Ricky Carmichael captured his first win of the year, while James “Bubba” Stewart recorded his first long-awaited win at Edison International Field in Anaheim for round five of the THQ Supercross GP Series and round three of the AMA Supercross Series. For both riders, the wins came as a big relief.
In Carmichael’s case, wins were becoming hard to come by for the Team Honda rider and people were beginning to talk, but the defending supercross champion silenced his critics with a strong performance, though things didn’t start out that way. Carmichael fell earlier in the day during practice and his lap times weren’t up to his usual Carmichael standards. In his heat race, Carmichael was soundly beaten by Sebastien Tortelli, but when the chips were down and the only race that really mattered was on the line, Carmichael rose to the occasion. RC put his Honda into the lead after the first turn and led every lap to the finish, but he could never really relax.
Tortelli, on the SoBe Suzuki, stayed right with Carmichael for many laps, while last week’s Phoenix winner, Ezra Lusk, stayed right with Tortelli. It wasn’t until past the halfway point that Carmichael began put a little distance on Tortelli, who eventually gave way to both Lusk and Mike LaRocco.
LaRocco, on the Amsoil/Chaparral Honda, put together another late-race charge and got around Lusk. About this time, the yellow flags came out for a fallen rider, and the lead group began to bunch up, keeping things interesting with just a few laps left. LaRocco could see Carmichael but just couldn’t get close enough to challenge for the lead, and, on the second-to-last lap, Lusk, on the Chevy Trucks Kawasaki, crashed, dropping to fourth and handing Tortelli third, making the final finishing order Carmichael, LaRocco, Tortelli, Lusk and Yamaha’s Tim Ferry, who rounded out the top five.
Chad Reed, who won the opening round of the AMA series at Anaheim 1, suffered a bad start and then a crash that left him with a dangling front number-plate. Reed, on the factory Yamaha, never got a chance to run with the leaders and had to settle for sixth, ahead of Amsoil/Chaparral Honda’s Michael Byrne, Yamaha’s David Vuillemin and Mach 1/Yamaha’s Nick Wey, who was the last rider to finish on the lead lap.
In the 125cc class, Stewart jumped off his motorcycle and kissed the ground after scoring a wire-to-wire victory. It was his first win at the stadium after five tries.
Stewart didn’t actually grab the holeshot, but he did grab the lead shortly thereafter and then increased his lead by at least a second or two with the passing of each lap. The Chevy Trucks Kawasaki rider simply dominated the 125cc main, recording his second win in a row.
Finishing in second place some 25 seconds behind Stewart was MotoworldRacing.com/Suzuki’s Andrew Short, followed by KTM/Red Bull’s Billy Laninovich, the rider who did nab the holeshot. Amsoil/Chaparral Honda’s Chris Gosselaar and KTM Red Bull’s Josh Woods rounded out the top five overall.
Defending champ Travis Preston had a rough night. The Amsoil/Chaparral Honda rider had a midpack start, which was followed by several altercations with Pro Circuit/Chevy Trucks/Kawasaki’s Eric Sorby that, at one time, left him on the ground. Preston still managed to salvage sixth ahead of Suzuki’s Danny Smith, Pro Circuit/Chevy Trucks/Kawasaki’s Matt Walker, Sorby and CRS Team Safety’s Tiger Lacey.
250:
1. Ricky Carmichael (Hon)
2. Mike LaRocco (Hon)
3. Sebastien Tortelli (Suz)
4. Ezra Lusk (Kaw)
5. Tim Ferry (Yam)
6. Chad Reed (Yam)
7. Michael Byrne (Hon)
8. David Vuillemin (Yam)
9. Nick Wey (Yam)
10. Mike Brown (Kaw)
11. Stephane Roncada (Suz)
12. Heath Voss (Yam)
13. Larry Ward (Hon)
14. Damon Huffman (Hon)
15. Ted Campbell (Hon)
16. Ivan Tedesco (Yam)
17. Erick Vallejo (Yam)
18. Ryan Clark (Yam)
19. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon)
20. Daryl Hurley (Suz)
125:
1. James Stewart (Kaw)
2. Andrew Short (Suz)
3. Billy Laninovich (KTM)
4. Chris Gosselaar (Hon)
5. Josh Woods (KTM)
6. Travis Preston (Hon)
7. Danny Smith (Suz)
8. Matt Walker (Kaw)
9. Eric Sorby (Kaw)
10. Tiger Lacey (Yam)
11. Troy Adams (Yam)
12. Sean Hamblin (Suz)
13. Josh Hansen (Yam)
14. Travis Elliott (Yam)
15. Akira Narita (Suz)
16. Bryan McGavran (Suz)
17. Tyler Evans (Suz)
18. Pascal Leuret (KTM)
19. Shane Bess (Suz)
20. Tim Weigand (Hon)
21. Scott Davis (Yam)
22. Steve Mertens (Yam)
250cc THQ Supercross Series Series Standings (After 3 rounds)
1. Ricky Carmichael (65)
2. Chad Reed (62)
3. Ezra Lusk (58)
4. Tim Ferry (56)
5. Sebastien Tortelli (51)
6. David Vuillemin (47)
7. Mike LaRocco (40)
8. Ernesto Fonseca (30)
9. Stephane Roncada (29)
10. Ivan Tedesco (26)
250cc THQ World Supercross GP Series Standings (After 5 rounds)
1. Chad Reed (109)
2. David Vuillemin (103)
3. Tim Ferry (101)
4. Sebastien Tortelli (92)
5. Mike LaRocco (87)
6. Grant Langston (60)
7. Ryan Clark (59)
8. Damon Huffman (51)
9. Keith Johnson (47)
10. Heath Voss (43)
125cc Western Regional Supercross Series Standings (After 3 rounds)
1. James Stewart (72)
2. Travis Preston (62)
3. Andrew Short (54)
4. Danny Smith (50)
5. Billy Laninovich (46)
6. Christopher Gosselaar (45)
7. Matt Walker (34)
8. Sean Hamblin (27)
9. Kevin Johnson (27)
10. Craig Anderson (27)
