Stewart joins Reed on top

Yamaha's James Stewart and Suzuki's Chad Reed now share co-leadership of the 2009 AMA Supercross Championship after the seventh round at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on February 14.

It was Stewart's sixth win in a row over Reed, and he's now completely erased the 23pt deficit to the Australian after he crashed in the season-opening race and was unable to continue.

After an improved start, Reed kept pace with Stewart for a couple of laps, but the Yamaha rider slowly pulled away to record a straightforward 8.252sec win, with Reed holding off a late chargers from Honda's Andrew Short and Kawasaki young gun Ryan Villopoto.

Australian Michael Byrne (Suzuki) was eight in his comeback from injury, while his countryman Daniel McCoy (Honda) didn't see it past the last chance qualifier.

"I got great starts and I was there," stated Reed. "I just wasn't quite fast enough. James rode awesome and I want to thank the team for being patient with me all day.

"I am really excited that we are leaving California tied on points, I will take that and use it to get ready for the East Coast events. We are aware of what we need to work on; it is just a matter of going through the motions.

"The bike is great, it is better than I am riding it at the moment but I am really looking forward to heading home and to the East Coast tracks which I prefer.

"The one thing I can guarantee is that I won't give up."

Reed and Stewart are deadlocked on 152pts from Short (122), Josh Grant (Yamaha, 112) and Villopoto (106).

In the West Coast Lites class, Suzuki's Ryan Dungey reclaimed the championship lead with his third win of the season ahead of Kawasaki pair Ryan Morais and Jake Weimer.

Anther Aussie on the comeback trail after injury, Jake Moss, was eighth, and Dan Reardon 14th. Both were on Hondas. Moss broke his back in Australia last October.

The eighth round of the AMA Supercross Championship will be held at Atlanta's Georgia Dome on February 21.

For full results and standings, click here.