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| SX Season Recap - Indy |
| Jason Weigandt |
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With Ricky Carmichael
officially retired from Amp'd Mobile Supercross, the world was James Stewart's
for the taking. He held the points lead in both the AMA and World Supercross Series,
but James needed a signature event, a race to really build his legend and to tell
everyone that this was his world and everyone else was just playing in it.
Indianapolis was that race. Here, Stewart dominated in a different manner than
usual-he started horribly and put on a huge charge from out of the pack, eventually
tracking down the only rival he still has-Chad Reed, to win the race in dramatic
fashion. From Indy on, it's clear that this is James' world now.
One thing this race did have in common with others that Stewart has won was that
Stewart found a tricky, difficult jump combination that no one else had to make
up his time. He needed it when he got a bad jump off the start in the main event
and found himself staring at the back of 19 riders as they left the first turn.
A whoop section lay dead ahead, and Stewart was forced to roll through it instead
of blitzing through like normal, to avoid running into the back of slower riders.
This left Stewart deep in the pack, but he was soon passing in bunches. He was
14th after lap one and seventh by lap two, a ridiculous and amazing charge. But
three fast riders were getting away from him as he drove through the pack.
Reed was running and hiding on his San Manuel Yamaha, but the pressure was on.
To get beaten by Stewart after he had started this far back would be a disaster.
Stewart's teammate Tim Ferry was holding down second, with pressure from his new
Florida neighbor Grant Langston. Langston had started the season injured, but
was finally showing the supercross form that led him to back-to-back SX Lites
titles in 2005 and 2006. He put pressure on Ferry in the hopes for a podium finish-even
if Stewart was able to get to the front.
Meanwhile Stewart found easy pickings in Team Honda's tandem of Davi Millsaps
and Andrew Short, both who were riding back into shape after injury woes of their
own. By lap five Stewart was in fourth, and started making up ground on Reed-even
through traffic Stewart didn't lose much time compared to where he was on lap
one, and now that he had clear track to work with, he got even closer.
The he really started to make up ground with a very tricky jump combination in
the rhythm lane in front of the RCA Dome press box. By tripling in and tripling
out, Stewart was taking a huge risk-but making up huge time. He passed Langston
on lap six and Ferry on lap seven. Then he set out to catch Reed.
It didn't take long. Once the fishing reel was cast, Stewart started reeling in
the big blue fish, and he wasn't going to let it get away. Surely, Reed needed
to step up and jump through the rhythm lane to help stabilize the gap, but he
was unable to do it.
Although Stewart was attempting to pull off the impossible, it was quickly starting
to look like a typical supercross race. Ever since Reed gave up his supercross
crown to Carmichael in 2005, the big leaps of supercross have been his Achilles
heel. Evidence is everywhere. In Vancouver in December of '05, Reed couldn't jump
a small section in a rhythm lane. Same thing happened at the same stadium (BC
Place) this year. Not to mention Phoenix '06 when he held a big lead but couldn't
hold off Carmichael, or his dramatic win in St. Louis last year, when he refused
to jump a triple until the 12th lap of the main.
For whatever reason, Reed has been gun shy over the more technical leaps, and
as Stewart barreled down on him and then made a pass for the lead, it was game
over again. The RCA Dome exploded in support of Stewart, who had completed an
amazing charge from next-to-last to get the lead.
After getting passed, Reed could see Stewart jumping the section first hand. Not
willing to go down without a fight, he finally uncorked it and tried it himself.
It was tricky, it was scary and it was far from smooth, but Reed managed to get
over the section. But watching 19 riders refuse to jump the section, and watching
Reed struggle his way through it in desperation, only solidified how impressive
Stewart's ride was.
And thus, when he crossed the finish line to the support of the Hoosier fans,
he had his signature race. Stewart was going to be the new king of supercross,
and there wasn't anything anyone else could do about it.
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