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March 31, 2008
TORONTO, Ontario, Canada – After the series took a break for
Easter weekend – the first break of the year – the 450cc riders returned to
action inside Toronto’s Rogers Centre, where the dirt was mostly frozen when it
was brought in by track builder Dirt Wurx, leading to an actual mud race in a
roofed stadium, because as the dirt thawed in the warmer indoor temperatures,
the track constantly seeped water, creating a rutted mess of a track.
The AMA Lites class took another weekend off for the Toronto
race and will return next Saturday night for the Dallas Supercross.
Torco Racing Fuels Honda’s Kevin Windham liked the design of
the track when he first saw it, but the track changed as it thawed.
“I thought the track was a good layout,” Windham said. “I
got here and I walked it, and I’ll be honest with you, but it was pretty bad
when I got here, but it got worse, and worse, and worse, and there were like
seep-holes where water was coming out of the dirt, because there was a lot of
ice melting. The Dirt Wurx guys said they laid the floor, and they came back
the next morning, and it looked like it had rained. So there was so much water
in the track.”
Windham got the holeshot in his Heat race, and then won it
going away. However, in the main event, he fell victim to a first-turn clash
between Davi Millsaps and Chad Reed.
“Davi [Millsaps] and Chad [Reed] came together, and Davi
stood me up, and I kind of went outside, but I ended up fifth, which wasn’t so
bad, but that sucks when Chad’s up front, because you know what he’s going to
do,” Windham said. “I just tried to keep plugging away. I got to second via
some passes, and Davi making a mistake – he actually hit neutral and was so
slow-mo when he fell.”
Windham’s crash was a bit slow-motion as well, as he hit
concrete at the bottom of a rut and lost the front end.
“When I crashed, I hit concrete, which made me crash,”
Windham said. “Everyone had to deal with the same thing, but supercross is a
little dangerous when you come up to some jumps and other odds and ends and
there’s concrete showing through the rut. The ruts were one thing, the concrete
was something else, but a lot of tracks get better with bikes, but this one got
worse with bikes. It just continued to deteriorate worse and worse. They had to
put tractors on it to keep it together, but it just kept pumping more and more
water from below. I could feel the front end pushing, and I tried to get it
back, but there was no traction, and I went down.”
Windham was still able to charge forward after his fall, and
he caught and passed Millsaps for second, then closed down on Reed.
“After my crash, I just didn’t want to lose focus,” Windham
said. “I wanted to get up, and it took me a couple laps to get going again. I
just wanted to look for lines, and the track was going away fast. We knew it
was going to be a race where you had to look for lines because they were going
to be ever-changing. I just made the changes as I needed to, and I found some
good lines, and I kept charging. I felt comfortable on my bike; the Torco
Racing Fuels Honda was running great, and I thank the team for coming up here.
It was awesome. I had the full support of the team, and that was a big help. It
was a good night, my bike was working good, I found good lines, and I was able
to charge forward.”
However, Windham ran out of time, and he was forced to
settle for second.
“It was a race where I knew that mistakes were going to be
made,” Windham said. “I was really pumped to get back up, and I felt like the
last part of that race was pretty respectable for me. I made up some ground on
Chad, but who knows how hard he was riding. But I made up some ground on him
and passing Davi and stuff. I was happy about the later part of the race, but
just for that one mistake. Three points is a lot better than five points to
lose to Chad at this point, though.”
Windham came into Toronto trailing Reed by 17 points, and
left trailing by 20 with five rounds left to run in the 2008 AMA Supercross
Championship.
From here, the Torco Racing Fuels Honda team heads to Texas
Stadium in Irving, Texas, just outside of Dallas, for round 13 of the AMA
Supercross Series and round five of the 2008 Eastern Regional Lites Supercross
Championship.
Team Sponsors: Torco Race Fuels, Honda, Planet Fitness, No
Fear Energy, AMSOIL, Factory Connection, No Fear, Shoei, Gaerne, Spy, DVS,
Cycra, Dunlop, EK, Ferodo, Hinson, Ogio, One Industries, Pro Circuit, Renthal,
Showa, TAG, Twin Air, and Works Connection.
Toronto 450cc Main:
1. Chad
Reed Yam
2. Kevin
Windham Torco
Racing Fuels Honda
3. Davi
Millsaps Hon
4. Andrew
Short Hon
5. Josh
Hill Hon
6. Nick
Wey KTM
7. Timmy
Ferry Kaw
8. Troy
Adams Hon
9. Charles
Summey Yam
10. Jason
Thomas Hon
AMA Supercross Standings (After 12 of 17 rounds):
1. Chad
Reed (262/7
wins)
2. Kevin
Windham (242/2
wins)
3. Andrew
Short (190)
4. Davi
Millsaps (184/1
win)
5. Josh
Hill (151/1
win)
6. Timmy
Ferry (151)
7. Nathan
Ramsey (137)
8. David
Vuillemin (123)
9. Nick
Wey (110)
10. Paul
Carpenter (107)
Web photos from the event can be found at:
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