Super' sonic
By TMX Archives on 5th Feb 09
Untouchable Stewart reels in Reed... as Chatfield scores more Lites pointsJAMES Bubba Stewart edged ever closer to World/ AMA Supercross series leader and reigning champ Chad Reed as the Yamaha rider blasted to yet another win as the fifth round of the 2009 series took place in the AT&T Stadium, San Francisco. For once the track was dry and in excellent condition rather than the mud bath it has been in recent years.
The Josh's, Grant and Hill, qualified first and second in the opening heat race with Grant out on his own while Hill beat-off challenges from Ivan Tedesco, Reed and Villopoto who had to chase through after a bad start.
Stewart overcame a spirited challenge from Mike Alessi to take his heat win from Andrew Short and Alessi in third.
The Last Chance Qualifier saw Davi Millsaps and Heath Voss claim the final two places on the grid.
After winning his heat race, Stewart holeshot the Main and was never headed as the battles raged behind. Reed, who wasn't 100% following a big practice crash, gated fourth and soon moved into third with a pass on Ryan Villopoto. Reed then got hooked-up behind his own team-mate Mike Alessi and when he eventually squeezed past Villopoto was quick to follow him through. Alessi eventually dropped back to ninth.
So it was an untouchable Stewart who took the win to move within just six points Reed in the title chase. Said Reed, "I still have the points lead which is important and we go back to Anaheim next weekend so we will work to get better.”
IN the hotly contested Lites, Ryan Dungey held on to his series lead keeping the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team in first place in both classes.
But Dungey had to give second best on the night to Kawasaki's Jake Weimer who claimed his second win in the series to date and sits just four points behind Dungey in the overall.
Weimer got out the gate cleanly and began opening up a lead from the guys behind as Dungey fought to get by quick-starting Canard and Seely.
Once through, he set off after Weimer and slowly closed him down, eventually getting on the back wheel to put pressure on him. He then went for an inside pass but lost the front and went down allowing Weimer to escape.
Dungey remounted and although he was able to rescue second place with a last lap pass on Canard, Weimer was busy counting his winner's points.
Brit Adam Chatfield, riding out of Cherry Valley, California,
took 15th on his Honda, 40 seconds back from the leader but still on the same 15th lap. Chatfield still holds 14th place in the series.
Chatfield got through to the Lites Main in the LCQ, finishing second to Chris Blose after the usual hectic start – as only the top two go through to the Main.
Ryan Morais is just eight points further back but could only manage fifth on the night behind Trey Canard who took the third podium placing on his Honda, while Justin Brayton on the KTM was fourth.
AMA & WORLD SUPERCROSS
CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – AT&T Stadium, San Francisco, California
SUPERCROSS MAIN: 1 James Stewart (Yam), 2 Chad Reed (Suz), 3 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw), 4 Josh Grant (Yam), 5 Andrew Short (Hon), 6 Kevin Windham (Hon), 7 Josh Hill (Yam), 8 Davi Millsaps (Hon), 9 Mike Alessi (Suz), 10 Ivan Tedesco (Hon), 11 Heath Voss (Hon), 12 Ben Coisy (Hon), 13 Cole Siebler (Hon), 14 Kyle Chisholm Valrico, 15 Daniel McCoy (Hon), 16 Tyler Bowers (Hon), 17 Joshua Hansen (Hon) 18 Troy Adams (Hon), 19 Paul Carpenter (Kaw), 20 Steve Boniface (Hon).
SERIES STANDINGS after five rounds: 1 Reed 108 points, 2 Stewart 102, 3 Grant 95, 4 Villopoto 88, 5 Short 87, 6 Tedesco 73, 7 Windham 68, 8 Alessi 58, 9 Ferry 56, 10 Millsaps 55, 11 Hill 51, 12 Voss 40, 13 Carpenter 39, 14 Coisy 31, 15 Wey 26.
SX LITES MAIN: 1 Jake Weimer (Kaw), 2 Ryan Dungey (Suz), 3 Trey Canard (Hon), 4 Justin Brayton (KTM), 5 Ryan Morais (Kaw), 6 Ryan Sipes (KTM), 7 Dan Reardon (Hon), 8 Kyle Cunningham (Kaw), 9 PJ Larsen (Kaw), 10 Eric McCrummen (Hon), 11 Cole Seely (Suz), 12 Justin Keeney (KTM), 13 Sean Borkenhagen (Hon), 14 ADAM CHATFIELD (Hon), 15 Chris Blose (Hon), 16 Topher Ingalls (Yam), 17 Michael Sleeter (KTM), 18 Brady Sheren (Suz), 19 Sean Collier (Yam).
SERIES STANDINGS (West) after 4 rounds: 1 Dungey 92, 2 Weimer 88, 3 Morais 80, 4 Brayton 68, 5 Blose 56, 6 Sipes 54, 7 Reardon 42, 8 Larsen 38, 9 Lawrence 34, 10 Evans 31, 11 Canard 27, 12 Cunningham 27, 13 McCrummen 27, 14 ADAM CHATFIELD 24, 15 J Alessi 23.
NEXT ROUND: February 7 - Angel Stadium, Anaheim, California.
Mike Alessi was a strong challenger for Bubba in the qualifying stages, eventually finishing third to secure his place in the Main.