Yamaha’s James Stewart stands on the brink of capturing the 2009 AMA Supercross and FIM World Championships after clinching his eleventh win of the season and the thirty-sixth of his career at the Rice-Eccles Stadium and watched by 40,612 spectators in Salt Lake City for the penultimate round of the campaign.
The 23 year old guided his YZ450F - a motorcycle that has owned 12 of the 16 races run thus far - to the chequered flag ahead of main title rival Chad Reed and now holds a 6 point advantage with just one meeting remaining. Stewart became the first rider to give Yamaha eleven victories in a season and have increased the manufacturer’s total to 67 triumphs since the turn of the century, more than a third more than their nearest competitor.
“My biggest thing is just to try to stay away from the drama because at the end of the day, you want to race a guy and go to sleep knowing that you raced him as hard as you could, and clean, and didn’t take anybody out,” said Stewart on the tense situation between himself and Reed.
“He wanted to win tonight, and I wanted to win tonight, and I think I just got lucky enough and I was able to pull it off, so I feel great,” added the LandM San Manuel rider who won the sixth main event to take place in Utah and became the first rider to gain victories in both classes at the venue.
Stewart dealt Reed a swift blow as the reigning champion gained the holeshot but was unable to sprint away from the challenger. With half the Main Event gone, Stewart pounced for the lead and defeated the Australian in a straight shoot-out.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Josh Grant was sixth and now stands a good chance of confirming 4th place in the championship thanks to a 5 point gap over Kevin Windham.
The season curtain closer will fittingly take place on a spectacular stage with the Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas hosting round seventeen this weekend.
2009 AMA-SX Salt Lake City, UT 27/04/2009
Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 James Stewart Yamaha USA 17'39.037 2 Chad Reed Suzuki AUS 0'03.732 3 David D Millsaps Honda USA 0'31.107 4 Ryan Villopoto Kawasaki USA 0'35.629 5 Andrew Short Honda USA 0'42.756 6 Josh Grant Yamaha USA 0'46.607 7 Kevin Windham Honda USA 0'50.524 8 Matt Boni Honda USA 0'51.605 9 Thomas Hahn Kawasaki USA 0'54.277 10 Ivan Tedesco Honda USA 0'55.365 11 Paul Carpenter Kawasaki USA -1Laps 12 Nicholas Wey Yamaha USA -1Laps 13 Billy Laninovich Kawasaki USA -1Laps 14 Heath Voss Honda USA -1Laps 15 Broc Hepler Yamaha USA -1Laps 20 Kyle Chisholm Yamaha USA -20Laps
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