(Picture courtesy racerxonline.com)

Leading into this series, all of the talk was about Aussie Chad Reed and current SX Champ James Stewart, and there is no doubt the racing at Anaheim 1 didn't dissapoint, although we would say for a few different reasons then what people expected.

Unit athlete Dan Reardon came off a strong 2nd overall in the Aussie SuperX series, and had big expectations for this series. Dan was carrying great speed through qualifying, sitting only about a second off Stewart's lap times. Unfortunately come the first heat, a racers nightmare came true for Dan as he whiskey throttled over a berm, and effectively put himself out of A1, a terrible start to a hotly contested season!

The biggest surprise was Chad Reed's bad luck at the start of the SX Main, where his front wheel came together with Austin Stroupe's footpeg, destroying his front wheel and ending his hopes of a first round vistory over Stewart. However, this left the door open for newcomer to the Opens calss, Ryan Dungey, the space to take the lead and battle it out with JS7 all the way til the end. This has to be nearly a dream start for Dungey, who will be competing in his first full Open season.

Read the Full Race report over at Racer X Online who also have loads of behind the scenes videos as well

• By Allan H