Windham, Pourcel Quick in Florida

Jean Turner | March 27, 2010

Supercross racers are relieved to have some good weather this week after a bout of uncharacteristically cold weather in the last few rounds. The partly cloudy skies over the open stadium of Jacksonville Municipal stadium are providing perfect conditions for round 12 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, and round six of the Eastern Regional AMA Supercross Series.

The quickest lap times are in the 49-second range on the fast and technical Florida track. Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel, looking silky-smooth as always, notched a 49.050-second lap, nearly a half second better than Ryan Sipes and Martin Davalos, who qualified second and third, respectively, followed by Austin Stroupe and Justin Barcia.

The 49-second mark was broken in the second 450 practice by GEICO Powersports Honda’s Kevin Windham, who laid down a 48.790-second lap, edging out Ryan Dungey for the pole position in practice. Davi Millsaps qualified third ahead of Justin Brayton and Josh Hill.

Ivan Tedesco follows in sixth as the last rider to get in the 49-second range, followed by Red Bull Honda’s Trey Canard in seventh. The Jacksonville round will mark Canard’s last 450 Supercross race as a fill-in rider for the injured Andrew Short.

Although Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey currently enjoys a 24-point lead in the championship with only six rounds remaining, he is still reluctant to talk about the championship. But we can’t help but wonder – at this point, is it Dungey’s championship to lose?

“Well… it’s hard to say,” Suzuki team manager Roger DeCoster said. “I think we need to keep doing what we’re doing, just keep our head down, focus and do as good as possible every week and hopefully we’ll be there at the end.”