Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 16 APRIL 21, 2015 P97 seventh place, he won four out of the next five 250cc West races before the series went on hiatus. And when the series got back into action last weekend in Houston, he continued his domi- nance, clinching the champion- ship with his fifth win. In Santa Clara, Webb was the fastest qualifier, just in front of Red Bull KTM's Justin Hill, and when the gate dropped for the main event, all hell broke loose. Heading into the first turn, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Ka- wasaki's Chris Alldredge clipped the rear end of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Zach Osborne, who then did likewise with Motosport. com's Josh Hansen, who ended up coming away with the hole- shot. In the end, the chain reac- tion left Osborne, Alldredge, TLD/Lucas Oil KTM's Shane McElrath, Hill, GEICO Honda teammates Matt Bisceglia and Malcolm Stewart, Yamaha's Cole Martinez, privateer Tommy Hahn, and more on the ground, and even more guys stuck in the carnage. The only reason the race wasn't red-flagged was that the first turn was only used off of the start. "It happened really quick," Hill said. "Me and Shane [McElrath] were coming in pretty tight for the holeshot. Like it was me and him. And I think it was Chris Alldredge who was on the right of us. We were kind of like neck- and-neck, but like he didn't have the position. We had it. And then he just like gunned it into us, like he didn't slow down, and pretty much just cartwheeled all of us. It was nuts. And then Shane's bike just flipped right into me and I ran it over. Unfortunately, I was separated from my bike far enough that I had to run back to it. Luckily, I didn't get disheart- ened and I ran back to it. Be- cause if I would have just been Briefly... nounced so late—he was supposed to be informed of his penalty by Oc- tober of 2014—he and his Yoshimura Suzuki team knew that they weren't going to be able to compete for the 2015 Supercross Championship. However, eight weeks came and went, and Stewart still hadn't gotten a decision from CAS. Prior to the Indianapolis Supercross—round 11 of the AMA Supercross Champion- ship—Stewart finally heard back on his appeal when he was reportedly informed that the arbitrator assigned to his case has been too busy and CAS was filing an extension. As if that's not bad enough, Stewart—who has had no choice but to begin test- ing and training for the 2015 AMA Nationals, even though he may not be allowed to race them—was told that he should hear a decision on his case by April 15, and indeed he did hear from CAS that day. CAS report- edly informed Stewart that they still hadn't been able to make a decision, and that they'd get back to him later that day. When they got back to him later on the 15th, it was to inform him that they hoped to have an answer for him by Monday, April 20. The inaugural AMA Supercross event at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, went pretty smoothly, all things considered. The staff was incredibly pleasant and accommo- dating overall, but some fans likely noticed that security seemed to be somewhat over the top, including bomb-sniffing dogs and TSA-style bag searches. The reason for this was reportedly because Levi's Sta- dium is trying to work its way to first place on the NFL's list for best sta- dium security in the stadium's bid to get a future Super Bowl. continued on next page

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