Geico Powersports Honda Race Report - Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The final round of the 2008 AMA Supercross Championship marked the debut of the Factory Connection team’s new title sponsor – GEICO Powersports – and the finale also held championship implications for the newly named GEICO Powersports Honda team, as 450cc rider Kevin Windham hoped to overtake his championship rival Chad Reed in the final tally with a last-race push.

It started out well for Windham, as he beat Reed in their Heat race.

“I was on cloud nine,” Windham said. “I had a weak practice, and I was a little concerned, and to be able to achieve that in the Heat was a good feeling – to hold him off. But in the main, it didn’t go that way, and it kind of made it that much harder to believe that I had a good shot at winning – and I did.”

Windham started near the front in the main event before passing Davi Millsaps for the lead. However, Reed found his way into second before too long, and soon Windham was under pressure.

“I had a couple times when I lost it – I dropped the front end [in the whoops], and I was lucky I kept it on two wheels,” Windham said. “And on the jump-on, jump-off right before the finish line, my rear wheel slid out of the rut, I lost all my drive, and I doinked my front end going up to the finish line, so there were a couple of those mistakes that really helped Chad close the gap, and once he got by me, it was tough. It’s been a great season, and I’ve got to look at that, but in this moment, it’s pretty bad.”

“Obviously, I wanted to win out the season,” Windham continued. “That would’ve been a great streak for me. It would’ve been three [in a row], and it would’ve matched my all-time wins in a season at five. I don’t want to look back on the season and think about what I could’ve done different. I think that’s life, and a lot of us would do things different if we knew how things would turn out when we were originally doing stuff. My consistency this season was second to none. I’m the only guy who finished in the top five at every race, so I’d have loved to have gotten nothing but thirds, seconds and firsts – that would’ve been great – but it just wasn’t in the cards. To have the consistency I had this year was great, but it’s tough tonight.”

Windham finished second on the evening and in the championship, and he is the only rider this year that never finished outside the top five a single time. The final tally is four wins and eight additional podium finishes. Not too bad for a guy who many considered to be “old and washed up” at this time last year.

“I think that I’m going to go home right now and have some umbrella drinks and cruise around in my pontoon boat,” Windham said. “I haven’t been off a summer in my life since I was six, and I’m 30 now. I’m really fired up to go to the beach. I think that who I am is going to come out, and in probably a month, the wife’s going to be running me out of the house. ‘Go do something. Go ride.’ And that’s probably what’s going to happen. We’re trying to put some things together for outdoors this summer, and for four-wheel stuff. I want to stay true to the plan coming into 2008, which was to make sure that I had the momentum and the drive to get me through 17 rounds. I achieved that, and I don’t want to have an off-season that’s going to take that away from 2009. I really believe that was the key to my success this year.”

Eastern Regional Lites SX Champ Trey Canard got to debut the number-one plate inside Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas for his first-ever Dave Coombs Sr. Lites East/West Shootout, where the top 20 riders from both coasts merge for one final winner-take-all race.

Canard started and finished in third behind Ryan Dungey and Ryan Villopoto.

“Going into it, I had heard it was a gnarly race, and the track was always gnarly and the whoops were always gnarly, and it was good to go up against those guys,” Canard said. “It was a fun race. I got kind of smoked, but that’s okay, I’m safe and ready to go for the outdoors. I’m not going to worry about it too much.”

Of course, the odds in Vegas weren’t with the champions at the Shootout, as the last time a champion from one of the coasts won the Shootout, it was James Stewart in 2004, and previous to that, it was last century.

“I can see why it happens like that,” Canard said. “It’s hard to win a championship, and then go race for nothing. I don’t want to say it’s hard to focus, but it’s kind of hard not to be in a celebration mood. It’s something you’ve worked for your whole life, and once you achieve it, it’s hard to just forget about it and move on to the next race. I think that’s part of the reason, because when you win a championship, and then you have to race two weeks later, it’s almost impossible to forget what just happened, and it’s hard to just let it go and just get your head into the next race. But I’m glad I came out of there with a third, and now we can move onto the outdoors, and it’ll be good.”

Sunday night following the race, Canard was awarded his championship trophy at the Supercross Banquet, and he had to give a speech in front of hundreds of people.

“I was more nervous then than I have been on the line before!” Canard said. “It’s one of your fears, and you’ve got to stand there and say the right things, and the spotlight’s on you and you can’t see anything, and you’re just trying to not say anything stupid. It was a cool experience, and I’m glad I got to be a part of it.”

Canard’s teammate Dan Reardon had a tough go of it in qualifying, as he ended up with the last gate pick in the main event from the last qualifying position in the LCQ.

“This was my last opportunity to do good in supercross this year, so there were high expectations on this race, and things weren’t going good,” Reardon said. “People kept telling me how hard-packed the track got, and then it was all muddy in practice, and I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ But then, by race time, it was all blue-grooved and hard-packed. There were a couple of new things to me, but it was exciting for sure. The night wasn’t going as planned. In the Heat, a guy weeded himself up in the whoops in front of me, and I had nowhere to go, so I went nearly over the bars and had to go to the LCQ. Then, I wasn’t in a qualifying position to start off with there and ended up fourth – the last qualifying spot, which gave me the last pick on the gate.”

Even with the last pick, he got a decent start, and that set the main event off well, where he eventually finished fourth, right behind Canard.

“In the main, the gate was really terrible, and we had to do some landscaping to make it something half-decent,” Reardon said. “But I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got nothing to lose here, so I’m just going to go out there, and if I can pull a good start from here, then so be it, but I’m expecting not to pull a great start, so anything better than that is a bonus.’ I just did what I knew how to do, and I almost got the holeshot from that gate. I just barely missed out on that podium three or four times this year, and I did it again in Vegas. It’s been good, but it was still exciting. The Lites class has some quality riders, so it was fun to be amongst them.”

This marks the end of former Australian SX champ Reardon’s rookie AMA Supercross Season.

“I definitely gained a lot of experience this year,” Reardon said. “I did think I would do a little better, but it’s hard to know what you’re up against from just watching it on TV. It’s going to be good for next year, and I feel well-learned, and I feel like I can take what happened this year into account when training and preparing for next year.”

The other two Lites riders had a tough go of it, as Jake Weimer, in his first race back after breaking his collarbone, failed to qualify for the main event after a couple of crashes in his qualifiers, and Josh Grant was knocked out of the race, literally, when he was KO’d in a scary practice crash. Neither suffered lasting injuries, though.

Now, the GEICO Powersports Honda team is testing in earnest for the AMA National Motocross Championship opener on May 25 at Glen Helen Raceway, where Eastern Regional Lites Champion Trey Canard, and his Lites teammates Josh Grant, Jake Weimer and Dan Reardon will all tackle the AMA National Lites Motocross Championship.

Team Sponsors: GEICO Powersports, Honda, Planet Fitness, No Fear Energy, AMSOIL, Factory Connection, Torco Racing Fuels, No Fear, Shoei, Gaerne, Spy, DVS, Cycra, Dunlop, EK, Ferodo, Hinson, Ogio, One Industries, Pro Circuit, Renthal, Showa, TAG, Twin Air, and Works Connection.

Las Vegas East/West Shootout Lites Main:

1. Ryan Dungey Suz

2. Ryan Villopoto Kaw

3. Trey Canard GEICO Powersports Honda

4. Dan Reardon GEICO Powersports Honda

5. Ryan Morais Yam

6. Justin Brayton KTM

7. Brett Metcalfe Kaw

8. Kyle Chisholm Kaw

9. Broc Hepler Yam

10. Austin Stroupe Kaw

AMA Western Lites Final Points Standings:

1. Jason Lawrence (157/3 wins)

2. Ryan Dungey (154/3 wins)

3. Austin Stroupe (131/1 win)

4. Brett Metcalfe (126)

5. Tommy Hahn (117)

6. Justin Brayton (100)

7. Dan Reardon (95)

8. Broc Hepler (79)

9. Wil Hahn (73)

10. Bobby Kiniry (72)

15. Jake Weimer (55/1 win)

AMA Eastern Lites Final Points Standings:

1. Trey Canard (147/4 wins)

2. Ryan Villopoto (137/3 wins)

3. Nico Izzi (99)

4. Branden Jesseman (94)

5. Josh Grant (91)

6. Tyler Bowers (86)

7. Ryan Morais (84)

8. Ryan Sipes (84)

9. Martin Davalos (73)

10. Billy Payne (71)

Las Vegas 450cc Main:

1. Chad Reed Yam

2. Kevin Windham GEICO Powersports Honda

3. Andrew Short Hon

4. Josh Hill Yam

5. Davi Millsaps Hon

6. Nick Wey KTM

7. Charles Summey Yam

8. Travis Preston Kaw

9. Timmy Ferry Kaw

10. David Vuillemin Suz

AMA Supercross Final Points Standings:

1. Chad Reed (365/9 wins)

2. Kevin Windham (352/4 wins)

3. Andrew Short (281)

4. Davi Millsaps (278/2 wins)

5. Josh Hill (228/1 win)

6. Timmy Ferry (218)

7. Nathan Ramsey (173)

8. David Vuillemin (169)

9. Nick Wey (159)

10. Paul Carpenter (145)