Race Report: Monster Energy Supercross - Anaheim 1

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Posted: 01/04/09

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Words and photos: Jeff Kardas

The 2009 Monster Energy Supercross Championship is now officially underway, and what a way for it to get rolling. The season opener at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, California, was truly one for the ages, as both the Supercross and Supercross Lites main events had their fair share of drama, excitement and just plain jaw-dropping excitement.

In the first heat race of the season, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Jake Weimer won a battle with teammate Ryan Morais to snare the win just ahead of KTM-mounted Justin Brayton. The three were a freight-train out front and put a nice gap on the pack to transfer directly in to the main. The second heat featured the racing return of the sport's bad boy (and apparent new team owner) Jason Lawrence, who started around fourth but worked his way up and around Geico Powersports/Honda's Daniel Reardon and 2008 Lites East champ Trey Canard, who recovered from a bad start to climb into third by the flag.

Heat racing for the premier Supercross class started out with a huge win by 450-class rookie – and James Stewart's replacement at Monster Energy/Kawasaki Racing – Ryan Villopoto. After nabbing the holeshot, RV2 simply kicked his KX450F into overdrive and rode away from the pack and putting down some of the fastest lap times of the night at right around 1:00 flat. Behind him, teammate and wily veteran Tim Ferry moved up into second while Honda Red Bull Racing's Andrew Short rounded out the podium for third. Meanwhile, Chad Reed's big #1 Rockstar/Makita Suzuki was trying to recover from an off-the-track incident that left him near dead last before he was able to recover impressively to fourth by the flag. Heat number two was a runaway James Stewart win, as the San Manuel YZ450F-mounted rider served notice that he was the fastest man of the night. This win came after somewhat of a challenge was put up by Joe Gibbs Racing's Josh Grant, who was also making his Supercross class debut. Grant kept Stewart honest at least for a few laps, and served notice that he almost had the speed to stick a wheel in – at least for three laps. Way back in third was Honda Red Bull's Davi Millsaps, over 20 seconds back of Stewart after just eight laps.

That's when the fun began. Following two LCQ's – one of which was won by Ryan Dungey who'd made a mess of his heat race, the near sellout crowd was "treated" to halftime entertainment that consisted of A) young men running around in big balloon suits that were apparently difficult to maneuver in, and B) a freestyle exhibition that had most on hand wondering what was so bad with the KTM Kids races from previous years? (Answer: budget cuts on the KTM side). After suffering through that, the racing was nothing short of unforgettable.

The Supercross Lites main event was a barn-burner. Holeshot by Dan Reardon, the fun started a couple of corners later, when Trey Canard made a mistake exiting a turn just before the first triple and went down, taking Jason Lawrence with him. Jason got going pretty quickly, Canard struggled with the bike but eventually got going in dead last. With two of the top contenders on the ground, and another – Dungey – mired mid-pack, everyone knew this was going to be one hell of a race. Up front, Reardon managed to rid himself of the lead rather quickly, which Jake Weimer was happy to inherit. Reardon stayed close for a couple of laps before going down and out by lap 7. Just behind in third was Brayton, who'd been a threat all night, followed by a hard-charging Morais, Ryan Sipes and a new contender by the name of Chris Blose on the Troy Lee Designs Honda 250F. Further back, Dungey was working up from 10th to 3rd by about the halfway point, while Lawrence was doing the same, and sometimes cutting off chunks of the track in the process. The cut was caught by the AMA, and Lawrence was ultimately docked a position, but it was a great ride nonetheless. By the checkers, Weimer held on to a decisive victory, just ahead of Morais and Dungey and the revelation Blose. Following him across was Lawrence, Sipes, Brayton (who fell on lap 7 while in 3rd), and Jeff Alessi. Rounding out the top 10 was rookie Ben Evans, then veteran and true privateer Chris Gosselaar. Canard ended up a lap down in 16th.

The Supercross class had even more great racing for the already giddy fans. With a holeshot by James Stewart, though, things typically get boring pretty quick. Not so on this special night, race fans, as defending champ Chad Reed chased his old ride down and stuffed Stewart before putting a bit of a gap on him over the next couple of laps. Stewart was not done yet, though, and managed to close the gap once he'd settled into Reed's pace and picked up on it, taking Reed high in a corner and never looking back. Well, never looking back until Reed ran into the back of him at high speed and was flipped around facing backwards on the track, laying on his face, stunned. Also down was Reed, who'd run into Stewart's rear wheel after the Yamaha rider had apparently missed a shift or had fallen into a false neutral which caused the bike to hesitate right in front of Reed. Punch-drunk, Stewart picked his bike up and pushed it straight into the path of Geico Honda's Kevin Windham, who was charging hard through the whoops and, consequently, straight through Stewart. Windham stayed up but lost a lot of time, while Stewart went down again and was ultimately unable to re-fire the bike, DNF'ing round 1 of the 2009 series. Reed, on the other hand, recovered quickly despite hitting the deck hard and was charging up to the front. The guy he was chasing was none other than Josh Grant, who'd been solid and steady in 3rd up to that point and seemed to be on cruise control way out front and a sure-bet for the win (more on that later). Moving up also was Andrew Short, who found himself inheriting 2nd after rounding lap 1 in 8th, while Ryan Villopoto – who'd suffered and bad start and a taste for the Anaheim dirt, was moving up to eventually overtake Ivan Tedesco for 5th. More on Grant: While riding precise and steady out front, Grant clipped a Tuf Blok and sucked the cover into his rear wheel. As it trailed behind him and smoked a remarkable amount from the heat of the interaction, it made for quite a spectacle as Grant tried to nurse his way to the checkers. Luckily, he had a 15 second lead. Unfortunately, Grant's a hyper sort of guy and he refused to back off and just cruise in for the win, so he kept the fans on their feet by nearly going over the bars on about a dozen occasions on those final couple of laps. That Josh Grant is always an entertainer.

So, with tear-filled eyes, Josh Grant won his first Supercross main event, ahead of Short, Reed, Ferry, Villopoto, Tedesco, privateer Heath Voss, visiting Frenchman Ben Coisy, Nick Wey and Paul Carpenter. James Stewart was reportedly none the worse for wear after the race, and even accepted an apology from Reed who simply wanted to say he didn't intentionally take him out.

Round 2 in Phoenix next weekend promises to be a great continuation of a couple of great series, and we'll have all the best coverage right here for you at Motocross.com.

Heat Race Results:

Lites Heat One (Top 9 transfer):

1. Jake Weimer (Kaw)
2. Ryan Morais (Kaw)
3. Justin Brayton (KTM)
4. Chris Gosselaar (Kaw)
5. Jeff Alessi (Hon)
6. Ben Evans (Hon)
7. Mike Sleeter (KTM)
8. Mike Horban (Yam)
9. Sean Borkenhagen (Hon)

Lites Heat Two:

1. Jason Lawrence (Yam)
2. Daniel Reardon (Hon)
3. Trey Canard (Hon)
4. Chris Blose (Hon)
5. Cedric Soubeyras (Yam)
6. Kyle Cunningham (Kaw)
7. Shaun Skinner (Hon)
8. Ryan Clark (Hon)
9. Adam Chatfield (Hon)

Supercross Heat One (top 9 transfer):

1. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
2. Tim Ferry (Kaw)
3. Andrew Short (Hon)
4. Chad Reed (Suz)
5. Steve Boniface (Hon)
6. Mike Alessi (Suz)
7. Cole Siebler (Hon)
8. Kevin Windham (Hon)
9. Josh Hill (Yam)

Supercross Heat Two:

1. James Stewart (Yam)
2. Josh Grant (Yam)
3. Davi Millsaps (Hon)
4. Bobby Kiniry (Kaw)
5. Ivan Tedesco (Hon)
6. Heath Voss (Hon)
7. Ben Coisy (Hon)
8. Nick Wey (Yam)
9. Josh Summey (KTM)

Lites LCQ:

1. Ryan Dungey (Suz)
2. Ryan Sipes (KTM)

Supercross LCQ:

1. Matt Boni (Hon)
2. Paul Carpener (Kaw)

Lites Main Event:

1. Jake Weimer (Kaw)
2. Ryan Morais (Kaw)
3. Ryan Dungey (Suz)
4. Chris Blose (Hon)
5. Jason Lawrence (Yam)
6. Ryan Sipes (KTM)
7. Justin Brayton (KTM)
8. Jeff Alessi (Hon)
9. Ben Evans (Hon)
10. Chris Gosselaar (Kaw)
11. Ryan Clark (Hon)
12. Sean Borkenhagen (Hon)
13. Adam Chatfield (Hon)
14. Trey Canard (Hon)
15. Shaun Skinner (Hon)
16. Cedric Soubeyras (Yam)
17. Mike Sleeter (KTM)
18. Mike Horban (Yam)
19. Dan Reardon (Hon)
20. Kyle Cunningham (Kaw)

Supercross Main Event:

1. Josh Grant (Yam)
2. Andrew Short (Hon)
3. Chad Reed (Suz)
4. Tim Ferry (Kaw)
5. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
6. Ivan Tedesco (Hon)
7. Heath Voss (Hon)
8. Ben Coisy (Hon)
9. Nick Wey (Yam)
10. Paul Carpenter (Kaw)
11. Mike Alessi (Suz)
12. Davi Millsaps (Hon)
13. Cole Siebler (Hon)
14. Matt Boni (Hon)
15. Kevin Windham (Hon)
16. Josh Hill (Yam)
17. Steve Boniface (Hon)
18. Bobby Kiniry (Kaw)
19. James Stewart (Yam)
20. Josh Summey (KTM)

Points Standings after Round 1 of 17:

Lites West:

1. Jake Weimer (25)
2. Ryan Morais (22)
3. Ryan Dungey (Suz)
4. Chris Blose (Hon)
5. Jason Lawrence (Yam)
6. Ryan Sipes (KTM)
7. Justin Brayton (KTM)
8. Jeff Alessi (Hon)
9. Ben Evans (Hon)
10. Chris Gosselaar (Kaw)

Supercross:

1. Josh Grant (25)
2. Andrew Short (22)
3. Chad Reed (Suz)
4. Tim Ferry (Kaw)
5. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
6. Ivan Tedesco (Hon)
7. Heath Voss (Hon)
8. Ben Coisy (Hon)
9. Nick Wey (Yam)
10. Paul Carpenter (Kaw)