Watch as James Stewart goes for his fastest lap during qualifying practice at round 3 of the 2012 AMA Supercross Series in Los Angeles.

Share/Save

Southern California’s weather experts got a little over ambitious leading into round three of the 2012 AMA Supercross Series on Saturday, as the 100% rain forecast in Los Angeles was eventually upgraded to a beautifully sunny, zero precipitation afternoon inside Dodger Stadium. Still, an abbreviated schedule had already been mandated, leaving James and the rest of the riders to learn the LA circuit in a single practice session. Shortly after dropping the quickest lap time early-on in Supercross Qualifying Group A, James went down while exiting the track’s lone whoop section, forcing a premature trip back to the pit area.

Despite the lack of seat time heading into the night program, JS7 came out swinging in his heat, taking the win and the number one gate pick into the main event. When the gate finally dropped for the premier-class final, James finally nabbed that start he’d been searching for, and despite a mid-race mishap that saw him briefly hit the LA soil, he piloted his JGRMX Yamaha to a podium finish for the first time in 2012.

Here’s how all the action went down in Chavez Ravine…

SUPERCROSS HEAT #1
• After a great jump out of the gate to kick off Supercross Heat #1, James narrowly missed the holeshot as Mike Alessi snuck a wheel in at the stripe.
• JS7 quickly took over the front spot on the track’s first rhythm section, and immediately began stretching his lead.
• Despite only completing a handful of laps after crashing during the day’s one and only practice session, James had no problem learning the track as he motored on to a fairly uneventful heat race win.
• James is now a perfect three-for-three in 2012 heat races.

SUPERCROSS MAIN EVENT
• The highly anticipated Superclass-class main event rolled into the gate at just before 9:50pm local time, and when it finally dropped, Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey grabbed the holeshot, but he was quickly passed by Ryan Villopoto, with JS7 close-in-tow in the third spot.
• Unfortunately, a huge crash further back in the pack involving Honda’s Trey Canard and Star-Valli Yamaha’s Ryan Morais forced out the red flag and subsequent restart.
• When the action resumed some 15-minutes later, James jumped out to a solid second-place start, with Dungey close behind in third.
• On lap four, James got passed by a hard-charging Chad Reed while searching for the fast line, but kept the Honda rider in his sights as he continued establishing his race pace.
• After an aggressive inside pass on Weimer to take over second on lap number eight, JS7 went back after Reed out front.
• On lap 12 while closing the gap on the leader, James over-jumped the second triple in a triple-triple rhythm section, and laid it down in the following right-hand corner.
• Remounting in the third spot, James looked slightly out of sync while regaining composure, and Villopoto slowly began creeping up in fourth.
• When the checkers finally flew after 20 grueling laps, JS7 held on for a hard-fought third-place finish—his first podium of 2012.

SUPERCROSS RESULTS
1. Chad Reed
2. Ryan Dungey
3. James Stewart
4. Ryan Villopoto
5. Brett Metcalfe
6. Davi Millsaps
7. Josh Hansen
8. Broc Tickle
9. Kevin Windham
10. Mike Alessi

Share/Save

Despite crashing in the main event, James had a strong night in Los Angeles, finishing on the podium in third position. Check out the gallery!

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Share/Save