James Stewart Makes It Six Straight

Kit Palmer | February 14, 2009

San Manuel Yamaha’s James Stewart had little trouble recording his sixth Supercross win in a row; in fact, he made it look easy. At the San Diego Supercross, after making a slick move on holeshotter Mike Alessi through the second turn, pulling series points leader Chad Reed along with him, Stewart simply checked out at tonight’s San Diego Supercross. He steadily pulled away from Reed lap after lap, and before anyone knew it, he had opened up a comfortable lead. By lap four, Stewart was three seconds ahead of Reed. By lap nine, his lead had grown to eight seconds, and by lap 16, it had grown to 11 seconds. Stewart cooled his engines a bit after that and officially crossed the finish 8.2 seconds ahead of Reed.

With his sixth straight win, Stewart has caught Reed for the series points lead. They’re now tied with 152 points apiece with 10 races still to go.

“It was a tough track, but everything was working good,” Stewart said. “I can’t believe how good my bike was working tonight. I just had some good luck. To come back where we were at, 23-points back, it’s just amazing. [San Diego] is special to me – it gave me my first victory in 2002, so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the city.”

Reed just didn’t have anything for Stewart tonight and made no excuses.

“I was there off the start, but I just wasn’t fast enough,” Reed said. “Stewart was riding good; I just wasn’t feeling it today.”

Reed rode most of the race all alone, but couldn’t relax completely, because Honda Red Bull’s Andrew Short was never too far behind, especially towards the end of the race. Short finished just 1.5 seconds behind Reed.

Just as Reed felt Short’s presence, Short definitely felt Ryan Villopoto’s.

After working his way up after a bad start, the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider was pushing Short right at the end and nearly got underneath Short in the last turn. Just 0.1 second separated Short and Villopoto at the finish line.

Well behind Villopoto finished Honda Red Bull’s Davi Millsaps in fifth.

Makita Rockstar Suzuki’s Mike Alessi enjoyed his best finish of the series by taking sixth. Seventh went to Kevin Windham, followed by Michael Byrne, Nick Wey and Ivan Tedesco, who rounded out the top 10 overall.

Opening-round winner Josh Grant crashed early in the race and was carried off the track on a stretcher. The Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha rider took a handlebar to his throat during the fall and had difficult breathing. He was taken to the hospital for observation, but word from his team is he looks to be okay.

In the Lites class, Makita Rockstar Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey made his way around Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Morais after the first couple of turns, took control of the 15-lap race and never looked back.

The Makita Rockstar Suzuki rider quickly opened up a three-second lead and stretched it out to almost five seconds by the 10th lap. From there, Dungey held his ground through heavy lapped traffic and would go on to take the win four seconds ahead of Morais. And to make the win even sweeter for Dungey was that series rival Jake Weimer finished third, which means Dungey has gained five points on Weimer takes over the series lead – again.

Weimer, who won the previous

race at Anaheim 3, overtook Dungey in the points race, but Dungey quickly took it back in San Diego and now holds a slim two-point lead with two rounds left, Salt Lake and Seattle.

Supercross Class Results

1. James Stewart (Yam); 2. Chad Reed (Suz); 3. Andrew Short (Hon); 4. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw); 5. Davi Millsaps (Hon); 6. Mike Alessi (Suz); 7. Kevin Windham (Hon); 8. Michael Byrne (Suz); 9. Nick Wey (Yam); 10. Ivan Tedesco (Hon); 11. Charles Summey (KTM); 12. Tommy Hahn (Kaw); 13. Kyle Chisholm (Yam); 14. Tim Ferry (Kaw); 15. Heath Voss (Hon); 16. Troy Adams (Hon); 17. Steve Boniface (Hon); 18. Ben Coisy (Hon); 19. Broc Hepler (Yam); 20. Josh Grant (Yam).

Supercross Lites Class Results

1. Ryan Dungey (Suz); 2. Ryan Morais (Kaw); 3. Jake Weimer (Kaw); 4. Trey Canard (Hon); 5. Ryan Sipes (KTM); 6. Justin Brayton (KTM); 7. Chris Blose (Hon); 8. Jake Moss (Hon); 9. Jeff Alessi (Hon); 10. Cole Seely (Suz); 11. Eric McCrummen (Hon); 12. Ben Evans (Hon); 13. Sean Borkenhagen (Hon); 14. Derek Costella (Hon); 15. Alex Martin (Hon); 16. Michael LaPaglia (Suz); 17. Ryan Clark (Hon); 18. Dan Reardon (Hon); 19. Danny Bajza (Hon); 20. Michael Sleeter (KTM).

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.