The race that was supposed to happen a few months ago in Anaheim finally happened, and it wasn’t disappointing.
Going into round 11 of the THQ AMA Supercross Series (round 12 of the THQ World Supercross Grand Prix Series) at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, most of the talk wasn’t focused on last week’s surprise Daytona Supercross winner Team Yamaha’s Chad Reed, or even series points leader Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael. Everyone was talking about the return of Team Kawasaki’s James Stewart and if he would beat these two talented riders.
All day long Stewart managed to put down the fastest lap times on the technical track, and then he promptly won his heat race over Carmichael, putting down a lap time that was nearly a second faster than Reed, who won the first heat race. Even with all of this, however, Reed still managed to come out on top at the end of the 20-lap 250cc main event.
When the gate dropped Team Moto XXX’s Kyle Lewis took the holeshot, just barely, over Stewart. While behind them Carmichael and Reed were in hot pursuit. By the time they were done with the first lap, Stewart was in the lead followed by Carmichael and Reed.
Then on lap three Carmichael went down before the whoops and dropped back to fourth. A few laps later Stewart swapped out in the whoops, while pulling away, and crashed, handing the lead to Reed. Carmichael, who was third at the time, moved into second.
From there Reed held the lead to the end. Stewart tried desperately to catch Carmichael but finally, with a few laps to go, gave up after a lapper crashed in front of him and he was forced to roll a triple. With that Carmichael escaped and comfortably took the runner-up position. Stewart held on the complete the podium.
As for the 125cc class, it didn’t disappoint either. Last week in Daytona, after finishing way back, Makita Suzuki’s Davi Millsaps came to Orlando to win, and he did just that.
The start saw Daytona winner Red Bull KTM’s Josh Hansen grab the holeshot followed closely by Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Grant Langston, Amsoil/Chaparral/Honda’s Josh Grant and Millsaps. After some intense bar-bagging, on the first lap, Hansen took the lead, while Millsaps attempted to move up.
On the second lap Millsaps blew past Hansen in the whoops, while a lap later Langston passed the KTM rider and set his sights on Millsaps, who was in the lead. After that Langston did all he could to make up the difference between the two, and came close several times, but lappers got in his way and mistakes soon sealed the deal for Millsaps to take the win. When the checkered flag flew Millsaps crossed the line 7.040 seconds ahead of Langston in second, while Hansen completed the podium another 19.71 seconds behind.
Results:
125 MAIN (15 laps): 1. Davi Millsaps (Suz); 2. Grant Langston (Kaw); 3. Josh Hansen (KTM); 4. Matt Walker (Kaw); 5. Steve Boniface (Suz); 6. Ryan Mills (KTM); 7. Kelly Smith (Yam); 8. Tucker Hibbert (Hon); 9. Troy Adams (Hon); 10. Greg Schnell (Hon); 11. Chad Johnson (Yam); 12. Josh Grant (Hon); 13. Bradley Ripple (Suz); 14. Tyson Hadsell (Yam); 15. Justin Buckelew (Hon); 16. Shawn Clark (Kaw); 17. William Browning (Suz); 18. Kevin Johnson (Yam); 19. Nathan Skaggs (Yam); 20. David Ginolfi (Hon); 21. Eric Sorby (Suz); 22. Thomas Barron (Suz).
250 MAIN (20 laps): 1. Chad Reed (Yam); 2. Ricky Carmichael (Suz); 3. James Stewart (Kaw); 4. Kevin Windham (Hon); 5. David Vuillemin (Yam); 6. Sebastien Tortelli (Suz); 7. Andrew Short (Hon); 8. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon); 9. Mike LaRocco (Hon); 10. Timmy Ferry (Yam); 11. Jason Thomas (Hon); 12. Damon Huffman (Hon); 13. Joe Oehlhof (Hon); 14. Tyler Evans (Suz); 15. Travis Preston (Hon); 16. Kyle Lewis (Hon); 17. Cole Siebler (Suz); 18. Damien Plotts (Hon); 19. Sean Hamblin (Kaw); 20. Jay Marmont (KTM).
