New supercross world champion crowned at Sam Boyd Stadium

Ricky Campbell

Sunday, May 3, 2009 | 1:32 a.m.

Defending AMA Supercross champion Chad Reed accomplished his goal of beating his arch-nemesis, James Stewart, to the finish line Saturday, but it was still not enough to prevent Stewart from capturing the season title.

Stewart placed third behind Reed and race winner Ryan Villopoto, which was enough to maintain his lead in the overall point standings. Stewart, who entered the race up six points on Reed, claimed his third career championship in front of a capacity crowd of about 38,000 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"I'm so happy, I don't even know what to do," Stewart said. "Everybody's put a lot of work into this thing and it's made it unbelievable. I will be back with the No. 1 plate. See you next year."

Stewart hoisted the trophy number plate, and with it, received a check for $100,000.

Villopoto, came into Las Vegas in seventh place with 208 points – a sizable distance from Stewart's 357 and Reed's 351.

"It's been awesome," Villopoto said. "It's been kind of a rough season and I got to thank my family."

Villopoto began pulling away around lap 13 of 20 and Reed passed Stewart in a turn on lap 14, but could not catch up to Villopoto.

"I gave it everything I had and I can walk away knowing that I did that. I tried my hardest," Reed said. "It's definitely a bummer, but we're going to come back next season ready to go. James [Stewart] had a great season and you can't take it away from him."

Reed mentioned before the race that he was in a win-lose situation and knew what he had to do.

"It's the last race of the season," he said. "You've got to leave it all out there."

The packed stands also got a treat with the Dave Coombs East-West Shootout, which pitted the best 250cc riders from the East coast against the West coast.

East champion Christophe Pourcel banged handlebars with West leader Ryan Dungey, with Pourcel coming out on top after the 15-lap main event. Dungey almost passed Pourcel right before the finish line, but the East champion was able to stay in front for the checkered flag.

Dungey wasn't excited about the outcome, but he stayed positive.

"It was a great race. We put ourselves out there and I tried to go for the win, but second place isn't bad," he said after the race. "I think I was just a little too late, what are you going to do?"

He was a little too late, and it cost him not only the race, but a new vehicle. Pourcel received a new Toyota truck for the victory.

Had Dungey won the shootout, he would have been the first racer since its conception in 1995 to win the race three years in a row.

Campbell is a UNLV undergraduate in the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies. He can be reached at [email protected].