Bel-Ray Racing-Weekend Racing Wrap-Up – March 5, 2012

Round 9 of the 2012 Monster Energy
Supercross Series took place on Saturday night in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Edward Jones Dome, home of professional football’s St. Louis Rams,
was converted to a challenging race track for the stars
of to compete on.

Team
Rockstar Energy Racing Suzuki's Blake Wharton has been the star of the
team thus far in the Supercross Lites class. Coming into round 3 if the
East Coast Series in
St. Louis, with 4th place finishes the prior 2 weeks,
Wharton began to find the speed necessary to compete for a win. Wharton
won his heat race, and got off to a top 10 start in the main event. He
was in 4th with just a lap to go, when
an error by the 3rd place rider allowed Wharton to take the
final spot on the podium. Teammate Hunter Hewitt had to make the main
event through the last chance qualifier with a victory. He completed the
first lap in 19th place and began
passing rider’s one at a time to an eventual 12th place finish. 

The Dodge/Hart & Huntington/Sycuan
Casino/Bel-Ray Racing team experienced their worst round this season on
Saturday night. In the final timed qualifying session of the afternoon,
Kyle Partridge clipped the wall of the over-under
bridge and crashed in spectacular fashion. Although he
is expected to make a full recovery, he was transported to the hospital
that evening for injuries to his foot and neck. Teammate Josh Hansen
made improvements to his
bike setup during the week with intentions on improving on last week’s
disappointing finish. After a top 10 start, Hansen stalled his bike in a
corner and was unable to regain competitive momentum. After a second
mistake, Hansen was too far back to continue
and didn’t finish the main event. He was credited with a 20th place finish. The points gained from this result place him in 11th in the season-long points standings.

Supercross racing will resume on Saturday at the Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona Supercross.