2007 Supercross - Phoenix - Race Report

It wasn't just the weather that was unusual at the second round of the 2007 Amp'd Mobile/AMA Supercross Series at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. No, that'd be an understatement - and considering that the temperature hovered near freezing the night of the race - that's really saying something.

Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark) has long been a gem on the AMA Supercross circuit, due primarily to the huge retractable roof on the stadium, which allows sunshine to spill in on certain parts of the track during practice. This year however, the roof was kept closed and the entire event had a `chilled' feel which may have contributed to some interesting developments throughout the night's racing.

Most prominent were the ultra-short lap times. Due to the track not only being a bit short in length, but also very high speed, lap times were more like those expected at an arenacross race than a supercross, hovering in the low-to-mid 40 second range for most of the top riders. That's roughly 15-20 seconds shorter per lap than the previous round in Anaheim, and which translates into an 8 minute Supercross Lites main event. The high-speed of the track may have been one factor that contributed to a couple of key crashes throughout the night's program which made for some interesting moments for the fans and racers alike.

The Lites class was made interesting early in the first heat with a hard crash by series points leader Ryan Villopoto and his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki, when they tumbled in the fast rhythm section following the first turn. The crash allowed Motosport.com/Kawasaki rider Steve Boniface to sneak by for the win followed by NoFear/Sobe/Honda's Josh Grant and MB1/Honda mounted Kyle Partridge. Once Villopoto re-mounted and re-started his KX, he managed only to make it into the final qualifying spot in 9th, which meant a very poor gate pick for the main event - something he is not accustomed to. The second Lite's heat saw Villopoto's part-time teammate and full-time 125 World Motocross Champion Christophe Pourcel run away and hide from factory Yamaha's Josh Hill and Red Bull/KTM's Josh Hansen. With that, the stage was set for a showdown between the two Monster-backed Lites phenoms. But, the showdown wasn't to be as Pourcel ripped the holeshot and never looked back. Villopoto, in the meantime, was busy working his way to the front from 9th place after the first turn, where he was caught up with a bit of bar-banging that slowed his ascent to the front. While Pourcel had a clear track out front, he pulled away and put a gap on the pack, and once Villopoto got into 2nd there simply wasn't enough time to catch the World Champ out front. The pair's teammate Chris Gosselaar rounded out the podium, claiming all three spots for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki. Pourcel and Villopoto are now tied for the points lead going into Round 3 at Anaheim next weekend.

The Supercross class racing went as expected, as long as one expected a red flag flying after three full laps of racing. On the first attempt at the race, MDK's David Vuillemin - who'd posted the second fastest practice time of the day - took a hard digger in the exact same spot that Villopoto had earlier, except that Vuillemin didn't immediately get to his feet. In fact, he didn't move for a few moments and, under the Asterisk crew's recommendation, the race was red-flagged at the beginning of the fourth lap. At that point, Stewart was out front with Nick Wey in 2nd and Vuillemin had been in 3rd, with Carmichael hot on his heels. Upon the re-start, Stewart followed RC through the first turn and proceeded to hound him up to about the halfway point, where Stewart finally made his pass in the whoops section that he'd been absolutely blitzing all night long. Ultimately Stewart retained the lead after a few brief challenges from Carmichael, a battle which was half a track ahead of third place Chad Reed, Travis Preston and Tim Ferry. With that win, Stewart opens up a 10 point lead on Reed, who's the only one that matters to him since Carmichael's partial schedule will begin with him skipping next weekend's round in Anaheim, only to return for Round 4 in San Francisco the following weekend.

Supercross Lites Main Event Top 10:
1. Christophe Pourcel
2. Ryan Villopoto
3. Chris Gosselaar
4. Matt Lemoine
5. Steve Boniface
6. Josh Hansen
7. Josh Hill
8. Jason Lawrence
9. Kyle Cunningham
10. Martin Davalos

Supercross Main Event Top 10:
1. James Stewart
2. Ricky Carmichael
3. Chad Reed
4. Travis Preston
5. Tim Ferry
6. Michael Byrne
7. Ivan Tedesco
8. Kevin Windham
9. Nick Wey
10. Heath Voss