Stewart out of luck in San Diego

JGRMX Yamaha's James Stewart missed out on another podium finish at the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego last Saturday when the former champion crashed through the tricky whoops section of the course that entertained round six of seventeen in the AMA Supercross series (also an FIM World Championship).

Stewart recovered from a mid-pack start in the 20 lap main event to make several sharp overtaking moves and force his way to third place. It was on the sixth circulation when the slip occurred, and a crowd of 58, 782 spectators saw the Floridian hit the ground luckily without injury. Stewart was actually able to remount and although a lap down reached the flag in fifteenth for a few points.

"We had a good practice and I had an OK start in the main - top ten somewhere - I made my way up and got into third place and ended up going down in the whoops," he recounted after the final Californian stop on the calendar. "I don't know what happened, I was just riding and doing my thing. I was on my head so quick. I was stuck under the bike - completely stuck on something. I was trying to pull it off, and finally a guy pulled his knife out and cut me out and I got going. A little bit frustrating but we will go back and keep on working. I appreciate all the fans sticking behind us. We've got a lot of races left so we will continue getting better."

Reigning Champion Ryan Villopoto rode to his second win in succession and heads the standings. Stewart is fourth and 32 points in arrears.

Monster Energy Yamaha's Zach Osborne may have left the West Coast Lites competition but Yamaha were well represented at the Qualcomm by Star Valli Yamaha's Gareth Swanepoel. The former Grand Prix racer took his YZ250F to a career-best fourth position. In what is his first full season of SX racing the South African classified just in front of team-mate Nico Izzi. "Supercross is a whole different ball game and I've been trying to find my feet but tonight I proved to myself that I can run the pace for a full 15 laps," he said. "The whoops were really gnarly but I used them to my advantage and could hit them consistently each lap."

"My goal is to finish the West coast series healthy so that I can go into the MX season strong," he added. "A podium finish in the SX Lites would be awesome and that has to be the next step."

Round seven of the series (and the first outing for the East Coast Lites campaigners) will take place at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas next Saturday.

2012 AMA-SX United States

Qualcomm Stadium 12/02/2012 20 Laps
race I

AMA-SX World Standing

Rider Standings After Race 6 of 17

Crowd: 58,782
Weather: Dry
Lap Record: 0'47.448 (James Stewart, 1/1/2006)
Last Years Winner: Chad Reed

Manufacturer Standings
12/02/2012

1 Kawasaki 135
2 Honda 129
3 KTM 123
4 Yamaha 109
5 Suzuki 81