Stewart won a great full-on battle with RC to win Phoenix, and neither crashed so it wasn't a question of whose mistake was worst. It seems RC and Stewart both agreed on this one - that with these two now it's all about lines and bike set-up.
Well, NOW they tell us. Just when James is smoothing out in SX and the inevitable question of when is "it" going to happen, RC steps out of full time racing to do TV next weekend and return at San Francisco as a part-timer. "It" would be that one race or one moment that the name at the top in supercross gets replaced. MC checked in unexpectedly in 1993 and stayed a while. RC wrestled it from him in 2001 and considered San Diego the "it" night, and James' "it" time is here, which judging from his emotion after the race at A1, it happened a week ago anyway.
At Phoenix, James talked after the press conference about lines and bike set-up, not who is boss. That's how RC handles the same topic too, even as he steps out of the chase, he keeps talking about lines and set-up and making improvements to his Suzuki. They even fooled with the steering and missed a press day to spend some serious time at the track to get ready for Phoenix.
Interestingly enough, both brought up the lines and set-up thing separately, RC in the press conference with James out of the room, and James in our Monday Conversation which will be out in the morning.
RC also talked about gnarly tracks right now and drops hints they need to tone it down for the good of the sport. His example was Say Byrne or Tedesco gets the holeshot, they need to be able to fight for at least half a main to keep the lead, then its good. Well, that's easy to say when you are the one saying "at this point in my career...." Big James, reporting for J&J Racing in the press conference -ahem- challenged RC a little on that and RC gave a long answer and the Byrne/Tedesco comment, so he was ready for the question. It was pretty good actually, the press conference audio is archived at http://www.supercrossonline.com, and it's worth a listen.
RC is proud as he steps away to be able to say that he figured out how to step up to Stewart's speed, which even he admits he didn't think he would do. No one denies that Stewart is always the pace-setting guy on speed, he can always find more it seems and the racing comes down to matching it and not making a mistake in the process. This brings up an interesting topic in the pits, and that is does Stewart need RC around to know how fast is too fast? It seems they always find each other on the track, which means weekly excitement for fans up until now, but now what?
Reed was a ways back in third and still hanging on with a healing shoulder blade. This time he rode both practices, and said its not hurting as much. Tedesco rode hurting still too, and was getting lapped at the end and slowed to anticipate getting out of RC's way, and he and Stewart bumped. They gave each other a look over a triple, and then just after Stewart won, they stopped and shooks hands and cleared it up. Well, maybe. Stewart said just forget about it, then after in the pits, Tedesco said he really just made a mistake and wanted to get out of RC's way, if he wanted payback for Toronto, he wouldn't be doing it while a lap down...
Vuillimen had a bad crash in the main and got up really, really slow, enough to cause a backboard to be rushed over, but the race was red-flagged and he eventually got up and walked to the Asterisk Mule to get a ride out. He posted to fans already that he spent the night in the hopsital and he is OK.
Travis Preston is really on the gas right now.
In Lites, the visiting MX2 world champion Christophe Pourcel won! Purcel led a full-on Pro Circuit sweep of the podium, with Pourcel leading every lap, Villopoto fighting his way to second, and Gossellar third! That's one more thing for Mitch Payton to be proud of.
This of course begs the daily question, which actually goes back to Bercy 2006 weekend - If he is leading the Lites championship, will he really go home to get ready for the GPs and not try to win it? The official answer on the green side is they have a plan for him to go back and they are sticking to it. He is paid to race in the GPs and this was his chance to get some racing in before he goes full time in 2008 here. But, the better he does, the more he will want to keep going because the worst that can happen is he cuts into GP prep time and gets some jet lag. Big deal, DV did that in 1998 and he is glad he did.
So the Pourcel question really just needs to be put on hold. After A2, expect something to happen.
Pourcel is working on his English and loosening up a bit. Press is still trying to learn him and he would still rather have someone sitting with him in interviews. His interpreter this time was Sebastien Tortelli, himself a great world champion so it was really cool. When asked what he liked best about Southern California, he said "girls!"
Pourcel likes to joke with people so he has been a good fit at Pro Circuit, where tricks on the other guy are expected. When they started testing, he acted unhappy with a bike and started saying he just wasn't going to ride any more without a different motor. Mechanics were thinking they would have to do all that work for a complainer, then he said just kidding!
Kyle Chisholm broke his heel and will be out.
Dement's Pro30.com/Ware Racing Yamaha sure gets holeshots. We better look into who builds those motors and what else they do.
Red Bull's Airforce did an amazing jump into the stadium, then they showed a video taken from the one that made it to the floor. The other jumper landed on the roof and that delayed closing the roof and during the heats, it was COLD in there!
Steve Boniface won his Lites heat, so the French guys won both heats, the main, and Sorby got the Racer X gas card. Maybe we need a French announcer with an English translator now.
