For the third race in a row, Team Yamaha’s Chad Reed and Chevy Trucks Kawasaki’s James Stewart dominated the proceedings, this time at round 11 of the THQ AMA Supercross Series in St. Louis, Missouri.
Team Honda’s Nathan Ramsey grabbed the holeshot in the 250cc main event, followed closely by Red Bull KTM’s Grant Langston and Suzuki’s Travis Pastrana. Pastrana blitzed past Langston right away, and he attempted to triple-triple-triple through the rhythm section in order to take the lead from Ramsey right off the bat, only to overjump one of the triples and go out of control, crashing awkwardly near the end of the section. He probably would’ve been fine, but Langston was airborne by the time Pastrana hit the ground and he ran right over the former teen phenom’s leg and fell himself. Pastrana was helped off of the track, while Langston remounted 19th.
Reed inherited second through the mayhem, and after three laps made his move on Ramsey for the lead, followed closely by Amsoil/Chaparral Honda’s Kevin Windham. Windham stayed on Reed’s rear wheel for about half of the race before little mistakes began to creep into his program and he let Reed get away. Reed ended up winning by a little over 14 seconds over Windham, while Ramsey hung on for a lonely third and Windham’s teammate Mike LaRocco came from behind for fourth. Yamaha’s David Vuillemin came from the back for fifth. Langston recovered for a strong 11th after winning his heat race over Reed earlier in the night.
Stewart used a similar move to holeshot the 125cc main this week as he did in Daytona last week, cutting to the inside and taking the exit away from his teammate Paul Carpenter. From there, he split, putting on a riding clinic as he pulled out almost 28 seconds in the 15-lap race, clinching the 125cc Eastern Regional title in the process, thanks in part to Pro Circuit’s Eric Sorby-who sat second going into the round-fracturing his sternum in a heat-race crash.
Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing’s Josh Hansen finished another strong second, just ahead of Carpenter, who pressured him for most of the 15 laps.
With two rounds remaining, the third through eighth positions in the points standings are separated by just six points.
125cc MAIN:
1. James Stewart (Kaw); 2. Josh Hansen (Yam); 3. Paul Carpenter (Kaw); 4. Kelly Smith (Yam); 5. Ryan Mills (Hon); 6. Davi Millsaps (Suz); 7. Danny Smith (Yam); 8. Broc Hepler (Suz); 9. Steve Boniface (Suz); 10. Steve Lamson (Hon); 11. Tiger Lacey (Hon); 12. Brett Metcalfe (KTM); 13. Kevin Johnson (Yam); 14. Jeff Gibson (Yam); 15. Justin Brayton (Hon); 16. Daniel Blair (Yam); 17. Tyson Hadsell (Yam); 18. Jeff Northrop (Kaw); 19. Vincent Blair (Yam); 20. Cole Siebler (Yam); 21. Steve Mertens (Yam); 22. Bradley Ripple (Suz).
Race Time: 12 min., 38.123 sec.
Margin of Victory: 27.906 sec.
AMA 125cc EASTERN REGIONAL SUPERCROSS SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After 5 of 7 rounds): 1. James Stewart (125/5 wins)*; 2. Broc Hepler (70); 3. Kelly Smith (61); 4. Danny Smith (60); 5. (TIE) Eric Sorby/Ryan Mills (59); 7. Steve Lamson (57); 8. Paul Carpenter (55); 9. Davi Millsaps (44); 10. Brett Metcalfe (41); 11. Tiger Lacey (38); 12. Ryan Clark (36); 13. Kevin Johnson (34); 14. Daryl Hurley (26); 15. Turbo Reif (20); 16. Tyson Hadsell (18); 17. Billy Laninovich (10); 18. (TIE) Matthieu Lalloz/Doug DeHaan (8); 20. Justin Brayton (6).
*Clinched title
250cc MAIN: 1. Chad Reed (Yam); 2. Kevin Windham (Hon); 3. Nathan Ramsey (Hon); 4. Mike LaRocco (Hon); 5. David Vuillemin (Yam); 6. Andrew Short (Suz); 7. Michael Byrne (Kaw); 8. Heath Voss (Yam); 9. Nick Wey (Suz); 10. Sean Hamblin (Suz); 11. Grant Langston (KTM); 12. Damon Huffman (Hon); 13. Jason Thomas (Hon); 14. Tyler Evans (Suz); 15. Ted Campbell (Hon); 16. James Povolny (Hon); 17. Ryan Clark (Yam); 18. Tommy Hofmaster (Yam); 19. Brian Mason (Hon); 20. Travis Pastrana (Suz).
Race Time: 16 min., 48.387 sec.
Margin of Victory: 14.639 sec.
THQ AMA 250cc SUPERCROSS SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After 11 of 16 rounds): 1. Chad Reed (266/8 wins); 2. Kevin Windham (234/3 wins); 3. Mike LaRocco (205); 4. David Vuillemin (204); 5. Michael Byrne (150); 6. Nick Wey (133); 7. Heath Voss (122); 8. Damon Huffman (120); 9. Sean Hamblin (99); 10. Grant Langston (98); 11. Tyler Evans (80); 12. Nathan Ramsey (64); 13. Erick Vallejo (59); 14. Ryan Clark (59); 15. Keith R. Johnson (54); 16. Andrew Short (53); 17. Ezra Lusk (47); 18. Timmy Ferry (46); 19. Jason Thomas (43); 20. Joe Oehlhof (37).
