Honda Red Riders Charge at St. Louis

April 13, 2011, 2:35pm

Torrance, CA: Round 14 of the AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, took place at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, MO, over the weekend, and the Honda Red Riders showed up ready to vie for the top spots aboard their Honda CRF450R and CRF250R race machines. American Honda Racing’s Trey Canard put in a hard-charging performance to finish fifth in the Supercross class, while GEICO Honda’s Justin Barcia moved a step closer toward winning the Supercross Lites East Championship after winning the penultimate round.

After recording the fastest lap time in qualifying and finishing runner-up in his heat race, Canard was primed to dominate the main event as he did last week in Dallas. Unfortunately, a bad gate spot hindered Canard’s ability to get traction off the start, and he rounded the opening lap in 15th place. From there, Canard retaliated by pounding out a series of successful passes aboard his CRF450R, working his way into the top 10 by lap four. Closing in on the front-runners, Canard continued to make up ground and was in fifth spot when the checkers fell.

“That was definitely not how I was expecting my night to turn out,” said Canard. “Unfortunately, I didn’t pick a good gate for the main. It wasn’t until I was lining up on the start gate after the parade lap that I realized I was at a gate with a patch of concrete showing. I knew then that I wasn’t going to have much traction starting, but it was too late to change gates. Despite the poor start, I feel as though I rode a good race. I made very few mistakes once I got going, and I made up a lot of ground on the riders up front. I actually lost a couple of points on the championship leader after tonight’s result. However, there are still three races to go in the series and only 20 points standing between the leader and me. Bring on Seattle Supercross next week.”

TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed finished fifth in his heat race and one spot ahead of Canard in the main. Despite holding down third position early in the race, Reed was unable to hold off a fast-charging Ryan Villopoto, and he relinquished his spot on the podium on lap eight. Still, Reed is currently third in the championship, only eight points behind the series points leader with three rounds to go. GEICO Honda’s Kevin Windham recovered from a hard crash in qualifying to finish sixth overall in the main.

In the Lites East class, Barcia took a major step toward winning his first-ever Supercross title by snaring victory in St. Louis. Finishing on his eighth straight podium, Barcia led 14 laps of the 15-lap race to clinch his third win of the season and extend his championship lead to 20 points. Teammate Blake Wharton put in a solid effort to finish fifth, while fellow Honda racers Lance Vincent, Les Smith and Taylor Futrell finished inside the top 10.

Supercross Lites East Main Event

1. Justin Barcia (Honda)

2. Ryan Sipes

3. Blake Baggett

4. Dean Wilson

5. Blake Wharton (Honda)

6. Gannon Audette

7. Hunter Hewitt

8. Lance Vincent (Honda)

9. Les Smith (Honda)

10. Taylor Futrell (Honda)

Supercross Lites East Point Standings