The official start to the 2009 AMA race season, the Anaheim Supercross, got under way today with timed qualifying. All of the teams debuted their new looks, new riders, and many riders debuted their new numbers.
In 450cc practice, James Stewart, as many expected, was the fastest and was the only rider to circulate the track in under a minute. Ryan Villopoto was second-fastest, with Chad Reed right on his tail in third. In other big news, Broc Hepler was knocked unconscious when he endoed into a berm at the end of one of the track's two short whoop sections. He eventually got up under his own power, but by virtue of being unconscious, it's probably safe to say that he will, at minimum, sit out the night's racing.
In the Lites class, Jason Lawrence sat atop the charts for the first part of practice before getting knocked off the top spot by Ryan Dungey. Other front-runners included Justin Brayton, Jake Weimer and Trey Canard.
It's raining now and second practice is going on, and provided that nothing big changes, it should be business as usual come about 7 p.m. PST.