James Stewart Wins Round Six in San Diego

Starts have been a problem for Makita Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael lately. But that wasn't the problem in San Diego. The problem there was Team Kawasaki's James Stewart.

Carmichael grabbed the holeshot, but Stewart was on his tail from the outset.

"I'm super, super pumped about the holeshot," RC said. "It's been a while. It's been ridiculous for me. I've just been embarrassing to myself more than anybody else. I'm glad I got that out of the way, and that's where it starts."

Stewart didn't want the start anyway...

"I got a pretty decent start," Stewart said. "I didn't really want to go for the holeshot. Last week, I went for it and about slid across the white line. I just kind of settled in behind Ricky and I had a good pace going, and I was moving."

Jeremy McGrath sat third with Chad Reed fourth. Reed quickly zapped McGrath, but the Carmichael/Stewart train had already left the station. All Reed could do was watch.

"In the beginning, I got into third right away, and I was close enough to see them, and when I make mistakes, I'm taking too long to recover," Reed said. "They're hitting their marks all the time and recovering really quick. That's what I need to work on."

Stewart hounded Carmichael for the first 18 laps. It wasn't that he couldn't possibly pass Carmichael, but rather that he knew if he passed Carmichael too early in the race, Carmichael would probably go to school on Stewart's lines and pass him back.

"I just wanted to make a pass where I felt like it was going to stick and stuff," Stewart said. "I knew if I made it kind of early, I had a good chance that he was going to get back around me. He had good sections, and I had good sections too, so... Last week, I kind of just over-rode Anaheim. I felt like I was riding in my own range and stuff, but I kind of over-rode that track. This weekend, we made a few changes to the bike, and it seemed to work a lot better."

With just two laps to go, Stewart jumped to the inside of Carmichael and put a clean block-pass on the defending champ. Then he just had to worry about holding off Carmichael for two laps.

"I thought, actually, I was going to try to get him right after the start down there in that corner and I felt I had a little better line toward the inside, but I knew I was good after that triple too, so I was just trying to pick a place that was clean," Stewart said. "I didn't want to make contact and stuff. It was clean racing, so it was good. I just got him right there, and then I was a little nervous that final lap because we had lappers in front of us, and I didn't want to do the Mike Brown thing again and slide out [like at Anaheim II]."

Carmichael nearly got close enough to get Stewart back before the finish, but he thought better of it."I would've had to go in there and not even stop and take us both out," Carmichael said of the last turn of the race. "But I have no regrets. I did the best that I could do, and I think it was a solid ride and I'm happy to be up on the box."

Reed had never lost in San Diego before. He finished third.

"Yeah, I was looking forward to San Diego," Reed said. "I've always done really well here, and since I've been a 250 rider, I haven't really lost until tonight. But all good things go away, and I was just more looking forward to the weekend and trying to get a win. The whole trying to win four in a row didn't really bother me, I just wanted to get a win and get up there with these guys. I felt like I rode a strong race, it just wasn't as strong as these guys."

Supercross Main:
1. James Stewart (Kaw)
2. Ricky Carmichael (Suz)
3. Chad Reed (Yam)
4. Jeremy McGrath (Hon)
5. Mike LaRocco (Hon)
6. Ivan Tedesco (Suz)
7. Michael Byrne (Kaw)
8. Nick Wey (Hon)
9. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon)
10. Erick Vallejo (Hon)
11. Timmy Ferry (Hon)
12. Kyle Lewis (Hon)
13. Jeff Gibson (Hon)
14. Jiri Dostal (Yam)
15. Clark Stiles (Yam)
16. Jason Thomas (Hon)
17. Tyler Evans (Suz)
18. David Vuillemin (Hon)
19. Jeff Dement (Suz)
20. Travis Preston (Hon)

Amp'd Mobile/AMA Supercross Championship
(After 6 of 16 rounds):
1. Ricky Carmichael (139/3 wins)
2. James Stewart (128/3 wins)
3. Chad Reed (124)
4. Mike LaRocco (89)
5. Michael Byrne (88)
6. Ivan Tedesco (86)
7. Nick Wey (85)
8. Ernesto Fonseca (74)
9. Jeremy McGrath (67)
10. Travis Preston (63)

Amp'd Mobile World Supercross GP Championship
(After 8 of 17 rounds):
1. Ricky Carmichael (183/3 wins)
2. James Stewart (181/5 wins)
3. Chad Reed (164)
4. Ivan Tedesco (133)
5. Michael Byrne (130)
6. Nick Wey (128)
7. Jason Thomas (95)
8. Jeff Gibson (87)
9. Ryan Clark (82)
10. Tyler Evans (69)

Lites Class

Break time. After six weeks of racing, the Western Region boys get to take some time off and heal up, test for the outdoors, or just find some missing speed until the series starts back up for them in 10 weeks.

With that kind of a break, a larger premium than normal was placed on getting a win, as the winner could head into the break with confidence.

Red Bull KTM's Mike Alessi grabbed yet another holeshot to start the main event, followed closely by Team Honda's Andrew Short. Short made quick work of Alessi and began to pull away while Alessi's teammate Nathan Ramsey came through from the tail of the top five and Grant Langston, who led the points going into the event, came from nearly dead last.

"I don't know what happened in the beginning, but basically it was Andrew, Ryan [Villopoto], myself and Nathan, and I just got pinched between everyone," Langston said of his start. "I didn't come out of the gate clean, and if you're behind, that's where it's going to happen. I thought I would try and be smart and hug the inside because it worked out pretty decent for me during the heat race, and then everyone's tangling handlebars and then Billy [Laninovich] went down right in front of me, and as he was falling, I ended up getting stuck between his fender and his wheel, and as he was falling, I was going down with him. I popped the clutch out and managed to get untangled, but I was probably last besides him. I just knew I had to try and get up to the front as quick as possible because whoever was out in front, if it was Nathan or Andrew or any of them, it's a pretty tight points battle and I just put my head down and went for it. I'm quite pleased with the way I rode. I just didn't quite get it, so with the points so tight, there was one guy I didn't need in front of me, and it was Andrew."

Ramsey couldn't seem to do much with his young teammate, and Langston was reeling off lap after lap in the sub-50-second range. Short had one lap under 50 seconds, and it was the first lap. Langston had eight such laps.

As Ramsey sat behind Alessi, Short continued to pull away until Langston caught the KTM duo and dispatched of both of them on laps 11 and 12 of 15. Ramsey followed Langston past Alessi. Then, Langston set out after Short, who was nearly 6 seconds ahead. He caught Short by two seconds on lap 13, and then again on lap 14, but ultimately came up just short of Short.

Short took his second win of the season, joining the two-win club with Ramsey and Langston.

"Definitely it was the goal [to win]," Shorty said. "We have a long break ahead of us, and I knew it would be nice to leave with some momentum. A win's a win. Grant was riding really good tonight, and he caught me for sure. I rode as hard as I could. I stayed pretty consistent, and I had some trouble on that triple—they had the lights on, and I was the only one that had to single it. I lost a lot of time right there. Some lappers too. But I was running consistent in the 50-second laptimes, and Grant over here was running considerably lower. He was definitely faster than me, but I put myself in a good position off the start and got away early, which in the end won the race for me."

Langston's second-place finish lost him the points lead to Short with two races yet to run.

"Obviously, I wanted to win, and had I won, I would've left here four points ahead, which is four points, so either way, it was never really going to be a situation where we were going to leave here with a 20-point lead where we could kind of sit back and relax," Langston said. "The way it is here now, it's still anyone's championship that's sitting here right now. We've got a long break. I'm going to maintain some supercross riding, and we're going to be doing some outdoor testing. It's a really long break. I rode the west coast in '01 the last time, so I don't really remember how it feels to have such a long break. But it's like anything—your focus may drift off when you start doing some outdoor stuff, but as soon as you get back at the test track, you get back in the groove. I'm looking forward to Dallas. It's kind of my lucky supercross race. I've been there twice and won twice, so it's a good place for me. I just want to stay focused and maybe work on some starts as well. I've got 10 weeks, I may as well work on something."

Ramsey hung on for third, but wasn't happy with his pace.

"I was up there in time, and it just took me too long to catch up and pass Mike," Ramsey said. "They're both going real fast. Shorty got out front, and kind of made a break and rode really smart. The Grant got not so good of a start and then just put in some fast laps like he has been doing. We've got a big break, so I'm not going to give up. I've got to go back and try and find those tenths. It's a tenth here and there, and a little bit of confidence and a little bit of soul-searching, and I'll come back and who knows what will happen at the last two. It's not over, and it's going to be a pretty good finish."

Lites Main Event Results:
1. Andrew Short (Hon)
2. Grant Langston (Kaw)
3. Nathan Ramsey (KTM)
4. Mike Alessi (KTM)
5. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
6. Brett Metcalfe (Yam)
7. Darcy Lange (Kaw)
8. Ryan Morais (Suz)
9. Jake Weimer (Hon)
10. Paul Carpenter (Hon)
11. Billy Laninovich (Hon)
12. Justin Brayton (Yam)
13. Mike Sleeter (KTM)
14. Sean Collier (Yam)
15. Colton Facciotti (Kaw)
16. Ryan Abrigo (Hon)
17. Eric Sorby (Hon)
18. Justin Keeney (Hon)
19. Eric Nye (Yam)
20. Daniel Sani (Hon)
21. Kyle Partridge (Yam)
22. Jason Lawrence (Suz)

Amp'd Mobile AMA Lites Western Regional Supercross Championship
(After 6 of 8 rounds):
1. Andrew Short (118/2 wins)
2. Grant Langston (116/2 wins)
3. Nathan Ramsey (107/2 wins)
4. Billy Laninovich (99)
5. Mike Alessi (95)
6. Ryan Villopoto (94)
7. Brett Metcalfe (91)
8. Paul Carpenter (78)
9. Darcy Lange (55)
10. Jake Weimer (52)

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