Posted by Jason Weigandt on Saturday, October 10, 2009
It’s James Stewart versus lady luck tonight, as the fans packing into the MGM Grand Garden Arena are hoping for a race, and perhaps only the craziness of Vegas will be able to provide it. As always, Stewart is the man to beat here, but you could tell he was struggling with the suspension settings on his new Yamaha, the redesigned frame seemed to work well for him in the rutted corners, his bike was settling into the ruts nicely, but on some of the high-speed chop you can sense he was unsure of the front end, and perhaps it was the way the bike delivers its power with the EFI, or the rear suspension setting, but as he tracked through the higher-speed corners….
Okay I’m kidding. The new bike looks cool and I have no idea how it handles. James looks fast on it and he won easily yesterday. He’s the fastest guy today in practice—even after he skipped the “free practice” session, he still threw down the fastest laps in the first timed session.
I know Villopoto wants to give him a run, but I don’t see anyone giving James a run straight up. But what we do have in the cards (pun intended) is lady luck in Vegas, the against all odds (pun intended) longshot (pun intended) wild scenarious that seem to happen here.
James looked to have it dialed in 2006, but RC stuck with him on Saturday night, then Stewart stalled, and Ricky crashed trying to get around him. Chad Reed had everyone covered here easily on Friday in ’07 but all hell broke loose in the first turn on Saturday. Last year Stewart had an easy time of it on Friday but had to battle Reed on Saturday. Will he really just have an easy time of it all weekend long? History says know, but James’ riding says yes.
Ezra Lusk has improved dramatically in one day. He told me he had arm pump all day yesterday, when he finished 20th in qualifying and didn’t make the main event. He was definitely getting faster as the night went on, but time race out. He’s back looking like a totally different rider today, taking fifth overall in practice today. That’s 20th yesterday and fifth today—what a difference! Imagine Yogi making the podium tonight?
Ryan Villopoto bent his shift level last night, he’s not hurt or anything. Josh Hansen is here, he has a new deal with Pro Circuit and Monster, and he should be riding a 450 for them in supercross and the X Games next year. Before you go all “why does he keep getting chances” crazy, let it be known that Monster just wanted Mitch to put another bike out there, this wasn’t just Mitch handing out a ride for no reason.
Chad Reed confirmed to us on our Webcast yesterday that he is going to be on the full-on factory Kawasaki team next year, not his own satellite effort. He and RV are teammates straight up…and he likes where he stacks up on lap times looking at RV here, Stewart here, and himself at the test track.
We have one-on-one racing here for the first time ever, and Michael Byrne rang in the new event in style when his rear brake went out in the very first race, and he went over a berm and over the bars. Then he crashed half a lap later after hitting some mud. Crashed hard again today in practice. Remember, he’s on the mend from a big crash last weekend at the of Nations. Man.
The head to head racing is only cool if two guys are very close on speed, yesterday Villo and Millsaps lined up together and it was fun to watch. Millsaps looks good and into it here, his neck injury from the Nationals is all healed. That dude needs to bounce back after a tough 2009.
Dan Reardon rode really well yesterday, and he finished third. I don’t think he got to put his best foot forward during his two years in the U.S. and I hope he gets another shot next year. The way he was coming around on the 450 outdoors, had he not have gotten hurt, he could have gotten one of those Tommy Hahn or Goerke wins at the end of the year.
Georke is still riding the works 2009 YZ450F, but now pitting with his ’10 team, Motoconcepts Yamaha. Today the crew rolled a 2010 YZ250F out with 801 for Jeff Alessi, but he’s not riding it, it’s just his SX bike for next year. Jeff hadn’t even seen the bike until today.
The Lites bike experiment seems to be over at this event, most riders are on 450s. It’s all about getting the start here.
Speaking of starting, our Supercross Live! Webcast is about to get underway so go to www.ussx.com and tune in Jim and myself. Let’s see if luck is on James’ side or not.
Posted by Jason Weigandt on Saturday, October 10th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
