Kawasaki’s James Stewart has won his second consecutive Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross/World Supercross GP race, in front of 40,101 fans at the inaugural race at Ford Field.
Stewart, who now trails AMA points leader Ricky Carmichael by 20 points, grabbed the lead from the $1,500 Progressive Direction Holeshot Award winner Nick Wey two turns into the main event - and then eased away to a comfortable win.
"I got out and ran a good pace, saw those guys coming - congrats to Ricky and Chad," said Stewart. "I got my pace on the first lap and really didn’t change anything after that."
As Stewart indicated, four-time AMA Supercross champion Carmichael and former champion Chad Reed - the top two in the current AMA points standings - battled bar-to-bar for the first two-thirds of the race.
Reed held second on the first lap, but Carmichael worked his way up the order, catching the Australian after several laps and stalking him thereafter. After swapping the runner-up position several times, RC finally pulled away to finish the race in second, with Reed third.
"That was definitely a race for the fans," said Carmichael. "I felt like we had the speed to win, but got caught up at the start. That’s the way it goes."
As for the title chase, Carmichael now holds a 10-point lead over Reed, but is also wary of Stewart: "I’m not settling in, the points are too close," said Carmichael. "James is obviously riding really well."
"I’m not going to give up," said Reed. "It takes me a few laps to get going, but I’ve decided I’m going for it. No excuses. I chose to do this and I’m happy to be on the podium again."
In the AMA Supercross Lites class, Honda’s Josh Grant got out to a solid start behind holeshot award winner Teddy Maier (Kawasaki) and Bobby Kiniry (Honda). Grant then grabbed the lead midway though the first lap and eventually built a seven-second lead on second place rider Davi Millsaps – the AMA Lites’ Easter Region points leader.
"Feels great. A win’s a win," said Grant. "I’d struggled in the whoops earlier in the day, so once I figured that out, I was good."
