Coming off what he has called one of the worst off-seasons of his career, where he battled both injury and complications from the removal of skin cancer, reigning AMA Supermoto Champion Jeff Ward picked up right where he left off at the pre-season Stateline Supermoto Challenge by winning the 15-lap Supermoto main event at round one of the 2007 AMA Supermoto Championship at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis, Missouri, today. The Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull Honda-backed Ward, 45, never missed a beat at the Live Nation-promoted series opener, which featured a revised format that utilized heat races rather than timed qualifying to set the main event grids for all three championship classes. Ward easily won his heat race to land second on the grid for the main event, alongside pole sitter Mark Burkhart. He then overcame a mediocre start that placed him third, behind Monster Energy/Mountain Adventure Kawasaki’s Chris Fillmore and LA Fuel/GP Husqvarna’s Adrien Chareyre on the opening lap. Chareyre took over the lead on lap two and tried to get away while Ward struggled to get past Fillmore for the next five laps. Ward then slipped past Fillmore on one of the Verizon circuit’s ultra-fast pavement sections to run down Chareyre, who had amassed a lead of more than two seconds. Ward used a different line over the first big tabletop jump in the dirt section to fly past...
click on ozzy go to the full story/photo: scott@supermotoracers.com