St. Louis (February 18, 2006) – Yamaha’s Chad Reed, of Dade City, Fla., put himself back into the championship hunt with his first victory of the season tonight before a crowd of 52,022 at the Edward Jones Dome. Honda’s Davi Millsaps, of Cairo, Ga., won the opening round of the Eastern Region AMA Supercross Lites.
Honda’s Jacob Saylor, of Knoxville, Tenn., won the Progressive Direct Holeshot Award to start the 20-lap main event. Suzuki’s Ivan Tedesco shot to the early lead as front runners James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael struggled with bad starts. Kawasaki’s Stewart, of Haines City, Fla., was held up in the first turn and found himself back in 12th place. Carmichael, of Tallahassee, Fla., found his fate much worse after a first turn crash caused apparent damage to his Suzuki that forced him to not finish the race.
With Tedesco out front, and Carmichael out of the race, the attention turned to Stewart, who had worked his way up to third behind Reed. Only a bike length separated each rider as Tedesco crossed the finish line to start lap 10. On the ensuing lap, Reed slipped by Tedesco and took over the top spot.
Stewart’s night took a turn for the worse a couple turns later when he spun out and crashed. It took him more than a minute to get his bike restarted, which, like Carmichael’s, had suffered major damage in the crash. The damaged motorcycle caused Stewart to finish the race on sub-par equipment; however, he did finish the race in a disappointing 17th place.
Once out front, Reed cruised to the win. Tedesco finished second while Honda’s Ernesto Fonseca, Murrieta, Calif., was third.
“Today I was horrible,