James 'Bubba' Stewart has taken his second World Supercross GP victory in as many starts after dominating Saturday night's second round of the 2006 championship, held at Vancouver's B.C. Place Stadium, Canada.
The Kawasaki rider had taken a tense victory over reigning World SX GP and AMA Supercross champion Ricky Carmichael one week ago at Toronto, but would never be troubled by RC or former AMA champion Chad Reed at Vancouver after both suffered poor main event starts.
By the time Suzuki mounted Carmichael had recovered and moved into second place, Stewart was long gone and would cross the finish line over four-seconds clear - even after backing off considerably in the closing stages. Reed would make the podium order the same as Toronto by claiming a distant third ahead of new Suzuki rider Ivan Tedesco.
"It was a great race tonight, and I love racing here in Canada," said Stewart. "My parents really helped me keep on track this week and come into the weekend really prepared. I do not feel 100% confident yet because I still have a lot of work ahead of me."
"It was not the start I wanted," admitted Carmichael. "If you want to put yourself in a better position, you can’t start the race like that. Only bad things can happen when you get a start like that."
Stewart will now aim to continue his dominant form when the 2006 AMA Supercross series starts at Anaheim on January 7, while the likes of Carmichael and Reed will have something of a restless Christmas as they seek the extra speed needed to run with the #7 in his second premier class season.
Meanwhile, in the Supercross Lites class, KTM’s Nathan Ramsey repeated his Vancouver victory of one year ago, having taken the holeshot ahead of Honda’s Billy Laninovich.
But at the other end of the field was last week’s winner in Toronto, Davi Millsaps, who mounted a remarkable recovery to climb from almost last to fourth place, by lap 4.
The Honda rider then continued his charge, taking second place on lap 12, but was unable to catch Ramsey, while Laninovich completed the podium.
