Cycle News

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 52 ISSUE 11 MARCH 17, 2015 P75 Briefly... Chad Reed spoke of the second- turn fall, where he hit his teammate Josh Grant. "I didn't anticipate him [Grant] stopping and turning on the inside," Reed said. "I had nowhere to go and ran into the back of him and went down. Had it not been my teammate, maybe I could have ran into him harder and hope that he crashed and not me, but I tried to avoid hitting him as much as I could and that's probably what caused me to fall." Yoshimura Suzuki's James Stew- art was on hand at Indy signing au- tographs for the fans. He also said he tried to help with teammate Blake Baggett pointing out some lines in practice that he might try. "I'm look- ing forward to getting back to racing as soon as I can," Stewart said. "I ap- preciate all the fans hanging in there with me." Indy's pre-event party on Friday was held at the historic Indianapolis Mo- tor Speedway. Thousands of fans showed up to get to meet the rid- ers and have posters autographed. Riders got to go out and actually get photos taken on the Speedway's fa- mous Yard of Bricks. Monster Energy Kawasaki's Davi Millsaps overcame a tip over in the main to match a season-high fifth. "It is getting better every week," said Millsaps. "As I continue to get health- ier and ride more and more during the week, we are able to get my set- tings dialed in. The track was tough tonight and I felt strong throughout the race. It was a lot of battling but I see a lot of positives from tonight." MARTIN'S MISHAP Jeremy Martin likely put himself out of championship contention for the 2015 Monster Energy 250 East Supercross Series. For the first time this season, Martin failed to make the 250 East Main. Martin crashed hard in his heat race. He managed to get back on his Yamalube/Star Racing/Yamaha and went to work trying to get a top-nine finish to transfer to the final, but on the last lap he was held off and pushed wide by Australian Taylor Potter as the two battled for the final transfer spot. In the Last Chance Qualifier, Martin took the early lead and all looked good, but then a red flag came out when Luke Vonlinger crashed, got ran over and was lay- ing in the middle of the track. On the restart, Martin was working his way to the front when he suddenly crashed in the whoops and was only able to manage eighth, four spots out of a transfer position. Being forced to sit out of the main, Martin dropped from second to third in the standings behind Marvin Musquin and Justin Bogle. Martin finds himself 37 points behind leader Musquin with four rounds remaining. "I accidently ran into the back of someone in my heat race through the whoops" said Martin, who, up to Indy, appeared to have turned the corner in Supercross after hav- ing a tough 2014 campaign where he twice missed mains. "It was just a bad mistake. Then I was trying to work my way forward. On the last lap I was trying to make a pass for ninth and I just got caught up with a kid who was doing anything to make it and he took me out. "Then in the LCQ, I got a good start and the next thing you know I came around and they red flagged it. When we restarted I just wheel- ied a little too much out of the gate. Then I was working my way through the pack and unfortunately took a risk going through the whoops to try to get two guys since we only had one lap left and then I went down." Martin assessed his title hopes after Indy. "It's pretty far gone to try to catch Marvin," he said. "Right now all I can do is take it weekend by week- end and try to get wins. Marvin has been very consistent and very fast this year, so it would take quite a bit for me to be able to come back and win the championship." Martin said he was mostly unhurt in his crashes. "I'm just a little beat up," he said. Crashes kept Jeremy Martin from qualifying for the 250 main.

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