Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Immediately following the race, Kawasaki's race director Bruce Stjernstrom said, "He was coherent when he left here, and we're going to check him out. That's all we really know right now. He was sore everywhere. We don't know any more than that." (See Briefly... for an update on Stewart's condition.) Stewart's unfortunate early departure suddenly turned the 125cc East/West Shootout into a race, as the battle for second had quickly turned into a battle for the win. Eric Sorby, who was running second when Stewart crashed, inherited the lead, followed by Short, Mike Brown, Brock Sellards, Michael Byrne and Ivan Tedesco. Sorby was looking strong, maintaining a modest lead over Short for the next four laps until he suddenly went down in the whoops. By the time he got going again, half the pack had ridden past. Moments later, he pulled off the track. "I broke my bike in the whoops the engine - so I crashed," Sorby said. "I tried to ride after that, but it was impossible. I felt really good on the bike and had a lot of confidence. I'll be ready for next week for the NationaL" Short, who was running second at the time, suddenly found himself out By KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN LAS VEGAS, NV, MAY 3 ndrew Short went into the Dave Coombs Sr. 125cc East/West Shootout figuring that second place was the best he could possibly do. After all, when you have West Coast Series champ James "Bubba" Stewart Jr. in your race, that's pretty much all that most can hope for. Short and the other 20 riders in the main event knew going into the 15lap race that the recently crowned West Coast 125cc champ was on fire, having won the past six West Coast rounds in a row and posting lap times earlier in the day that rivaled Ricky Carmichael's and Chad Reed's. And Stewart was even clearing a quad jump that no one else was even attempting - not even anyone in the 250cc class! But Short didn't give up, and his perseverance paid off. When the night was over, it was he - not Stewart· standing atop the podium. It was his first main-event win. "This is too good to be true," the MotoworldRacing.com Suzuki rider said. "Of all the supercross races to win, especially the first one· in Las Vegas - it's pretty cooL" In addition, Short gave the West Coast guys bragging rights for having won the East-versus-West contest. He's also the fourth person in a row to win the East/West Shootout without having won either title that year. (This year's East Coast champ Bran- A den Jesseman did not ride because of a thumb injury.) After having a relatively crash-free series, Stewart suffered two crashes in the main event, the second one putting him out of the race and into the hospital. Stewart took the holeshot and was already pulling away by the second lap when he nosed into a jump and went off the track. It was relatively minor since he didn't completely fall over, but it did knock him back to fifth place. Later that lap, while trying to move back up quickly, Stewart suffered yet another crash· this one a horrific, high-speed endo. Stewart tripled over the finish-line jump and was doubling out when the back end of his bike kicked straight up, pitching him over the bars and high into the air. His arms "windmilling" in the air, Stewart slammed into the ground ahead of the bike and lay motionless on the track for quite some time. He was immediately transported to the hospital with a concussion and a suspected broken collarbone. cue I e in front and with a big lead over Brown, Byrne, Tedesco, Josh Hansen and Chris Gosselaar, who were all battling for second through fifth. But Short managed to stay clear of those guys and, from the seventh lap on, rode all alone to the checkered flag, not knowing for sure if Stewart was still in the race or not. He was waiting for Stewart to attack, but that, of course, did not happen. "I had no idea [about Stewart]," Short said. "On the second lap, I saw n e _ S • MAY 14, 2003 27

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