Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127743
MOTOCROSS . AD ·Amateur National Motocross Championships Loretta Lynn's Ranch • • (Lett) Ricky Carmlchllel hangs back on his chromecovered Kawasaki KX80 en route to two Mlnlcycle c.... championships et Loretta Lynn's. This was Carmichael's Iset ride In the Minibike c.... before moving up to the 1258 lIIld 250s. (Below) Winner Paul Currie (35) Inda Mlch8el Brandes In the 125cc A Modified c..... By Davey Coombs HURRICANE MILL, lN, AUG. &-13 or the seventh and eighth times in his career, Florida's Ricky Carmichael was crowned the AMA Amateur National Motocross Champion in minibike racing. By winning the 85cc Stock and Modified classes for 14- to .I5-year-olds, Carmichael placed his name in the record books alongside Kevin Windham as the winningest rider ever to compete at the AMA Nationals at Loretta Lynn's and made a further argument for himself to be considered the fastest minibike rider since Jeff Ward. '1've always liked coming here and I always work hard to be ready," said Carmichael, who parked his minibike for the last time following his final 85cc Modified (14-15) moto win. "It feels good to know that I did just about all I could do at this leveL Now I'm looking forward to the next leveL" Carmichael also owns two other Loretta Lynn's records all by himself: All eight of his titles came on minibikes, which is two more than Windham earned before graduating to the big bikes, and he has won at least one title six years in a row. Carmichael accounted for two of the 30 class championships awarded at the 14th Annual AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn's Ranch. Other double-class winners included California's Shaun Perolio, Georgia's Robbie Horton and Ohio's Brock Sellards, all of whom were mounted on Kawasakis. (Riders are lim- f ited to two classes at Loretta Lynn's). The event hosted a total of more than 1200 entries, who qualified into the program from an initial throng of more than 5000 hopefuls. . The week started with a long-awaited live concert performance from Ms. Loretta Lynn herself, but was soon derailed by a series of thunderstorms that wiped out much of Tuesday and Wednesday's scheduled races. The race has traditionally been a three-moto format with all three races counting towards the final tally. Race organizers MX Sports were faced with a question of whether to cut the motos down from 20minutes to 10 or to cut the whole program down to two motos per class. "We had this same problem in 1985 when a hurricane came through here and filled the place with water," said MX Sports' Dave McCarthy on Thursday morning. "We cut it down to two motos wit!'tout much complaint, but that's because the rain came late in the week. We've talked with all of the team managers and some of our several riders who know how the program works and the consensus is to go with two long motos rather than three short ones. That has some people angry but we and the AMA both feel that this is the best, fairest way to complete this race on Saturday and allow people to still drive home on Sunday." The organizer's decision was met with some critici m but the majority seemed pleased with the 25-minutes per race, mud-free second set of motos. Carmichael was simply untouchable.