Sign Of The (Lap) Times: St. Louis

March 6, 2007, 9:37am

Supercross class

It was a crazy night in St. Louis last Saturday night, but wasn’t it fun for us fans? By now you all know what happened, and Andy Bowyer wrote about it yesterday in 450 words. Many of you don’t agree with Mr. Bowyer, who said that Reed “took out” James Stewart early in the race. But take out or not, Reed just wasn’t the fastest guy in Missouri. He was within a second of both Stewart and Carmichael, but when you’re losing almost a second a lap to the leaders, it doesn’t bode well for victory.

Finish	Best Lap Time	Rider	Bike
2	44.493	James Stewart	Kawasaki
1	44.882	Ricky Carmichael	Suzuki
3	45.383	Chad Reed	Yamaha
4	46.049	Kevin Windham	Honda
5	46.697	Nathan Ramsey	Yamaha
17	46.725	Tim Ferry	Kawasaki
6	47.077	David Vuillemin	Honda
9	47.136	Eric Sorby	Kawasaki
20	47.229	Josh Summey	Honda
8	47.446	Heath Voss	Honda
7	47.560	Paul Carpenter	Kawasaki
18	47.613	Ryan Clark	Honda
19	47.650	Ivan Tedesco	Suzuki
10	47.721	Cole Siebler	Honda
15	47.758	Michael Byrne	Suzuki
11	47.923	Kevin Johnson	Yamaha
13	48.058	Jacob Marsack	Kawasaki
21	48.067	Travis Preston	Honda
14	48.089	Kyle Lewis	Honda
12	48.126	Jeff Gibson	Kawasaki

It’s interesting to note on which lap these riders’ fastest lap time came on: Carmichael clocked his fastest time on lap eight; Stewart on lap 10, and Reed on lap 12. James was putting in some really impressive laps midway through the race, and toward the end it seemed that he may have a chance to catch Carmichael, but that was just an illusion. We checked out the individual lap times from lap 19, and RC was fastest of the top three with a 45.975; Reed had a 46.925; Stewart was might have been dealing with lapped riders, as he came across with a 47.225.

James Stewart got around Chad Reed on lap 11

When all was said and done, you have to give credit where it’s due: After a few weeks with no racing, Carmichael still has what it takes to be the best in the world.

Supercross Lites

The Lites main event had more fireworks that the 4th of July—served up by a Canadian, a New Zealander and a kid from Minnesota! But when all was said and done, it was NZ’s Ben Townley surviving the last-lap chaos to score his first-ever AMA Supercross win. But as he told Racer X yesterday in the Alpinestars Monday Conversation, he wasn’t the fastest. In fact, both Darcy Lange and Ryan Dungey had a faster lap time then the 2004 World Champion, but their crashes at the end of the race helped BT101 to emerge victorious.

Finish	Best Lap Time	Rider	Bike
6	46.044	Darcy Lange	Kawasaki
18	46.181	Ryan Dungey	Suzuki
1	46.475	Ben Townley	Kawasaki
3	46.860	Matt Goerke	Yamaha
4	46.914	Mike Alessi	KTM
10	47.055	Justin Brayton	Yamaha
5	47.132	Broc Tickle	Yamaha
2	47.197	Ryan Morais	Yamaha
22	47.375	Kelly Smith	Suzuki
7	47.393	Jeff Alessi	KTM
8	47.700	Ryan Sipes	Honda
11	47.776	Tucker Hibbert	Yamaha
9	48.069	Zach Osborne	KTM
17	48.318	Teddy Maier	Honda
12	48.432	Ricky Renner	Honda
19	48.612	Matt Boni	Kawasaki
14	48.626	Billy Laninovich	Honda
20	49.031	Ronny Jackson	Kawasaki
15	49.104	Justin Sipes	Kawasaki
13	49.203	Kyle Tobin	Yamaha

Lange (105) had the fastest Lites lap time; Ben Townley (101) was third.

The equality in the Lites class is amazing, as the top five riders were less than a second apart (and all five right around fifth-place 450 rider Nathan Ramsey’s time on the dynamic track). And it’s good to finally see Red Bull KTM’s Mike Alessi up there. But you don’t have to be the fastest, or even one of the top five fastest, to be in the points lead: Yamaha of Troy’s Ryan Morais had only the eighth-fastest lap time of the Lites main event, but his second-place finish has him tied for first with his teammate, Matt Goerke. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency…