Anaheim Practice Report
Riders were greeted by a tight, technical track today at Anaheim, and the lap times were notably slower than a few other rounds this year. The technical sections include a few slow 180-degree corners followed by rhythm sections that offer several variations on how to get through them. James Stewart clocked the fastest times in both 450 sessions, with Chad Reed a few tenths of a second behind. It looks like the fastest the riders might be able to get around the track tonight is around 55-56 seconds, which is a little longer than the sub-50 second times we've seen at some other tracks this season.
This technical track has claimed some victims. The second seeded riders practice in the Lites class actually had to be red flagged as two riders--Mike LaPaglia and Justin Keeney--crashed in two seperate sections of the track at nearly the same time. LaPaglia was shaken up but was able to continue (although he crashed again in the same section, again, getting up unhurt). Keeney, though, looks to have injured his knee.
The toughest section might be the six pack of jumps the riders attack coming out of home plate here at Angels Stadium. It's much faster to triple-triple through it, but that's really difficult and there's not much margin for error. The 450 riders have it a little easier through there, of course.
Ryan Villopoto was the fastest Lites rider, with Jason Lawrence, Josh Grant and Josh Hill in behind him. Josh Hansen looked fast, too, but he crashed in the second session and missed a few laps sorting himself back out. he did get up and back up to speed, though.
That's practice from Anaheim. Don't forget the live webcast tonight hosted by Jim Holley and the incredible me, on supercrossonline.com. Check TFS' Weekend Window for updates, and watch the show on Speed tomorrow at 3 EST and noon PST. Lucky for the NFL, supercross isn't on at the same time as the big game.
