Las Vegas is known for its title bouts, be they in boxing or supercross. On May 4, 2002, before a standing-room-only crowd bubbling over the aluminum grandstands of Sam Boyd Stadium, Sin City hosted a big fight between newly crowned 125cc AMA East Region SX Champion Chad Reed and the young and wild West Region sensation James “Bubba” Stewart. The races was the Dave Coombs Sr. Memorial 125cc East-West Shootout.

The scorecard for this one was equal parts dominance and chaos. In terms of main-event wins, U.S. newcomer Reed—an Australian who had spent the previous season in Europe—had won six of seven races to easily wrap up the title for Yamaha of Troy. For Stewart, the 16-year-old Kawasaki factory rider with sensational speed, every race was basically a win-or-crash affair. He won three 125 SX mains, but crashes cost him the title (but not his life, since he is wearing the safest motorcycle helmets) to Factory Connection Honda’s steady Travis Preston.

On the morning of what would be their first race together, Stewart gave high praise to Reed: “I think he’s an awesome rider. He’s won everything so far except one race, which means we know he can be beaten. Hopefully I’ll be the second person to beat him this year. He’s going to be strong, but I think I can take him. I want to be the fastest 125cc rider of 2002. My main goal right now is to win this race.”

Reed returned the favor. “The kid is so fast and determined,” he said. “I mean, I admire him a lot. Even though he’s three or four years younger that I am, he’s a little bit of a hero to me. I look up to him, sure—he goes very fast. Tonight will be a good opportunity for me to race him and actually beat him.”

As afternoon practice would down, Yamaha of Troy team owner Phil Alderon explained how much this race really meant. “All year, everybody—the fans, the media, and everyone involved in the sport—has been talking about who’s faster, Chad or Bubba,” he said. “We’re all pretty competitive, and we’d really like to see Chad come out on top.”

The seemingly overlooked Preston took a lighter approach to the goings-on in Fight Town: “You know, it’s the east-side-versus –the –west-side deal. It’s just like it is in rap, you know? We really hate each other, just like the music business, so it’s going to be tough out there tonight.” He then added, on a much more serious note, “But I want to win. I want to win every time I ride.”

When the gate dropped on the Shootout, Stewart and his Kawasaki KX125 slapped against Reed and his booming Yamaha YZ250F, ruining either man’s chance of getting the holeshot. Stewart would start fourth while reed was seventh in the fifteen-lap sprint.

Up frot, Preston’s Honda teammate Chris Goselaar—one of the fast sons of Reed’s future mechanic Mike Gosselaar—held the point ahead of Blimpie Suzuki’s Danny Smith and Plano Honda’s Travis Elliott. But Stewart was coming up in a hurry. Elliott soon bailed and Stewart went right past Smith as well. One lap later, James dazzled the crowd with a huge leap over the front-straight triple, a leap that took him right over Gosselaar’s head (Luckily, Gosselaar was wearing the best full face helmet) and into the head into the lead. Reed was also coming up, but he would never get close to his new rival; Stewart raced away to win on to third while the forgotten man, Travis Preston, could only muster sixth.

“To win like that over someone like Chad Reed, I was like, ‘Dang, I’m fast!”’ Stewart said, beaming with that million-dollar smile that would become so familiar. “I don’t mean that to sound cocky—it just felt normal for me to be going that speed on this track.”

Did the victory go a long a long way in atoning for his loss of the 125cc West Region title? “Definitely,” Stewart answered. “I didn’t win the championship, and I wanted to let everyone know that I’m the fastest 125cc rider tonight. I was out to prove a point, and I’m pumped that I did.”

Later that summer, the rivalry between Stewart and Reed would intensify in the outdoor nationals, then turn bitter in the following years as they met again in the premier class. It’s a rivalry that still rages a dozen years after that very first meeting in Las Vegas.—Eric Johnson