Red Riders Race Report: Houston AMA Supercross class

Minutes before the Houston Supercross this weekend, a tornado
touched down not far from the track, and the winds were strong
enough to rip the awnings off several of the factory semis parked
in the pits, including that of the Honda Torco Racing Fuels truck—
the team was undoubtedly upset.

Shortly thereafter a tornado of another type entirely touched
down on the track: Honda Torco Racing Fuels Kevin Windham on
his Honda CRF450R. This CRF450R-powered storm flat blew away
every other bike on the track, and gave K-Dub a well-deserved
win in the premier class.

The Houston track, while built by Dirt Wurx, had been designed
by Windham as well. Windham actually drove to the event, living
just five hours from Houston. The track didn’t give Windham any
advantage, though. After the race, number 14 commented, “Man,
I screwed up. I should’ve built this track like my track at home.”

In the first heat races of the night, Honda Red Bull Racing rider
Davi Millsaps was once again right up front, finishing second and
followed closely by teammate Andrew Short. The Millsaps/Short
rivalry isn’t talked about much in the press, but this year it’s
providing fans with some of the best, closest racing on the track.
Millsaps was injured for much of the Motocross season last year,
while Short came within a race of winning the National
Championship.

In the second heat, it was all about Windham, the Centreville,
Mississippi rider scoring an easy win. A heat win is nice, but
everyone kicks it up a notch when the main comes around.

When the gate dropped in the main, it was Honda Red Bull
Racing’s Davi Millsaps with another great holeshot, the second in
two races. Millsaps lit out and rode hard, serving notice that this
was going to be a gloves-off fight right from the first turn. With
Windham right behind, it was Honda one-two for the first lap.

It’s tough to fall in the first laps of a race: the pack is so close
and dense that a downed rider can lose a dozen positions in only
a second. That’s what happened to Millsaps, and by the time he
was up and rejoined the race it was in 20th position.

Andrew Short, meanwhile, had also gotten an excellent start,
completing the first lap in fourth, and then moving up into third
when Millsaps fell. Short held that position until lap eight, riding
in front of series leader Chad Reed. As the leaders began to
approach lapped traffic, though, there was some reshuffling of
the second, third, fourth, and fifth-place riders. Eventually Short
ended up in fifth, where he finished.

Millsaps had begun his charge back, passing three and four
riders per lap. By lap nine, he’d moved from last to ninth. As
you move up in the pack, though, it gets tougher and tougher to
pass, and Millsaps had to settle for an eight-place finish: still
remarkable considering his first-lap mishap.

As for Windham, he just checked out, riding flawlessly and
never challenged once for the lead. “When I got to the lappers
early, Chad [Reed] was in second, I thought to myself, ‘Man,
this is the pivotal point of the race. If I don’t get through these
guys, that’s going to be his chance to tighten up.’ I mean, that
was really the race for me. There were a lot of little steps, but
when you’re racing guys...” full story on hondaredriders.com
pics from tedescophoto.com