TREY CANARD WINS AMA
SUPERCROSS LITES EAST ROUND 1
AMA SUPERCROSS
ROUND 8
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 andcheckered 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.
“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.
SUPERCROSS LITES EAST ROUND 1
AMA SUPERCROSS
ROUND 8
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 andcheckered 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.
“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.
| 02/27/08 |
