250 Words: Salt Lake City

By Aaron Hansel

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Coming into Salt Lake City, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer was in the driver’s seat with a 19-point lead over TLD Honda's Wil Hahn. After a convincing win in his heat race, Weimer’s championship hopes were looking pretty healthy. As the main event approached, however, it seemed as though the supercross gods were determined to make things as interesting as possible when heavy rain and snow filled the sky.

Mud races are especially brutal on bikes, and Weimer’s Mechanic, Shawn Irwin, must have been biting his nails the whole night, as a DNF from Weimer had the potential to hand the title over to Hahn. But Weimer kept it on two wheels, his bike withstood the mud, and at the end of the night, his fifth-place finish was enough to earn him the 2010 Lites Western Regional supercross championship.

Mitch Payton’s crew had another reason to celebrate when Josh Hansen checked out on lap two of the main and completely dominated, winning by nearly 17 seconds. Hansen had been on fire all night, setting the fast time in practice by over a second and winning his heat race, but Salt Lake marked the first race of the year in which Hansen was able to successfully convert that momentum into a main event win. It was Hansen’s first supercross victory since 2005, and he was exuberant on the podium, even delivering part of his speech in an Australian accent.

Next week the series meets in Las Vegas, where Christophe Pourcel, Weimer, and Canard will line up in what will be their final Lites supercross race, and it’s a sure bet that each of them wants to end their Lites career with a victory. If that weren’t enough excitement, race winners Broc Tickle, Blake Baggett, Josh Hansen, and the controversial Justin Barcia will all be on hand to throw gas on the fire. Don’t miss the Dave Coombs East - West Shootout, it’s shaping up to be an absolute barn burner.