Let's give the heat races in Oakland some love. In a few hours, they'll be overshadowed by those pesky main events.
Lites Heat 1:
Ryan Morias raced for Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki a few years ago, and ever since, he always seems to have a green bike denying him a win. In this heat, he made the move into the lead around Travis Baker, but Broc Tickle put a hard block pass on Mo’ to put his Kawi into the lead. Tickle bent Morias’ shifter in the incident, putting a hole in Mo’s engine case. Morias held on for second. Tickle won. He's serious.
Lites Heat 2:
Josh Hansen has been the man in the West Lites so far this year, but Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac have shown great speed at times. So when Hanny gets the holeshot and the 19 and 194 start right behind him, it’s on. Tomac made a serious charge and even ran into Hanny’s back wheel on the start straight (accidentally). Then Hanny began to pull away. The kids have speed in bursts, but they don’t have Hanny’s consistency. This is not a typo. Hanny is now the mature, consistent guy in this class.
SX Heat 1:
James Stewart was supposedly hurt when he missed the second timed practice. He, uh, recovered quickly. He checked out from Austin Stroupe early and logged a blazing 43.948 lap en route to the win. Stroupe saw God at least twice getting way out of shape trying to match Stewart’s pace, Trey Canard passed him to take second. On the last lap Davi Millsaps passed Stroupe for third. The Davi Millsaps from the first three rounds has been kidnapped and replaced by the Davi Millsaps who won a race last year.
SX Heat 2:
Another stacked heat race field, another Justin Brayton win. JB10 checked the heck out early and left a crazy battle behind him, starring Andrew Short, Kevin Windham, Chad Reed, Ryan Villopoto, Brett Metcalfe and Ryan Dungey. RV2 was making some impressive passes to get into third—blasting past Windham and Metcalfe in the whoops and rhythm lane at one point, but he could not close in on Reed or Brayton much.
Reed’s 45.2 was fastest of that heat. Everyone was over a second off of Stewart’s first heat time.
