Houston First Practice Report
Saturday, February 12, 2011 | 2:20 PM
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PrintWelcome to Houston, first SX round of East Lites SX, first race in a typical rectagular football stadium, lots of changes here.
The track is tight, and the dirt is soft and rutted. A lot of the riders are saying it will be tough to pass out there, as a lot of the 90 degree turns seem to favor the inside only. The only section where riders have found an option is in the first rhythm lane, where Stewart, Villopoto and Dungey tripled onto the top of a table top, while everyone else went single and bounce to the top of the table.
The whoops are deep, but each section is short, and the whoops are evenly spaced, so they're not as difficult as the last few weeks.
Double mohawks for Shorty and Roczen. Roczen was just outside the top ten in his first SX class practice.
Weege photo
We've got the heavies from the Lites East here for their opening round. Lots of names to keep track of, including favorites like Justin Barcia and Blake Baggett, who won East races last year, Dean Wilson, who won two AMA MX overalls last year, and Blake Wharton, who won a race in 2009. You also have rookies like Jason Anderson, Ian Trettel, and Malcolm Stewart, and PJ Larsen returning from Australia.
Stewart was in the unseeded session, he looked fast but ran a 51 second lap, enough to land him in the top 10 overall.
In seeded Lites, Wilson ran up front early, but Larsen, looking motivated on his JDR KTM, grabbed the top spot with a 50.344. Then Blake Baggett put in a fast one and ran the exact same time--50.344. That's a tie for first!
Wilson ran a 50.394, followed by Barcia, (50.604), Ryan Sipes (50.647), Daryn Durham (51.178) and Wharton (51.229). Trettel (51.354), Renner (51.522) and Anderson (51.564) rounded out the top ten.
Yes the Lites class had a tie for first, but the SX class wasn't that much different. James Stewart had the fastest time with a 48.603, bit Ryan Dungey's 48.676 and Ryan Villopoto's 48.710 were right behind. Perhaps the tighter track is keeping everyone close?
Trey Canard (49.166) and Kyle Chisholm (49.275) rounded out the top five.
Six through ten included Justin Brayton (49.461), Andrew Short (49.564), Davi Millsaps (49.880), Chad Reed (49.937) and Kevin Windham (49.995).
There's a break now, second practice coming next.
The tight track is keeping lap times close.
Weege photo
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The Mohawks are awesome, if your riding a slower bike that sucks and your frustrated you might as well have some fun. And a simple tighter track makes good racing, finally THanks. GO Malcom Stewart your a good kid wish the best for ya.
Again with the sub-50 second lap times. Isn't this Supercross, not Arenacross? The tracks seem to be getting smaller and smaller every year
Who said Shorty is frustrated... He would have still finished 6th last week if he had still been on a Honda... Who would you say he can beat that finished ahead of him last week?
I am bettin' the lap times will get into the low 47second range for the 450's by the end of second practice
"perhaps the tight track is keeping them close" or you could have said WOW RD is exactly the same speed as JS with RV just a tick off, should be a great night! You already are making excuses as to why RD is as fast or was faster in quali's last week than JS.. Why?
I dunno after seeing the first practice seccion times and an online look at the track I hope this race does not turninto a crashfest. Unless I was worried about qualifying I would only make a slow lap in the second timed practice the track is gonna change up. I predict a big shakeup in the pints in the Supercross class?
Rabbit128
Weege:
We miss the web cast. You and Holley were the best Supercross announcers!
Good lord, why do SOME people on here think everything is a frickin' conspiracy, when it involves JS, RD, and RV???? Waaaaaah!!!! Once again, JUST ENJOY THE RACES!!!
I am sick of hearing the phrase, 'this track looks hard to pass on'. Until we get some wider tracks, we stand a good chance of watching another sleeper. Get rid of the junk on the infield. there shouldn't be ANYTHING there, except a goddamn supercross track!!!!!
Practice is just getting a feel for the track and to see how the bike is working on the track (suspension, tires, etc.) This is just riding, not racing. When the racing starts then we will see who is putting down the best lap times.
Feld is getting worse and worse with these one lined follow the leader tracks. They say its for Safety reasons. They need to be able to get a mule to wherever a rider could go down. Seems to me, and others thats its because of the toyota truck, the boat, and whatever else that has nothing to do with supercross racing. At this rate, 2 years from now the main events will be about eleven minutes.
How come We never get to see Windham's opening ceremonies "Transfer jumps". I was at Dodger stadium, expecting K'dub to throw down the best nose wheelie ever when he hit the side of the berm. Clutched it and seat hopped a Huge jump. I would have never thought that would be possible, but k'dub did it. Heard he started doing that at every race this year. I'd love to see that. WAtch that all day. Speed wont show it, why wont anybody else? Heard he did another huge transfer in practice. show it racer X !!!!!!
Good to see Matt Lemoine running up front, he looks fast on the Kawi. Hope Darryn Durham gets a good start and finishes ahead of all the geico guys. Roczen's going to be the fastest KTM in the big bikes. Roczen should have been on that 350 from day 1. I hope 800 doesn't get a good start. He really ruins it for people on these "one lined" tracks
50 second lap times averages to about a 16 minute race. So i bet a lot of fans are driving hours to get to the race and they likely spend a couple hundred bucks on tickets alone and then add the food , drinks and some shirts and stuff and the money adds up. Is it worth it to spend all that time and money to see a arenacross style race. Is it the cost of bringing in more dirt that makes the tracks smaller? If so make the race 30 or 40 laps!!!!!!! Improve supercross! not degrade it!! A 16 minute race is a joke and a waste of time!!!!!!!