Supercross: World's best racers battle it out at the U.

The stakes couldn't be much higher.

When the world's best motocross racers gather at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday for the AMA Supercross series event, all eyes will be on Chad Reed and James Stewart.

The two biggest stars on the circuit have been battling it out for months, and with the series finale just a week away in Las Vegas, every whoop, holeshot and tabletop is critical.

Stewart, the reigning king of motocross, currently leads the season standings with 332 points. But Reed, a former champ eager to get back on top of things, is just three points back and can vault himself back into the series driver's seat by placing just one spot better than Stewart.

There have been 14 races this year, and Stewart (10) or Reed (2) have wins in 12 of them. And though Stewart has an overwhelming lead in overall wins, Reed's steady consistency — he's finished worse than second

only twice — has given him a load of points.

If Stewart keeps his bike upright, he's virtually impossible to beat.

As good as those two have been, something strange happened a week ago in Seattle. For the first time in 54 races, Stewart didn't win a race in which he didn't crash. Instead, Ryan Villapoto took the top honors in the race — and helped set up what will be a compelling final two races.

"I don't know what happened. We all almost went down, and we got the short end of the stick," Stewart, who stalled coming out of the gate but never actually crashed, said after battling all the way back to finish second. "I was so far in the back and saw Ryan and Mike (Alessi) out front and realized how far back I was. It's all about the championship though, and (last week) was good for that. The way Chad has been riding all year, it was definitely surprising to see how things played out."

Reed finished seventh — his worst finish of the year.

The event marks a return to Utah for Supercross. After first racing at Rice-Eccles in 2001, the series made annual stops in the Beehive State until 2004.

Typically competing in larger venues, the series is back to the stadium where it sold more than 42,000 tickets the last time it revved its engines for Utah.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. — himself an avid motorcyclist — will be front and center for the races and plans to take a lap or two this week before the action really heats up.

"It's terrific that one of the premier motor-sports events in the world is coming back to Utah," Huntsman said. The event will "showcase our state to a nationally televised audience, (providing) an estimated $9 million in economic impact and $1 million in media value to Utah."

Ose, Stewart, Reed and Villapoto are far from the only athletes to keep an eye on.