It was another perfect race weekend at MX338 in Southwick, MA. Sunny skies with temps in the high 70's attracted a huge crowd to the infamous sand pit. One of New England's most successful motocrossers, Doug Henry made yet another post retirement appearance at Southwick thanks to some help from Monster Energy drink. Monster chartered a jet to fly Henry back from a Saturday Supermoto race in Wisconsin and he delivered 14-21 moto finishes. Another retired New Englander that had an even a more successful weekend was John Dowd who earned 6th overall in the 450 class. Travis Pastrana joined the 450 field as well but pulled out of moto one and struggled through several crashes in moto 2 that pushed him back to a 29th place finish.
Moto one in the 250F class saw Team Greens Kyle Chisholm take the holeshot followed closely my Red Bull KTM's Mike Alessi. Allesi got around Chisholm on the first lap and opened a pretty good lead. Honda's Andrew Short charged through the pack and past Alessi at the halfway point. Alessi managed to hold off Yamaha Of Troy's Brett Metcalfe and a very impressive Star Racing's Matt Goerke. Notably, Ryan Villopoto and Grant Langston did not finish due to mechanical problems. Moto 2 saw Mike Alessi take the holeshot with Brett Metcalfe in 2nd. Metcalf battled Josh Grant early and then led for much of the race and held the overall win until Grant Langston caught him and moved by late in the moto. Short finished 4th and combined with his moto 1 win, took the overall ahead of Metcalf and Alessi.
In the 450 class, it was unclear up until race day if James Stewart was going to be able to ride after his horrific crash at Mt Morris a few weeks ago. Stewart practiced on Saturday but was still in noticeable pain despite setting the fastest lap times. He did ride on Sunday and along with RC, put on an incredible show for the crowd.
Moto 1 saw MDK Motosports Jacob Saylor take the holeshot but that was short lived as Stewart and RC made the pass right away and the battle was on once again. Honda's Davi Millsaps was in 3rd and Yamaha's Chad Reed was 4th. It looked like Mt Morris all over again. It was amazing that Stewart seemed to be riding just as hard as he was just a few weeks ago. He was not going to make it easy for RC regardless of how much pain he was in. They battled hard but RC finally made the pass started to pull away when with around 10 mins to go in the moto he made a mistake that sent him to the ground. Stewart got back around RC but he did get restarted before Reed caught him. The moto ended Stewart, RC, Reed and Milsaps. James was in so much pain after the moto he had to be helped to the podium.
Moto 2 was almost a carbon copy of the first race. Stewart had took the holeshot and lead with RC close behind. Millsaps was a real close 3rd and Reed 4th. Stewart once again held off RC for a while but then coming up over the finish line jump RC just had the big ol 450 pinned and launched over the jump with both feet off the pegs. It was an insane move that only RC seems to be able to pull off! Stewart tried to battle back lost touch with Carmichael but had a safe second in hand. After taking the white flag Stewarts motor locked up and sent him over the bars yet again. Because they had lapped up to 12th place, Stewart was still credited with 11th in the moto and 4th overall for his efforts. Stewart's misfortune moved Reed up to second in the moto and overall followed by Davy Millsaps in third.
The series now moves to Budds Creek, MD this coming fathers day weekend.