Stewart Quickest At Anaheim I Practice

Kit Palmer | January 7, 2006

Practice has just concluded at Angel Stadium for the first round of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series, and Kawasaki’s James Stewart will have the mental edge going into tonight’s program. In both SX practice sessions, Stewart was less than a second faster than defending champ Ricky Carmichael on the Makita Suzuki RM-Z450. Their best times were clicked off in the second session with Stewart reeling off a 58.071 and Carmichael a 58.298. Stewart, however, did crash towards the end of the second session when he bailed over a rhythm section. The crash didn’t seem to faze him much, as he quickly got back to his feet and finished out the session.

Team Yamaha’s Chad Reed was fourth quickest in the first practice session, nearly two full seconds behind Stewart. In the second session, he was third quickest, just over a second off Stewart’s best time.

David Vuillemin, on the BooKoo Honda and one of the few two-strokes in the field, was third quickest in the first session and fourth quickest in the second.

Former Supercross champ Jeremy McGrath, also riding a two-stroke Honda, was well off the pace, his time over five seconds behind Stewart’s.

In the Lites class, SoBe/Samsung/Honda’s Billy Laninovich and Honda’s Andrew Short traded quickest times. Laninovich clicked off a 1:02:219 to Short’s 1:02.336 in the first session, while Short was a half-second quicker in the second session.

Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Grant Langston and Red Bull KTM’s were third and fourth quickest, respectively, in both sessions.

Red Bull KTM’s Mike Alessi was about three seconds off the quickest times.