James Stewart Wins the 2006 Rockstar Energy U.S. Open



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Saturday night at the U.S. Open was all about the money...seeing whether Team Kawasaki's James Stewart could "Double Down" on his Toyota Trifecta ($50,000 bonus for the fastest qualifying time, main event holeshot, and main event win) which would translate to a $250,000 bonus...and also to see who would win the traditional $100,000 overall prize. But for the top two riders, maybe the biggest prize was the mental high ground a win would give them, headed into the run up to the 2007 World Supercross rounds.

Unfortunately, Kevin Windham quickly shot down the chase for the quarter million, when he topped the Superpole qualifying with a very smooth lap of 41.703 seconds on his Honda CRF450R. James had a couple major bobbles, including a scary run through the whoops, which left him 1.7 seconds off the pace. Ricky Carmichael took a good shot at Windham's time, but came up just over a half-second behind K-Dub, and Kevin scored a cool 10,000 for the fast time.

When it came time for main event (check the photo gallery for heat race action), Ivan Tedesco led the charge through the first turn, closely followed by James Stewart, David Vuillemin, Michael Byrne, and Ricky Carmichael. Vuillemin slipped by Tedesco, who slid out exiting a bowl turn, and held the lead for several laps, while Carmichael and Stewart stayed in close contact with each other, looking like two prizefighters sizing each other up.

Things changed in a hurry, though, as Carmichael set up Vuillemin for a pass, while Stewart countered by going by both riders in the same corner, jumping from third to first. Carmichael was hot on his tail, and the lead duo stayed in close contact...almost too close at one point, as RC ran up onto the back wheel of Stewart as they exited a dragonback section. The bobble allowed James to extend a small lead, which Carmichael spent the next few laps trying to erase.

With less than a handful of laps remaining in the 25-lap final, Stewart and Carmichael were in the portion of the track outside the stadium when they came up on Danny Smith, who was trying sideways in the track and trying to restart his Honda. James stalled his bike in an off-camber corner, and Carmichael tried to go around him on the edge of the track, but instead, got up onto a tuffblock, lost his balance, and ran out of leg travel, resulting in a tip-over crash. James quickly re-fired his Kawasaki, and headed for the finish line, and a $100,000 payday. RC remount his Suzuki and finished second, good for $35,000, but it was clear in his post-race comments that just finishing on top was worth more to him than the difference in prize money.

Lites Racing

Sobe/No Fear/Samsung Wireless/Honda's Josh Grant took the overall for the Lites class, taking the main event on both Friday and Saturday nights. Josh got a great jump out of the gate, and took off out front followed by BooKoo Honda's Steve Boniface and MotowordRacing.com/PPG/Yamaha's new recruit, Sean Hackley. Behind them, it was mayhem, as a large portion of the pack crashed as they headed into the first turn. Josh's teammate, Jake Weimer, finished in second, while Team Honda's Tommy Hahn charged back to third place at the end.

In the overall for the two nights of racing, Grant's 1-1 made the scorekeeper's job easy, while Jake Weimer ended up second overall with a 4-2 for the two nights. Chris Gosselaar had gone down in the first turn mess, and he finished eighth on Saturday night. But combined with his second on Friday, he picked up the third spot in the overall.

2006 Rockstar Energy U.S. Open of Supercross Results

Superpole Qualifying


  1. Kevin Windham 41.703
  2. Ricky Carmichael 42.303 (-0.600)
  3. Michael Byrne 42.678 (-0.975)
  4. Tim Ferry 43.138 (-1.435)
  5. Ivan Tedesco 43.191 (-1.488)
  6. James Stewart 43.407 (-1.704)
  7. Heath Voss 45.15 (-3.462)
  8. Brock Sellards 45.668 (-3.965)
  9. Jason Thomas 46.832 (-5.129)
  10. Kyle Lewis 46.883 (-5.180)
  11. David Vuillemin 53.455 (-11.752)

Supercross Lites Heat 1


  1. Josh Grant
  2. Steve Boniface
  3. Justin Brayton
  4. Kelly Smith
  5. Marvin Musquin
  6. Eric Sorby
  7. Sean Hackley
  8. Dennis Ewing
  9. Tommy Hahn
  10. Charles Castloo
  11. Kyle Phenix

Supercross Lites Heat 2


  1. Jake Weimer
  2. Ben Townley
  3. Matt Lemoine
  4. Troy Adams
  5. Chris Gosselaar
  6. Matt Goerke
  7. Michael Willard
  8. Leighton Lillie
  9. Sean Collier
  10. Clayton Miller
  11. Greg Crater

Supercross Heat 1


  1. Ricky Carmichael
  2. Ivan Tedesco
  3. Michael Byrne
  4. Kevin Windham
  5. Danny Smith
  6. Brock Sellards
  7. Kevin Johnson
  8. Jason Thomas
  9. Jeff Dement
  10. Isaiah Johnson
  11. Josh Demuth
  12. Kyle Lewis

Supercross Heat 2


  1. James Stewart
  2. David Vuillemin
  3. Tim Ferry
  4. Chad Johnson
  5. Kyle Partridge
  6. Heath Voss
  7. Jiri Dostal
  8. Cole Siebler
  9. Joe Oehlhof
  10. Jacob Marsack
  11. Justin Buckelew
  12. Jeff Willoh
  13. Keith Johnson

Supercross Lites Main Event


  1. Josh Grant
  2. Jake Weimer
  3. Tommy Hahn
  4. Ben Townley
  5. Steve Boniface
  6. Troy Adams
  7. Justin Brayton
  8. Chris Gosselaar
  9. Sean Hackley
  10. Matt Lemoine
  11. Kelly Smith
  12. Marvin Musquin
























Supercross Lites Overall Finishes Points
1. Josh Grant 1-1 50
2. Jake Weimer 4-2 40
3. Chris Gosselaar 2-8 35
4. Justin Brayton 3-7 34
5. Steve Boniface 6-5 31
6. Ben Townley 10-4 29
7. Troy Adams 7-6 29
8. Kelly Smith 8-11 23
9. Tommy Hahn 0-3 20
10. Sean Collier 5-0 16

Supercross Main Event


  1. James Stewart
  2. Ricky Carmichael
  3. David Vuillemin
  4. Kevin Windham
  5. Michael Byrne
  6. Tim Ferry
  7. Chad Johnson
  8. Ivan Tedesco
  9. Heath Voss
  10. Cole Siebler
  11. Kyle Partridge
  12. Danny Smith
























Supercross Overall Finishes Points
1. James Stewart 1-1 50
2. Ricky Carmichael 2-2 44
3. Kevin Windham 3-4 38
4. David Vuillemin 7-3 35
5. Tim Ferry 5-6 33
6. Michael Byrne 6-5 33
7. Ivan Tedesco 4-8 32
8. Chad Johnson 9-7 28
9. Cole Siebler 12-10 22
10. Josh Demuth 8-0 14
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