The Houston Supercross, round seven of the Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Championship, goes off tonight inside Reliant Stadium - that is, if a tornado doesn't rip through and end the race before it starts.
There have been severe weather alerts throughout the day, but most of the weather reports put the tornado warnings a little north of Houston. However, it has been raining and blowing all day in the pits across from Reliant Stadium. Many of the teams chose to take down their awnings to avoid damaging them in the wind, and set up shop underneath the tailgates.
This week's track was designed by
Kevin Windham of the Torco Racing Fuels Honda team. Here, the lovely Erin Bates shows off the original drawing by K-Dub. Yes, that's a paper towel. But at least the ink is blue, so it's sort of like a blueprint.
Windham made good use of his design, posting the fastest time in the second seeded 450cc practice session.
San Manuel Yamaha's
Chad Reed was fastest in the first 450cc practice session. If he wins tonight, it will be his fifth win in a row and sixth out of the seven races run thus far.
Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy's
Jason Lawrence definitely has all of the momentum heading into tonight's race, but he's not having it easy. He led one of the two practices by less than a 10th of a second over Rockstar/Makita Suzuki's
Ryan Dungey...
...and Dungey led the other Lites practice session over Lawrence, also by less than a 10th of a second overall.
It should be good.
There were a few minor mechanical issues in practice. This is a picture of privateer Turbo Reif's front wheel from the second practice. Honda Red Bull's
Davi Millsaps got a rear flat in the second practice.
So give a listen to Jim Holley and Jason Weigandt at www.supercrossonline.com starting at 7 p.m. Texas time to see how tonight's racing pans out.
