Race Report - Anaheim 2
bayodome
- January 18 2009
- 30,581 views
- 46 comments
Words by Bayo Olukotun
Photos by Brendan Lutes
With three rounds already in the books for the 2009 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series, things have already become interesting. Last week San Manuel/ L&M/ Yamaha’s James Stewart collected his first win of the season, but was visibly upset that his rival and current series champ, Rockstar/Makita/ Suzuki’s Chad Reed caught up to him twice during the main event (the second time after a small bobble). This week, the series returned to its unofficial home at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA, and the story is a bit different. Stewart, although he crashed hard during practice and was seen holding his wrist, had the fastest afternoon lap times, and was the only rider to drop below the one-minute mark with 59.77 seconds. Reed was very close behind with his fastest time being a 1.00.02-second lap. However, judging by the last two rounds, this main event was to be anything but predictable.
In the Lites class, series leader Rockstar/ Makita/ Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey had the fastest lap in practice by more than one second over defending champion Boost Mobile/ ampm/ Troy Racing’s Jason Lawrence. At this point, although we are only two rounds deep, something disastrous would have to happen with Dungey, and the Monster Energy/ Pro Circuit/ Kawasaki’s teammates, Jake Weimer and Ryan Morais, for Lawrence to have any legitimate chance at the title. Unfortunately he is the one who so far has proven inconsistent with a fifth place at the season opener, and a DNQ last week in Phoenix. But Lawrence is ready to prove that he can go it alone without OEM support, while Dungey has the confidence from a win last week. Throw in the always strong Pro Circuit Kawasaki team with Jake Weimer and Ryan Morais, and this Lites main was bound to be exciting.
SUPERCROSS LITES QUALIFYING
Heat 1
Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer got the holeshot followed by Geico Powersports Honda’s Daniel Reardon and Pro Circuit teammate Ryan Morais. Morais made a quick pass for second after the whoops, while Jason Lawrence was running 15th place. At the end of the second lap, the running order was Weimer, Morais, Reardon, Sean Collier, and SVM’s McCrummen while Lawrence continued to charge through the pack in an effort to qualify. Morais and Reardon were having a good battle, taking alternate lines in the first turn option. Morais went for different timing through the rhythm section, tripling onto the backside of the small table-top, then tripling out, making some time on Reardon. With a few laps remaining, Lawrence hit a tuff block kicked up by Cole Seeley, slowing his progress. The gap from third to fourth was almost 10 seconds at the end of the fourth lap. On the final lap, Lawrence fell down just before the whoop section, keeping him from qualifying. The top-three riders remained within one second of one another at the finish.
1. Jake Weimer
2. Ryan Morais
3. Daniel Reardon
4. Sean Collier
5. Eric Mcrummen
9A7J4068.JPG
Dan Reardon had a great start in his heat and was able to hold on for a solid third-place finish.
Heat 2
Heading into the first turn, it was Division Seven/ Star Racing/ Yamaha’s Michael Hall with the holeshot in his bright orange No Fear gear with Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM’s Ryan Sipes in second, Rockstar/ Makita/ Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey in third, and Sipes’ KTM teammate Justin Brayton in fourth place. Sipes squared off and dove under Hall to take the lead before the rhythm. Troy Lee Designs’ Chris Blose moved into fifth on the second lap. Dungey passed Hall in the same place before the rhythm section one lap later. Sipes had about a two-second lead on Dungey that was slowly shrinking. With three laps remaining, the running order was, Sipes, Dungey, Brayton, Blose, and Hall. Dungey continued to close in on Sipes, and going past the mechanics area, he was one bike length behind. Right before the rhythm section, Dungey dove under Sipes with the crowd cheering. Sipes continued to hold Dungey off on the last lap. With a small bobble at the wall after the first turn, Dungey lost a few seconds handing Sipes the win.
1. Ryan Sipes
2. Ryan Dungey
3. Justin Brayton
4. Chris Blose
5. Michael Hall
LCQ
Boost Mobile/ampm/ Troy Racing’s Jason Lawrence grabbed the holeshot, with KTM’s Michael Sleeter, and Cole Seeley following closely behind. On the second lap, Seeley blew out of the bowl turn before the rhythm and off the track, giving Alex Martin third place. Martin began to close in on Sleeter, with Troy Lee Designs’ Sean Borkenhagen right behind. Going into the first turn option they all took the same line. Sleeter managed to hold off Martin for second and a ticket to the main. Alex Martin took home the $250 Asterisk Medic Card.
1. Jason Lawrence
2. Michael Sleeter
PAGE ONE: Lites Qualifying PAGE TWO: SX Qualifying PAGE THREE: Lites Main PAGE FOUR: SX Main
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January 18th, 2009 at 2:28 am
OMG thanks transworld!!! thanks for the fastest coverage with the many cool photos! you guys are sikk and im thankful to you for not charging us a fee(racerx/webcast ripp-off) to get all the action and latest results!
January 18th, 2009 at 2:44 am
awesome ride chad reed…
January 18th, 2009 at 2:45 am
GOOD TO C RV A PODIUM THREAT
January 18th, 2009 at 3:27 am
RV’s gettin better! and way to go Reed! sucks to see him go down. i’ve always been a fan and i wanna see him take the championship. it’s gonna be a battle though. man this season should be good!
January 18th, 2009 at 4:41 am
Way to go Chad Reed. Doin Australia proud. What a awesome ride.
To see he made up 13 seconds on Stewart and lay down a .58 lap time was sick. Bring on Houston!
January 18th, 2009 at 4:47 am
PS. Transworld MX great work for the pics and coverage.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:14 am
For the same reason they always favored RC. Think about it.
January 18th, 2009 at 6:32 am
i can haz cheezeburgerz
January 18th, 2009 at 8:26 am
reed is definatly the fastest. he hasent gotten first yet. but once he gets a holeshot. hes bound to win!
January 18th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Mad props to Reed to come back - congrats to Windham for a hell of a race and WAY TO GO EVERYBody FOR NOT LETTING Stewie get the holeshot and check out. Otherwise, it is BORING and a snooze-fest if he does, so keep it up. RV2 must still be getting his 450 legs, so hopefully he can start making it interesting between 3 or 4 riders instead of Reed and Eddie Murphy the whole season. Reed looks WAY comfortable on that nice Suzuki…
January 18th, 2009 at 9:26 am
dude im not gonna lie but for some reason it really buggs me when stewart wins and idk why…..GO REED, and RV2
January 18th, 2009 at 9:44 am
it could be because you are a hater.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:53 am
rv needs to get him some starts and he will battle for a bit with the boys
January 18th, 2009 at 10:51 am
stewart is american
January 18th, 2009 at 10:52 am
no way
stewart isnt even ridin hard
January 18th, 2009 at 11:52 am
whats up with no announcer’s on cbs?
January 18th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
that was an amazing ride that Reed had…forget Stewart…in the lites class im glad to see 2 guys in the top 10 from the 208 of Idaho
January 18th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
GO REED!! GO REED!!
January 18th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
cbs coverage sukks,bring back david bailey PLEASE! all this is was 45 mins worth of short video clips with dumb music then the main event with ralph shaeen commenting in the lammest way! he asked emig how the evenings drop in air temp would effect tonights racing???? what , dewd…common,your in socal bro…ralph,you can do better than that. hire the x racers for t.v.,or even hurt riders! anybody else,not RALPHHHHH!
January 18th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
awesome ride by Reed last night, he showed great heart and determination. just didn’t look like Stewie was on his game last night, we were watching closely and he was just off a little. huge props to Grant, with all the hype on RV he’s proved to be the the stand out rookie in my book, that 450 suits him well.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Where was Canard?
January 18th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
are you kidding me? reed went from second to last, to second place. stewarts lost it, he was so sketchy last night, he kept casing the same section a half a dozen times.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Good question. I’m wondering the same thing.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
cmon Transworld, lets hear what happened with Canard!
January 18th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Canard has a concussion from his gnarly crash at Phoenix.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
not really stewarts just kinda a d bag
January 18th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
4th isnt podium stewy, reed, windham got podium
January 18th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
He said a “podium THREAT”. That means he is threatening or close to getting on the podium. James I think your a retard.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Chad Reed Was 2 seconds faster than stewart!
and he was coming through traffic!
January 18th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Stewart is riding as fast as he can. He has by no means, “lost it”. His bike is holding him back, and he knows it. He’s been fighting the bike much more than fighting the competition, and if he and his team don’t straighten the Yam out soon, Reed is gonna walk away with another red plate. Reeds best lap was almost 2 seconds faster than Stewarts best, in the main.
Either way, the racing this year is great!
Thanks for the pics TWMX! Kiss, kiss, smooch!
January 19th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Stewart - 1:00.015
Reed - 58.816
Time Difference - 1.199 seconds.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:26 am
i just wish Reed had two more laps!!!
January 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Same goes for jlaw ! he was putting down the fastest laps of the night as the closing laps came around. and he had to do a little trials riding on the first turn if you cought it!
January 19th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
yamaha sucks why do you think reed got faster after the switch
January 19th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
your a d bag
January 19th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
j law is losing it and dungey is capitalizing on his mistakes
January 19th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
definitly chad reed has improved a lot his speed , he seems to go faster, i don like him very much but , he deserves my respect
lucky in th e next race chad!
January 19th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Props to the 208 crew. Evans, Wiemer, and Siebler.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
dungey was faster the entire night………..again
January 19th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
jlaw is nothing but a trash talker. He claims that dungey makes too many mistakes yet he’s had to go to the LCQ the past 2 races and didn’t even make the main at Phoenix. He barely won that SX title last year and just because he has a number 1 on his plate makes him think he’s god
January 19th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
cuz suzuki is fuel injected and yamaha isn’t? isn’t that a no brainer
January 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am
yamaha still sucks
January 20th, 2009 at 11:30 am
worst decision james stewart has made = move to yamaha. might as well be riding a pedal bike.
January 20th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I HAVE A BUMPER STICKER ON MY TRUCK THAT SAYS I LIKE IT WHEN BALLS ARE ON MY FACE
January 20th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
seems to be more a rider issue than a “brand of bike” issue. Chad’s obviously been training alot harder in the off-season…if yamaha’s are pedal bikes then honda, ktm, suzuki, and kawi must be skateboards or something like that…Just remember who started bringing back the 4 stroke (then every other manufacturer joined the ban wagon)
January 24th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Chad won the championship on a Yami last year.
The magazine reviews say that fuel injection will not make the difference between winning and loosing. It will just make you sound like a looser if you bitch about not having it.
Stewart has no excuse. He has past his prime.
San Man Yami would be kicking themselves for sacking Chad. They just lost the best SX rider in the world.
And can that toss back Ralph Shaheen stop calling JS the fastest rider on the plannet. Its like saying the housing market in the US is booming.