Motocross: Crashing the Gate at Daytona
Written by playerpress.com, Friday March 13 2009
Last year the weather turned ugly for this event and dampened both the rider’s performances and the spirits of the fans. This year Daytona was her sunny, gracious self and the feelings were completely different. Still, you stick all of those machines together in a tight space and strange things can happen.
Coming in Chad Reed had reason to hate last year’s Daytona race. After all, he led for every lap except one. It wasn’t a happy ending, so I’ll let you ponder which lap he came up short for. This year, along with brighter days he was looking to change that lap count for the better.
His practice heats indicated work to be done and things left to be desired, but he managed to secure the 4th position. The Australian rider atoned for his less than perfect qualifying by taking his Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki through the course in faster time than at practice and running down surprise rider Jason Lawrence. He nabbed the Boost Mobile/ampm/Monster rider at the close to secure his third Daytona SX career win.
For once he didn’t have to concern himself with rival and constant threat James Stewart because the San Manuel Band of Indians/Yamaha rider got KO’d when he was caught up in a first turn pileup that thinned the herd for the main event. Stewart managed to remount, but could only sneak in at seventh place. The win gave Reed a nine point lead over Stewart.
In the Lites Class, after losing the previous event in Indianapolis, Christophe Pourcel was also looking for a measure of vengeance and wanted to add to his leading point’s total. The Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider regained the top of the podium in a hard fought effort worthy of his number one distinction. While the winners got their revenge, it came at the expense of crashes for the vanquished as last week’s Lites winner Austin Stroupe suffered a hard crash during lap one that caused him to sit out the remainder of the race. Martin Davalos of Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM took second place while Nico Izzi of Rockstar/Mikita/Suzuki kept his sponsors good times rolling by adorning the other side of the podium with a third place finish.
This weekend the bikes will tear it up in the Crescent City as Supercross heads to New Orleans. The history in the Big Easy has been sketchy. The inaugural race was held in 1977 and looked to be on its way to becoming a staple on the circuit, but venue booking and local economics ended the run in 1980. The engines sounded again in 1998 and the event ran through 2002. Hopefully, this will signal the reestablishment of the event for a long and healthy future.
Point’s leader Chad Reed has his work cut out for him in New Orleans since a Suzuki has not captured the one spot since 1980. Mark Bennett was the guy who got to spray the babes with champagne that day. It is the only time Suzuki has won in New Orleans.
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