Daytona Supercross Race Report

March 8, 2009, 7:00am

The first turn was absolute carnage in the 450cc main, with James Stewart (blue bike in the air) grabbing too much front brake and going down, taking much of the pack with him. You can see Jason Lawrence (338) already making other plans. Nearly everyone was at least momentarily caught up in the crash.
The sparse field comes around turn one with Mike Alessi (800) in the lead, followed by Tommy Hahn (48) and Heath Voss (13).
Alessi (800) led the early going, but Lawrence (338, who was fastest in practice) soon caught and passed Alessi for the lead.
From the point he took the lead, Lawrence led all the way until the last four laps, by which time he was pooped. At the halfway point, he had a straightaway on second place. He finished an astonishing second in the main.
Reed came from the tail end of the top 10 to pass Lawrence with a few laps to go and win his second main event in a row.
Davi Millsaps finished third after colliding with Mike Alessi on the last lap. They both went down, but were up quickly.
Mike Alessi was fourth.
Kevin Windham (14) held off Ryan Villopoto for fifth.
Stewart got up from his first turn crash (after briefly trying to ride off on Josh Hill's bike) with only Ben Coisy, Matt Boni and Michael Byrne behind him and charged as best he could on his beat-up YZ-F. He caught up to seventh, losing 11 points to Reed in the championship chase.

It’s unheard of for title rivals to go into the Daytona Supercross tied atop the points standings, but that’s exactly what we had this weekend. No matter what happened, one rider would be in sole possession of the points lead by the end of the weekend, so the question was only, By how much?

San Manuel Yamaha’s James Stewart spotted Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Chad Reed quite a bit right off the start of the main event, when Stewart washed out the front end under braking and went down in the first turn, taking half the field with him, and disrupting the progress of almost everyone else.

Reed’s teammate Mike Alessi got away with the holeshot, with a smattering of riders behind him, including Tommy Hahn, Heath Voss and Jason Lawrence. Reed finished the opening lap in eighth.

After leading the first two laps, Alessi came under attack from fastest qualifier Jason Lawrence, who made quick work of Alessi and moved into the lead. Lawrence immediately began to pull away from Alessi while Reed was having a tough time moving through the pack and only sat seventh. By lap four, Reed was fifth, behind Hahn, GEICO Powersports Honda’s Kevin Windham, Alessi and Lawrence.

Reed passed Hahn for fourth on lap six, the got Windham two laps later for third. Finally, at the halfway point, Reed found his way into second, and Lawrence had a full straightaway on him at that point. However, Reed put his head down, and Lawrence tired out, and with four laps to go, Reed had caught Lawrence and Lawrence literally moved out of Reed’s way, letting him by for the lead. Reed led the remaining four laps to win his second main event in a row, while Lawrence finished a remarkable second, and Honda Red Bull Racing’s Davi Millsaps – after colliding with Alessi on the last lap, causing them both to fall – finished third. Alessi was fourth in front of Windham, Villopoto (who ran as high as third at one point) and Stewart, who fought back valiantly from basically last on a twisted bike.

With seven rounds left to run now, Reed leads Stewart by 11 points in the championship chase.

450cc Main:
1. Chad Reed (Suz)
2. Jason Lawrence (Yam)
3. Davi Millsaps (Hon)
4. Mike Alessi (Suz)
5. Kevin Windham (Hon)
6. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
7. James Stewart (Yam)
8. Andrew Short (Hon)
9. Ryan Sipes (KTM)
10. Tommy Hahn (Kaw)
11. Josh Hill (Yam)
12. Broc Hepler (Yam)
13. Ivan Tedesco (Hon)
14. Tyler Bowers (Hon)
15. Heath Voss (Hon)
16. Kyle Chisholm (Yam)
17. Ben Coisy (Hon)
18. Matt Boni (Hon)
19. Timmy Ferry (Kaw)
20. Michael Byrne (Suz)

450cc Points (After 10 of 17 rounds):
1. Chad Reed (224/2 wins)
2. James Stewart (213/7 wins)
3. Andrew Short (163)
4. Ryan Villopoto (153)
5. Ivan Tedesco (140)
6. Josh Grant (138/1 win)
7. Davi Millsaps (136)
8. Mike Alessi (131)
9. Kevin Windham (128)
10. Timmy Ferry (100)

In the Lites class, Martin Davalos (577) passed Matt Lemoine for the early lead in the main event and pulled away, initially, from points leader Christophe Pourcel (377).
Late in the main, the battle for the lead closed back up, and Pourcel (377) eventually made the pass stick.
Pourcel took his third victory of the season while his teammate, Austin Stroupe (and Indy winner), knocked himself silly on the opening lap and dropped out of the main event.
Nico Izzi finished third, behind Pourcel and Davalos, after he passed Matt Lemoine late in the race.
Lemoine was fourth.
After a crazy crash on the sighting lap, when Hahn collided with Blake Wharton nearly head-on, Hahn put in a solid ride, despite a hurt leg, for fifth.

The Lites main was, comparatively, much less eventful. Star Racing Yamaha’s Matt Lemoine led the pack off the start with Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel second and Muscle Milk/MDK KTM’s Martin Davalos third, while Pourcel’s teammate and winner of Indy, Austin Stroupe, went down hard in the rhythm section on the opening lap and dropped out of the race.

On lap two, Davalos was on a tear, as he passed both Pourcel and Lemoine. Pourcel moved into second, and Davalos began to pull away. However, at just past the halfway point, Pourcel began reeling Davalos back in, and on lap 11, Pourcel was all over Davalos. Pourcel made the pass stick a lap later, and then quickly pulled away from Davalos, who seemed spent.

Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Nico Izzi started the race in eighth, but by about lap 10, Izzi was all over Lemoine, in a reverse situation from the end of the race in Indy, when Lemoine was pressuring Izzi for third. Izzi got by Lemoine for third with four laps left to run. Lemoine finished fourth, and Wil Hahn fifth.

Pourcel now leads the championship at the halfway point by a whopping 15 points over Izzi, and a total of 38 points over Stroupe, who still sits third in the standings.

Lites Main:
1. Christophe Pourcel (Kaw)
2. Martin Davalos (KTM)
3. Nico Izzi (Suz)
4. Matt Lemoine (Yam)
5. Wil Hahn (KTM)
6. Matt Goerke (Suz)
7. Darryn Durham (Yam)
8. Broc Tickle (Yam)
9. Blake Wharton (Hon)
10. Kyle Keylon (Hon)
11. Daniel Blair (Hon)
12. Levi Kilbarger (Hon)
13. Branden Jesseman (Kaw)
14. Vince Friese (Hon)
15. Shane Sewell (Yam)
16. Steve Clarke (Suz)
17. Josh Lichtle (Hon)
18. Brad Ripple (Hon)
19. Austin Stroupe (Kaw)
20. Jason Thomas (Hon)

Lites East Points (After 4 of 8 rounds):
1. Christophe Pourcel (97/3 wins)
2. Nico Izzi (82)
3. Austin Stroupe (59/1 win)
4. Martin Davalos (56)
5. Wil Hahn (52)
6. Branden Jesseman (51)
7. Matt Lemoine (47)
8. Blake Wharton (46)
9. Steven Clarke (40)
10. Matt Goerke (38)