Posted by Jason Weigandt on Saturday, April 25, 2009
Everyone is talking about the weather here in Salt Lake City, but in a strange reverse of the norm, there are plenty of people hoping we actually do get rain tonight. This chase for Monster Energy AMA Supercross and FIM World Championship points is tense, but with San Manuel Yamaha's James Stewart sitting on a three-point lead with two races to go, there are a lot of fans hoping to see a mudder to just to mix things up.
Will it happen? It rained a little bit this afternoon here in Salt Lake City, but we're still not into full-on mud race status yet. The first set of practices went off without a hitch. The track featured a few wet spots in areas between the plastic tarps that covered the track in the morning, but for the most part, it was a normal supercross track. And of course, that means Stewart put in the fastest lap (52.4) of anyone.
The surprise came behind him, as Honda Red Bull Racing's Ivan Tedesco stood second in practice for most of the session with a 53.6, until Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto clocked in with a 53.5 on the very last lap of the session. Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Chad Reed, the man challenging Stewart for the title, was fourth fastest with a 53.6, a few hundreths of a second behind Tedesco.
It's now known that Reed has been dealing with an illness of some sort for a few weeks, and he's lost 15 pounds over the last few weeks. But his team manager Roger DeCoster says Reed is feeling better this weekend.
DeCoster also likes his chances for a championship in the Lites West Region, where Ryan Dungey has a nine-point lead and put in the fastest lap of the first practice session (55.1). The closest challenger for his title, Jake Weimer, did suffer a big crash practicing this week, but he is here and turned in the second-fastest time with a 55.4, with GEICO Honda's Trey Canard third with a 56.0
In other news, Team Yamaha's Broc Hepler is back in action after missing last week's race with internal injuries, but his teammate Josh Hill is still out with an ankle injury.
The rain keeps on coming here. The track still looks okay, but the AMA and FIM say they may cancel the second practice sessions to preserve the track if things keep getting worse.
Posted by Jason Weigandt on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
