San Manuel's James Stewart Finishes Tenth in Utah
May 2, 2011, 1:05pm
Salt Lake City, UT-The AMA Supercross Series headed to Salt Lake City this past weekend for round 16 with the top four riders sitting within nine points of each other. The day started out cold and snowy, but that had little effect on Team San Manuel Yamaha Red Bull’s James Stewart as he began turning out the fastest lap times of the day. In Heat 2, Stewart grabbed the holeshot and led a solid eight laps, finishing nearly nine seconds ahead of everyone else. In the Main Event, Stewart again grabbed the holeshot and began pulling away from the rest of the riders. All appeared to be going Stewart’s way, until midway in the race when he washed out his front end in a slick corner. He quickly remounted, only to go down again in one of the whoop sections, twisting his front end. Stewart briefly stopped in the mechanics area to straighten things out, but by the time he was able to get back into the race, he had already been lapped. Despite the upset, Stewart charged on and put some fast lap times in, working his way to a tenth place finish. “I’m pretty bummed out, things definitely didn’t go as planned,” Stewart said. “It’s been an up and down season, but I’ve tried my hardest all year long. Thank you to everyone for your continued support. I’m going to keep striving to get better and will try to get another win before we end this thing.” Stewart remains in fourth place, now with 295 points and sitting 23 points behind the lead.
Stewart’s teammate Kyle Regal looked promising in practice, sitting in 12th place overall heading into Heat 1. Regal was able to get a good start in his Heat race and rode to a fifth place finish, transferring directly to the Main. As the gates dropped for the Main Event, Regal tangled with another rider placing him at the back of the pack off the start. He quickly remounted and was able to pull it together, moving up from 17th place to as far as 10th, slipping back to a 12th place finish for the day. “I had a rough night tonight,” Regal said. “I didn’t get a good start, but tried hard to work my way back up and rode pretty decent through the last lap. It wasn’t the result that I wanted but I’m getting there.” Regal moved up to 14th place overall, now with 95 points.
Stewart’s teammate Kyle Regal looked promising in practice, sitting in 12th place overall heading into Heat 1. Regal was able to get a good start in his Heat race and rode to a fifth place finish, transferring directly to the Main. As the gates dropped for the Main Event, Regal tangled with another rider placing him at the back of the pack off the start. He quickly remounted and was able to pull it together, moving up from 17th place to as far as 10th, slipping back to a 12th place finish for the day. “I had a rough night tonight,” Regal said. “I didn’t get a good start, but tried hard to work my way back up and rode pretty decent through the last lap. It wasn’t the result that I wanted but I’m getting there.” Regal moved up to 14th place overall, now with 95 points.
