The Moment: Phoenix
Sunday, January 16, 2011 | 10:25 PM
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PrintGo ahead and take your own witty pick on the old James Stewart strategy. Win or crash. Checkers or wreckers. Balls to the walls. For a long time, the stats even helped. Anytime James didn’t crash in a Supercross class race from 2005 to the end of 2009, he won. And he even won some races when he did crash.
That streak finally ended not via a victory by rivals like Ricky Carmichael or Chad Reed, but by Ryan Villopoto at Seattle in 2009. There, Stewart got a bad start and could only make it back to the podium, while Villopoto took his first career win on a 450. Villopoto followed it up with another one in Las Vegas two weeks later, while Stewart was clutching a tight points lead, rode safe, and finished third without crashing.
So Villopoto was the first rider to officially beat JS7 in a Supercross class race where Stewart didn’t crash, and he did it twice. Nearly two years have passed since that race, but Villopoto and Stewart haven’t really raced each other since. They finally hooked it up on Saturday night in Phoenix, but this time Villopoto was playing the old Stewart role. He started fourth, bulled his way to second, and then laid down some serious speed to close the gap on Stewart.
Then he crashed.
Stewart won with patience. The track was dry and slippery and he knew that pushing the pace was not the answer. Villopoto, also, had decided to settle in and ride more conservatively, but he ended up going down, anyway.
That one crash changed the whole race. It also helped show a potential new maturity in Stewart. Instead of throwing it away, he had the patience to let the win come to him. And that might be more dangerous than knowing he’s just plain fast.
Think Stewart is happy to be back in victory lane?
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Nice point of view Weege. But I think the soup is just begining to boil. There's gonna be more than 2 players in the game before long. Pretty soon guys are gonna start pushing for where they think they belong. Oh yeah! They've got my attention now!! This should be good!!
Ya think Johny O might have anything to do with the new found wisdom?
RC beat JS back in 2007 in Canada, James did not crash in that race.
James fell in his heat race and learned from it.
They need to get off his nuts already... He won pheonix, Poto won Anaheim, there's still fifteen races left in the series. I have a hard time believing stewey can keep it on two wheels for a whole season. Not with guys pressuring him. Dungey will be stepping up real quick. Trey might have something too. Reed is showing well as a Privateer. Tho he's not the fastest, i still like the way he uses the clutch. He reminds me of MC clutch wise, he knows right when to stab the clutch. Does all the obsticles everybody struggles with.
What are those two lines of wet-looking material going down his left temple? Is that Vaseline? Beads of silicone?
jairtime, I hope you're a chick, because only a girl should want to know about something like that
I think a holeshot for any one of the top 5 guys will win a main event. Still full of insightful comments Chowderhead... nothing clever to copy and paste?
Chowderhead you took the W. No one still to this day has PASSED James and beat him indoors, pretty nice record I would say. He looks so clean and smooth its scary to see him post laptimes with the others and faster so comfortably. I just hope the poor guy doesnt look at the comments left by all these wack fans that are brutal. Anyone worth listening to has only great things to say about James!
Just think of the great episode this will make on Bubba's World. Great ride JS7
Now that we know Bubba is a cheater, anytime he wins it's going to be questioned. Villi was the fastest man on the track Sat night.
I'd be very surprised if our current champion* wins another race any time soon. Sure, he's obviously fast, but not compared JS, RV, CR or even TC. He won the lottery last year when basically everyone who belonged up front was out. I wish I were racing.. maybe I could have been supercross champ.
I can't believe that nobody is talking about the speed sensor on Stewart's rear wheel. Jeff and Ricky were talking about it earlier in the program, and they came right out and said that traction control is prohibited. It's pretty obvious that they collaborated with Erin - she came right out and asked him how much his "traction control" system helped, and he basically admitted he was using one. Why isn't this at the top of every message board right now? Why isn't there an article in Breaking News about JS7 being penalized or disqualified by the AMA?
Because it wasnt a traction control device. It was a speed sensor. It's used for telemetry. Real race teams gather as much telemetry about their race vehicles as they possibly can because it helps them to diagnose and improve performance issues. Compared to all other motorsports MX and SX are still in the dark ages, so much so that when a team actually starts turning on the science of racing, all you stupid people start yelling 'witchcraft! witchcraft!' .. they're analyzing data so they can build a bike that responds better to a specific environment. that's not cheating, it's smart.
Good article. These guys are all in for one heck of a battle this year. Get your Vegas tix while you can. duh is right... it's not a frickn traction control device haha! It's a sensor that simply records data. Motocross bikes are nowhere near the point of having a traction control system that would actually work... cmon. Gullible!!
Indeed, the sensor is there to record data the teams can then use to tune the bike with during testing. It is not there for traction control, so be careful when you call James and his team cheaters, or say that the AMA should DQ him. They have not broken any rules. Look for a story by Matthes on this issue tomorrow. ZV938--good trivia, there, yes, RC beat him in Vancouver and Stewie did not crash (he was hurting from a ankle injury due to the infamous Preston collision the week before, though). The record of winning when he doesn't crash was based on AMA events, so that Vancouver race didn't count because of a dumb technicality. And, let's not forget Stewart crashed while being pressured a few times--he likely would have lost Anaheim 3, 2006, even if he didn't crash.
How many championships has bubba won against redheads trained by Aldon Baker? ZERO Baby! Villo Caught him. He WILL beat him!
I know all of the haters out there were jizzin' in their respective little panties when Erin asked JS about the "traction control" he was using on his bike. You guys couldn't wait to get to the message boards so you could call him a cheater. You could tell by his responce that he knew something like this was going to come up. Did everyone forget that he is just that fast?? Someday after he retires and everyone looks back at his career and just how impressive it really was, all will be forgiven and everyone will love him, just like RC.
@Yesir, Actually in '09 at Vegas, RV ran down Stewart and passed him then Stewie started making mistakes trying to keep up so he backed off and cruised the rest of the race. @troyp454, When Stewart retires everyone will not love him. RCs personality is the opposite of Stewart, and thats why people love RC.
Time will tell my friend. Remember when Ricky wasn't mister popularity? I do. Just sayin'.
Weigandt, Thank you! Give these guys the facts, you could even go listen to Matthes' podcast from the night in pheonix with Reed. He clearly states that every team has those sensors including him. They are available to everyone and the AMA should really consider making traction control leagal but i do understand that it would really only help the factories.
I stole a pair of chowderhead's underwear from Loretta Lynn's... The one's he'd been wearing for three days straight in that unbearable heat. I now wear them on my head, every time I read RacerX. Can't wait to steal another pair. Whooo!
I think this is very misleading and very disrespectful to Ricky Carmicheal. How many of those races that RC won did Stewie crash when he was BEHIND RC and trying to catch him?? Several, so this is very misleading..
lots of class chowderhead..... and it's all 3rd
Would like to see Reed get the holeshot with Dungey in 2nd, RV 3rd and Stewart 4th. I think that would be the best chance for some great racing.
Maybe if JS hadn't hemmed and hawed on the podium when asked about the sensor it wouldn't be such an issue. All he had to say was, "Aw, that's just a sensor for getting info." Not once did he say it wasn't traction control. And as for every team having it, it sure didn't sound as though JGR had it. Having said that, it's kind of dumb to get so worked up about it because it definitely would have been discovered in tech after the race.