Torco Racing Fuels Honda Race Report – Atlanta

ATLANTA, Georgia – The Atlanta round of the AMA Supercross Series couldn’t have gone a whole lot better than it did for the Torco Racing Fuels Honda team, as the team got the holeshot and checkered in every Heat race, then won the Lites main and finished second in the 450cc main.

Atlanta marked the opening round of the AMA Eastern Regional Lites SX Championship, and Torco Racing Fuels Honda was expecting veteran SX winner Josh Grant and rookie Trey Canard to carry the flag back east as team riders Jake Weimer and Dan Reardon’s Western series went on hiatus.

Canard was fastest in the first Lites practice session of the day, while Grant was fastest in the second session, and overall.

Canard got his first-ever supercross off to a good start in his Heat with a holeshot, although he had to fight over the win with former team rider Ryan Sipes. At the end of the six laps, Canard grabbed his first Heat win, in his first try.

Canard continued his streak in the main event, grabbing another holeshot, although this time, he was never seriously challenged. He went on to win the main event by over a straightaway in his first attempt.

“I’m fortunate,” Canard said. “I’m blessed in many ways, and it’s not just me that did that; everyone behind me... There was a lot of hard work and dedication behind me. It’s a long series, and I want to concentrate on that.”

Canard doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, though. He knows there’s a long way to go.

“It’s a relief in some ways, but I realize that it’s only one, and there’s a lot more races to come,” Canard said. “I don’t want to get too excited about this one because I know there are so many more. I’m so pumped.”

By virtue of his win, Canard is the points leader heading into round two.

His Lites teammate Josh Grant grabbed his Heat-race holeshot, too, and he checked out, but it wasn’t without incident. At one point in the race, he encountered a problem over one of the track’s triples.

“I got a good start and put my head down and rode my own race,” Grant said. “It was actually pretty easy for me to go out and get used to the track. Then, I don’t know how many laps there were to go, but I came around the corner and got on the gas, because you have to commit to the triple while you were still in the corner – it was a pretty big jump – so I was committed, and then when I went up the face, I saw the red light flash out of the corner of my eye. [The rule states that when the red light is on over the triple, that riders must roll all three jumps.] I hit the brakes at the last second, and I came up really short on the triple and totally grenaded my face into the handlebars.”

Because he didn’t roll all three jumps, Grant was docked a spot and was credited with second in the Heat, even though he was way out front at the time and physically crossed the finish line first. The AMA rule requires a loss of at least one position in a situation like this.

Then, in the main, Grant had a good start, right behind his teammate Canard, but then went down in the first turn.

“I came in on the inside of Trey, and he was coming in a little hot and slid sideways, and I just barely touched his back wheel,” Grant said. “I didn’t want to fall over the opposite way, so when I hit his back wheel, I tried to correct myself and tucked my own front wheel in the sand and fell down. I would’ve fallen anyway. But I got ran over by a bunch of people and came out of the first turn dead-last.”

Grant got up and went to work, passing his way up through the field until he caught up to eighth, behind Nico Izzi and Ryan Villopoto. Villopoto crashed on one of the track’s vertical walls when he hit the back of Tyler Bowers. By the time Grant saw Villopoto down, it was too late. He was committed to climbing the vertical wall, and ran into Villopoto, going down a second time.

“I was coming up through the pack and passing dudes left and right, and I couldn’t believe it because that track was so hard to pass on,” Grant said. “It was good. Then I passed [Branden] Jesseman and caught up to Ryan [Villopoto] and Nico [Izzi], and I was a second or so behind them. I didn’t notice that Ryan had fallen on the spine [the dirt wall before the finish]. With that spine, you can’t see until get up to the face of the thing – it was right out of a sand turn – and Ryan was right there. I came around the corner and had already committed to going up the spine, and he was laid out right in front. I couldn’t really do anything except to try and go over his bike and miss him. I ended up getting tangled up in him and his bike and falling on the backside of the spine. I went back to like 12th after my second crash, and just put my head down and rode a consistent rest of the race. I didn’t want to push it really hard. That’s where I made mistakes last year, going too fast and trying to catch up when I made a mistake. That’s what actually put me out of the races last year. I think keeping my cool, I’ve learned a lot on staying calm and working through the pack and knowing that I’m fast enough to get back up there.”

Grant recovered for seventh place.

Kevin Windham was coming off of his first win of the season in Houston and headed into

Atlanta with his confidence high. In his Heat, Windham not only grabbed the holeshot, and the win, but set the fastest Heat-race time of the night, giving him first gate pick in the main event.

However, Windham didn’t get a great start in the main. He started well outside the top five and began to work his way through the pack.

“It was kind of nerve-wracking from the start,” Windham said. “I was back there a little ways, and I just said, ‘I’ve got to keep plugging away.’ That’s what I did.”

Windham worked his way through the field and into second by lap seven, but by the time he got there, leader Davi Millsaps was too far gone to catch, and Windham was forced to settle for second.

“I sure would’ve liked to win one again,” Windham said. “Once you win one, you kind of get greedy. There’s something to be said for greed being good for racers. You see Chad all the time, and he gets mad when he gets second or third, or like tonight. It feels good to be up there, and I just want to latch onto it. Tonight was one of those nights, and I had visions of catching Millsaps, but it just didn’t happen. I made a couple of bobbles, made a couple mistakes, got caught up with a couple of lappers, and the next thing you know, the race was kind of over. There are some things I want to work on, but the flipside of that is that I got a bad start and I got second, so that was a good night.”

Windham gained seven points on championship rival Chad Reed and now sits only 25 points back with nine rounds left to run. Only two weeks ago, his points deficit was 35 points.

The Torco Racing Fuels Honda team has now won at least one race in every supercross championship this year.

From here, the Torco Racing Fuels Honda team heads to Indianapolis, Indiana, for the second round of the Lites Eastern Region championship and round eight of the AMA Supercross Series inside the RCA Dome.

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

Atlanta Lites Main:
1.            Trey Canard                        Torco Racing Fuels Honda

2.            Martin Davalos            KTM

3.            Ryan Sipes                        KTM

4.            Jake Moss                        Yam

5.            Tyler Bowers                        Yam

6.            Branden Jesseman            Kaw
7.            Josh Grant                        Torco Racing Fuels Honda

8.            Nico Izzi                        Suz

9.            Kyle Chisholm            Kaw

10.            Ben Coisy                        Hon

AMA Eastern Lites Standings (After 1 of 8 rounds):
1.            Trey Canard                        (25/1 win)

2.            Martin Davalos            (22)

3.            Ryan Sipes                        (20)

4.            Jake Moss                        (18)

5.            Tyler Bowers                        (16)

6.            Branden Jesseman            (15)
7.            Josh Grant                        (14)

8.            Nico Izzi                        (13)

9.            Kyle Chisholm            (12)

10.            Ben Coisy                        (11)

Atlanta 450cc Main:

1.            Davi Millsaps                        Hon
2.            Kevin Windham            Torco Racing Fuels Honda

3.            Andrew Short                        Hon

4.            Timmy Ferry                        Kaw

5.            Nathan Ramsey            Yam

6.            Chad Reed                        Yam

7.            Charles Summey            Yam

8.            Paul Carpenter                        Hon

9.            David Vuillemin            Suz

10.            Jason Thomas                        Hon

AMA Supercross Standings (After 8 of 17 rounds):

1.            Chad Reed                        (184/5 wins)
2.            Kevin Windham            (159/1 win)

3.            Timmy Ferry                        (137)

4.            Davi Millsaps                        (123/1 win)

5.            Andrew Short                        (121)

6.            Nathan Ramsey            (101)

7.            Josh Hill                        (84)

8.            Nick Wey                        (84)

9.            David Vuillemin            (72)

10.            Mike Alessi                        (69)