GEICO Powersports San Francisco Report

San Francisco, Calif. – The San Francisco Supercross marked the return of the Lites West, which meant the return not only of GEICO Powersports Honda’s Dan Reardon, but of Trey Canard as well, who was injured at round two and missed round three. The 2008 Lites East Champ had a troubled practice session in San Francisco, but by the time the main event rolled around, he pulled it together.

Canard started in fourth, behind Ryan Dungey, Cole Seely and Jake Weimer, and when Dungey went by Seely, Canard followed. For the next few laps, he pressured Dungey, only to make a mistake and fall back a bit. Late in the race, however, Dungey went down, allowing Canard by momentarily before Canard made another minor mistake and allowed Dungey back by for second. Still, Canard finished third in his first race back, which was like a win to him considering how things had been going for him previously.

“In the main, I got about a third or fourth-place start, and I was behind Seely and Dungey for about three laps, and then Dungey got by him, and I got by Seely, and I was right on Dungey and made a really big mistake, which dropped me back about five seconds,” Canard said. “I stayed there pretty much the whole race. Then Dungey went down, and I got by him, and then I kind of tightened up a little bit and I was guarding myself a bit, and I made a mistake, and he got around me. But I wasn’t going to force the issue. Third’s good, and I want to keep this ball rolling.”

His teammate Reardon got run into off the start in his heat race, which forced him to come from behind on a track that didn’t provide a lot of passing opportunities. He caught up to a strong seventh in the short, six-lap race, but that gave him a bad gate pick for the main, forcing a further poor start. He started outside the top 15 in the main event, but worked his way steadily forward until he sat on the tail end of a train of riders comprising spots four through seven, and he finished seventh.

“It’s kind of unfortunate, because with the week break, we went back and worked on some stuff, but the night didn’t go as planned,” Reardon said. “I found myself in a bad position with the tangle-up off the start in the heat, then crashed trying to catch up. I tried to make the most of a bad situation in the main event, but my gate pick was bad and the start was bad, and the track was hard to pass on, so I ended up spending the last half of the race pretty much just riding around by myself.”

In the 450cc class, Kevin Windham was feeling good all day. He was up front throughout the day in timed practice, but poor starts haunted him all day. In his heat, he was able to catch up to fourth from behind, and then in the main event, he started outside the top 10 and worked his way up from there on the track that was so difficult to pass on.

“We didn’t change much today, which always makes me a happy camper – to ride the same bike throughout the day and have something that’s working good,” Windham said. “I had good confidence. It was a fun day, just being on the board and being competitive. At the end of the night, it didn’t turn out the way we wanted, but all in all, you can look back on this weekend and think of it as a big success. I think that my times were representative of a podium performance with just a little bit better start. I know that the guys here [who build the tracks for the supercross series] are wanting to keep the racing tight, but I think tight with no action really isn’t that good. When you’ve got guys like [Mike] Alessi holding up [Chad] Reed, and everyone else that went by him had to hit him... It’s nice to have tight racing, but what good is it when there’s not a lot of action? It’s a little frustrating. I’ve had those rides before where I didn’t ride as hard as I did tonight and got to shake some champagne, and then it seemed like I rode as hard as I could and was really respectable today, all day, from start to finish, so to walk away with a sixth is a little frustrating.”

From here, the GEICO Powersports Honda team heads back to Anaheim, California, for round six of the AMA Supercross Series, and round five of the Lites Western Regional Supercross Championship, on February 7 inside Angel Stadium, where the long-term weather forecast looks like rain.

Team Sponsors: GEICO Powersports, Honda, Planet Fitness, Unbound Energy, AM/PM, Factory Connection, Fox, Shoei, Gaerne, DVS, Amsoil Lubricants, Cycra Plastics, Dunlop Tires, EK Chains, Filtron Air Filters, Hinson Clutches, Leatt Brace, One Industries, Pro Circuit, Renthal, Shock Doctor, Showa, TAG Sprockets, Vortex Ignitions, VP Fuels, and Works Connection.

San Francisco Lites Main:
1.         Jake Weimer    Kaw
2.         Ryan Dungey  Suz
3.         Trey Canard  GEICO Powersports Honda
4.         Justin Brayton KTM
5.         Ryan Morais    Kaw
6.         Ryan Sipes      KTM
7.         Dan Reardon GEICO Powersports Honda
8.         Kyle Cunningham       Kaw
9.         PJ Larsen         Kaw
10.       Eric McCrummen        Hon

San Francisco 450cc Main:
1.         James Stewart Yam
2.         Chad Reed      Suz
3.         Ryan Villopoto           Kaw
4.         Josh Grant       Yam
5.         Andrew Short Hon
6.         Kevin Windham    GEICO Powersports Honda
7.         Josh Hill          Yam
8.         Davi Millsaps  Hon
9.         Mike Alessi     Suz
10.       Ivan Tedesco   Hon