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AMA Supercross
Red Bull/KTM Factory Team rider Andrew Short improved upon his 10th place performance at Anaheim 1 by following it with a credible 7th place finish at the second round of the AMA Supercross Series at Chase Ball Park.
The tight Supercross track was a perfect fit for the KTM 350 SX-F machines of Andrew Short and his teammate Mike Alessi. Both Supercross riders had decent practice times and felt the Phoenix track was perfectly suited for the 350cc KTM machine.
Short was up first in Supercross heat number one. Short nailed the start and was sitting in 2nd position down the start straight and 4th around the first turn. He quickly moved into 3rd by the end of the first lap and began to close in on Ivan Tedesco.
The next two laps Short applied pressure to Tedesco while he was also being targeted by Kevin Windham. The three Supercross riders remained in battle until the fourth lap when Short made his move. Short pinned it through the sand section under the bridge and took an inside turn to make a clean pass on Tedesco for the finish. From there he continued his pace and rode to an easy finish for 2nd overall.
Following suit, Alessi also had a great start in his Supercross heat coming around the first turn in 2nd. He bobbled around the third turn and dropped to 5th.
Sgort passed Jeff Alessi a turn later and moved back into 4th place at the end of lap one. As he was chasing the third place ride of Chad Reed on the second lap, he washed out his front end and hit the ground hard resulting in a broken front brake master cylinder.
Mike Alessi (KTM Supercross) says: "Unfortunately, I made a small mistake that ended up damaging the bike. My front brakes were gone after the crash and I had to pull out of the race."
Alessi returned to action in the LCQ to attempt to take one of two remaining qualifying positions. He spun off the start and was sitting in 7th around the first turn before being pushed off the track. He reentered the race in last position and began to pick off riders.
He moved up to an impressive 7th place position by the end of the first lap and was able to knock off two other riders before the end. Unfortunately his 5th place result left him out of the main event line-up.
Mike Alessi (KTM Supercross) says: "I am definitely disappointed in my result tonight. I made a mistake in my heat and had a terrible start in the LCQ and now I will be sitting on the sidelines for the main event. I need to work on my starts again this week and just continue to improve my overall fitness to build a better race next week."
Next up was the SX main event. Short chose the gate position on the right of the starting box which was the same spot he earned a great start from in his heat. When the gate dropped Short got a decent jump but was pushed back around the first turn and ended up in 11th position. He rode in that position for the first half of the race continuing to close in on the 10th place ride of Brett Metcalfe each lap.
On lap ten, Metcalfe and Short passed David Millsaps and both riders moved up one position. Shortly after Metcalfe and Tedesco crashed and allowed Short to continue to move up. On lap thirteen he was sitting in 7th position where he finished out the night.
Andrew Short (KTM Supercross) says: "Today was all about being patient and letting the race come to me. I just focused on maintaining my lines and my pace and was able to pick up quite a few spots by not making mistakes. We still have some work to do, but this week was an improvement from last week and I feel we will continue to progress forward," replied Short after the event.
The Supercross riders will return to Murrieta, CA for training this week before heading to round three in Los Angeles, CA on January 22, 2011.
AMA Supercross: Phoenix Overall Results
1. James Stewart
2. Ryan Villopoto
3. Trey Canard
4. Chad Reed
5. Ryan Dungey
6. Justin Brayton
7. Andrew Short – KTM
8. Brett Metcalfe
9. Kyle Chisholm
10. Kyle Regal
11. David Millsaps
12. Nick Wey
13. Weston Pieck
14. Ivan Tedesco
15. Chris Blose
16. Thomas Hahn
17. Ryan Clark
18. Jeff Alessi
19. Kevin Windham
20. Austin Stroupe
AMA Supercross Overall Point Standings
1. Ryan Villopoto – 47
2. James Stewart – 45
3. Ryan Dungey – 38
4. Trey Canard – 38
5. Chad Reed – 34
6. Brett Metcalfe – 26
7. Andrew Short – 25
8. Kyle Chisholm – 22
9. Ivan Tedesco – 21
10. Justin Brayton – 20
