2006 Dallas AMA Supercross - Race Results - Dirt Rider Magazine

"Hey, Chad, it says, 'Bridgestone' on the Yamaha hat!"

It's funny what kind of a difference a few hours makes. Saturday morning in Dallas, all anyone could talk about was the Western 125cc series resuming, and the two-point difference in the title chase between Andrew Short and Grant Langston, Davi Millsaps' move to the 250cc (450cc) class, and the car accident that the SoBe/Samsung Mobile 250F guys, Jake Weimer and Billy Laninovich, were involved in on Thursday evening, sending Weimer to the hospital. By the end of the day, the only talk was about RC's crash, Stewart's crash, and Reed's second win of the season."Well, we were here on Thursday for Press Day, so the whole gang was here, and on Thursday night, most of the staff that was here went to dinner over by our hotel, and Jake and Billy left to go back to the hotel, and that street right there is kind of curvy and lined with trees, and it had been raining," said SoBe/Samsung Mobile team manager JC Waterhouse. "The locals tell me that the streets get pretty slippery because it doesn't rain a lot. Jake doesn't remember - he was driving - but I guess they got sideways, got out of control, and couldn't get it back and hit a tree. He's got, I believe, two fractures - one on his left cheek and one near his left eye. They haven't determined if he's going to need surgery yet. Other than his face being pretty swollen, he's fine." We followed up with Waterhouse on Monday, and he indicated that Weimer is going to need surgery to repair the fracture near his eye, which occurred when his head hit the tree (which apparently hit directly on the driver-side door). As of now, no one knows for sure how long Weimer will be out. The good news, if there can be any, for the team, though, is that Billy Laninovich came away pretty much unscathed from the accident, and Joaquim Rodrigues started riding this past weekend. Although Rodrigues says his broken leg is still a little sensitive, he hopes to be ready to go by Hangtown.Unfortunately for one of the main story subjects, Davi Millsaps only lasted one practice session on Saturday on his CRF450R, as he posted the sixth-fastest time but went down, hurting his knee. "I don't know, I came into the corner and the front end washed out, and that's all I know," Millsaps said. "I crashed in a right-hand corner and hurt my left knee. Go figure." Millsaps said he plans to have an MRI this week to determine if he'll be able to race in Seattle.Andrew Short had a simple strategy going into Dallas. "I'm just looking at it one race at a time," Short said. "That's how I got here, and I've been trying to stick to my same program ever since I went on the break. I'm pretty confident that I have what it takes to win it. It's a good position to be in with 2 points ahead, but at the same time, I know there's four or five guys that can win tonight, and three or four guys who are still in this championship, so I'm going to try and ride as hard as I can tonight and put myself in a good position once the gate drops, then I'll be good."But Grant Langston wasn't stoked with the 10-week layoff from racing. "The break was, in my opinion, just too long," Langston said. "I'm glad I won't have to go through that again. So, in a way it kind of sucks, because you go six rounds in a row and you're getting in that groove and you're starting to figure out who the contenders in the championship are and everything, and all of a sudden, you just put the brakes on. Then that happens for 10 weeks. That was really tough. Then you do some outdoor riding and some testing and stuff, but you kind of feel like you lose a bit of your focus. It's almost like when you have an injury and you're away from the sport for so long. I didn't like it, but at the same time, we got to do some outdoor stuff, and even some more supercross testing to try and improve the bikes even more and help us on the starts, possibly. All in all, it was all right, but I'm glad I won't have to do that again."There have been rumors floating around for years about Mitch Payton wanting to start a Pro Circuit premier-class team. He may be getting closer to getting that to happen. According to the rumors, he doesn't want to do it at all unless he has top talent on the team. Top talent like Langston, for example. "Right now, it's just a lot of talk and something that's in the works," Grant said. "Obviously, they've got to figure out if they're going to do the team or not, but Mitch and I are pretty close, and I'm glad we've been able to talk and just say to each other what his plan is, and what mine is. We've spoken and whatever, and he knows that I would like to stay here. I've got good relationships, and I've had a lot of success and a lot of fun here, and if I could carry on the relationship, I'd be only too happy to. But nothing's always just that easy. For him to put it together and have everyone come on board, and then getting the support from the manufacturers and the outside money that would most likely come from Monster, there's a lot of little loose ends for them to sort out first before you can even sit down and start negotiating. They've got to know what they can offer and everything. To cut a long story short, I've enjoyed being here, and I think Mitch has enjoyed having me around, and we would like to continue our relationship."Speaking of team changes, David Vuillemin was spotted cruising the pits with his lovely wife Erica and his two children. Apparently, DV has a Yamaha 450 to ride in the AMA Nationals, but he doesn't have a team to truck it around for him just yet. Once he gets it figured out, look for DV to be competitive come Hangtown.Rockstar Suzuki's Ryan Mills is going to be joining Sean Hamblin on 450s for the outdoors. "The team wants me and Hamblin to ride 450s outdoors, and that's all right with me - I feel more comfortable on a bigger bike anyway," Mills said. "I'm just really looking forward to it. I've been busy testing and stuff, and the bikes are great. RG3 and Bill's are really putting together a great bike, and it's an awesome 450 to ride. I'm really excited. A month ago, they asked me if I wanted to do it, and I had no problems with that at all. I've always loved riding the big bikes. I'm really excited to do it." He's going to have to change up his training a bit for the bigger bike. "We just upped it a little bit, you know, since it's a little bigger bike and it's a little heavier and stuff like that," he said. "I just got a new trainer, and I've been working really hard with her, and it's coming together really good right now. I'm really looking forward to Hangtown."Travis Preston will likely be severing his relationship with troubled gear manufacturer Alloy for the Nationals. "I think for outdoors, I'm going to try and wear Fox," Preston said. "Alloy is pretty much nothing anymore, and they've been really good about paying me and everything, and they said if I want, I can wear another gear. So I decided to wear Fox, because Fox already sponsors Honda anyways. So it's kind of making everybody happy. I got somebody bringing gear to the track for me every weekend, and it just makes my life a little bit easier."Chad Reed scored his second win of the season, once again at just the right time, and he moved to within two points of series leader Ricky Carmichael with two rounds to go. Now, he controls his own destiny for the championship. Beat Carmichael in the next two races, and the championship is his. "I think that when you have three guys that really want to win, and when you're going that speed on these bikes, things can happen," Reed said. "Honestly, it's been a really tough season for me. I've been off the pace, and I've been struggling with that. I think it's nice to take wins, but on the other hand, I'd like to earn it. I just felt like I had some decent lines, and unfortunately he crashed, and I capitalized on their mistakes again."After the break, he doesn't seem to be bothered by his separated shoulder too much anymore. "My shoulder's pretty much 90%," Reed said. "I don't feel like I'm as strong as I want to be, but pain-wise I'm good. It doesn't hurt at all. I don't try to be careful because of it. There's just three races to go - two now - and it's time to do this. I need to win."He didn't ride much during the break, which aided his healing. "I took the whole first week off, and then the first weekend, I moved into my new house in Florida and I was kind of excited about that, and I just hung out," Reed said. "I really needed that break. The later part of the next week, I worked, and I got to ride 4 times between the break and now, so I think that helped a little bit."Early in the race, Reed was actually catching RC and Stewart. "I was just happy at that point to be in the battle," he said. "I think this year's been tough for me to not have their pace. I was just happy to be there, and I just wanted to find some good lines and try and go forward. I found the line that we all pretty much ended up using in the whoops by the second or third lap, and those guys were trying to make the right side work. I felt that I could be fast, and I was working it out, and it worked out for me. I put some good laps together and got a win."Stewart had the lead early on, but threw it away in a crash. This time, though, he got his KX450F started relatively quickly and got going - unlike St. Louis. "I was behind Ricky the first couple laps, and I was making a few mistakes, and he was kind of holding me up a little bit and I was making a few mistakes going through the whoops, and I went around him through there, and I heard the next lap, he crashed. I looked at that line on the parade lap, and it was about a tire-length wide, and I didn't really want to go over there until I really needed to, and I tried making a pass going down the line he was going, but it wasn't going to work. So I just went over there, and it was good - I was at like mach 3 going through that thing, and I guess he tried it the next lap and went into the boat, so..."He passed Carmichael earlier in the race than in the past, such as in San Diego. "I think that in San Diego, we were a little closer in speed, and I feel like these last four weekends, I've been pretty fast, where he was way behind and couldn't see my lines," Stewart said. "So he was just kind of holding me up a little bit and I was making mistakes, so I just felt that this time I was going to try to get in front of him and hopefully just pull away."He said he's not worried about points. "If I was worried about that , I'd be winning the points right now," Stewart said. "Going back to St. Louis, the series would've been totally different if I would've just stayed up there. I knew he went down - actually, I didn't know if it was him or Chad, because I knew the crowd went wild, and I came around the next lap and didn't see him on me. Chad was riding good tonight, though, so I had to keep the pace up."Nick Wey grabbed his third podium finish of the year, giving him more podiums than any other rider besides the "big three". "It was definitely a tough race," Wey said. "I kind of got a gift with Ricky crashing, and that's definitely unusual for him to miss a podium. But I rode as hard as I could, and a break went my way, so I couldn't be more pumped for my team, and I'm really looking forward to the next two races."Wey was sporting a new haircut that resembled a mohawk. "Well, I had three rounds to go and it's getting real tight in points, and I had to regroup a little bit, so it's more like a pissed-off buzzcut," Wey said.Wey even poked some fun at Tyler Evans, whom he battled with in their heat race. Evans has a habit of losing his jersey before, during or after a race. "Yeah, when he was in front of me, I think his jersey snaps off or something - it's flying everywhere - so I was trying to duck it," Wey joked. "I didn't know when it was coming, but he rides pretty well sometimes, so I was just trying to hold the inside."Ryan Villopoto was fast all day in Dallas, and in the end, he scored his first career SX win. Not for nothin', but after being second in just about every Amateur National class he raced - many times behind Mike Alessi - Villopoto got it done before his old rival Alessi. "Anaheim I went good - I got a podium there - but from there, I haven't got a podium since until tonight," Villopoto said. "I pulled off the win in the heat race and had a pretty good battle there, and I tried to carry it over into the main. We're doing outdoor testing, and I think we're done with outdoor testing, and this last week, we did all supercross, and I think it worked out for me."Villopoto nearly fell in the whoops on the last lap. "Actually, coming so close to the finish line, I just tried to jump through them, and it didn't work out too well - I got a little sideways, and I just pulled it back in and tried to make it to the finish line before I crashed," Villopoto said.Andrew Short handled the championship pressure well, and he left Dallas with four points to spare over Langston in Seattle. That means that all he has to do is finish second or better, and no matter what happens with Langston, Short will win his first title. "I knew Grant would be strong, as was Ryan, and I expected Nathan Ramsey to be up there as well - he has a lot of experience," Short said. "But I knew it was going to be a fight, and I knew the start was going to be important, but I felt really strong tonight and I knew if I rode 15 laps like I knew I could, I would be where I needed to be. I didn't get the best of starts, but I made the best of it and I worked through those guys fairly quick. Ryan got away and rode a great race, but second, for the situation, was pretty good for me."Jeremy McGrath was present in Dallas giving Short pep-talks. "Jeremy's a great asset to Honda, and he's a great asset to me as well," Short said. "He's the king, and he's won so many times, there's a lot of advice to give. It's awesome to be up there on the line or getting ready and getting focused, and he's telling me to relax and, `You know you put the time in.' Just the things he says, he's such a positive person, and it's good to have that atmosphere, and you know you can listen to him because he is the man. It's a good thing to have over there at Honda."Grant Langston recovered from Short's first-lap stuff move to finish third, but the damage may already be done. He wasn't happy. "No, definitely not. More than one reason," Langston said. "Obviously, the points are pretty close, so that's an important thing, and just the way I rode, I felt like I rode way too tight. Maybe not racing for this long break kind of maybe caught up with me. I don't know. The track was kind of awkward tonight and I couldn't really get a flow going, and I lost too much time to those guys in the beginning. In the first five laps, I got pushed around too much and lost a bunch of other positions, which cost me time. Then I slowly started eating into the lead a little bit, but it was never enough, and then we all got held up by lappers. They seemed to be really bad this evening."Langston got some arm-pump once he was in third and chasing Short. "I think before halfway in the race, I was starting to get a little bit tight," Langston said. "It was really just in my throttle hand, but unfortunately, that's a tough one to deal with. I just never really felt like I got in my groove, and it was pretty frustrating."There were no team orders for Villopoto to follow. "It was every man for himself," Langston said. "As you can see, he won everything this evening, so it was a good night for him. Ryan rode really good, and he got two good starts and rode really good. I'm sure he's really stoked to get his first win. Actually, 5 years ago, my first win was here, so it's kind of unique. But there were no team orders, it was just to go out and race."