Trey'mendous Canard!
By TMX Archives on 18th Feb 11
It was a night of thrills spills and more spills in Houston Texas, as the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series, and FIM Championship rolled into town for the sixth round of the series. Over 45,000 spectators packed into the Reliant Stadium to witness the latest instalment of the 2011 Supercross, and they were not disappointed with a night of wild racing and spectacular crashes. Coming out on top to claim his first ever victory in the 450 class was Honda's Trey Canard, while the first round of the Eastern Lites class went to fellow Honda pilot Justin Barcia who just pipped Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Dean Wilson to the flag.Pictures: YAMAHA RACING/ SUZUKI IMAGES and HOPPENWORLD.COM.KTM IMAGES
As the Main class got off the line and headed into the first right angled turn many riders were involved in a pile-up which saw series points leader James Stewart go down along with Chad Reed, Ivan Tedesco and Justin Barcia.
Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto ran wide off the track and was also left down the pack. Local favourite, Kevin Windham got away with the holeshot and was quick to open up a lead. Windham looked to be going strong, and was skipping over the jumps with ease, however on lap ten the Honda rider made a mistake and lost control over a tricky table top.
Windham went over the bars and fell hard, and after getting up slowly decided to leave the race, complaining of sore ribs.
By this point Trey Canard who had started in fourth and Suzuki's Ryan Dungey had made their way through the pack to sit in first and second respectively. Fans were kept on their toes as the two riders traded places as the laps counted down. Dungey tried his best to make a pass stick, but Canard held his ground to take the all important flag.
Meanwhile Ryan Villopoto worked his way up to the front to take third place.
"I don't know what to say,” said Canard. "It was an awesome race. I just tried to hang in there, because it was a tricky track. I made a mistake and Dungey gained a lot of time on me and from there I was just riding defensive. We had a bit of a rough week this week, but this makes it all better.”
Further back Stewart and Reed were trying to claw back some ground, but the tricky track made passing difficult. Stewart managed to make his way through to 12th, but then collided and hit the ground again and damaged his front brake. All the Yamaha rider could do now it make the finish, he did so in 15th. Reed fared better and fought his way up to sixth behind Yamaha's Davi Millsaps and KTM's Andrew Short. KTM's 350 rookie pilot, Ken Roczen, showed that he certainly has the pace to run on the big-bores, and took a well earned seventh overall.
"I was not thinking very positive before the main event because my heel was still hurting me from the heat. But it was not bad in the main and I forgot about the pain when I was riding. I am so excited to finish inside the top ten. I was more nervous than I had ever been going into this race. The guys in the SX class have been my heroes for a long time and it was pretty cool to get to race with them. I am very happy to have raced this event and hope to do a few more,” stated the happy 16 year-old after his impressive seventh place finish.
Villopotos third place finish now pushes him to the front of the Main class, giving him a nine point advantage over James Stewart.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX FEBRUARY 18
AMA & WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 6 – Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas, USA
SUPERCROSS CLASS: 1 Trey Canard (Hon), 2 Ryan Dungey (Suz), 3 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw), 4 Davi Millsaps (Yam), 5 Andrew Short (KTM), 6 Chad Reed (AUS - Hon), 7 Ken Roczen (D - KTM), 8 Brett Metcalfe (AUS - Suz), 9 Ivan Tedesco (Kaw), 10 Mike Alessi (KTM), 11 Thomas Hahn (Yam), 12 Nick Wey (Yam), 13 Justin Brayton (Yam), 14 Weston Peick (Yam), 15 James Stewart (Yam), 16 Kyle Regal (Yam), 17 Vince Friese (Yam), 18 Chris Blose (Kaw), 19 Kevin Windham (Hon), 20 Jason Thomas (Suz).
SERIES STANDINGS after 6 (of 17) rounds: 1 Villopoto 132 points, 2 Stewart 123, 3 Canard 112, 4 Reed 105, 5 Dungey 101, 6 Short 80, 7 Metcalfe 80, 8 Justin Brayton 65, 9 Millsaps 62, 10 Windham 61, 11 Tedesco 60, 12 Chisholm 46, 13 Wey 44, 14 Regal 43, 15 Blose 34, 16 Mike Alessi 31, 17 Peick 22, 18 Boni 20, 19 Hahn 17, 20 Thomas 15,...
SUPERCROSS LITES (East): 1 Justin Barcia (Hon), 2 Dean WILSON (GB - Kaw), 3 Blake Baggett (Kaw), 4 Ryan Sipes (Yam), 5 Ian Trettel (Suz), 6 Blake Wharton (Hon), 7 Jason Anderson (Suz), 8 Lance Vincent (Hon), 9 Matthew Lemoine (Kaw), 10 Alex Martin (Hon), 11 Chris Gosselaar (Suz), 12 Shawn Rife (Hon), 13 Gannon Audette (Yam), 14 Malcolm Stewart (Suz), 15 Nico Izzi (Hon), 16 AJ Catanzaro (Hon), 17 Taylor Futrell (Hon), 18 PJ Larsen (KTM), 19 Levi Kilbarger (Hon), 20 Darryn Durham (Hon).
SERIES STANDINGS after 1 (of 9) rounds: 1 Barcia 25 points, 2 WILSON 22, 3 Baggett 20, 4 Ryan Sipes 18, 5 Trettel 16, 6 Blake Wharton 15, 7 Anderson 14, 8 Vincent 13, 9 Lemoine 12, 10 Martin 11, 11 Gosselaar 10, 12 Rife 9, 13 Audette 8, 14 Stewart 7, 15 Izzi 6, 16 Catanzaro 5, 17 Futrell 4, 18 Larsen 3, 19 Kilbarger 2, 20 Durham 1,...
NEXT ROUND: February 19 – Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California, USA.