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    2010 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Stop 3 Anaheim CA has been tagged in 19 photos on GrindTV.

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    Alas, this is it - the miracle that was Round 3 of the 2010 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series. Amidst the gnarliest weather that Southern California has seen in even not-so-recent memory, the track was great. Not only great, but nearly miraculous considering how it could’ve been and sufficient kudos simply cannot be bestowed upon the track crew (not just Dirt Wurx, but the entire Feld track crew) for how well this night turned out. Unfortunately, next weekend seems to be potentially just as bad as this one, as rain has been falling like cats and dogs up there too. If you want to know what it’s like after practice, check back here at motocross.com and we’ll keep you caught up in “Near Real Time”!
    Hansen: Fast, smooth, great starter, suffers from ADD, probably not real fit, needs a haircut and shave.
    Wil Hahn is probably the story of the weekend in the Lites class, as he made his first-ever podium. He’s gone 5-4-2 this season, so there’s only one more step to go for him (up). The kid’s always been fast, but this season his team/program/fitness/whatever really seems to be clicking. In fact, both TLD riders - Hahn and Cole Seely - made the top 5, which is a pretty incredible feat considering Seely’s never even been close to that good before.
    Weimer: Fast, smooth, perfect, ready to move up and challenge Dungey/Stewart/Hill.
    Lites Main start, and the Weimer/Hansen duo charge to the first turn in the lead. Hansen’s a great starter (as is Weimer), but as far as holding his spot up front, well, not so much. Another notable here is Broc Tickle (#20), who ended up going down early and was never a factor. Bummer luck for Tickle but hey, like Ricky Carmichael says - you make your own luck! Tough crowd here.
    On to the Lites West class, and the podium goes: 1st, Jake Weimer; 2nd, Wil Hahn and 3rd, Trey Canard. We wish we could say this was a good race, but Jake Weimer is making the season kind of boring. He’s pretty much smoking everyone at this point and, if we look past Hahn’s remarkable ride, there really wasn’t much to get excited about.
    The Supercross podium for Anaheim 2, 2010 - 1st, Ryan Dungey; 2nd, Josh Hill and 3rd, James Stewart. James is trying his best to smile here, can you tell?
    Dasi Mudflaps, shown here lapping Grant Langston and getting chased by Michael Byrne, continues to probably not live up to expectations. He won at least one heat this season, and he at times (like, maybe, one lap out of 20) shows brilliant talent and speed, but he just doesn’t seem to have ‘it’. This comes as no surprise as Davi’s been accused of this for a couple of years now and we’re just here to tell you: it’s still happening.
    It was an off weekend for Ivan Tedesco. After bike trouble in the first practice of the day (which he never completed an entire lap of), he was a little freaked out all day and never at any point seemed to jibe with the track. As evidenced here by his lack of goggles, he quite possibly just threw them off in frustration (that’s just a guess) as he floundered mid-pack. But hey, his David Bailey-inspired gear sure did look cool didn’t it? Ivan will be back next week, rest assured.
    Ol’ Stroupy sure can pull a holeshot, yesirreee, but it’s the other 19.9 laps he has troubles with. It would be fun to put a helmet cam on Austin, because he seems to go through a lot of drama when he’s out on the track. He typically gets stuffed pretty hard when other riders go by, and since he normally fades quite a bit during a race the viewer would get to see everyone from the leaders on back to mid-pack. Yea we’re being a bit hard on Stroupe, but with all due respect, the kid’s got a lot of talent and heart to be out there mixing it up with the likes of Stewart and crew (he even battled with the #1 for several laps in their heat race), so props to him for that. Now, if Roger would just make him pay attention in PR training that’d be a step in the right direction: his podium speeches, which are usually for accepting holeshot awards, are just plain horrific.
    Big props must go out to Mr. Justin Brayton, who is becoming the ‘Best of the Rest’ guy slowly but surely. Finishing up a solid 6th place behind Kdub and ahead of Ryan Villopoto, Brayton looked really good out there and is oh-so-close to being at Andrew Short’s pace (i.e. top 5 every weekend). It’s been fun to watch Brayton develop into a solid big bike supercross class racer, as he’s truly one of the elite guys now.
    Here’s the likely battle for the 2010 Supercross title - Stewart vs. Dungey. One’s had a rough season, the other’s had a dreamboat ride. Both appear to have been doing everything right with regard to preparation, etc., but rough luck and bad decisions have potentially ruined one rider’s chance at the prize. The two guys who are supposed to be in between these two have already removed themselves from the picture (unless RV wakes up sometime soon), so it’s just plain been a wacky season so far. In this shot, Dungey’s setting Stewart up for a clean pass just before he sets out after Hill out front. Once Ryan got past them both, he pretty much checked out.
    Dungey going after Hill in the main was a classic battle, although once Dungey got by that was all she wrote. He had no problem at all getting away from the L&M teammates, and Hill admitted on the podium that he “just ran out of steam” later in the race. RD did not run out of steam in any sense of the word.
    ...speaking of which, here’s that battle between the two San Manuel teammates during the Main event. It was clear that neither was giving the other any additional space and that they were both racing for the win. What was fun to watch was how the team seemed to feel about the lop-sided team leader race, and we overheard a couple of comments to the effect of ‘hey, at least we got both guys on the podium’. That’s quite a feat these days, so whatever those guys are doing over there it appears to be working, so why ask why?
    Josh Hill continued his solid run on the 2010 Supercross season with a very solid and inspired ride to 2nd at A2. He was a thorn in his teammate’s (Stewart) side all night, passing him after a battle in their heat race, then dicing with him for several laps in the main event. We tried hard to get a feel for the ‘vibe’ between those two after Josh clearly gave James no preferential treatment in their races. What we saw was that they didn’t really seem to acknowledge each other at all. Not once while on the podium or in those interim moments between on and off track did they even glance at each other, which may speak volumes about their relationship. Then again, it may say nothing at all about it, but it’s food for thought...
    Main event first turn, and look who’s out front - yep, Austin Stroupe - the most consistently good starter since Mike Alessi. After being sorted out of the lead group by Stewart first, then Hill, Dungey, Short and others, Stroupe ended up around mid-pack. Also visible here are Villopoto, Byrne and Short, of which only Shorty was able to keep the pace up front for most of the race. There were several impressive rides in this Supercross main, but one of the more notable ones was that of Andrew Short, who was just barely off the pace of the front trio. While his results don’t necessarily reflect it, Andrew is faster and more aggressive with his riding style than ever before and eventually that’s going to land him on a podium.
    James Stewart just wasn’t himself. That statement absolutely does not take anything away from either Josh Hill or Ryan Dungey, though, because their only crime was taking advantage of the situation. Stewart struggled all night, first in practice, then in his heat, and finally in the main event. He put up a valiant fight at first, but after he almost threw it away entering the second whoop section while fighting with Hill, it seemed to take some wind out of his sails. At one point he was even in danger of dropping back to 4th, as Short had his number for several laps and forced him to ride right on the edge of what he was apparently comfortable with. It will be interesting to watch how his injuries heel as the season progresses, and if by the time he’s fully up to speed, whether he can overcome Dungey and Hill’s newfound confidence.
    A2 was truly an impressive display by Dungey. After he pulled a convincing heat race win over Ryan Villopoto, he then stalked both Josh Hill and James Stewart in the main event before pouncing and dropping them both like last week’s garbage. Now it must be said that James was clearly ailing more than just a little bit, but he was certainly charging hard as he put up fights against both Hill and Dungey. Regardless, the way in which Dungey was able to get by and forget about the both of them was just plain impressive and that’s not even mentioning all of the other fast guys he didn’t even have to deal with because he was so much faster than them.
    Dang, that Dungey kid’s gettin’ good. Anaheim 2 turned out to be an outstanding, exciting and brilliant race for the few folks who turned out to watch it. After a week’s worth of deluge with heavy rains, winds, tornadoes, etc., Southern California chose to - for the most part - stay home from Angel Stadium, which meant only the truly hardcore fans got to witness one of the most interesting and classic Supercross class main events in... well, since last weekend in Phoenix. Long story short? Dungey chased down Hill and Stewart, Hill caught and passed Stewart twice during their two races, and Dungey was able to drop them both once he got around. It was one helluva night - and oh yea, the track was perfect.
    • A D V E R T I S E M E N T

  • Event Info.

    Event Details:

    Angel Stadium of Anaheim
    2000 Gene Autry Way
    Anaheim, California
    United States

    January 23, 2010 - January 23, 2010

    January 2010
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