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Kawasaki’s James Stewart
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How is this for irony? James Stewart (Kawasaki) wins the 2007 AMA Supercross title, because he is fast, and because he is injured less than his competitors. That’s right, injured less than his competitors.
With it now being reported that Chad Reed had a heavy crash a couple of days ago at the Yamaha supercross practice track, injuring his shoulder, among other things, and no word yet on whether Ivan Tedesco (Suzuki) can return to action at the opening round of the AMA Supercross series this Saturday evening in Anaheim following the broken hand he suffered in Canada a month ago, it is possible that three of the top four finishers in last year’s series are already out of the championship hunt this year.
That’s right, last year’s champ Ricky Carmichael will not contest enough races this year to make him a championship threat, while Reed (who finished third in the points last year) and Tedesco (who finished fourth) look like they may lose enough points due to injury to put James Stewart in the driver’s seat.
Typically, supercross injuries play a roll after the series starts, not before. Sure, there have been pre-series injuries in the past, but I cannot recall three of the four top riders from the previous season being out of the hunt for the title before Anaheim I.
Of course, we do not have official word on Chad Reed’s status, nor do we know whether Tedesco will try to “tough it out” and race Anaheim I so soon after breaking his hand. It appears very likely, nevertheless, that even if these riders attempt to compete, their injuries will place them lower in the standings than they would normally place, and will rob significant points from their championship efforts. At worst, these riders may miss multiple rounds at the beginning of the series — something you cannot do when you are contesting the title against a rider of Stewart’s caliber.
We do not want to ignore the other fine riders contesting the series this year, including Tim Ferry (Kawasaki), Grant Langston (Yamaha), David Vuillemin (Honda), Kevin Windham (Honda) and others, but Reed and Tedesco, in our opinion, are the only two riders aside from Carmichael capable of giving Stewart something to worry about this year. We will let you know if we hear anything official on the status of Reed or Tedesco in the next few days.
