Starving for Monster Energy Supercross info on a night without live TV? Dig these heat race reports and try to picture how it all looked.
In 250 Heat 1, Zach Bell nailed the start but was quickly displaced by Blake Wharton, who has looked bound and determined today to make some noise. Blake’s had two consistent finishes this year, (second, fourth) but tonight could be the night to go up a level. He pulled away from Bell and a pack of rookies to take the win.
The rookie pack included Bell, Justin Hill and Jeremy Martin. Bell crashed (man, does that happen too much or what?) in a sand turn and had trouble restarting his bike. By the time he got going, he was out of a qualifying position. Hill held off Martin for second.
In 250 heat 2, Lance Vincent grabbed the holeshot and led, but a crash by Todd Krieg led to a red flag and restatrt. Krieg was able to get back up under his own power, but was not able to rejoin the race. Then on the restart, justice was served as Vincent grabbed the holie again! Dean Wilson quickly displaced Vince Friese to take over second, then went after Vincent for the lead. He was quickly around and gone. Wil Hahn, last week’s race winner, followed Wilson through and took over second, but wasn’t able to make a run on the 250 points leader.
In 450 heat 1, Ryan Villopoto grabbed the early lead. Did you hear that? Can you guess what happened next? Yeah, the champ won. But Justin Barcia started second and stayed close to Villopoto for most of the way. Further back, Eli Tomac knifed the front end trying to pass Andrew Short for fourth, and went down. Took him awhile to get going, and Tomac finished 12th, sending him to the LCQ.
In the second 450 heat, it looked like Ryan Dungey had the start dialed, but he drove too fast and too far into the first turn and went wide. James Stewart was able to grab the lead and Davi Millsaps snuck in behind him. From there, a chase to the finish, as Millsaps challenged Stewart a bit on lap one, then stayed close the rest of the way. But Stewart, who has been a heat race master this year, held on to win it. Millsaps was close in second, but they opened a surprisingly-large gap on Dungey, who finished third.
