After a 24-hour break, motorcycle racing action continued at "The World Center of Racing" Friday night with the beyond sloppy, mud-filled Supercross extravaganza otherwise known as the Monster Energy AMA Supercross at Daytona, presented by Honda.
And there's nothing like a muddy, water-logged Supercross track to even the playing field between factory and privateer riders - and that's exactly what happened.
Torco Racing Fuels Honda's Kevin Windham took the win over Yamaha's Reed at the difficult and very, very muddy Daytona.
The privateer Honda of Hooters Tamer Billet Moto XXX backed Antonio Balbi won Heat Race 1 over the factory Honda bikes of Kevin Windham and Davi Millsaps. It was the day of the privateers again in Heat Race 2 with Rockstar Hart & Huntington Tattoo's Cole Siebler and Bad Boy Power Drinks Jacob Marsack coming in behind the Yamaha of San Manuel Band of Mission Indians' rider Chad Reed.
When the gates dropped for the shortened 12-lap main it was Balbi with the Progressive holeshot. His lead wouldn't last long as Reed rode his YZ450F past the Honda privateer taking Windham with him. Balbi would be relegated to third position and behind him was the RM-Z450 of Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey.
Coming into Lap 3, Windham pulled his CRF450R alongside Reed and slid by the Australian. The two veterans continued to blast through the huge mud holes side-by-side until Reed eventually took the lead on the next lap. The lead riders encountered lapped traffic by Lap 4 but made their way past unscathed.
Reed had a 32-second lead with 3 Laps to go, but unfortunately his Yamaha wouldn't go the distance. It finally shut down in a big cloud of white steam within a few turns of the finish. Reed repeatedly attempted to restart the machine but eventually gave up and furiously made the long walk back to the pits. This left the door wide open for Windham to take his first-ever Daytona win.
Chad Reed motored through the mud, but saw all his hard work wasted just two corners from the finish.
"Oh man, I tell you it was just brutal. It's been an incredible night. You dream of winning Daytona," Windham said. "It was a brutal race. It's been an incredible season and this win is just icing on the cake. I actually didn't like riding in the mud. But you string along a couple of wins in muddy events and suddenly you become a mud rider. You've got to be aggressive."
"I think the scorers lost track of who was leading, because I was in the back corner and the flames above the finish line went off," Windham said. "I was thinking Chad just won the Daytona Supercross.
"In the matter of one straightaway, it was the biggest emotional roller coaster I've ever been on in my entire life. I went from thinking I was hoping I could salvage second here, still have a couple turns to go, to `Man, I'm going to win the Daytona Supercross.' It was an emotional roller coaster for me. It was just an incredible race."
Trailing Windham across the finish line was Honda Red Bull's Davi Millsaps.
"I had a really bad start. I could hardly see the track. But I rode smooth until halfway. Then I fell twice on the same lap. I'm just glad to be up here in second. This was the worse conditions I've ever ridden in my entire life...and I don't want to do it again," said Millsaps. "This year has been great. I've really stepped up this year."
The final podium spot was taken by Marsack making it a full Honda sweep.
AMA Supercross Results:
Reed managed to avoid the muddy carnage almost all the way to the bitter end, but his YZF couldn't finish the race.
1. Kevin Windham, Hon
2. Davi Millsaps, Hon
3. Jacob Marsack, Hon
4. David Vuillemin, Suz
5. Antonio Balbi, Hon
6. Chad Reed, Yam
7. Heath Voss, Hon
8. Andrew Short, Hon
9. Eric Sorby, Hon
10. Ryan Dungey, Suz
AMA Supercross Overall Standings:
1. Reed, 224
2. Windham, 200
3. Short, 154
4. Millsaps, 149
5. Ferry, 137
Supercross Lites
Trey Canard's East Coast dominance continued as the 17-year-old from Oklahoma won his third consecutive AMA Supercross Lites race. With the Ricky Carmichael-designed track more water than dirt, Lites racing action was reduced from the typical 15-laps down to 10.
Trey Canard scored his third-consecutive victory in the East Coast series with an epic ride in the mud at Daytona.
But that didn't matter to the Torco Racing Fuels Honda rider who moved right into the lead, passing his Progressive Holeshot winner and teammate, Josh Grant, going into Turn 1. Following Canard through the deep mud puddles was Monster Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto, Honda Red Bull's Ben Coisy, Boost Mobile Yamaha's Ryan Morais and Suzuki City's Jimmy Albertson.
Villopoto went to work right away trying to keep Canard's brown CRF250R in sight. He was closing the gap until a crash on Lap 4 caused by tucking the front tire. The Kawasaki rider immediately recovered and managed to stay upright through the remaining laps.
"There are spots that are deeper than our bikes. It was pretty hard to get through," said last year's West Coast champ. "I just went out there and tried to stay up. I hoped bike didn't suck in any water. It's a matter of survival."
The very next lap, Canard would be the one to crash, but like Villopoto he managed to keep his CRF250R lit and quickly recovered before RV could make a pass.
"The water was terrible. I've never ridden anything that bad. You couldn't see. All the lines and the ruts form underwater," said Canard. "I knew that the start was going to be huge because of the vision thing. And if you can't see it's hard to go anywhere. I somehow managed to snake the inside and come out in the lead. If I didn't get that I don't know what I would have done. I just wanted to do the best that I could. I think I was as prepared as possible. I gave it everything I had every lap. The weather played a lot with my mind. I just tried to get a good start. I crashed once but kept the bike running. Every lap was pretty sketchy. I was just trying to keep the front end light and the bike as straight as possible."
Canard would continue to push hard despite the foul track conditions. Both he and Villopoto continued to hit the large double followed by a triple section.
"The last lap was probably the scariest. I saw that I had a pretty decent gap and I was trying to take it easy," said Canard. "When you try and go slow in that stuff it makes it harder. They're so many sink holes and so many obstacles. Every lap the track was a totally different track from the lap before."
Local Honda racer Matt Boni had the ride of his life, with the Honda privateer taking the last podium spot.
"I knew it was going to be bad when they cancelled the second practice, said the privateer. "The more rain the better. I am a great mud rider. Whenever it rains it's my time to shine."
Coisy managed to hold on to fourth place with another privateer, Albertson, taking fifth.
Eastern Regional AMA Supercross Lites Results:
1. Trey Canard, Hon
2. Ryan Villopoto, Kaw
3. Matt Boni, Hon
4. Ben Coisy, Hon
5. Jimmy Albertson, Suz
i 6. Ryan Sipes, KTM
7. William Browning, Suz
8. Shane Sewell, Kaw
9. Ricky Renner, Kaw
10. Billy Payne, Hon
Eastern Regional AMA Supercross Lites Overall Standings:
1. Canard, 75
2. Sipes, 51
3. Coisy, 47
4. Villopoto, 44
5. Izzi, 42
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