The afternoon practice session have concluded at Phoenix, Arizona’s Chase Field for round two of the Amp’d Mobile Supercross Series and, once again, the “big three” led the list of fast qualifiers in the Supercross class. In the first session, defending champ Ricky Carmichael was the quickest, followed by James Stewart and Chad Reed, all posting times within a second of each other. In the second session, the three were again within a second of each other but this time, Stewart was the quickest with a 52.629 lap time, followed by Carmichael with a 52.873, and Reed with a 53.209.
The next four riders: Nick Wey, David Vuillemin, Mike LaRocco and Michael Byrne, all posted quickest lap times in the 54-second range.
In the Lites class, things are very close. Grant Langston, however, appears to be the rider to beat, capping off the second practice session with a 54.266. Then next nine riders all posted times in the 55 second range. Ryan Sipes headed that list, followed by Jake Weimer, Nathan Ramsey and Ryan Villopoto.
Last week’s winner Andrew Short was eighth fastest, but he is riding in some pain, having injured his foot while practicing earlier in the week.
The word in the pits is that the riders like the Phoenix track, which features a split first turn, quite a bit better than they did last week at Anaheim.
“Much better,” said Team Honda’s Travis Preston. “This one has good rhythm.”
Crashes are less frequent this week, but a tricky rhythm did take out David Vuillemin who endoed quite hard but got up and finished out the practice session, despite breaking off his helmet’s visor.
