Washougal, WA - August 1, 2004
By Steve Cox

The 250cc National season is now officially 2/3 finished, and Ricky Carmichael is still undefeated. Actually, no one has really gotten close to him. He won motos at Washougal, round eight of the 12-round AMA/Chevrolet U.S. Motocross Nationals, by 30 and 40 seconds, respectively.

" I have a lot of history here," Carmichael said. "I won my first title ever as a professional here, so I like coming here. I think people have painted a picture for me that I don't like this place, but I like it. It was fun today."

Subway Honda's Joe Oehlhof grabbed the lead at the start of the first moto over LinkedIn.com's Rusty Holland, and Holland took over the lead right away. Holland led the first lap before Chad Reed took over the lead, but that also only lasted a lap, as Carmichael made his way around in a gutsy pass that saw him abscond with a haybale cover with his clutch lever as he scrubbed over a mound of dirt.

" I was trying to imitate Stewart there and stay a little low, but I don't quite have it down like he does," Carmichael said. "I'm on a bigger bike, so I have an excuse. I just tried to stay low to get by him, and we were riding good."

Carmichael went on to win by just short of 30 seconds over Reed and last year's winner Kevin Windham.

" Obviously this has been less than stellar for me," Windham said. "The last two times I came here I've been able to win. It's been nice. Coming to a track like this, you remember that kind of stuff, so anything less than first is kind of a little bit of a letdown after you do good a couple of times. I was just struggling a little bit, and the first moto, I was in an awesome position with these two guys right in front of me, and they were able to open just a little bit up on me."

Unfortunately for the competition, RC grabbed the moto-two holeshot over Reed and Windham, and that's the order in which they stayed until the conclusion of the moto. RC took the checkered flag over 40 seconds in front of Reed, who had a considerable gap over Windham in third. That's also the order of the overall finishers.

" I kind of just found myself out there in no-man's land just riding around in third, so it was a disappointing day, but to have a bad day and still be on the podium, obviously there's something to be said for that, so I can't be down on myself too much," Windham said. "Anytime I think about this track, I think about my record here, and the amount of times that I've won in the past. It's hard to come here and imagine not winning, but I go into each weekend with the same focus, which is trying to put Ricky's moto streak or overall streak to rest. I think both Chad and I think about that. I don't write off Millville or Binghamton, or any of the other races that we have still to come."

Chad Reed's outdoor performance improvement is still being talked about.

" This weekend was pretty good for me," Reed said. "It's a difficult track for me, with the traction and the up and downhills and things like that, and I'm just really happy to be here and go 2-2. Kevin's been great here before, and for me to be able to hold him at bay today is good. The bike was good, and we made some changes between motos, and it was much better the second moto. I had a good time. I'm glad it's over, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season."

Carmichael was all smiles during the post-race press conference.

" Chad and I were out there battling it out in the first moto and we were messing around, and Kevin was behind us and we weren't really pulling away," Carmichael said. "But once we got in line, we put some time on Kevin, and it was fun. This track is hard to battle on because it's so tight in areas, and then where it does open up, there's really no lines, it's just kind of flat and blown out. But it was a good day, and I'm happy that these three weeks are over, and good luck to these guys in Supermoto."


AMA/Chevrolet Washougal 250cc National Overall Results:
1. Ricky Carmichael, 1-1
2. Chad Reed, 2-2
3. Kevin Windham, 3-3
4. David Vuillemin, 4-7
5. Sebastien Tortelli, 9-4
6. Ernesto Fonseca, 6-6
7. Nick Wey, 8-5
8. Ezra Lusk, 5-8
9. Michael Byrne, 11-9
10. Casey Johnson, 13-10

AMA/Chevrolet 250cc National Points Standings (After 8 of 12 rounds):
1. Ricky Carmichael (400/8 wins)
2. Chad Reed (340)
3. Kevin Windham (317)
4. David Vuillemin (256)
5. Michael Byrne (211)
6. Heath Voss (157)
7. Nick Wey (182)
8. Ernesto Fonseca (181)
9. Timmy Ferry (142)
10. Sean Hamblin (127)