James Stewart, Jr. clinches 50th victory of season at Qwest Field: 2011 AMA Supercross Championship
The 15th round of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Supercross went down at the Qwest Field in Seattle, USA, this Saturday, 16 April. After an intense showdown, it was San Manuel Yamaha’s James Stewart, Jr. who secured the highest spot
on the podium after clinching his fifth win of the season. Geico Honda’s Kevin Windham finished in runner-up position, while TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed rounded out the podium after finishing in the third place.
As always, a huge crowd had shown up at the site to witness the adrenaline-pumping battle between arguably some of the most exciting action sports athletes in the world. With 52,683 people present at the Qwest Field, the atmosphere was as electrifying as
ever. Right in the centre, the 15 riders mounted their bikes to do something special and make the race count. Regardless of the unfriendly weather and challenging tracks, the riders were pumped up to give their 100 percent in the 20-lap race.
As the starting gun was fired, Hart and Huntington/Dodge Motorsports’ Ivan Tedesco got the holeshot for the second consecutive time and won himself the Nuclear Cowboys® Holeshot Award. He was closely followed by Stewart and Reed. Windham also got an amazing
start and found himself in the top five, along with Red Bull KTM’s Mike Alessi. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto, who currently leads the series with highest points, had an unimpressive start. He and Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey went down after
crashing very early in the race to end up in 10th and 11th place respectively. By the end of the first lap, Stewart and Reed had replaced Tedesco in the lead, with Alessi and Windham close behind.
In the third lap, Windham managed to overtake Alessi, who had shifted his focus from consistent riding to pressurising Reed, for third place. By now, Stewart had broken away from the pack and started to build up a lead. Villopoto had managed to improve his
position to move up to seventh place.
By the seventh lap, Villopoto had gotten into the leading five. A lap later, Dungey move to eighth while the leader of the pack, Stewart, had extended his lead to eight seconds. Reed, Windham and Alessi were in second, third and fourth place respectively.
Early in the second half of the race, Alessi found himself off the track after nearly hitting the deck. This gave Villopoto the opportunity to move to fourth place while Dungey moved to fifth. However, Dungey found himself in yet another crash in the 12th lap
and fell to sixth place.
While Stewart was riding in front with a decent lead, Reed ended up in a very big crash with only a few more laps to go. Even though he lost his second position to Windham, he recovered quickly enough to keep Villopoto from capitalising on the blunder.
Stewart’s consistent riding paid off yet once again as he went past the chequered flag to clinch his fifth victory of the season. He had kept himself from making any blunder and refused to give any sort of opportunity to those in pursuit.
“Tonight was awesome,” said Stewart. “I had fun all day. I thought the track was awesome, it was so tough. I was just trying to stay consistent because I knew it was going crazy behind me. You can look out there and see how rough it is, but my San Manuel
Yamaha was working awesome. I’m looking forward to Salt Lake City.”
Windham finished in second after cautious riding, while Reed ended up in third after a hiccup that cost him the second place finish. Villopoto and Dungey finished in fourth and fifth place respectively.
After the 15th round of the AMA Supercross, Villopoto still tops the championship standings with 293 points. Reed trails the leader by six points. Dungey sits at third with 286 points, while Stewart is breathing down his neck with 284 points.
Even though Canard is still in fifth place with 255 points, the AMA rookie has been eliminated from title contention after suffering a femur injury a few days back.
The riders will head off to Salt Lake City in Utah on 30 April for the second-last round of the 2011 AMA Supercross Championship.
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