Their points leads may be precarious, but Amsoil/Chaparral/Napster Honda’s Kevin Windham, defending AMA 125cc Western Regional Supercross Champion Ivan Tedesco and young Kentucky rider Ryan Sipes are ready to play whatever cards they are dealt when round three of the THQ AMA Supercross Series goes down at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, tomorrow night.
After Friday practice, Windham, who leads three-time former AMA Supercross Champion Ricky Carmichael by two points, 47-45, said that he is happy with the way the series has gone for him so far and that he will be ready to take to the track tomorrow.
“As far as my race results are concerned, there’s only one more position I could have moved up, and that was last weekend,” Windham said. “But I still had a good ride, finished second, and I was able to keep Chad [Reed] behind me. If you’re not happy with that, you’ve got some serious problems, so I just need to stay focused and stay consistent, and continue what’s going on.”
Windham won Anaheim I in absolutely atrocious conditions due to the heavy rain that drenched Southern California in late December and early January. Like Phoenix, Windham knows that this race will be run in drier conditions and thus be more of a heads-up contest. He said that’s something he welcomes.
“Don’t think that I’m in here [transporter] doing a rain dance,” Windham said. “I like it dry as well. The track is pretty good. It is actually rutting up quite a bit. I think there might be a little bit of moisture in it left over from the rain. It’s hard to tell. It appeared dry on the side of it. I think we’ll see some changes in it through tomorrow and tomorrow night. But I went back and worked hard this week, and I’ll be ready for the race.”
As if the AMA 250cc Supercross class standings aren’t close enough, the 125cc Western Regional Supercross standings are as tight as they can be, with defending series champion Ivan Tedesco (left) and Ryan Sipes are deadlocked with 35 points each, the two coming off respective second- and third-place finishes at Phoenix. Tedesco’s speed in Friday practice appeared to be on par with the fastest in the class, although gauging it was difficult when he rode the second wave of 125 practice, with the usual gaggle of triple-digit riders.
“We had a few problems, and we had to fix them, and it took a little longer than we expected,” Tedesco said. “We just had to go out in the second practice and ride with all the privateers. But everything’s good. I was eighth in the points after the last Anaheim, and I wasn’t expecting to come out with the points lead after Phoenix, but things worked out with Nathan [Ramsey] having some problems. I feel good. I’m ready for the weekend.”
The 20-year-old Sipes (right) described his Friday practice as “real good” and said that he’s not ready to worry about where he is in the points just yet. “The points lead thing is a big deal, but I’m not trying to make it into one, because people lose it because of that,” Sipes said. “I’m just going to take it race by race and see what happens.”