Anaheim - How it went down…!

January 07, 2008

Our man in the pits at A1 was Sean De Gruchy who spent the weekend as MOTO's roving reporter checking out the race and checking out whats going down in the pits at the first Supercross of the year.

SX Main

Bubba had the holeshot but fell with several other riders and ended up last on lap one. GL led it and was looking good although Reed was noticeably faster and within a few laps had passed him. Fair play to Grant - the first time Reed went passed GL turned it up and went straight back passed him. The second pass stuck and Reed just rode away from him.

Grant slipped back and ended up having a great battle with Ferry passing back and forth the whole race. Meanwhile Bubba was tearing through the pack and passing guys with ease, with in the space of a 1/3 of a lap he passed Alessi, Ferry & Langston to get in to 2nd! By that point Reed was about 12 seconds ahead and I think James decided to settle for the points.

Reed rode extremely well but I think if he's going to beat Bubba this year he still has to find a little extra, James was the smoothest, fastest looking guy on the track last night and to come through to 2nd on a track as cut up and as rutted as it was is indicative of what a talented rider he is.

It'll be dry next week for sure; Phoenix has a roof, so it'll be interesting to see Bubba & Reed on a dry well prepped track.

They are way quicker than the rest of the guys out there; it's very easy to see the difference in speed. If the rest of the field want to challenge them this year they are gonna have to find some serious speed from somewhere.

Interestingly the Anaheim fans LOVE Reed and were standing and stomping for him the whole way through the main.

RETRO NIGHT

Two weeks is Retro Night at Anaheim, the track layout will be as '86 everyone's gonna be in old school gear and all the old greats will be there. I've dug out my JT bobble hat that I bought in 1978 so I'm gonna be stylin'. Will the YZ's be yellow? The KTM's white? I can't wait to find out!!

Lites Main

Reardon got the jump and led it for 3 - 4 laps, his pace wasn't quite quick enough though which resulted in a five rider bottle neck behind him (Dungey , J-Law , Metcalf , Brayton & Stroupe).

Once J-Law & Dungey got passed they gapped him pretty quick. J-Law was,along with Reed,the fastest guy through the whoops all night He made them look flat. Dungey had a really tricky, super rutted section dialled in and that kept him on J-Laws ass until Jason bobbled and fell just before the finish line and that was all Ryan needed,he got in to a good rhythm and that was that.

Reardon had a great debut ride for 4th spot as did Stroupe for 5th. Metcalf made a huge mistake which cost him any chance of winning the title which sounds crazy but with such a short series I think you have to finish top 3 each week to have any chance.

Goings on

There wasn't the usual Anahiem buzz in the pits last night, I think everyone was nervous about the conditions - it threatened to piss down all night. The mechanics were looking at a long night and the riders knew it could turn in to a lottery.

The rain never really came in the end although the track got super rutted and very technical. Reed & Bubba were by far the fastest guys in the SX class and Dungey & Lawrence were the 2 quickest in lites. Everyone had the backup bikes out and prepped for mud (usually at an SX they only bring one bike but last night they had two).

If you look carefully you'll see a hose running behind the shock reservoir, it went up in to the airbox somewhere. I couldn't get close enough to see what it was all about but it was a steel braided hose so I have to think it was something to do with the shock. Perhaps an additional reservoir mounted in the airbox??


Also this hose up by the gas cap. Any ideas? My guess is it's a remote adjuster for either the carb or ignition. Programmable ignition perhaps?


The AMA laid on washers for the privateers at the entrance to the stadium floor

The Suzuki guys had the largest front rotors I've ever seen


There were a lot of new team trucks around and in '08 if you don't have a pop out you might as well go home


Hep getting his sagged checked out - on the bike that is. Broc's from PA so is used to the mud but last night he seemed to struggle

Images and report by Sean De Gruchy USA MOTO WEB CONTRIBUTOR

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