Canard Tops Qualifying at St. Louis Supercross
Cycle News Staff | April 9, 2011
ST. LOUIS (April 9, 2011) –
Trey Canard waited until the last lap to uncork a blazing lap of 45.517 seconds on his factory Honda to top Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM Championship timed qualifying Saturday afternoon in the Edward Jones Dome. In Lites East there was no surprise. As usual DNA Shred Stix/Scott Sports Yamaha’s Ryan Sipes was quickest, by nearly a half second faster than Blake Baggett.
Practice and qualifying was riddled with bad crashes, leading officials to modify one section of the track. Among the notable crashers on the day were Supercross series leader Ryan Villopoto, Kevin Windham, Blake Baggett and Malcolm Stewart. Stewart and Windham took the biggest hits and were reported as being very sore, though both are expect to try to race tonight.
Villopoto laid on the track for about a minute after his crash at the end of a whoop section, but later said he’d just knocked the breath out of himself. James Stewart was the quickest all day in St. Louis on the San Manuel/Red Bull Yamaha. His lap of 47.605 was over 7-10ths faster than Valli Motorsports Yamaha’s Austin Stroupe. But in the closing lap of practice Canard clicked off a time less than a tenth of a second faster than Stewarts.
“Everything seemed to come together that lap,” said Canard, who enters St. Louis fresh off a victory last weekend in Dallas. “I was excited. It felt really good. We made some changes to the bike and they were positive changes and the track came around in a few areas and I was able to get a good time. Everything just clicked. Sometimes you have a good lap going and someone gets in your way or you just mess it up, so I was glad I could get that one.” T
here was a left-hand switchback turn that had a little kicker in it leading up to a rhythm jump and that section caught several riders out including Baggett and Malcolm Stewart. After consulting with riders, officials knocked down the kicker and made the first rhythm jump steeper, making the section more rideable.
St. Louis Supercross Qualifying
1. Trey Canard Honda CRF450R 47.517 2. James Stewart Yamaha YZ450F 47.605 3. Austin Stroupe Yamaha YZ450F 48.492 4. Ryan Villopoto Kawasaki KX450F 48.590 5. Ryan Dungey Suzuki RMZ450 48.746 6. Chad Reed Honda CRF450R 48.979 7. Andrew Short KTM 350 49.234 8. Ivan Tedesco Kawasaki KX450F 49.558 9. David Millsaps Yamaha YZ450F 49.641 10. Thomas Hahn Yamaha YZ450F 49.837 St. Louis Supercross Lites
East Qualifying
1. Ryan Sipes Yamaha YZ250F 48.649 2. Blake Baggett Kawasaki KX250F 49.158 3. Dean Wilson Kawasaki KX250F 49.192 4. Matthew Lemoine Kawasaki KX250F 49.665 5. Justin Barcia Honda CRF250R 49.932 6. Jason Anderson Suzuki RMZ250 50.300 7. Malcolm Stewart Suzuki RMZ250 50.745 8. Darryn Durham Honda CRF250R 50.923 9. Taylor Futrell Honda CRF250R 50.991 10. A Catanzaro Honda CRF250R 51.531
