All’s Well at Anaheim Practice

Kit Palmer | January 3, 2003

It appears that all of the top stars of supercross got through practice today at Edison International Field relatively unscathed, though Kawasaki’s James “Bubba” Stewart took a somewhat spectacular get-off during his first practice session. Stewart was trying some creative lines through a particularly difficult triple tabletop section (foreground) when he went flying over the handlebars. Despite the scary-looking crash, Stewart got right back up and appeared to be okay. Overall, Stewart looked extremely fast on the challenging Anaheim track, as did defending champ Travis Preston.

In the 250cc class, there were no such get-offs. As always, defending champ Ricky Carmichael looked awfully fast, as did Travis Pastrana. Pastrana seemed to be one of the first riders to master some of the tricky sections and looks to have lost no speed after having not raced since the Nationals. David Vuillemin and Chad Reed also looked fast and seem to have the speed to challenge Carmichael, as did Ezra Lusk. Other riders that look quite strong included Stephane Roncada, Tim Ferry and Mike LaRocco.

A couple of notable riders that won’t be competing due to injuries include Kyle Lewis and New Zealand’s Ben Townley. Both riders have recently suffered wrist injuries.

There was an “extra” bike in the SoBe Suzuki pits, as Japan National Champion Akira Narita will be competing tomorrow. Narita, in fact, will ride the first six West Coast rounds in the 125cc class before returning to Japan.

The Anaheim track has been described by most of the riders as “good,” most of them noting the aforementioned triple table-top section, where the top riders “skip” across the top. This section will no doubt play a big role in tomorrow night’s race.

Kit Palmer | Off-Road Editor

Kit Palmer started his career at Cycle News in 1984 and he’s been testing dirt and streetbikes every since – plus covering any event that uses some form of a knobby tire. He’s also our resident motorcycle mileage man with a commute of 120 miles a day.