 Binghampton,
NY - August 22, 2004
By Steve Cox
Ricky Carmichael is 24 years old, working on his
11th National Championship, is undefeated in Outdoor National
Championships in his career, and will likely soon add yet
another perfect season to his resume. He’s already
the only rider ever to record a perfect 125cc season, winning
every round of the 1998 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross
Championship. In 2002, he won all 24 motos of the AMA/Chevy
Trucks 250cc U.S. Motocross Championship. Right now, he
has won all 20 motos run so far this season, and with only
four motos to go, at two of his most dominant tracks, things
are looking good for perfect season number three.
He started at or near the front in both motos, and
in moto one, Kevin Windham kept RC honest for a couple
laps before Carmichael hit the afterburners and dropped
K-Dub.
“I feel like I’ve been racing Kevin for
a long time, and of all of these guys out here, if
you could say there’s one person out here that
they know how to beat him, I know how to beat Kevin,” Carmichael
said. “When he was on my tail, I don’t
really worry about him. If he’s going to pass
me, then go ahead and go by me, but I could follow
him and he normally cracks. I was just riding my own
race. I kept my cool, and if he was going to get by
me, he was going to get by me. I guess I turned a 2:10
or something, but there’s no way that could’ve
been right because I don’t think I was going
that fast.”
Windham
fell back into the grasp of Chad Reed before moto’s
end, eventually finishing third.
“I knew once I started pulling away from him
that Chad was going to gobble him up,” Carmichael
said. “I don’t think he’s been digging
very deep lately, and I think he’s a different
Kevin than he was last year, and Chad’s stepped
up his game and it’s probably frustrating for
him. The 16 extra races that he did this year are mentally
tough on him. I knew that Chad would come up to him.
I didn’t feel that good in the first moto, and
I put in some good laps, surprisingly, but I just didn’t
feel right for some reason.”
Reed was happy with his ride.
“At the beginning of the moto, I felt pretty
good,” Reed said. “Kevin was making a push
for Ricky, and I felt like I had a good push as well,
but I was taking a lot of rocks, and I couldn’t
see. It was kind of one line – a big rut all
the way around the track – so it was tough. I
was kind of delayed in my reaction because I was following
those guys and trying to push and change lines, and
I dropped back. I put my head together and tried to
put good laps together and reeled him back in.”
Carmichael got out quickly again in moto two, just
in front of Joaquim Rodrigues and Reed, while Windham
was mired in the pack. Reed went by Rodrigues right
away, and Windham went down hard in the middle of the
pack and remounted last. After a pit stop, he made
his charge, eventually ending up 12th.
Carmichael left Reed behind, eventually winning by
26.2 seconds. Sebastien Tortelli followed up his moto-one
fourth-place finish with yet another in moto two, taking
third overall.
“The second moto was awesome,” Carmichael
said. “I got a good start again, and actually
I seen Chad out of the corner of my eye, and I knew
he was there and Rodrigues, and they started outside
and they could sweep the corner, and I think that was
the only advantage of being on the outside. But I felt
good. The bike was setup really, really good the second
moto and I felt that I could ride wherever I wanted
to go.”
Reed’s
only non-podium performance all year, including supercross,
was last weekend at Millville,
and he remedied that this weekend.
“The weekend went pretty decent for me,” Reed
said. “It was good to be on the podium throughout
supercross, and in the Nationals, it’s been my
goal to be on the podium every weekend. A silly little
mistake last weekend cost me the podium there, so that
was a little disappointing for me, but it’s good
to be back up here again this weekend. It’s definitely
one of the toughest tracks for me, so it was a good
finish. I chased Kevin down to get second, and Ricky’s
riding awesome like usual. We’re just trying
to do the work during the week and I’m looking
forward to supercross.”
AMA/Chevrolet Binghamton 250cc National Overall Results:
1. Ricky Carmichael, 1-1
2. Chad Reed, 2-2
3. Sebastien Tortelli, 4-4
4. Ernesto Fonseca, 7-3
5. Joaquim Rodrigues, 5-7
6. Kevin Windham, 3-12
7. Sean Hamblin, 6-8
8. Nick Wey, 9-6
9. Heath Voss, 8-9
10. David Vuillemin, 15-5
AMA/Chevrolet 250cc National Points Standings (After
10 of 12 rounds):
1. Ricky Carmichael (500/10 wins)
2. Chad Reed (406)
3. Kevin Windham (384)
4. David Vuillemin (316)
5. Michael Byrne (258)
6. Ernesto Fonseca (245)
7. Nick Wey (237)
8. Heath Voss (207)
9. Sebastien Tortelli (200)
10. Sean Hamblin (155)
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