James Stewart grabbed his first main event win of 2014 in San Diego

James Stewart grabbed his first main event win of 2014 in San Diego this weekend, and the Yoshimura Suzuki rider did it in impressive fashion, passing Ryan Villopoto on the first lap and then holding off the defending series champ for 20 laps to take the “W”. The win was Stewart’s 46th of his career, leaving him just two wins behind the all-time Supercross wins leader Jeremy McGrath.

“We’ve been close all year,” said Stewart. “We had a chance to pass for the lead at Anaheim and then went down. And at Oakland to ride really good and just run out of time, so we were there all along, but now we finally put it all together. We all knew we were close; it was just a matter of time. Tonight, we put 20 solid laps in, and I thought we were fairly aggressive in the opening laps and we ran a solid pace all night.”

After the race, Villopoto admitted that he and his team struggled with bike setup, but the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider still left Qualcomm Stadium with the points lead intact and was more or less pleased with his runner-up finish.

“We were fighting the bike all day, and I felt like we should have been better in practice, but we made a change before the heat races and that’s what we stuck with for the main, and it seemed like it was pretty dialed in,” said Villopoto. “James was able to get around me early and it seemed like we were running back and forth, a couple of tenths here and there from each other. That made it hard to pass, but he rode strong tonight.”

Ken Roczen didn’t like the track and didn’t like the way he rode, but the Red Bull KTM rider still came away with a solid third place finish and now sits second overall in the series standings, nine points behind Villopoto.

“I’m not too happy with my race in the main event, but I’m happy to get another podium,” said Roczen. “I was just really sketched out, I made a lot of mistakes and almost crashed, so I’m clearly not happy with the riding, but we’re in the championship hunt, so everything is good.”

On the final lap of the race, Chad Reed got squirrelly in the whoops and ran into the back of Roczen when Roczen got out of shape trying to pass lapper Nick Wey. That caused Reed to go down and injure himself.

“I’m bummed about Reed and I hope he’s okay,” said Roczen. “On that last lap, I don’t know if he got on my rear, but I was really close to Nick Wey and I got squirrelly in the whoops and Reed hit me, so I hope he’s okay.”

Read more: http://www.dirtrider.com/features/what-really-happened-san-diego-supercross-2/#ixzz2thMaKAfb

Gautier Paulin’s first appearance on the 2014 MX Season

Gautier Paulin’s marked his first appearance on the 2014 MX Season,the final round of the Italian Elite MX championship.Unfortunate weather conditions cancelled the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider’s initial plans of racing in Valence (France) but a quick decision to race in Italy saw the likable Frenchman line up against a world class field in Montevarchi.

Sunny skies and great track conditions welcomed a full grid of riders to the hilly former GP circuit and Paulin lost no time in getting down to business. He got off to a great start in the MX1 moto and immediately passed Nagl for the lead as he took control of the race from lap 1, leading to the checkered flag.

Grabbing the hole-shot in the Elite moto, Paulin set his own race pace and posted consistent lap times with Team-mate Frossard following suit. With five minutes remaining Paulin pulled a sizeable gap on second place and took the double victory.

Gautier Paulin: “It was great to be here with all the team, racing for the first time since November. I inevitably had some arm pump as this was my first race for so long, and I rode carefully all day as there were some deep ruts and it could have been dangerous. But I still won both races – I had a good feeling and that’s a great way to start the season, even if we know that nobody is riding at 100% so early in the season.”

Chad Reed with another victory at Anaheim

Chad Reed led all twenty laps to follow up his win at A2 with a victory to reassure peers and supercross fans,in front of a crowd of 41,000 fans, Monster Energy Supercross took the stage one last time at Angel Stadium for its third and final stop in Anaheim, California.Alike,that he’s “in it to win it til’ end”, as he stated last week in Oakland. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson charged to the front early to take home his first win of the season in the 250SX class.

Yoshimura/Suzuki’s James Stewart led the pack into turn one, taking the Nuclear Cowboyz Hole shot award in the 450SX class. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto was nearly side-by-side with Stewart going into turn one and made a successful pass for the lead in turn two, bringing Reed along behind him. Rookie Red Bull/KTM rider Ken Roczen also followed Villopoto and Reed, pushing Stewart from first to fourth before the third corner of the first lap.

After making quick work of race leader Ryan Villopoto on lap one, Discount Tire/TwoTwo Motorsports rider Chad Reed opened up a five second gap between himself and Villopoto by lap five.

As race fans witnessed some of the best riding Mike Alessi has displayed in years, it seemed to be a night filled with a mix of highs and lows for the former “holeshot master”. After nearly putting himself over the berm in an attempt to make a pass on Stewart in his heat race, Alessi managed to qualify in the semi only to find himself unable to finish the main due to mechanical bike issues.

After a couple weeks of mediocre results, Ken Roczen’s pass on former champion Ryan Villopoto surely proved that Roczen is back to battle for the championship. The rookie set up Villopoto like a veteran for a successful pass for second in the most technical set of whoops the series has seen this year. Roczen then set his sights on reeling in race leader, Chad Reed.

Typically conservative Red Bull/KTM rider, Ryan Dungey surprised race fans once again in Anaheim after quading a section that few riders attempted, managing to close the gap on Stewart sitting in fourth.

Stewart seemed to crack under the pressure of the newly aggressive Ryan Dungey as he allowed Dungey and Barcia to pass while taking soil samples around the halfway point. However, Dungey also managed to take himself out of the battle after losing control in the whoops and going down on lap twelve.

Barcia picked up another position and set his sights on closing the gap on the top three and managed to do so in the final laps of the race. Unfortunately, time ran out for Barcia, Roczen and Villopoto to make any kind of attack on Reed’s flawless ride.

Unlike his previous win at round three, a good start allowed Reed to get out front early and lead every lap of the race to take home his second back-to-back win at Angel Stadium. After making several unsuccessful attempts to take the lead from Reed, Roczen rode his way to his third podium of his rookie season in the 450SX class. Villopoto surprisingly seemed to ride contently in third position for the entirety of the moto to take third at Anahiem and maintain his points lead.

After their respective crashes, Stewart managed to fight his way back to seventh, while Dungey experienced bike issues and was unable to make a charge, finishing a disappointing 20th.

Troy Lee/Lucas Oil/Honda’s Cole Seely took the Nuclear Cowboyz Holeshot leading the pack in the 250SX class main event. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider Dean Wilson quickly moved into second followed by Honda rider Jake Canada in third.

Last week’s race winner, Jason Anderson managed to put a pass on Malcolm Stewart in lap three. In an attempt to return the favour Stewart took both riders out and sent Anderson flying, allowing Webb, Nelson, and Tedder to get by.

As Anderson went to work on making his way back through the pack, North Carolina-native Cooper Webb made the pass on Jake Canada in the whoops on lap eight to move into third position.

Just as the battle for the lead was beginning to shape up, race leader Cole Seely made it easy for Wilson to make the pass for the lead after tucking his front end just after the whoops. He remounted, re-entering the race in second, just in front of Cooper Webb.

After making the pass on points-leader Cole Seely, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson claimed his very first main event win of year. Troy Lee/Lucas Oil/Honda’s Cole Seely accepted another disappointing second at Anaheim to tie up the points chase with Rockstar Energy Racing’s Jason Anderson. Yamaha’s Cooper Webb took the final podium position to claim the second podium of his career.

With a long overdue win under his belt Dean Wilson will surely be hungry for another win next week in San Diego.

After his crash at round one in Anaheim it was good to see Eli Tomac back in the mix Saturday night at A3. Next week looks to be promising for Tomac as he demonstrated some good results in his heat race and will continue to regain his strength and confidence in the coming weeks.

If Dungey continues to bring the intensity race fans have witnessed lately, he will be sure to put on a show next week on his hunt for his first win of the season.

Due to several unfortunate mishaps for Mike Alessi in Anaheim, fans only got to see a glimpse of what Alessi has up his sleeve this year. If Alessi walks away with the reassurance that he can ride with the top guys, San Diego will be sure to see some intensity shape up in the KTM rider.

Davi Milsaps has been sitting out the 2014 AMA Supercross Series due to a knee and foot injury. After finishing second two years in a row it is unfortunate that Milsaps will likely sit out the rest of the 2014 Supercross season with his ACL on the mend.

Trey Carnard has also been sitting out but he is looking to enter into the 2014 AMA Supercross Series in the coming weeks after surgery on his arm in early December. The eight-week healing period prescribed by the doctor is coming to a close and hopefully Carnard has healed up well so we can see him back in action next week.