The Lites main was looking to be a good one until the red flag came out for the second time of the night. Josh Hanson was leading with Jason Lawrence, Josh Grant, Ryan Villopoto and WBR/Rockstar Suzuki's Troy Adams on his tail when the red flag stopped the race due to SoBe/Samsung Mobile Honda's Jake Weimer's second corner crash. The restart was everything the fans didn't want - a Villopoto holeshot. Grant was right on his tail, and the two stretched out a gap between them and the rest of the field throughout the 15 laps. Villopoto got a very healthy lead over Grant, who had no pressure from behind.
But if you ignored the first two positions, the race had some excitement. Josh Hill started working his way quickly up from 11th. He passed three riders in one lap, and was pushing for more. When he caught the pack of Hanson, Lawrence and Motoworldracing.com/PPG Yamaha's Michael LaPaglia his progress slowed because he was not able to jump the same combinations as when he had a clear track. He was still moving ahead, but not as quickly.
On the seventh lap Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Chris Gosselaar, who was running up in fourth fell off the pace and dropped back quickly. Goselaar fumbled some jumps, and looked to be having mechanical problems.
On the ninth lap Jason Lawrence made his move past Martin Davalos over the triple, cutting off Davalos' line and slowing his drive. Davalos shorted hard, did an old school flying W, saved the crash, but slowed considerably. Though he would finish, the battle was over for him.
The running order two thirds of the way through was Villopoto, Grant, Lawrence, Hanson, and Hill. One lap later Hill made his last pass of the night into fourth. Lawrence wasn't far, but far from close, and Grant and Villopoto were practially already on the road to Houston.
The Supercross class got things started with what looked like the beginning of a boring race. James Stewart didn't get the holeshot, but you wouldn't have known it if you were standing at the third corner. Reed was close behind in second, with Ferry right on Reed's tail.
The Bubba-runaway-victory was all set and ready to switch to autopilot, but Chad Reed had other ideas. After three laps, Stewart's lead of about a second and a half over Reed wasn't growing. By lap five his lead seemed to be doing something it rarely does - it started shrinking. Reed was gaining, and was in position when Stewart bobbled in a corner on lap five.
The two went side by side for the lead through the next timing section and triple, with Stewart retaining the lead. On the next lap, Reed used a timing Stewart was not and got past Stewart. The lead lasted only two straights, because in the next left hand corner after a whoop section Stewart went in aggressively on Reed. James dove straight across the corner to cut Reed off at his exit. Reed nearly went down but kept the bike up and got right back into charge-mode.
Stewart's move was aggressive, but not dirty. Many of the fans felt otherwise as some booing followed Stewart around the track. Reed was about two and half seconds back, and was not losing an inch on James. Lappers have worked against Reed so far this year, but he handled them well and kept his chance of a victory alive.
By the last lap, Reed had closed nearly to within striking distance, but was just a little shy of putting a real move on Stewart. The two crossed the line with Stewart taking the win, and Reed grabbing second. If any fans were questioning Reed's ability to hang with James and bring the fight to him, their questions got answered. If any wondered how aggressively Stewart will fight for that lead position, they saw James' answer at Anaheim 3.
Though the race had very little passing, it was close, it was exciting, and it infused the season with the possibility that there may be some great racing ahead. Reed is back, and James is ready.