Stewart bags a hat-trick
By TMX Archives on 25th Jan 07
WITH his great rival Ricky Carmichael absent from the start-gate for the first time as part of his part-time racing schedule, Kawasaki's James Stewart completely dominated proceedings at Anaheim II, the third round of the AMA supercross series, once again last Saturday night and cruised to an unchallenged and extremely easy win over Chad Reed and the inspired Nick Wey at the Southern Californian venue.
Clearly the fastest rider on track all day, and with Carmichael not there to even give him a run, Stewart assumed early control of the Supercross class main from the fast starting Wey and rode well within his limits, barely breaking a sweat, to cross the line a big 13-seconds out front of the still injured Reed and confirm what everyone already thought - he is going to be extremely difficult to beat indeed this season.
In a night of dominance all round, Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto extended the strangle hold the manufacturer has had on the championship so far with a complete whitewash of the Lites class over a duo of Yamaha riders, Yamaha of Troy's impressive Jason Lawrence and factory Yam rookie Josh Hill, to further extend a championship lead that received a major boost when Phoenix winner, MX2 world champ Christophe Pourcel, broke a bone in his foot three laps into the main and saw his American vacation end in disaster.
AMP'D MOBILE AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES
Rd 3 - Angel Stadium, Anaheim, CA
SUPERCROSS: 1 James Stewart (Kaw), 2 Chad Reed (Yam), 3 Nick Wey (Hon), 4 Timmy Ferry (Kaw), 5 Michael Byrne (Suz), 6 Kevin Windham (Hon), 7 Paul Carpenter (Kaw), 8 Ivan Tedesco (Suz), 9 Joshua Summey (Hon), 10 Nathan Ramsey (Yam), 11 David Vuillemin (Hon), 12 Jeff Gibson (Kaw), 13 Heath Voss (Hon), 14 Cole Siebler (Hon), 15 Eric Sorby (Kaw).
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 16) rounds: 1 Stewart 75, 2 Reed 62, 3 Ferry 50, 4 Wey 46, 5 Ricky Carmichael (Suz) 44, 6 Byrne 42, 7 Windham 40, 8 Travis Preston (Hon) 36, 9 Tedesco 34, 10 Voss 32.
FIM WORLD SUPERCROSS STANDINGS: 1 Stewart 117, 2 Reed 107, 3 Carmichael 91, 4 Ferry 84, 5 Wey 74, 6 Vuillemin 64, 7 Voss 56, 8 Preston 55, 9 Carpenter 53, 10 Byrne 51.
SUPERCROSS LITES: 1 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw), 2 Jason Lawrence (Yam), 3 Josh Hill (Yam), 4 Josh Grant (Hon), 5 Chris Gosselaar (Kaw), 6 Jake Weimer (Hon), 7 Steve Boniface (Kaw), 8 Troy Adams (Suz), 9 Kyle Partridge (Hon), 10 Martin Davalos (KTM), 11 Matthew Lemoine (Yam), 12 Kyle Cunningham (Yam), 13 Justin Keeney (Kaw), 14 Michael Lapaglia (Yam), 15 Dusty Klatt (Yam).
SERIES STANDINGS after 3 (of 8) rounds: 1 Villopoto 72 points, 2 Lawrence 55, 3 Gosselaar 49, 4 Christophe Pourcel (Kaw) 47, 5 Lemoine 42, 6 Boniface 40, 7 Weimer 38, 8 Hill 36, 9 Adams 36, 10 Josh Hansen (KTM) 33.
Next Round: January 27 - SBC Park, San Francisco, CAL.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX News, Friday, January 26, 2007