by Davey Coombs
450 Words: Daytona
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Somewhere last night Coach Joe Gibbs must have been smiling. After what’s been an up-and-down start to the JGR/James Stewart era, his son Coy’s Supercross program racked up its first-ever 1-2 at Daytona International Speedway in a muddy, nasty 16-lap main event. Stewart and teammate Davi Millsaps, both Florida natives, held the top two spots throughout the race, as only the veteran Kevin Windham—the crowd’s sentimental favorite, especially in light (or splash) of his muddy upset here in 2008—was close to the JGR Yamahas. And given the Gibbs family’s familiarity with the World’s Center of Racing, this SX romp could not have come in a better place.
The man in the driver’s seat for this championship—Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto—had a much different evening. The points leader went down on the first lap in a slow-motion crash that saw the defending series champ somehow ride sidesaddle over a couple of muddy jumps in a bid to save it. The crash dashed his shot at three wins in a row here at Daytona, but Villopoto still managed a solid fifth with a strong comeback from last. And given the news of Ryan Dungey’s inability to race following his surgery to plate a broken clavicle, RV might have been excused for showing a lesser effort—his advantage in the points suddenly tripled as soon as Dungey joined Chad Reed on that couch—but that’s just not the way Villopoto rolls.
Rain didn't stop the fans from cheering Stewart to a win.
Cudby photo
But it’s not too late for Stewart to make something happen. He was looking for some kind of spark, even showing up for practice with his old #259 on the plates of his Yamaha (and his old rival Ricky Carmichael out there with him on the track in a cameo appearance). With the win in Daytona, maybe James can now build some momentum and get on a roll of his own. His team rig was certainly in a good mood last night following their one-two results. However, it would be unlike Villopoto to make many more mistakes like he did last night, and James will need a lot of help to get that points lead cut down to have a shot at this title.
That’s the big picture. In the immediate future is the Indianapolis Supercross, and a promising match-up between a reinvigorated James Stewart and the man with the big red #1 plate, and Bubba really has nothing to lose.
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Holeshot again! Yeehaw.
Direct Quote from Weege (Board)
"Which either means Ryan Villopoto is due up next for bad luck"
Get help quick Weege before its too late !
JimM
Pala374
JGR need this win!!! Stewart needed this win!!!! Their hard work finally paid off, even if it was a mud race..Maybe the fun of the mud took some of the pressure off, who knows, but it is great to see the smiles back on their faces...Stewart is in a no win situation right now..yes he has two wins..but fans will wonder if its due to his riding or the depletation of the class and he will face this criticism the rest of the year unless he can get out front with the Firecracker and beat him straight up...I think the Gambler can and will show he still has a winning right hand...
yeah i dont think rv is that good in the mud at southwick last year he was just letting guys by he let metcalfe right on by but if you are in the points lead the mud is no place to let your nuts hang and try and show boat thats the quickest way i can see ending your season but thats why i like villopoto is he is smart along with fast but good job to stewart he rode like hell in that mud i guess perrelli atleast makes a good mud tire maybe?
I think people think RV at least should be good in the mud because he is from Washington, half of the year we race in the mud.
I remember back in Stewarts rookie outdoor season he was saying that he had a mud race right before he entered the pros and got last place. That has stuck with me throughout his career and I never saw him as a mud racer but he sure did pretty well last night. Hats off to RV as well. He had his work cut out for him and di what he had to do.
Nice ride James & Davi, sounds like Davi has been working hard so good to see him get the results he deserves. That inside gate pick was a huge advantage all night, almost a guaranteed holeshot (attention track designers). They even blocked off the very inside gate pick with a tuff block which says-ooops, did we make a mistake?
nice job james - you can bet ryan will come into the next race pissed off - maybe we will see the race we have been waiting for
love to see the rain fall and kw14 shine.. congrats on getting it on the box kw,,,,
With JS and DM going 1-2 in a sloppy mudder, does it mean the Yamahas are really good at going slow?
Did anyone else check out the GoPro compilation video from St. Louis? It combined a bunch of different riders footage but ended with JS. The cool part was JS was at the bottom of the stairs of the podium when RV and RD came off it. He high 5'd RV and shook RD's hand and told him "good race". I thought that was pretty cool. BTW you could really see RD was in pain and wasn't even moving that one arm.
SA 11 ..the Yamaha is really good at wide open high speed rough and nasty tracks. The trade off to this stability is it turns like crap. Always has and always will. It is like superman's bizarro to the Hondas ability to turn on a dime but swap side to side and spit you out any time you hit ruff nasty sweeping turns in 4th wide open. However the yamaha seems to love being held wide open in a sweeping 4th gear pinned nasty section. Take your pick...If I rode a tight technical track every day I would trade my Blue machine for a red one.. But I don't ...I like the GP style ruff outdoors tracks and that is why I ride Blue..
With the nasty rain and crappy conditions I am sure the Blue bikes ability to seem stable and planted in bad conditions was an advantage..
RC went out in practice and followed RV for a couple of laps, it is really a shame that he retired so early, I bet he can still win, he only needs to lose what looks like 200 lbs.
It sucks that the track designers took out the whoops, in practice JS was something like 3 seconds faster than everyone else,and the whoops were ok with all that rain.
Dungey should have raced- would of got a 2nd
This is the point of the season where all the dingle berry fans that have been critical of Stew all of a sudden jump on the bandwagon and start talking about how good he is, and how the bike is good, and that he is the man, and Villopoto don't have anything for him, blah, blah blah... It was one race. In the mud. Don't be getting to far on the wagon folks. Next week it will catch back on fire and he will be looking for the panic button again. Nothing is going to change til he gets off that p.o.s. yamaha. The time comes where Stew lines up on another color, Then the other racers really have something to worry about...
I am really curious of what would happen if Ricky would mount a serious comeback to racing... Part of me thinks he would go right back to the front, and part of me thinks he would just have a huge struggle. One thing is for sure, It sure would bring the attendance to astonishing levels.
It would be great to see Ricky out there and as you say Josh, mount a serious comeback. Not taking anything away from the Goat, but a trip to Jenny Craig is highly needed. But neverless I would be there to watch Ricky race again. It must have been cool for those at Daytona watching Ricky and James laying down some laps. It must have been great for JGR to find a purpose for there bikes, mud bog racing. It was good to see James win, with Davey getting 2nd.
If the rest of the races were mudders JS7 would win this title!! The redhead sucks in the mud!! Cracked up watching him try and tame that bucking bronc on the first lap!!
I cracked up too newguy! Funny is funny, can't be denied. Doesn't even matter if you want to say that RV sucks in the mud, have at it! As long as he doesn't try for any GNCC titles, he'll be okay. Would have liked to see how a top World enduro guy would do on that track against the MX guys. They all pretty much suck to varying degrees in the muck. I'm actually surprised to see that after losing over 27 seconds in the first 3 laps, RV was 44 seconds behind at the end. Of course James backed it way down on the last 2 laps. RV's average lap was faster than K-Dub's, though. I'm shocked by that.
@newguy...the red head is fast in the mud...this must have been your first race...your pw50 and you wouldnt make a lap...
Last to fifth and he "sucks" in the mud.
You are an idiot.
guys ive heard rv himself saying he hate mud races he said he is not really good in the mud despite being from washington and all i saw the st louis on board compilation sa11 is right its really cool to see james waiting for rv to give him a hi 5 and shake rd5 hand i didint like him at all but after i saw the video i see him in other way a really cool way congrats to him on his victory at daytona millsaps and good for k-dub as well im sure rv wont fight james for a win being that far ahead in points but i would just LOVE to see this two guys go at it the two fastest guys in the world boy that would be something
by the way did you guys watch the rc on board camera? he was really fast he past weimer and i dont remember what other guy and when rv pass him he stuck right in his rear wheel men i hate that he is not in this thing it seems like he still have what it takes
Look at the muddy Seattle SX last year. JS7 was the only rider in complete control of the track.
Just got back from Daytona, still trying to dry out. Another year that its either rained, or been 40 degrees in Daytona for Bike Week. First off it was great to watch RC in the first practice. Its sad to think how many good years he had left in him to race. Congrats to JS7. He looked amazing the whole day out there, tonight was definately his night to shine. He was definately in a league of his own on Saturday. He was really the only ones hitting all of the triples every lap, and made very little mistakes. Millsaps also had an impressive ride. I also have to admit that RVs rodeo show was pretty funny to watch. Congrats to him for a good ride to come back through the pack. He was a little impatient though on that first lap, especially in those conditions, and it bit him.
I have to rool my eyes on these message boards, its funny to hear people bashing JS for supposedly making "bike excuses" when he has been pretty quiet about "blaming" the bike, other than the fact that him saying they are doing a lot of testing. Its posters on here who bash the Yamaha them you guys take it out on him.
Hopefully RV and JS get out front together from here on out and we have some good racing left, considering that CR and RD are out for now. Although its a pretty big gap in points, you know that RV is still going to ride for the win each weekend. Already looking forward to Indy.
@motohead279.... Good Post ... An honest asessment of the race , from someone that was there. Haters will ignore your post ...
As an old guy, I enjoyed that SX race more than any other this year. I like and respect all of the riders, but I have to say that I was very happy to see James win. With Reed and Dungey out, it is nice to see James tighten things up a bit. I was also impressed with Barcia, Bagget, Windham, Vilopoto, and Milsaps. Excellent riding - all!
JGR boys rode amazing, no doubt about it- Stewart was ridiculous in the corners. I wish Windham would have taken the far inside gate, hole shots were from there all night. It may have been a different story.
Well done for the JGR boys and KW14 Tough race conditions smooth and consistant won the race. IMO RV looked too desperate on that first lap trying to be in the top 3 or 4 He could have managed that first lap better, instead he had to work his way back up to the front. He probably could a top three finish if he didn't
start from so far back. And if you think about it he only needs to finish in the top three to win the championship comfortably.
Is it me but is KW acting more confident every week. He looks like he wants a podioum every week.
JS rode great, mistake free 16 laps. But to say " it’s not too late for Stewart to make something happen" Is out there. He!! RV can get a bunch of 3rds and 4ths and even if JS runs the table RV still win's it. So JS is a LONG shot at best.
RV's sucks in the Mud.... man some people
Rc looked alot thinner , this week ,Maybe he is ready for a partime comeback , like MC did ....Just Dreaming , but would be Cool ... Emig asked him if he thinks about racing again , and his answer was ...all the time!
@Motohead279 nailed it perfectly! I was there too and no one had anything for Stewart, he rode his butt off. The Barcia Baggett battle was awesome too, someone finally made Barcia look over his shoulder at least. For those who say it was slow going that is BS, over the last triple and into the finish line, the top 4 in both classes were on it hard and flying, the little camera truck had no chance of keeping up through there, I was standing, trying to stay warm and dry right by the track, they were moving real fast. That Daytona pavement banking is hell to walk on too!
Js 7 s confidence will carry on , and the outdoors May finally be exciting ,
wow davey coombs must be a real JS7 super fan,he wrote in the article ''But it’s not too late for Stewart to make something happen''....Stewart's only chance to win this series is if Villopotto gets injured.....so funny the guy gets a win and everybody is back talking about a possible run... B-S !
@mick1001.... Stewarts only chance to win this series is if ...... anything can happen . you should know this as a fan ... its happened before ! ....slight chance , but its there ....outdoors will be a different story this year
Wonder when James learned to ride in the mud...I saw him in 06 in Millville mud...crashed 3 times in one corner and when he did get going he was headed backwards on the track..all the while Reed was stuck in the muck right there too...RC smiled as he lapped them both...ahhh good times
Thats the point about mud BD25, anything can happen, RC could have got stuck too but did not.
True anything can happen in mud, I know there is a technique to it, I dont know what it is, as I cant ride mud! Some guys adapt better to it that others...James sure looked good in it Saturday night....RC was just from another planet that day in 06...lapping the field, including 2nd place ...he was still trippling the uphill when he had a clear path...was not an RC fan...but I had to give him his dues....
First of all I will say this.. I have NEVER heard Stewart make bike excuses on this Yamaha, NEVER. If he hated the bike he would NOT have resigned to race the thing.. The bike excuses come from the Stewtards, who cant stand to see him getting waxed all year by everyone, including Reed.. Stewart has never bad mouthed this Yamaha..
Now he looked smooth and confident on the bike in the mud.. He was fast and only had one or two kinda close calls.. RV looked alright once he got past the first turn.. I think he panicked a little after he went down.. But whoever said he sucks in the mud(NEWGUY) is a fool.. He went from last to sixth in only 16 laps.. If he sucks what does that say for the rest of the pack?? Some guys are just one rider fans..
And BILLC, I couldnt see RC getting stck in anything at Millville 2006, he was on that day in that mud. Stewart had probably one of his worst races ever. He was getting beaten by privateers.. While RC cruised on like he was made for it.. RC getting stuck, not on that day>>
If RV gets injured and Stewart wins, it will be a travesty, and NO, not because its Stewart who wins, its because a rider who was in 4th place won the title by not beating the top 3, it would be because of injury. If he was in 4th and went on a hot streak and started beating the guys its different, but for the 4th place guy to get the title because the top 3 are hurt, that sucks..
Three of the "top five" are out with injuries.........this sucks. I'm putting a big, fat asterisk on the rest of this season.
Honda should bump Barcia up for the remaining west rounds.
therealmofo glad you got to see that too, it was quite a display of mud riding that day in Millville, RC was incredible...seems like Dungey made his pro debut that day also, first motos in perfect weather ..then booom water water every where...who knows maybe we met and drank a beer there ...aahh good times
Who said RV is due for bad luck? He's started dead last in 3 of the 10 races so far this year; how is that good luck?
What a great night for JGR; you know those guys have worked their @ss' off. Congrat's to that whole team!
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My name is miss cherish i went through your profile today and became interested,Please Dear one I will be very happy if you can contact me direct with this my email ([email protected])
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