Hit and run!
Published: 17th July 2007
Author: Steve Cox
Carmichael puts together another unbeaten streak then takes his leave until Millville...
Just when you probably thought the legend of Ricky Carmichael couldn't grow any bigger he puts together yet another undefeated streak - although an abbreviated one - to start the 2007 Toyota/AMA Nationals.
After winning the first two rounds at Hangtown and Mt Morris he heads to one of his favourite tracks, although it's one he didn't anticipate racing. He planned on sitting out round three until the town of Southwick, Massachusetts, declared 'Ricky Carmichael Day' on the day of the National. Well, if he's going to show up he might as well race, right?
Monster Energy Kawasaki's Stewart grabs the holeshot in moto one and Carmichael is quickly on his heels but he hangs back after a while because he's eating so much sand from Stewart's KX450F.
"James and I were on it again that first moto and I ate a lot of dirt," Carmichael says. "There's no doubt about it. I got balled up in lappers a couple times. I kind of cleared my mind and got back going."
Stewart actually pulls out a bit of a lead early on but with only a few laps to go Carmichael picks up the pace noticeably and seems to will his way back up onto Stewart's rear wheel. On lap 12 of 17 Carmichael catches and passes Stewart and takes off for the moto win.
Stewart hangs on for second, followed at a distance by Yamaha's Grant Langston, Honda's Andrew Short, privateer hero Gavin Gracyk and Red Bull KTM's Mike Alessi. Everyone else is a lap down at the finish.
At the start of race two Carmichael quickly begins to pull away from Stewart but with Langston pressuring Stewart, Carmichael can't let up. On lap eight Langston gets sick of eating Stewart's roost and makes a pass for second.
"I may have tried to sit there longer and give it my all at the end but I was just eating roost in every single turn and I was just over it," Langston says. "I just thought I would go ahead and maybe if he was eating my roost it would give me a gap or something but it just lit a fire for him."
Stewart passes him back on the very next lap and begins to pull away for second and from there the top three are set. Carmichael takes his third AMA National win in a row followed by Stewart and Langston and the moto finishes reflect the overall.
The series heads to Budds Creek, sometimes referred to as Bubba's Creek, where it seems Carmichael will have his work cut out for him. He chases Stewart down from behind in moto one, only for a rock to bust out his goggle lens and force him to fall back. Stewart wins the moto while Carmichael rolls across for second. Showing up for his only MX event of the year, Chad Reed finishes third.
In between motos Stewart begins to feel under the weather and starts throwing up. That doesn't stop him from grabbing another holeshot - Carmichael immediately goes to work on Stewart but he can't make a pass. Finally, on lap 12 of 17, RC makes a pass stick following Henry Hill. Carmichael goes on to win the moto and the overall.
Stewart hangs on for second and Andrew Short is third but he loses the overall placing when Reed passes Alessi late in the moto for fourth. "I seen Alessi in third and that was a pretty good motivation [laughs]," Reed grins. "I didn't want to get beat by him today."
Carmichael loves Red Bud and it marks the last stop on his AMA National tour until the Millville round in August which will likely be his final AMA National. Nearly 30,000 fans show up this year for the National on Sunday alone, underlining its status as one of the country's top tracks.
Alessi gets the opening holeshot and Stewart and Carmichael chase him across the green flag to finish the first lap. Alessi gives way to Stewart on the following circuit and then Carmichael passes Alessi before going off the track. He's forced to re-group and go back after Alessi and then Stewart.
By the next time around the two Fox-sponsored riders begin to pull away as Alessi hangs on strong for third. Four laps later Carmichael makes a pass stick on Stewart but Stewart hangs onto the #4 bike and it pays off when Ricky makes another mistake and hands the Kawasaki rider back the moto lead.
"It took me a couple laps to get back going and then I was able to get by Mike and then I was able to get by James," Carmichael says. "I passed him on the outside there after the sand whoops. Then I pulled away just a little bit - probably a couple bikelengths - and I was going down the hill after LaRocco's Leap there and I couldn't get stopped, basically. I was trying to ride hard and put in some good laps and enjoy being roost free and I messed up and had to go backwards and turn around."
From there Stewart goes on to take the opening moto victory with a couple of seconds to spare over Carmichael with Alessi another 45 seconds or so further back.
"I know when I'm racing this guy that I've got to race for 35 minutes and I prepared myself to do that," Stewart says. "Lately when he passes me he puts such a gap on me that I really can't do anything about it. It's just that three or four seconds and it's hard to make that up so this weekend I just tried to stay pretty close and he made a mistake out there and went off the track and I closed back up but there were only a few laps left. I just pushed it to the end."
Alessi gets the second moto holeshot as well while Stewart is right on his tail and Carmichael is almost mid-pack. However, by the end of the first lap Carmichael already sits fourth behind Alessi, Stewart and Gracyk. Alessi holds off Carmichael until the fourth lap when Carmichael finally makes a pass stick and sets out after Stewart.
Carmichael seems unable to get within striking distance of Stewart until, with only three laps left to run, Stewart pitches it into a right-hander too tight, catches his front brake lever on the inside barrier and goes over the bars - handing the lead, the moto and the overall win to Carmichael.
"When I got behind him I couldn't do anything with him," Carmichael says of Stewart. "I was trying every other line and he had me covered everywhere. I was just kind of sitting and waiting and trying to plan something and he had some bad luck over there and it allowed me to get by."
So with one more AMA race planned for Carmichael he sits at 149 AMA National wins - 48 in supercross and 101 in the AMA Nationals.
Series standings
Motocross
1 Ricky Carmichael 241 points
2 James Stewart 225
3 Timmy Ferry 163
4 Andrew Short 160
5 Grant Langston 159
6 Mike Alessi 147
7 Kevin Windham 132
8 David Vuillemin 10
9 Davi Millsaps 102
10 Michael Byrne 100
Green Giants!
Villopoto and Townley dominate Lites
Heading into Southwick, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Ben
Townley trails his team-mate and defending champ Ryan Villopoto by
eight points in the Lites championship.
The Lites class has turned into a battle between five riders as every week it seems Villopoto, Townley, Ryan Dungey, Josh Grant and Jason Lawrence seem to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
Southwick is no different as Villopoto leads the first moto from start to finish over Townley, Dungey, Grant and Lawrence. Dungey gets the second moto holeshot but Townley takes the lead from him before losing the lead to Villopoto, who then crashes and hands it back to Townley who takes the win and the overall.
Still without an overall win going into Budds Creek, Villopoto is confident and knows he came from way back in the pack to win there in 2006. He sweeps both motos on the day with apparent ease over Townley to extend his points lead to 14.
Then comes Red Bud - one of two tracks Townley raced in 2006. However, on Saturday Townley misses the second practice with abdominal pain and heads to the hospital with a suspected appendicitis.
"I came in from the first practice and I wasn't feeling too good and I went to see Doc Bodnar and I got real bad real fast after that," Townley says. "There were all sorts of symptoms so I went up there and we spent all evening at the hospital and found out that it was nothing. I don't really know what happened to be honest. Originally, they were saying it was my appendix but I felt a whole lot better this morning and I came down here and got checked out and did a bicycle ride and when my heart rate was elevated I was feeling fine. Then, from the second practice, I was all good from there."
Grant gets the opening holeshot but, feeling ill himself, quickly makes way for the PC duo. Villopoto takes the lead with Townley on his tail but Townley never mounts a significant charge and finishes less than three seconds back. Lawrence finishes nearly a minute later in third with Grant fourth and Honda's Tommy Hahn fifth. Dungey, normally in the top five, crashed out of the National during Saturday practice and his return to the series is undetermined.
Townley gets the second moto holeshot but Villopoto is quickly on his tail and the two begin to take off again. At about the halfway point Villopoto makes a pass stick and that's it. He pulls away to a comfortable victory over Townley while Grant finishes third, a further 80 seconds back.
Series standings
Motocross Lites
1 Ryan Villopoto 238 points
2 Ben Townley 218
3 Josh Grant 184
4 Jason Lawrence 176
5 Ryan Dungey 150
6 Jake Weimer 110
7 Josh Hill 105
8 Tommy Hahn 104
9 Brock Tickle 86
10 Kyle Chisholm 78