Sign of the (Lap) Times: Indy

March 4, 2008 12:44pm

AMA Supercross Lites

Torco Racing Fuels Honda’s Trey Canard wasn’t the fastest rider in the Atlanta season-opener, on his way to his first-ever professional supercross win, but this past weekend in Indy, he was. Canard ran a 46.812 (which came on the first lap of the main event), which was just a bit faster than Ryan Villopoto’s 46.837, which came on lap five.

Trey Canard did it again!

The third-fastest Lites rider in Indiana was RV’s teammate, Branden Jesseman, and Canard’s teammate, Josh Grant, was fourth. Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Nico Izzi rounded out the top five on his way to his first career podium finish. Check out the entire field below:

Finish	Best Lap Time	Rider	Bike
1	46.812	Trey Canard	Honda
2	46.837	Ryan Villopoto	Kawasaki
6	47.629	Branden Jesseman	Kawasaki
12	48.408	Josh Grant	Honda
3	48.487	Nico Izzi	Suzuki
5	48.490	Ryan Sipes	KTM
4	48.588	Ben Coisy	Honda
10	48.919	Martin Davalos	KTM
11	49.017	Jake Moss	Yamaha
9	49.455	Matt Goerke	KTM
7	49.628	Tyler Bowers	Yamaha
14	49.765	Ryan Morais	Yamaha
8	49.810	Billy Payne	Honda
21	49.887	Kyle Partridge	Honda
16	50.234	Michael McDade	Honda
15	50.277	Nathan Skaggs	Honda
17	50.568	Jimmy Albertson	Suzuki
13	50.676	Travis Sewell	Suzuki
22	50.894	Shane Sewell	Kawasaki
18	50.947	Willy Browning	Suzuki
19	51.974	Leighton Lillie	Honda
20	55.056	Zach Ames	Honda

Biggest surprise: Or should I say disappointment? Coming into the season, one of the title favorites was Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy’s Ryan Morais, who was a very close runner-up for the Eastern Regional Lites championship to Ben Townley in 2007. Unfortunately, he has been unable to find the speed from last season and recorded only the 12th-fastest Lites lap time in Indy—almost a full three seconds off of Canard’s best time. He’s currently 12th in points with an 11th and 14th-place finish.

AMA Supercross

Chad Reed got back on top of his game in a big way in Indy, laying down the fastest lap of the night aboard his San Manuel/Fusion Energy Yamaha. In fact, his best lap time (45.574) was almost a full second faster than that of Honda Red Bull Racing’s Andrew Short (46.402), who was the second-fastest premier-class rider. The third-fastest lap time was logged in by second-place finisher Josh Hill, aboard his factory Yamaha, followed by Torco Racing Fuels Honda’s Kevin Windham and 450-class rookie Ryan Dungey, aboard his (or Michael Byrne’s) Rockstar/Makita Suzuki RM-Z450.

Reedy was speedy.

Finish	Best Lap Time	Rider	Bike
1	45.574	Chad Reed	Yamaha
3	46.402	Andrew Short	Honda
2	46.517	Josh Hill	Yamaha
5	46.805	Kevin Windham	Honda
4	46.843	Ryan Dungey	Suzuki
17	47.032	Davi Millsaps	Honda
10	47.326	Josh Hansen	Yamaha
8	47.455	Nathan Ramsey	Yamaha
6	47.990	Travis Preston	Kawasaki
13	48.605	Jason Thomas	Honda
7	48.623	Paul Carpenter	Honda
11	48.931	Troy Adams	Honda
12	49.090	Manuel Rivas	Kawasaki
9	49.150	David Vuillemin	Suzuki
19	49.154	Charles Summey	Yamaha
15	49.699	Jake Marsack	Honda
14	49.716	Heath Voss	Honda
16	49.932	Eric Sorby	Honda
20	50.033	Bryan Johnson	Honda
18	50.290	Jeff Gibson	Kawasaki

Biggest surprise: After logging the fastest lap time of everyone in his win last week in Atlanta, Honda Red Bull Racing’s Davi Millsaps failed to crack the top-five-best 450-class times with his 47.032 inside the RCA Dome. Maybe Davi was having an off-night, or maybe this just is a great example of the parity we have this year in the AMA Supercross class.

Ryan Dungey was quick on his RM-Z450