Race Report: Houston 2011 2

Round six of the 2011 Monster Energy Supercross series in Houston, TX, pegged the needle in all categories. Action, suspense, surprises, battles, and yep…a new 450 winner. This was an impressive night of Supercross in a season that’s already delivered plenty of action.

450 Main Event

Now that's a lot of bar banging, and too many riders in too small a space. Dungey got forced into Stewart, who then bounced off of Trey Canard. Reed and Stewart both went down in the first turn, dropping to the back of the pack, while Kevin Windham grabbed the holeshot.

The action in this one started before the pack even reached the first turn, as Kyle Regal (San Manuel Red Bull Yamaha), Chad Reed (TwoTwo Motorsports Bel Ray Racing), and Ryan Dungey (Rockstar Energy Suzuki) all got pinched together. That bumped Dungey over into James Stewart (San Manuel Red Bull Yamaha), who got into Trey Canard (American Honda Racing). But the two who paid the biggest price were Stewart and Reed, who went down in the first turn, also taking down Chris Blose (Hart & Huntington Kawasaki), and Justin Brayton (Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGRMX) and Nick Wey (Valli Motorsports Rockstar Yamaha).

Meanwhile, Kevin Windham (GEICO Powersports Honda) had grabbed the holeshot and escaped the all the first turn carnage, followed by Brett Metcalfe (Rockstar Energy Suzuki), Davi Millsaps (Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGRMX), and Canard.

Kevin Windham looked like he had this one in the bag. Afterwards, Trey Canard mentioned that he was only inching up on Windham while chasing him.

Stewart was on the move after the first turn crash, moving from 15th to 12th by lap five. But he caught Jason Thomas (BTOSports.com/BBMX/Palmetto Suzuki) a little too quickly, and the resulting collision put both riders down. Stewart remounted, but the crash had left him with a front wheel that was locking up throughout the rest of the main, and he could only make it to 15th place at the end. Unfortunately, Jason Thomas was unable to finish.

Windham led the first half of the main, and looked like he was poised to score his first win of 2011, and make it a double win for the GEICO Powersports Honda squad on the night. But he spun the rear wheel in a tricky rhythm section, tried to make up for it on the next jump, and then went down hard, handing over the lead to Trey Canard, who’d moved into second after passing both Davi Millsaps and Brett Metcalfe.

Ryan Dungey was also on the move, after starting fifth, and he was closing rapidly on Canard with just a handful of laps left. They actually traded the lead back and forth, and Canard was still out front on the last lap, with Dungey attemping to make one more push for the win. The two got extremely close, but Canard held on for the win, his first in the 450 class.

With a handful of laps to go, it looked like Ryan Dungey was going to catch Trey Canard. He did, but Canard battled back.

Third place? That went to Ryan Villopoto (Monster Energy Kawasaki), who’d started in 12th spot, and passed Davi Millsaps with just two laps to go. Millsaps hung on for fourth, and he was followed in by Andrew Short, who nabbed his best finish of the season, a fifth. Actually, there were three KTM 350s in the top ten, as Ken Roczen nabbed seventh, and Mike Alessi rounded out the top ten. The riders filling in the gaps included Chad Reed (6th), Brett Metcalfe (8th, after a last lap crash dropped him from 5th), and Ivan Tedesco (Hart & Huntington Kawasaki), who grabbed ninth.

Trey Canard held off Dungey to score his first 450 main event win.

With the night’s chaotic finishes, including Stewart’s troubles, Villopoto now has a nine-point lead in the series title chase, moving Stewart to second, and Trey Canard jumps up to third.

250 Main Event

When the gate dropped for the Lites main event, it was one of the rookies, Team Suzuki City Nitro Circus’ Malcolm Stewart who grabbed the holeshot. But exiting turn one, it looked like he was right at the edge of the track when he and JDR/J-Star/KTM’s PJ Larsen bumped, opening the door for Dean Wilson (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) and Justin Barcia (GEICO Powersports Honda) to move out front. Stewart an Larsen got together later on in the first lap, with both going down and to the back of the pack.

While Malcolm Stewart and PJ Larsen bump on the right, Dean Wilson and Justin Barcia go by on the left side to take over the top two spots.

Meanwhile, the lead duo battled back and forth, trading the lead and runner-up spot for each of the first four laps, frequently at a triple that had a very glazed approach, which boosted wheelspin and made it inconsistent for the lead duo to jump. Barcia finally took over the lead for good and stretched a bit of a lead, but Wilson kept it close, and the margin of victory was just over three seconds at the checkers.

Dean Wilson and Justin Barcia traded the lead back and forth, until Barcia took over the lead for good on lap four.

With a final podium spot to settle, and Blake Wharton (GEICO Powersports Honda) and Ryan Sipes were running an extremely close race. Well, at least until lap 14, when Sipes dove inside on the very slippery corner that we mentioned previously, and the two tangled and ran off the track. That left the door wide open for the other Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki East Coaster, Blake Baggett, who was surprised to nail the final podium spot, especially after starting 12th early in the main.

Blake Wharton and Ryan Sipes were battling for third and fourth...until they tangled and went off the track.

Sipes got squared away in time to grab fourth, ahead of the first rookie, Ian Trettel (Rockstar Energy Suzuki). Wharton grabbed the sixth. Two more rookies finished seventh and eighth, with Jason Anderson (Rockstar Energy Suzuki) finishing ahead of Lance Vincent. Two familiar names, Matt Lemoine and Alex Martin grabbed the last two spots in the top ten.

Justin Barcia scored the first win of the 2011 East Lites series.

These guys now get a week to think about their first race, while the series goes West again in San Diego before they go on hiatus for a few weeks. The East guys will reconvene in Atlanta in two weeks.

Results

2011 Monster Energy AMA Supercross

Houston, TX

Supercross Lites Heat 1

1. Justin Barcia

2. Malcolm Stewart

3. Nico Izzi

4. Blake Wharton

5. Taylor Futrell

6. AJ Catanzaro

7. Gannon Audette

8. Levi Kilbarger

9. Blake Baggett

Supercross Lites Heat 2

1. Dean Wilson

2. PJ Larsen

3. Darryn Durham

4. Ryan Sipes

5. Jason Anderson

6. Ian Trettel

7. Matt Lemoine

8. Chris Gosselaar

9. Shawn Rife

Supercross Heat 1

1. Ryan Dungey

2. Andrew Short

3. Trey Canard

4. Brett Metcalfe

5. Kevin Windham

6. Davi Millsaps

7. Tommy Hahn

8. Chris Blose

9. Weston Peick

Supercross Heat 2

1. James Stewart

2. Chad Reed

3. Ryan Villopoto

4. Kyle Regal

5. Ivan Tedesco

6. Ken Roczen

7. Mike Alessi

8. Justin Brayton

9. Nick Wey

Supercross Lites LCQ

1. Lance Vincent

2. Alex Martin

Supercross LCQ

1. Vince Friese

2. Jason Thomas

Supercross Lites Main Event

1. Justin Barcia (Honda)

2. Dean Wilson (Kawasaki)

3. Blake Baggett (Kawasaki)

4. Ryan Sipes (Yamaha)

5. Ian Trettel (Suzuki)

6. Blake Wharton (Honda)

7. Jason Anderson (Suzuki)

8. Lance Vincent (Honda)

9. Matt Lemoine (Kawasaki)

10. Alex Martin (Honda)

11. Chris Gosselaar (Suzuki)

12. Shawn Rife (Honda)

13. Gannon Audette (Yamaha)

14. Malcolm Stewart (Suzuki)

15. Nico Izzi (Honda)

16. AJ Catanzaro (Honda)

17. Taylor Futrell (Honda)

18. PJ Larsen (KTM)

19. Levi Kilbarger (Honda)

20. Darryn Durham (Honda)

Supercross Main Event

1. Trey Canard (Honda)

2. Ryan Dungey (Suzuki)

3. Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki)

4. Davi Millsaps (Yamaha)

5. Andrew Short (KTM)

6. Chad Reed (Honda)

7. Ken Roczen (KTM)

8. Brett Metcalfe (Suzuki)

9. Ivan Tedesco (Kawasaki)

10. Mike Alessi (KTM)

11. Tommy Hahn (Yamaha)

12. Nick Wey (Yamaha)

13. Justin Brayton (Yamaha)

14. Weston Peick (Yamaha)

15. James Stewart (Yamaha)

16. Kyle Regal (Yamaha)

17. Vince Friese (Yamaha)

18. Chris Blose (Kawasaki)

19. Kevin Windham (Honda)

20. Jason Thomas (Suzuki)

Supercross Point Standings

1. Ryan Villopoto 132

2. James Stewart 123

3. Trey Canard 112

4. Chad Reed 105

5. Ryan Dungey 101

6. Andrew Short 80

7. Brett Metcalfe 80

8. Justin Brayton 65

9. Davi Millsaps 62