Stewart smokes 'em in St Louis

The Supercross Circus went to St Louis this week. After a fairly extraordinary month (even by his standards), James Stewart came out and just plain beat everyone straight up to take his first win since February.

The Yamaha star gated well and was soon by the holeshotting Ivan Tedesco for the lead, but Ryan Dungey was right there and quickly into second – there was nothing, however, that he could do about Stewart, although it has to be said that he didn’t allow Stewart to just check out.

Ryan Villopoto and Chad Reed gated less well and battled early on before Australian Reed had a mishap that allowed Villopoto through, the pair of them moving through to take third and fourth as Trey Canard, the fifth part of the championship jigsaw puzzle, recovered from a terrible start to close in on fourth placed Reed at the close.

It means that the two Ryans at the head of the table are now separated by just five points, Villopoto ahead of Dungey, with Reed eight points off the championship lead, Stewart eight points off of Reed, and Canard just four points in arrears to Stewart.

This one, as the saying would have it, is going to go to the wire. In the East Coast 250F class, they’re almost at the wire. Blake Baggett took the holeshot but series leader Justin Barcia was swiftly through into the lead, followed shortly by Ryan Sipes.

Sipes immediately launched an assault on Barcia, even making an attempt on the lead but Barcia was straight back at him, taking the place straight back. Sipes was looking to launch another offensive when a mistake dropped him back and into Baggett’s sights, Sipes going defensive to keep second whilst Barcia motored away up front.

Sipes would eventually pull away to clinch second, ahead of Baggett and Dean Wilson – Wilson’s quiet night means that he goes into the final round 20 points in arrears to Barcia, who has a hand firmly on the title.