Some have gone as far as saying that this was the best supercross race of the year, and they have a strong argument. Based on lead changes alone, yes, the just-concluded Dallas Supercross was indeed the best of the year so far; too bad one of the smallest crowds in Dallas Supercross history got to see it.
Just 39,643 witnessed another showdown between supercross’ elite, Honda’s Ricky Carmichael and Yamaha’s Chad Reed. The two riders were in a class all their own, again, as they swapped for the lead somewhere around 10 times during the 20-lap race. They battled it out to the wire, though Reed opened up a small gap in the latter stages to capture his fourth win in a row and close to within 13 points of Carmichael in the series standings with just two races left.
But it might not be enough for Reed, because even if he wins the next two races in Salt Lake and Las Vegas and Carmichael finishes second in both races, Carmichael will still win the championship.
In Dallas, Carmichael jumped into the lead on the first lap after passing Larry Ward, who nabbed the holeshot. Reed started off around fifth but had control of second by the second lap and that’s when the battle commenced. Reed reeled in Carmichael and the two riders battled back and forth throughout the race, but when a lapped rider momentarily stalled Carmichael’s drive through a whoop section just past the halfway point while running second, that turned out to be the turning point of the race.
Carmichael never could quite get close enough again to try to force Reed into making a mistake. Instead, Reed rode smooth and collected (but not without a few scares along the way) to capture the exciting win, just 2.002 seconds ahead of Carmichael.
Finishing well back in third for the fourth time in a row was Carmichael’s Honda teammate Ernesto Fonseca. Fourth and fifth went to Mach 1 Yamaha’s Nick Wey and Heath Voss, who matched his career best for the second week in a row. Sixth place went to Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing’s Ivan Tedesco, followed by Moto XXX/Yoshimura’s Ward, Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing’s Brock Sellards, ReMax/Yamaha-mounted Casey Lytle and Subway’s Jason Thomas.
In the 125cc class, the big news was Chevy Trucks/Kawasaki’s James “Bubba” Stewart clinching the Western Regional 125cc Championship. Stewart finally got the championship that he threw away last year and he did it in grand style by winning six of the seven races so far and by blowing the field away tonight. Stewart finished 18.132 seconds ahead of runner-up Travis Preston and that was after slowing down significantly on the last lap in celebration.
Even with a sore knee, Preston, on the Amsoil/Chaparral Honda rode well, but a fourth-place start prevented him from getting a chance to run with Stewart.
Third place ended up going to Pro Circuit/Kawasaki/Chevy Truck’s Matt Walker, while MotoworldRacing.com/Suzuki’s Andrew Short and Amsoil Chaparral Honda’s Chris Gosselaar rounded out the top five overall.
Results:
250: 1. Chad Reed (Yam); 2. Ricky Carmichael (Hon); 3. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon); 4. Nick Wey (Yam); 5. Heath Voss (Yam); 6. Ivan Tedesco (Yam); 7. Larry Ward (Hon); 8. Brock Sellards (Yam); 9. Casey Lytle (Yam); 10. Jason Thomas (Hon); 11. Josh Demuth (Yam); 12. Keith R. Johnson (Yam); 13. Greg Schnell (Yam); 14. Ryan Clark (Yam); 15. Tyler Evans (Suz); 16. Brian mAson (Yam); 17. Clark Stiles (Hon); 18. James Povolny Jr. (Hon); 19. Thomas Hofmaster (Yam); 20. Sean Hamblin (Suz).
125: 1. James Stewart (Kaw); 2. Travis Preston (Hon); 3. Matt Walker (Kaw); 4. Andrew Short (Suz); 5. Chris Gosselaar (Hon); 6. Josh Hansen (Yam); 7. Steve Mertens (Yam); 8. Jeremy Chaussee (Yam); 9. Troy Adams (Yam); 10. Tiger Lacey (Yam); 11. Billy Laninovich (KTM); 12. Eric Sorby (Kaw); 13. Jeff Gibson (Suz); 14. Hans Neel (KTM); 15. Adam Cini (Yam); 16. Jacob Martin (Yam); 17. Ty Conner (Hon); 18. Brandon Butler (Suz); 19. Kevin W. Johnson (Yam); 20. Edgardo Rojas (Yam); 21. Shane Bess (Suz); 22. Scott Davis (Suz).
