Brayton 69, 8 Broc Hepler (Yam) 59, 9 Gracyk 53, 10 Cunnigham 47,...
Next Round: Feb 9 – Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, CA.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, February 8, 2008