Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Weimer & Morais Go 2-3

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer put on a massive charge in the final WSX Lites class main event at Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, coming from outside the top ten at the start to finish on the podium in 2nd place. The effort would secure 2nd place overall in the WSX Lites point chase, five points back of series champion Ryan Dungey (178-173).

 

With teammate Ryan Morais joining Weimer on the SLC podium, the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team closed out the season with an industry-best 13 podium finishes in WSX Lites competition – far and above what any other manufacturer came close to matching.

 

“This year was great, went beyond the goals I set for myself,” said Morais, 3rd in the WSX overall standings with 166 points.

 

The two Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki riders would line up together in the first Lites heat race, having locked down the second-fastest (Weimer @ :55.481) and sixth-fastest (Morais @ :56.515) qualifying practice times. When the gate dropped Weimer was gone – pulling the holeshot and seemingly cruising to a near seven-second win over 2ndplace racer Jake Moss – Weimer’s sixth heat race win of ’09. Morais was up front early as well, but a get together with another rider forced him to the ground and he needed to battle back through the pack.

 

Morais provided some serious highlights in his heat race charge when he tripled from 8th place into 6th, then out-cornered Jeff Alessi for 5th place. Morais’ final victim would be Michael Sleeter, who he passed in the whoops for 4th – ultimately running out of time in his quest to catch the first heat race front runners.

 

In the Lites main Weimer didn’t pull the ideal start and was barely inside the top ten when he came around after the first lap. Morais’ start wasn’t a whole lot better, but he found a way to move up to 4th place early in the contest.

 

By lap four Weimer was moving up quickly, and made a great pass on Justin Brayton with a slick inside/outside move to take over 6th place. He then got by teammate Morais, then Michael Blose for 3rd. And when Moss went down and Dungey wisely let the charging Weimer past, Weimer put on a valiant effort in chasing down Trey Canard for the win, the two banging into each other and battling madly toward the finish line, sending Tuff Blocks flying as Canard won by less than a second.

 

“It’s a bummer not to come away with the win, but I didn’t leave anything on the table – gave it 100-percent (all season long) and we came close,” said Weimer.

 

Las Vegas’ Sam Boyd Stadium marks the 17th and final stop on the 2009 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, this weekend (May 2). Weimer and Morais will be joined by Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki ESX champion Christophe Pourcel and his runner-up teammate Austin Stroupe, in the annual Dave Coombs Sr. SX Lites Shoot Out. For more information on Monster Energy Supercross check out: www.supercrossonline.com