Double DQ - Partridge and Davalos

The Lites west title was decided before Seattle (Villopoto champion), and everyone was pretty just slammed with outdoor testing during the break, but they seemed to show up at Seattle ready to prove something all over again.

This was even in the heat races! In heat one, Kyle Partridge was putting in a great ride out front, but Josh Hill caught and passed him for the heat win. Davalos and Partridge get together coming out of the last turn and towards the finish double.

Partridge tumbles and his bike goes off the track to the left, taking out Tuff Blox and tangling with wiring. He got going again and ran into Davalos after he finished, and the two got in a scuffle.

That was just too much for the AMA, and the two were both DQ'd for the night. The AMA trailer did get a visit to oppose the move, but this one didn't make a lot of waves. The mood seemed to be "well you don't don't fight like that in front of everyone, unless you are Tyler Evans!"

(Note - TE is on double secret probation or something already anyway.)

Seattle Pre Race Update

The weather stayed good all day.

The Stewart camp says it's just another race day, but it's not every day you are looking at an AMA supercross championship.

The 2-stroke count is 2, Michael Willard on a KTM125 and Cole Siebler on a CR250! Both are after the bounty started on Mototalk on Motonews. It's up to $3,700, and an extra $1,000 from that whacky Canadian Hammertime. I saw him today and he has the cash.

There were 40 or less entries in each class, so everyone goes to the night show. The first one to finish 9th or better in a heat (or makes it via an LCQ) gets the money.

The track surface had everyone talking. The dirt is just strange. When it's wet, its soft, but ruts up. DW put lime on it, but it got a little dusty. When it gets dry, it crumbles. So for the night show, they are carefully adding a bit of water.


















2-stroke money! Will anyone take it?

No Rain in Seattle

It looks like no rain in Seattle for tonight's supercross. The dirt is soft but they put lime it in and they are ready for this afternoon. Everything looks like a normal day, just a little cool.

The big news from tonight will be Stewart almost certainly bringing home his first AMA supercross championship.

The Lites class is decided already, with Villopoto taking the Lites title already at San Diego.

Cole Siebler did check in with a 2-stroke 250!

The new Saturday/Sunday schedule for the outdoor nationals is out. Like in SX, the qualifying races are replaced by qualifying practice, with a 20 minute consi for the Lites guys that don't make it (41rst on) and a consi for MX first thing Sunday morning.

Runaway

Never give James Stewart a holeshot and a clear track.

Townley's a Champion!

Townley is reading the instructions on the back of his #1 plate.

What Happened to Lange at Detroit

Detroit Lites main, "the big one." Lange is 3rd in points, and in the hunt if Townley and Morias screw up. Lange is slow off the gate, and Mike Alessi is about in the middle. Alessi high sides and actually runs past where is bike lands since he doesn't fall down! He ends up standing in front of Lange's front wheel.

Strange.

Detroit SX, Saturday Morning

Weekend Window is in Detroit to watch the final round of East SX Lites, with the title up for grabs. These are always exciting and anything can happen.

A few other points about this weekend-

- It's past April 15, so it's "new fuel weekend" for the race teams. This means the deadine is past for the fuel suppier to get the offending chemical out of the fuel that caused all the problems starting at A3. The new cans were spotted outside Reed's semi and were labeled Pro 4.1. So OK, they are racing dot 1 fuel and not dash 1. Nice huh?

- Weather is great outside!

- AMA Racing's Steve Whitelock held a round table with media after the track walk to go over the meetings in Spain last weekend. It went pretty well and he explained to the US moto media how the process worked.

- Motocross dot com's editor Tim Olson is replacing Terry Beal at Yamaha. Congrats to Tim.













Quick summary of the more controversial part, the 350/450 thing:

What happened last weekend in Spain is the FIM and AMA Racing agreed to work on problems together, and they have already asked the MSMA to take a proposal to OEMs to make 350s or something close available to racing.

This is not a demand and they can't and don't want to tell OEMs to not make 450s any more. They are just saying together, "Racing wants 350s, give us 350s, or something close."

The MSMA actually met for 7 hours before the meetings because they had advance notice of the concerns. Then the FIM and AMA brought up the issue in a GP Commission meeting and agreed. Then they held the round table you read about on WW. Lots of meetings.

Resistance on the team side is quick. They are questioning the logic and the items that came up in defense of the 350 proposal. These are like "do the 450s really tear up whoops, who says only a few guys can really race them, who says they are too powerful, don't you know how expensive it is to change things, etc."

Whitelock explained their side and said he will probably be in the followup meeting in June.

As far as the AMA side, they are convinced 450s are too much for racing, and after last weekend, you could say the train has already left the station. The FIM agrees and the issue is already on the table in Japan.