Lite work for Ben
By TMX Archives on 27th Apr 07
BEN TOWNLEY added an AMA Supercross Lites title to his 2004 World MX2 crown on Saturday night. He turned a three point deficit in the East Coast championship into a three point winning margin to snatch a narrow, come from behind championship win over the Yamaha of Troy's Ryan Morais at Ford Field, Detroit.
The Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider had been clawing his way back into title contention following an opening round mechanical DNF. Then, on the night, he rode a steady race taking second place behind Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey to snatch the title as Morais faltered and lost the crown, stalling on the opening lap whilst running second and managing only a fifth place finish.
There was no such drama in the Supercross class, however as James Stewart continued with his virtully unstoppable march towards championship glory. With an unchallenged gate to flag victory from Chad Reed and teammate Tim Ferry, his 11th win of the season, he further extended his championship lead to 38 points with just two races remaining.
An uninspiring track and poor spectator attendance at Ford Field were not ideal settings for a championship showdown, but the Lites class runners had it all to play for and action was hot.
Neither Morais or Townley had to win, but both needed a strong finish and, vitally, to finish ahead of the other, and initially it looked as if Morais had the advantage.
AMP'D MOBILE AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES
Rd 14 - Ford Field, Detroit, MI
SUPERCROSS: 1 James Stewart (Kaw), 2 Chad Reed (Yam), 3 Timmy Ferry (Kaw), 4 Kevin Windham (Hon), 5 Andrew Short (Hon), 6 David Vuillemin (Hon), 7 Heath Voss (Hon), 8 Ivan Tedesco (Suz), 9 Paul Carpenter (Kaw), 10 Jason Thomas (Hon), 11 Joshua Summey (Hon), 12 Jeff Gibson (Kaw), 13 Keith Johnson (Yam), 14 Brock Sellards (Hon), 15 Michael Byrne (Suz).
Series Standings (After 14 of 16 rounds): 1 Stewart 335, 2 Reed 297, 3 Ferry 243, 4 K Windham 200, 5 Tedesco 171, 6 Vuillemin 169, 7 Byrne 164, 8 Ricky Carmichael (Suz) 160, 9 Voss 148, 10 Carpenter 125.
SUPERCROSS LITES: 1 Ryan Dungey (Suz), 2 Ben Townley (Kaw), 3 Thomas Hahn (Hon), 4 Billy Laninovich (Hon), 5 Ryan Morais (Yam), 6 Branden Jesseman (Yam), 7 Kelly Smith (Suz), 8 Mike Alessi (KTM), 9 Matt Boni (Kaw), 10 Darcy Lange (Kaw), 11 Robert Kiniry (Kaw), 12 Zach Osborne (KTM), 13 Tucker Hibbert (Yam), 14 Teddy Maier (Hon), 15 Ricky Renner (Hon).
Final Series Standings: 1 Townley 133 - Champion, 2 Morais 130, 3 Lange 117, 4 Jesseman 103, 5 Dungey 98, 6 Laninovich 85, 7 Hahn 84, 8 Alessi 84, 9 Goerke 83, 10 Brayton 68.
Next Round - April 28, QWest Field, Seattle, WA.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, April 27, 2007.