This is the Supercross Main Event from AT&T Park in San Francisco, CA.
In 2007, Team Kawasaki's James "Bubba" Stewart #7 was in complete command of the AMA and World Supercross Championships. The 21-year old Floridian had full expectations of capturing his first ever Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Championship, after finishing in a tie for 2nd overall with Yamaha's Chad Reed #22 behind Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael #4. Stewart had won a total of 8 races in 2006, but an 8th, a 17th, and a 6th due to crashes and rookie mistakes prevented James from taking the AMA Supercross title in 2006; however, he did walk away with the 2006 World Supercross GP title as a consolation prize.
James Stewart was 3-0 with dominating wins at the 2 Anaheims, and Phoenix, but he started out the World Supercross title on the wrong side of things. At Toronto, he battled with Chad Reed after an 8th place start, but Reed unintentionally tapped the back of James' KX450F and James jumped off the track. Stewart, who was too concerned about getting the win, dangerously re-entered the course and took out Samsung Honda's Travis Preston #11. Stewart ended up with a badly hurt ankle, but that was the least of his problems. Earlier in practice, James caused an incident with Carmichael's Makita Suzuki teammate Ivan Tedesco #9, which hurt Tedesco's hand, which resulted in a $2000 fine for Stewart; he was fined $4000 for dangerously entering the course, to total $6000, and was placed on probation for all of the 2007 Supercross season. Chad Reed won Toronto. After being on crutches all that week, James was contemplating skipping the next race at Vancouver, but James Stewart, Sr., James' dad, talked James into racing Vancouver and James turned that into a 2nd place finish after leading 17-18 laps and losing to Ricky Carmichael.
Ricky Carmichael, who was on the verge of retirement, was looking for his 2nd win of the season. After winning at Vancouver, Ricky had rode to 2 2nd places at Anaheim 1 and Phoenix (3 if you count Toronto) before bypassing the Anaheim 2 race. This was Ricky's 3rd race in his part-time Supercross season, and he had yet to get a win in the AMA series... as did Chad Reed on his new San Manuel Yamaha.
Chad Reed, who was planning on contesting just the Supercross season, came out with a win at Toronto and a 3rd at Vancouver. Sadly, Chad chipped his shoulder before Anaheim 1, which ruined his season a slight bit because he was expected to battle James Stewart for the Supercross title. Reed finished 2nd and 3rd in just about every race after Toronto, but San Diego would turn out to be his only win in the AMA series -- 2 if you count Toronto for the WSXGP. Chad's only non-podium came at Seattle when he finished in 6th.
In this race in San Francisco, Chad Reed nailed his second holeshot of the young 2007 season. Stewart and Carmichael started behind Chad, but Reed kept things steady, despite losing the lead for 1/2 lap to James Stewart. Reed would lose the lead again on lap 6 after #917 Eric Sorby held up Reed. James would later crash 2 laps later off the tabletops, and leave the battle down to Reed and Carmichael. Chad kept things steady, and Ricky started to apply the pressure. Unfortunately, on lap 10, Chad Reed would crash on his own and end up 3rd, losing another 2 pts. to James Stewart. Carmichael would win his first race of the AMA series from then on. It was Ricky's 47th win of his Supercross career. Ricky would win again at St. Louis, which would mark the 48th and LAST TIME he won a Supercross race.
Enjoy.
21 ноя 2018
