The Heat Races: Oakland
Saturday, January 29, 2011 | 11:40 PM
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PrintLet's give the heat races in Oakland some love. In a few hours, they'll be overshadowed by those pesky main events.
Lites Heat 1:
Ryan Morias raced for Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki a few years ago, and ever since, he always seems to have a green bike denying him a win. In this heat, he made the move into the lead around Travis Baker, but Broc Tickle put a hard block pass on Mo’ to put his Kawi into the lead. Tickle bent Morias’ shifter in the incident, putting a hole in Mo’s engine case. Morias held on for second. Tickle won. He's serious.
Lites Heat 2:
Josh Hansen has been the man in the West Lites so far this year, but Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac have shown great speed at times. So when Hanny gets the holeshot and the 19 and 194 start right behind him, it’s on. Tomac made a serious charge and even ran into Hanny’s back wheel on the start straight (accidentally). Then Hanny began to pull away. The kids have speed in bursts, but they don’t have Hanny’s consistency. This is not a typo. Hanny is now the mature, consistent guy in this class.
SX Heat 1:
James Stewart was supposedly hurt when he missed the second timed practice. He, uh, recovered quickly. He checked out from Austin Stroupe early and logged a blazing 43.948 lap en route to the win. Stroupe saw God at least twice getting way out of shape trying to match Stewart’s pace, Trey Canard passed him to take second. On the last lap Davi Millsaps passed Stroupe for third. The Davi Millsaps from the first three rounds has been kidnapped and replaced by the Davi Millsaps who won a race last year.
SX Heat 2:
Another stacked heat race field, another Justin Brayton win. JB10 checked the heck out early and left a crazy battle behind him, starring Andrew Short, Kevin Windham, Chad Reed, Ryan Villopoto, Brett Metcalfe and Ryan Dungey. RV2 was making some impressive passes to get into third—blasting past Windham and Metcalfe in the whoops and rhythm lane at one point, but he could not close in on Reed or Brayton much.
Reed’s 45.2 was fastest of that heat. Everyone was over a second off of Stewart’s first heat time.
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It is happening just as I suspected it to. Nobody has much for JS7. When he keeps the rubber sude down, nobody can beet or mach him. Go James, run the table for the next 13 rounds, make my hope a reality.
Really dude? RV had the fastest lap times of the night, and Reed was less than 2 seconds behind BS at the Flags, so not having anything for him? He has been know in the past, as recent as this year, to take a dive under pressure, so running the table is still a long shot! He is a fast rider, but still sketchy at best. RV has had faster lap times at 3 of the 4 races so far, so the "Fastest Man on the Blah, Blah, Blah" can drop the name already, as it has been proven he is no longer that! Oh yeah, he is still a total Azz Bag to boot!
Chris,
Stewart's AVERAGE lap time in his heat was well over a second faster than the fastest average lap from the 2nd heat ! That is a statement there !
James is still James. KING!!!!!
The King is McGrath and always will be! His record wins is safe!
Hey JW, did Hanny blow you or what? Seems you fell in love with him, I must not be watching the same races as you. Hanny is fast for sure but not mature and respected yet! His riding shows it.
Bottom line is you don't know what will happen until someone has the most points for the year and they call the title. McGrath will keep his record until someone breaks it. This winner of the next race wins that race. The sky is blue in the daytime if there are no clouds. Yamaha is the best 450 around!