It was quite a Saturday night in LA, but it wasn't all positive. Ryan Morais and Trey Canard's horror collison over the triple resulted in a red flag and a scary twenty minutes for everyone there. Both riders were knocked out, with Morais suffering a broken jaw and neck, and Canard broken vertabrae in his back. As bad as those injuries are it could have been even worse.
Get well soon to two of the nicest guys in the sport.
With two starts to the main even, it highlighted just how crucial a good start is in determining your race result... and the ensuring media judgments.
Chad Reed had one of the best rides of his career in the restart. He started fourth from the sixteenth gate pick and passed Ryan Dungey, then James Stewart before disposing of race leader Weimar and going on to a dominating and controlled victory. It was Honda's 200th win, and brough Chad to within four points of the championship lead. Reed is ready to contend for the this title. Yet it all could have been so much different...
In the first start Reed was buried deep in the pack, while Ryan Villopoto was out front and looking likely to storm to a second win of the season with only Ryan Dungey, running second, in a position to challenge. However, in the restart Villopoto found himself stuck on a tuff block after over jumping a triple on the first lap and he was way, way behind when he got going again. In supercross the start is everything, even more important that your speed, and in LA that was highlighted like never before. The results were literally turned upside down.
Villopoto put his head down and rode another incredible race, catching James Stewart for third and running the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, but coming up just half a second short of getting Stewart and getting on the podium. It was another scintilating performance by Villopoto and he will still be thinking he is the man to beat, despite losing the red plate.
Stewart finally got on the podium, but he wasn't that happy about it. Stewie started second but got passed by Reed who then went to the front. Stewart tried to go with the Australian, knocking Weimer down as he moved into second. With Dungey now on Stewarts tail and his arch rival out front, James crashed again, this time just a small tip over, but it was enough to take him out of the battle for the lead, and be forced to hold off a charging Ryan Villopoto in the dying laps.
James can look at this two way, he can look at it that he got caught by RV who lost far more time in his incident on the first lap than Stewart did in his crash, or he can take the positive that he managed to hold off RV in the final eight laps of the race and come out firing in Oakland.
Since the race, there has been some tragic news that has affected James and the entire JGR crew. Stewart's practice bike mechanic, Mark Adams, was killed when he was hit by a wayward driver while helping a stranded vehicle on the side of the road. Mark, twenty eight years old, was part of the original JGR crew and the loss will be widely felt amongst Stewart and the team. Condolences to Mark's friends and family.
With Millsaps coming off his best result of the year in sixth, he and Stewart could well put in a special performance this weekend for their friend.
The sole leader of the series right now is Ryan Dungey. Only three races into his KTM career, Dungey is continuing to make history, and heads into Oakland four points clear of Reed and Villopoto. Dungey is the only rider not to be off the podium and if he can keep this ruthless consistency punctuated by wins when they are there to be taken. Dungey will be there to end of this series.
The one remaining question about Dungey, and I suppose everyone else, is can they beat Ryan Villopoto straight up, until they do that, Villopoto will have the most momentum in this series, because he has been the fastest man on track each round, however we have yet to see him battle his title contenders, maybe this will be the week.
Jake Weimer is quickly becoming the fifth member of the big four. Weimer holshot and lead for a few laps before battling Reed hard, then Stewart took him down and ended his quest for a second consecutive podium went down the drain. His confidence has soared and he seems to believe he can run with anyone right now.
Brett Mettcalfe had a great ride for fifth and Josh Hansen rode well yet again for seventh. Josh is getting better and better, and he said he wants to start getting in the top five. If he gets the start he certainly has the talent.
In the lites class, Tomac didn't what he probably should have done in the first two rounds. He took the holeshot and cleared off. nobody is even close to his speed right now. Tomac is just riding fantastic, the best in his career, and he has the confidence and the aggression that is taking him to the next level. Somebody is going to have to get away with Tomac and prove to Eli and themselves that they can go toe to toe. Wilson is the man most likely to do it, he was second in LA but a bad start meant he didn't see Tomac the whole main event.
Zach Osborne shocked the US industry ( but not the rest of the mx world) by getting third place and his first podium of the year. Osborne has, in three races, shown the Americans just how good he has been riding since he has been racing the World Championship, but it is only now that he is racing in America, do the Americans believe it. This will be Zach's last race in supercross at Oakland as he prepares for his final year in the MX2 World Championship, he will want to go out on top in both cases.
Marvin Musquin had his best race in the USA, but ended up with nineteenth place and out of championship contention! Musquin went off the track in turn one and came from outside the top five to catch Wilson and Osborne, and looked a sure podium bet, until he landed in some soft dirt land of the triple, stopping the bike competely and spitting Musquin off violently. Musquin is finding his form though.
Cole Seeley also lost major ground in the series. The first round winner, and LA winner from last year, went down in the first corner and later crashed again en route to a devestating fifteent place. Seeley's question mark was never speed, but consistency, and it seems he still hasn't found the balance yet.
So unto this weekend in Oakland.With supposedly softer dirt in oakland, it may provide a different challenge. Villopoto of course, has to try and navigate his way through the first lap of the race for the first time since A1 if he wants to get the win. James Stewart tested all winter in soft dirt and maybe this will be the night the old Stewart with that explosive pace returns, at nineteen points down already, he has to do something.
Both Reed and Dingey (along with Villopoto) will be after their second win of the year, and the first person to get two wins in a row may get the decisive momentum, but I still think they will need to beat RV in a straight up race to shake Villopotos stanglehold on outright speed.
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