Windham Wins Again

As the 2008 AMA Supercross series goes down to the wire, Torco Racing Fuels/AMSOIL/Honda’s Kevin Windham continues to close in on his possible first national supercross championship. The question at this point is more about timing than performance, as Windham has won the last two races, but still trails by 10 points going into the season finale in Las Vegas.

Supercross Class

Windham won the opening heat race of the night, just in front of Davi Millsaps and AMSOIL teammate Josh Grant, who was making his 450cc debut. At the start of the main, Andrew Short got to the official hole shot line first, but Windham had the lead shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, points leader and championship rival Chad Reed went down in the first turn.

After leading the first two laps, Windham got too close to a tuff block and got the cover lodged in his rear wheel, forcing him to stop, get off of his bike, and dislodge the banner.

“I got a little close to the side [of the track],” Windham said. “That was a track where, with all of the rocks, sometimes you get a little offline and you had to sort of ride from bale to bale, and that’s what I was doing, but I kind of got a little too close to the bales, and the thing sucked up into my rear wheel, and as I was coming out into the first rhythm section, the thing just completely bogged, and I almost killed myself. "

Windham remounted at the tail end of the top five, and by then, Reed was only a couple of spots behind him. Windham went to work, first passing Grant for fourth, then chasing down Tim Ferry for third, Millsaps for second, and finally retaking the lead from Short on the 18th of 20 laps.

“I was really thinking, ‘Man, this might be the whole championship. What if I can’t get this thing out of my rear wheel?’” Windham said. “It was just two extremes of emotion in four laps, and then to get back after it again, I was wondering, ‘Can I catch these guys?’”

Windham ended up taking his fourth main-event win of the season, but Reed recovered for second, minimizing Windham’s points gain for the second-straight week.

“As I was going, I was looking at Chad, and I was watching him pick them off one by one, and it was a bummer,” Windham said. “These three-point weekends, they’re not going to get it for me.”

There is one more race to run, and Windham needs to make up 10 points in the finale to win the championship.

“Let’s go!” Windham said. “I’m ready! Let’s go to Vegas right now. I’m ready right now. Let’s go.”

Grant had an impressive 450cc debut. After twisting his ankle in practice, he had it taped up, and then had to have the brake pedal raised up a bit so that he could use it with his immobilized right ankle. Then, he went out and grabbed third in his heat race, and ran in the top five for most of the main event, eventually finishing sixth.

Lites Class

In the Lites class, Phoenix winner Jake Weimer didn’t make the trip to Seattle as he was still recovering from a recently broken collarbone. He will be in Las Vegas for the East/West Shootout, though. His teammate Dan Reardon was in attendance and started out the night with a heat-race win.

However, in the main, he didn’t have the good fortune of being out front with a clear track, and it cost him, as he got sucked up into a pileup on the opening lap, which ended his night.

“The main event lasted for two straights,” Reardon said. “There was a pileup with about six or eight guys in it, and I was one of them, and that was it for the night. I couldn’t continue."

From here, the team heads to the AMA Supercross Finale in Las Vegas on May 3 inside Sam Boyd Stadium, where Windham will try to snatch the title. Eastern Regional Lites Champion Trey Canard, along his Lites teammates Weimer, Grant and Reardon will take on the Lites East/West Shootout.

Visit the AMSOIL website for more information on AMSOIL racing and AMSOIL Synthetic Lubricants.

Until then, we'll see you at the races.